Why SAS? Why have we gone again and again...and again?

As the end of our 3^rd Semester at Sea (SAS) voyage nears, we keep reflecting on the question of why we keep returning to this program.  There are so many ways to see the world – so why SAS?

The main reason we chose SAS is because of the tight community - on this voyage that consists of 549 university students, 131 faculty, staff, life long learners and their families (28 younger than 17), and the 175 crew members who are familiar faces on each of our voyages.  We spend over half of our 102 days on the ship, which functions similarly to a small University campus.  We eat, play, learn, exercise and bond with each other throughout the entire day.  We all come from different life stages and backgrounds, but share the common characteristic of choosing to take ourselves outside our comfort zone in order to learn more about the world and about ourselves. 

Another reason why SAS is so special is that we attend college courses and evening seminars that prepare us for countries we visit and provide knowledge about the world around us.  This on-ship and in-port learning is interwoven in a rhythm of preparing for a country, experiencing a country and then reflecting on our experiences.  As the countries layer on top of each other, we have more knowledge to compare and contrast what we are learning and we see things through multiple lenses.  We find experiential learning more impactful because we not only read something in a book or hear about it in a lecture, we go out and see it, touch it, taste it, and hear it – making all we learn even more relevant and real.  As a professor on our 2012 voyage said, "The more you know, the more you learn."  

SAS is also our choice because we visit some countries that would not be on a typical travel itinerary.  We traveled to countries in Asia and Africa where we saw few tourists and where we rarely saw people who looked and spoke like we did.  Throughout out travels, we find that touristy locations are enjoyable, but keep us more in our isolated bubble and the greatest learning is when we are outside our comfort zone.  The places we learned the most from on this voyage were a rural village in Ghana, a Berber village in Morocco and the floating houses of Inle Lake in Myanmar.   We still remember clearly our previous stays in 2012/2013 in a township in Cape Town, South Africa; in hammocks in the Amazon outside of Manaus; in mud huts on Lake Titicaca in Peru; and in tents in the desert of Jordan.

Lastly, SAS exposes our kids to a college environment.  Over our three family voyages, the boys have lived on a college campus, integrating with students and faculty, for almost a whole year.  They have participated and witnessed college classes, studying and tests.  This voyage, Luke did the course reading, presentations and exams for a history course called West and the World and also attended Comparative Politics.  The talent shows, Sea Olympics, and other special events exposed the boys to things outside of classroom that hopefully will encourage them to try new things. 

Some people think we have been "on vacation" over these past months.  Although we have had the luxury of traveling the world, it has not been a vacation.  We have submersed ourselves in learning not only on the ship, but also in the countries.  There is plenty to do and it's never-ending; most of our time is spent preparing for classes, teaching our own kids, and planning our travel in a country. (or actually traveling there!)  When we are not doing this, we are mentoring the college students, leading “Deep Dive” discussion groups modeled after the Aspen Institute, speaking in classes or catching up on emails and current affairs from back home.   

Of course, it isn't all hard work!  There are also a lot of fun events, like periodic fancy dinners (instead of college dorm food), the Sea Olympics, Neptune Day, the end of semester Ball, evenings in the faculty lounge and spectacular sunsets almost every day at sea.  But the real attraction to Semester at Sea is the learning and friendships we make along the way.

We know we are fortunate that we are able to make world learning a priority.  SAS provides us with a chance to step outside of our normal routine and to have a floating bedroom and the world as our classroom. How often in life do we get to fully submerse ourselves in non-work-related learning – especially as adults?  Life is short.  Set sail!

Semester At Sea Spring 2016 is Underway! Life at Sea!

On January 5, 2016, we traveled to Ensenada, MX and boarded our home base for the next 105 days, the World Odyssey.   This is Christy’s 4^th time on Semester at Sea (SAS) and our family’s 3^rd voyage together.  Christy first sailed as a student in 1990 and subsequently we have gone as a family, including Jay’s dad, Milton, on the Fall 2009 and 2012 voyages.  We love this program and can’t think of a better way to spend quality time as a family while learning about the world. 

 This voyage will take us almost all the way around the world as we head west from Mexico to Hawaii, Japan, China, Vietnam, Myanmar, India, Mauritius, South Africa, Ghana, Morocco and finally England.  We plan to skip the ship leg between India and South Africa to see the Maldives, Dubai, Zimbabwe and Botswana.  And when we arrive in Europe, we plan to take an extra month exploring a few of the Eastern European countries that we have never visited.

