Countdown: 2 weeks!

Hello!

I officially depart for Canada in 2 weeks from today to board the MV Explorer! I can't even believe the time is about here! I'm filled with so many different emotions, but mostly positive ones... like a whole lot of excitement! For my first post, I would like to give you a little more basic information on what exactly I am doing and how to keep in touch. 

Semester at Sea (http://www.semesteratsea.org/) is an academic program that combines studying and traveling around the world. This style of education is unique: "a life-changing study abroad experience allowing one to explore the world's fascinating cultures while learning in an academic environment." 521 students along with professors and crew workers will live together on a ship. While it is traveling from port to port, I will take classes that will transfer back to Bluffton. When we arrive in each port, we get to go explore! Exploration opportunities are offered through SAS, but a large portion is done independently (but in groups of course, Dad). I have a quickly-growing interest to engage in other cultures after spending this past May in China. I left China really wanting more, so it's too perfect that I'm spending a semester embracing quite a few cultures!

We will be visiting 11 countries in 109 days... Wow! This is what our route will look like: 

On August 26th, I will be flying to Halifax, Novia Scotia. I, and all other workers, will board the MV Explorer the morning of the 27th and I'll start my job in the campus bookstore. On the 28th, everyone else will board and we will disembark that evening!

1st stop: Cadiz, Spain - Sept. 5-9

On the 5th, I will be attending an event called "Flamenco Night," which includes bull-fighting, cow taming, and a horse and flamenco spectacle! After that show, there is a second show which lets audience members participate in Flamenco dancing (you know I'll be down there!)

Independent possibilities in Spain include going to Gibraltar, sites in Cadiz, Bajo de Guia, and learning how to surf!

2nd stop: Casablanca, Morocco - Sept. 10-14 

From the 10th-13th, I will be taking a trip called "Marrakech & Camel Trek in the Sahara." It consists of exploring the city of Marrakech, seeing a folklore show and horse fantasia, viewing the dunes and mud villages of the Sahara, eating dinner with nomads, tenting out in the Sahara Desert, and camel trekking through the Sahara (Whoa! I'm really pumped for this!).

On the 14th I will attend an event called "I Love Hip-Hop Morocco," which is required for a class but also sounds interesting!

3rd stop: Accra, Ghana - Sept. 22-25

From the 23rd-24th, I will be going on a "Cultural Immersion" trip. We will spend time in the African village of Torgorme, in which we will see and participate in traditional drumming and dancing, see pottery-making, hear folktales and stories, be given names, stay with a family (I'm really a fan of homestays and being immersed in a culture rather than only being a tourist and not taking time to learn and understand a culture), view Ghana's sacred monkeys, climb Afadjato Mountain, walk through a rainforest, and having a picnic lunch at the Tagbo Falls.

Other Possibilities include: visiting a school and attending a drumming and dance workshop.

4th stop: Cape Town, South Africa - Oct. 3-8

Possibilities include: hiking Table Mountain, working for Habitat for Humanity for a day or two, visit Operation Hunger (learn about feeding programs, visit squatter camps, and talk with the children of farm workers), and "!Khwa Ttu Route" which visits the San village and views the beautiful mountains around it. I'm also interested in some bigger adventures... We'll see :)

5th stop: Port Louis, Mauritius - Oct. 15-17

Possibilities include: going to a park and zip-lining across the tree-top canopy, visiting a children's village (literal village- few "moms" in charge of many abandoned children), serving at a children's center, and visiting Pamplemousses Garden.

6th stop: Chennai, India - Oct. 23-27

From 24th-25th, I will be attending "Child Labor in Rural India: Overnight Village Stay." It will teach us about the RIDE program that helps children leave the silk-weaving industry and provides mothers with more stable and good jobs. We will also get to view temples and talk with the people this program has impacted.

Other possibilities include a (free!) yoga demonstration (India is where Yoga all started!), visiting Missionaries of Charity Orphanage (which Mother Teresa founded and worked at for many many many years!), and visiting a Disable Children's Home. 

7th stop: Ho Chi Mihn City, Viet Nam - Nov. 3-7

Possibilities include: visiting a school for disabled, squeezing through the Cu Chi Tunnels and seeing the Cao Dai Temple, exploring the Mekong Delta, and going to the Hy Vong 8 School for the deaf and taking them to the zoo!

8th stop: Honk Kong, China - Nov. 11-12

On the 11th, I will attend "Asian Culture and Mental Health." After visiting China this past May and seeing all the pressure that is put on children and the high suicide rate, this topic really interests me! Oh, and it's also required for a class... But I'd go to it anyway!

Other possibilities include: visiting the Hong Kong Museum of Art and going to some markets. Many of the SAS students will take off to other parts of China to see Beijing, Xi'an, and the Great Wall, but I will stay on the ship since I just saw these sites a few months ago :)

9th stop: Shanghai, China - Nov. 15-16

Possibilities included: visiting Yu Garden, Suzhou, Zhujiajiao, and seeing an acrobatic performance. 

10th stop: Yokohama, Japan - Nov. 20-21

Possibilities include: a Japanese home visit, climbing Mount Fuji and Hakone, going to Landmark Tower, Harbor View Park, Sankeien Garden, and even Tokyo. 

11th stop: Kobe, Japan - Nov. 23-24

On the 23rd-24th, I will be doing an overnight homestay with a Japanese family. I'm excited to be able to first-hand compare the Chinese and Japanese cultures since I'll have had close interactions with families in both countries. 

Other possibilities include a Japanese students' reception, and seeing Todaiji and Kiyomizu Temple. 

12th stop: Honolulu, Hawaii - Dec. 4-5

Possibilities include: seeing Diamond Head, hiking through a rainforest, doing a hula workshop (oh yeah!), and snorkeling.

13th stop: Hilo, Hawaii - Dec. 6-7

Possibilities include: hiking through the Wailuku River State Park, Akaka Falls State Park, surfing, and a few other adventures... :)

14th stop: San Diego, California - Dec. 14

It's SAS's final stop... I'll get to fly to home and see the people I will have missed for so long!

My classes are: 

• World Music
• Controversial Issues in Psychology
• Sociology of Marriage and Family
• Global Studes

COMMUNICATION:

Although we only get 2 hours of free internet access the entire semester, they also give us FREE email back and forth to home. That means that we can still chat! As long as the email does not exceed 50 KB and has no attachments, my probable email for the semester will be:

kjsmith@semesteratsea.net

Send me an email! I'd love to keep in contact with you, hear about your life, and share in my adventures!

I have also had a few people ask me about air-mail. Here is a link that will explain when and where to send mail:

sending air-mail

Well, I think that about summarizes everything... for now at least! If you have any questions or comments, leave them on this post or shoot me an email at smikja@bluffton.edu (this email is for the next 2 weeks, then it will switch to the other one). I hope you are having a great summer and soaking in the sun!

Kels