Category: Semester at Sea

Here we go! This is the port I was most looking forward to when I signed up for the semester at sea. I can’t wait to see all the interesting Hong Kong people, and experience what could be considered one of the world’s most free markets. I may even wake up early to see the ship pull into the harbor. They just told us there is a California Pizza Kitchen just off the jetway, globalization at it’s finest.

Sean woo and I bought 10 dvd’s in Vietnam, now I have all these new movies to watch! Clearly they are of the highest quality and produced in the USA, brand new not illegal. errrr same same… but different.

Another day on the ship. The seas are rough… really rough. They’re supposed to be worse tonight, but I hardly ever believe these announcements. The AC stopped working for a little while and the lights even turned off in my room for a short period of time. Almost done with my paper which I am becoming less and less proud of, but thats not surprising as the internet is hardly usable on the ship. Today’s big news was the drug tests. Every 15 minutes there was an announcement for another 5 students to “Report to the medical center immediately.” There were probably 20-25 people that were tested today, most of them were either close friends of Andre’s or went on the trip with him to Cambodia. It is becoming clear what was meant by “unknown medical causes”, we’re likely to have a few less students onboard once we reach Hong Kong. Only a little more than a month until I get to go home! Now back to more of this poli sci nonsense.

Today was a sad day on the ship. We had a service for Andre and everyone was pretty shaken up. I thought it was very touching, especially as they played music from Deadmau5 and Kid Cudi. It just so real. My room is across the hall from Andre’s and I still remember the last think I said to him, he had given me an odd handshake and I insisted we redo the shake. I said “I expect a professional handshake from now on.” He hoped on the bus for his Cambodia trip which I was extremely envious of. I was shocked to hear of his passing three days later, I still feel like if I sit down in the hallway and work on my laptop he might just come back and sit next to me to tell me about his wild adventure in our last port. The service was excellent, and it ended with a silent march to Deck 4 aft where we all dropped flowers in his memory. Click here for a link to the SAS website’s story.

The rest of the day was quiet and uneventful, I didn’t feel like finishing my paper on violent conflict in Africa so instead I read. I just finished reading Collier’s The Bottom Billion. A very interesting work that I would suggest to anyone interested in economic development especially in Africa. I also finished a management book called Management? It’s Not What You Think!, the only reason I bought it was because Mintzberg was one of the co-authors, it was very thought provoking and definitely goes against the grain of modern university education. I’ll likely finish Dead Aid by Moyo tonight, I only have about 25 pages left, it is one of the more interesting books of read lately. Now all I want to do is read more about development in Africa.

If you caught that. Yes, I do read three books at once, maybe more sometimes. Things are just more interesting that way, then I don’t get too fixated on a topic. Next up is In Defense of Globalization by Bhagwati It’s Not Luck by Goldratt and Property and Freedomby Richard Pipes. Not to mention all of these real estate books I’ve still only skimmed. Hopefully it’s enough to fill the 10 day voyage between Japan and Hawaii.

Two more days until we hit Hong Kong, I’ll be traveling up to Beijing to sleep on the Great Wall for one night. We just got a weather report and the temperature is supposed to be 31 degrees! We’ll see how this goes.

We’ll miss you Andre.

Dear members of the Semester at Sea Fall 2010 voyage community:

It is with the deepest sadness and remorse that I inform you of the loss of one of our students today aboard the MV Explorer while docked in Vietnam. Andre Ramadan, 20, a sophomore at the University of California-Santa Barbara, died of unknown medical causes. The Institute for Shipboard Education and senior voyage administrators are in close contact with the U.S. State Department, Vietnamese officials, representatives from UC Santa Barbara, and Andre’s family. We wish to convey our condolences to them and to his many friends. Please keep them in your thoughts.

Counseling and support services are available to all members of the Semester at Sea voyage community. Participants are urged to contact Student Support Services at x3333 or the Dean of Students at x2336.

The Institute for Shipboard Education and the Fall 2010 Semester at Sea voyage administration will inform participants and others of opportunities to remember Andre as plans are finalized.

-President Les McCabe