Tomorrow, we arrive in Japan after 18 days at sea, including a brief stop in Hawaii.  Before we start sharing our experiences in the ports, we wanted to share what life is like at sea and why Christy says the ship is her favorite port.

We spend half of our 105 days aboard the ship; hence we get to know her and the daily rhythms better than any of the ports we visit.   The ship is a small microcosm of a University campus, with 549 students, roughly 100 faculty & staff, 150 crew, 26 kids under the age of 18, and 20 Life Long Learners (LLL).  Our family falls within this last classification of LLL -- meaning older adult passengers without a paid role on the ship.  This is the best of all worlds since we can be "students" part of the time, attending wonderful classes and all the ship activities (and we don’t need to take the tests, usually).  But we can also be more like "faculty" at times too, invited to present to students in classes and shipboard meetings, and mentoring them on a daily basis.  Lastly, when we don’t want to be students or faculty, we can relax, exercise, read, meditate, play games and just enjoy life at sea.

Many of our friends ask us how we stay sane on the ship and believe we must be going crazy after 18 days at sea.  We are far from bored and the days are packed with activities.  Our days usually start right before sunrise with meditation, yoga or a gym workout as the sun rises over the ocean.  We have seen more sunrises on this trip than we can remember.  It helps that we get to set our clocks back as we head west, thereby gaining extra hours every few days at sea.  After meditating, stretching, exercising and/or watching the sunrise, we have breakfast and then head off to class.   We have each chosen our favorite courses and even Luke and Ryan are sitting in on some of the college courses.  Today, Luke and Jay did a great job presenting to their West and the World class.  Yesterday, Jay spoke in two courses about his experiences in Japan and to the whole shipboard community in the evening.

One of the greatest benefits of traveling this way is meeting highly motivated and inspirational college students.  It is very rewarding to be part of their transformation as they experience incredible adventures and begin to see their world and futures in new ways.  We will be updating the blog pretty regularly for the next several weeks as we will begin to move rapidly through the first three countries on our list - Japan, China and Vietnam.  Please join us as we share our experience!

Ship Life - It's a VOYAGE, not a cruise!!

Both times we’ve returned from our Semester at Sea (SAS) adventures, friends ask us what our favorite place was.  After struggling to choose just one place, we have realized that the ship itself is among the most memorable places on Semester at Sea, although it seldom gets the attention the ports get.  We spend over ½ of our time aboard our floating home surrounded by the students, faculty, staff and families that have become our lifelong friends. 

Study Hall!

People often think of SAS as a cruise and it is almost hard to convey just how different it is from a cruise.  In fact, the word “cruise”, along with “boat”, are dirty words on board – it’s a “voyage” and a “ship”!  On the ship, we immerse ourselves into campus life and integrating into the close-knit community.  The ship was not only our floating bedroom, it was also our classroom, our exercise room, our dining room, our social life, our tranquility and basically - our community & town.   Some of our favorite times on the journey were during the long stretches on the ship.  From Cape Town to Buenos Aires we sailed for 12 days without seeing land, and from Rio to Manaus we sailed for 9 days along Brazil’s coast and far up the Amazon River. 

Wine on our balcony with Matt and Andrea

On the ship we learned and socialized with passionate professors, negotiators that helped end Apartheid and even the US Ambassador to Brazil.  Not to mention the time we get to spend in and out of class with the amazing students on board – there is a lot of inspiration to be found in the college students on board.  We learned by listening and studying on the ship, and following that with opportunities to experience first-hand what we learned in class by doing things like staying in townships in Cape Town or in hammocks in the Amazon jungle.  Travel Rule #4 from our Global Studies professor was: “The more you know, the more interesting it is” and it is certainly true in international travel.  He also suggests that your age should never exceed the number of countries that you have visited – a luxury for sure but a worthy goal.  And you can always shift the focus to states or cities or concerts or whatever is your passion.  The point is to get out and experience things.

80th birthday on board!

Our experience was so much improved by developing relationships and sharing time with our fellow voyagers - students, faculty, staff and crew who are now part of our extended family.  And our learning was broadened so much by seeing the journey through others’ eyes – whether that came through class discussions, post port reflections or cocktails while watching the sunset.  We’d like to thank all of our shipmates for making our time with you a rich, rewarding experience. 

Pictures speak a thousand words.  We have thousands of photos we would like to share with you, but here are just a few. 

We crossed 0°, 0°!  It makes us Emerald Shellbacks!!

Leprechaun!  Halloween in the Atlantic!

Small Kids!

Big Kids!

Alumni Ball

Every once in a while it just seems like a cruise!

This takes getting used to every night!  OK, maybe not!

