Category: Semester at Sea

Things just worked out. The day after tomorrow i will begin my journeys in India. We’re riding elephants.

45 seconds ago it was sunny, now it is raining. I wish I had my camera to record everyone running off the pool deck.

My professor emailed me this morning, half of our short papers have been cancelled. Only ten papers left!!!!

This morning I woke up extremely late, it was around lunch time. I really have little choice on days with the boat rocking alot. Whenever I’m not lying down for too long I get sick. I had to switch back to a full patch instead of the half patch, the rocking of the ship has gotten a little too much to bear. When I finally got out of bed and after I almost fell over in the shower, I was surprised to find a special email. A Chapman alumni had arranged a special meeting with cake and a group picture tonight. First I want to note I get very angry when people try to add things to my schedule without asking me first. We had already scheduled a “special dining experience” for Sara Legrand’s birthday. If it weren’t for the last line of the email I would have responded with “NO”. We were to take a group picture for the Chapman magazine with Archbishop Desmond Tutu. So instead I responded with “Some of us are very busy, at what time will the photo be?”. Our dinner was absolutely excellent, if I didn’t feel nauseas from the motion of the boat I might have been even happier. We interrupted it with our photoshoot, I had to awkwardly say “We’re pretty busy, could we take the picture”. The photographer said “well if you want to tell the archbishop you’re too busy than tell him” I looked over and we started to take the picture. I find it amazing that no one seems to take responsibility on the ship, it’s as if everything is up to a higher power. I mean honestly just because we’re at sea that doesn’t mean we don’t have other things to do. I have a calendar and I have things to do, don’t treat me like a child. I’m still sad I lost my shoe… It’s difficult to dress up with sandals or tennis shoes. Happy Birthday Sara.

Sean is sicker than anyone else on the ship (getting my own room was a great idea). Sara had a great 21st, I plan on having many more delicious dinners. I have lots of time to work on my next couple papers, and I got an A- on my last big paper! Also we’re renting out a club in Singapore for just semester at sea students.

Ryan snuck yellow fin tuna on the ship. I just had sashimi for dinner!

We spent one night in Mauritius, and what a great place it was. I have a feeling I will never go back, but it was an interesting experience. On the first day we arrived to see a fairly dirty country. Other than the coastline and fancy european resorts, mauritius is filled with smoke from the constant burning of sugar cane fields and the disheveled people. We took a taxi to the tamarin resort and went for 2 scuba dives which were also interesting. Not only did the air taste weird, my octopus broke underwater, my primary regulators mouthpiece feel off and my mask had a small hole. From now on I’ll get my own equipment for dives outside the US. We saw plenty of aquatic life, but most of the coral was dead and the visibility was marginal at best. The most exciting part was seeing fields of bubble coral as a school of fish swam by. I couldn’t get the videos I wanted because the underwater cameras buttons don’t work underwater. We ended the dives with a delicious beach barbecue, some locals selling items came up to the island where we ate and sang us the traditional island tunes of Bob Marley. The Coca-cola in Mauritius is produced there and I would consider it to be significantly better than the Coca-cola in south africa, it doesn’t have the weird bitter taste. We took a taxi to the Intercontinental resort, and on the way over Lauren Lindstrom fought with the driver in french, I spoke to him in english, and Stephanie Roy thought that speaking only spanish would get us a better price. When we got to the hotel Megan O’neil and I pretended to be dating and took a golf cart to our room, Clay Sara Legrand and Natalie Shah had already spent most of the day there and were in the hotel room next door. The hotel was absolutely beautiful and was packed with rowdy semester at sea students, the hotel shut all the bars down early because one of the students threw an empty glass at the bartender. In the beginning of this trip I used to wonder why there were so many rules, and why everyone was complaining about all of us being “ugly americans”, now I see there are way too many “children” on the ship. Most of the student are sophomores or juniors, and for some of the worst offenders this is their first semester of college. Dinner was excellent and very expensive, I ate with Megan O’neil and Olivia Lange, our bill was 230 US dollars and we only had one drink each! In the morning we took a catamaran out for the entire day, there were only 5 guys on the boat and 22 women. Our catamaran dropped us off right next to the ship, we just had to go through customs and take a water taxi. Our water taxi’s steering wheel broke and we made lots of little circles before we got to the ship with 3 whole minutes before the deadline. Casualties of Mauritius include one of my leather shoes (somehow fell off our boat), and my favorite swim trunks remain in the hotel room. Phoenix is the local beer in mauritius it is delicious, the rum isn’t too bad either. Six days until India, I can’t wait to get off the ship.

We just pulled into port, we’re in a tropical paradise! Today’s plan SCUBA DIVE! Tomorrow a bunch of us have rented a catamaran to go snorkeling and explore some beaches.