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We've had several questions about comments and I have fixed the problem we had.  You can now make comments.  We'd love to hear from you.

We have departed South Africa and are on our way to Mauritius.  Look for another post in the next couple of days.

A Day in the Life Aboard our Ship - The MV Explorer

We love our life on the boat.  The days go by quickly and there is always something to do.

Learning
We are learning a lot from classes, reading books and visiting the different cultures.  Everyday on the boat we ALL go to classes.  Luke and Ryan do their schoolwork in the morning.  They get one-on-one tutoring from the college students, mom, dad or grandpa.  A child coordinator books the room, snack, student volunteers and provides general supervision.  From 2-4 pm every afternoon the kids play in the ball court, swim, make arts and crafts and have snack time.  There are 12 children under the age of 14 on the boat. 

Jay, Christy and Milton attend classes with the college students.  They are taking classes on global studies, sustainability and terrorism.  We are often called on to guest lecture in the classes.  Soon Jay will be lecturing on organic food and Christy will talk on supply chain management.  Milton puts on seminars almost every night on subjects ranging from Meditation to creative writing. 

Whenever we can find some extra time, we read books and watch movies on the regions we are visiting.  Christy is also trying to learn Spanish by using the Rosetta Stone software.

Exercise

We do not get much exercise in the ports, but we workout almost everyday on the boat.  There is an exercise room with treadmills, stairmasters, elliptical trainers, and weights.  Students and faculty also put on yoga and strength training classes.  The boys place kickball, volleyball and soccer in the ball court.

Eating

They have 2 dining rooms and a snack bar on ship.  They boys love the buffet style food and always talk about the “free” food.  We are getting a little tired of the food, but overall it is good.  On special occasions we’ll buy a hamburger from the snack bar or book a table at their “fancy” dining spot.  We are trying not to gain too much weight – which is hard with all the yummy croissants and sweets.

Other Activities

There is always something going on.  Before dinner the Life Long Learners (that is what we old folks are called) get together for a glass of wine and to hear guest lecturers on the upcoming ports. 

Special events include the talent show (no --we did not enter), Neptune Day (when we crossed the equator), Captains’ dinner, social hours, ice cream parties by the pool…

Crossing the Atlantic...and Spain!

Well, some of you might be wondering if the MV Explorer is resting on the bottom of the Atlantic! We are safe and sound, currently crossing out of the Mediterranean on our way from Gibraltar to Morocco. We had a very cushy North Atlantic passage, with clear sailing the whole way. No big water anywhere around us and no sleep (or lunch) lost to wavy seas. The ship has been fantastic – good food, great staff, very interesting and entertaining fellow passengers. Our room is a little smaller than our Boulder house but it’s well organized and everything has found its place.


After 5 days crossing the ocean, we arrived in Spain, eager to stretch our legs and see the sights. Cadiz is a great old port town – possibly even the earliest settlement in Europe. It was a critical port in Roman times and was even blessed by a visit from Julius Caesar himself. It boomed again during the Spanish conquest of the Americas and was the main port for ships returning from the New World (as well as the port from which Christopher Columbus began his historic voyage).

We spent our first day wandering around town, enjoying the old town, the very tasty food and stocking up on a few critical things like chocolate bars, juice and Spanish wine. We ended up eating dinner at 10PM in a square with loads of children running around. The Spanish have figured out how to live life – get a late start to the day, take a nap in the afternoon, work late and then stay out until midnight!  And of course we stopped by the huge market in the center of town and went to the grocery store to look at the numerous legs of Spanish ham that hang from the wall!

Day two was a train adventure to Sevilla and back. The notable events were the cathedral (largest in the world, according to the book Milton bought there) and the bullfight we went to. The bullfight left us with those timeless questions we have about traveling and whether it’s right to attend events that conflict with our own cultural norms. It was interesting to watch the elaborate dance that is the bullfight, but tough to watch the treatment of the bull and the eventual, and inevitable, result. Nonetheless, we did attend a quintessentially Spanish performance and the boys saw firsthand how cultures react differently to things.

We rented a car the next day and drove along the coast through numerous and large windfarms on our way to Gibraltar. The farms were well placed as we encountered winds that rivaled what we see in Boulder! Gibraltar itself was much calmer and we experienced a bit of Britain in the Mediterranean before heading up the cable car to the top of the Rock itself. It has a fascinating history and incredible views. We wrapped up our time in Spain the next day with some time by the beach in the cute coastal town of Conil.



And we are now in Morocco, having ported in Casablanca yesterday.  We have already had several adventures in our first 24 hours in Morocco and will expand on that in a few days.