Video of my Travels

A compilation of a few of the videos I took along my voyage around the world.

Enjoy!!!!!!

(And let me know if you'd like to watch a higher quality version :) )

Transitions

It's been about a month since I've been home... ended my SAS journey... entered my "last" port. But yet SAS is still such a HUGE part of my life everyday. There's hardly a moment I'm not thinking about it, the things I saw, did, learned... it's ingrained in me. Over Christmas break anytime I was dazing off my family would ask, "Where are you now?" because most likely I wasn't tired (or was, but that wasn't why I was dazing off), but just back in my dream that I had lived for the past 4 months. Anyway, I'll give a brief (the briefest brief yet) of my last week on the ship.

• Lovely late nights with friends... staying up til the wee hours of the night enjoying our last days at sea with each other.
• Hip-hop dance group: we got together for about 2 hours every night just enjoying dancing and laughing with each other. I dearly love that group.
• Ambassador's Ball: we all got snazzy-ed up, had a fancy dinner, and danced the night away. My hip-hop group started the Ball off with a step and dance performance we had put together. That night was just so much fun. The theme song was, "Tonight's gonna be a good good night"... and it was... a bittersweet but very good night.
• I arrived in San Diego on Dec. 14th. Our ship pulled into port and we saw a line of parents waiting outside the gates for us, including my mom! It was a very welcoming site. And then I was filled with all sorts of emotions... extremely sad to leave my "home", excited to see my mother and everyone else back home, sad to leave my friends, excited to see my growth over the past semester as I entered a once familiar land... and many more that I just simply can't put into words. But let me tell you, it was so hard yet so wonderful all at the same time. 
• I sat in my porthole for my last time. I LOVED that special spot.
• Cleared the ship, took ALL my luggage, exited the port gates, and ran into the arms of my mother. It was a beautiful reunion. :) In fact we were so excited to see each other that she embraced me as I was still lugging around all my bags. Haha but the warmth of the hug was larger than the weight of the bags. We just gleamed at each other for a long while after that :)
• Said goodbye to most of my friends (who I WILL see again!) and spent the rest of the day in San Diego with my mom and SAS friend Lizzy. We went to the San Diego Zoo, which is quite impressive. We also ate at an authentic Mexican restaurant, considering we were about half an hour from Mexico, and were serenaded by a guitarist. We explored part of a cultural strip and then headed to bed for our early flight the next morning.
• We flew from San Diego to Texas then landed in Dayton, Ohio. Then there was another wonderful reuniting. Mom and I walked quickly then rounded a corner... and saw Dad and Denise. I ran! A security guard said to me, "Kelsey, they've been waiting for you." How did he know I was Kelsey you might ask? Well, Denise and Dad made my return pretty obvious! Dad was on the left and wore a sweatshirt reading, "KEL" and then Denise on the right wore one reading, "SEY" and they both held signs welcoming my return. Haha. I ran up and we had a very loving embrace. Oh to be in the arms of the ones you love most. 
• The next few days I got to see my grandparents, Celina friends, and Bluffton friends as well. It was wonderful. So wonderful. Yet SO weird. Turns out people drive on the right side of the road here. AND I don't have to ask "Do you speak English" before talking to someone. Oh, AND I can understand conversations all around me. It's rather strange, really.

So how is it to be back? Oh, boy. Honestly, I hate to admit this, but it's been very emotional. I miss Semester at Sea a TON. I miss constantly looking forward to our next country, preparing for what we will do, and then being stimulated every single second of the day. I miss going to sleep at night thinking about the thousands of things I'd observed and learned that day. Actually I had a difficult time falling asleep when I came home for awhile and I think it was because I was missing that bedtime ritual of reflecting over my exciting day. I'm slowly getting back on schedule now. So while I'm missing so many things (I'll mention more in a second) I do love many things that I'm around again. Like an abundance of love from my family and friends. I'm so blessed by the social support God has given me. So it goes back and forth each and every day. But I guess 2 really great things (traveling + loving friends and family) in opposite parts of the world will do that to you :) 

I'll share with you some things I miss and some things I now love:

Things I miss:

-being rocked to sleep on the ship

-sitting in my porthole and looking out at the never-ending ocean

-being surrounded by people who love to travel

-being stimulated every second of the day

-learning the traditions, beliefs, actions, etc. of cultures

-hip-hop dance group

-talking with people who can talk about the depths of the cultures because they've seen it and understand it already

-my friends and the crew

-the blasting ship horn

-looking outside during class and seeing the ocean

-not knowing hardly anything the day will bring

-the adventure

-learning all different types of world music and dances

-choosing to accept the challenges in a country

Things I now love:

-having friends and family much closer by

-taking up my own plate after meals... lol

-washing my own laundry in a washing machine!

-knowing SAS will forever be a huge part of my life

-seeing the growths and changes in me

-having a very different perspective on life than when I left

-being able to share my stories 

-having "free"internet

-having weekends and weekdays that actually make sense

-having a bigger picture of the world and seeing things that remind me of the places I've been

-exercising on stable ground

-looking up cultures and world news every day... multiple times every day lol

-discovering a passion and finding ways to live it out everyday

-learning how I've grown and been stretched and the yearn to keep being stretched

Well, I think that's enough for now. I will still be blogging because my trip is not done... Nope... San Diego was not my "last port." In fact I have many more to come. Everywhere we go has the opportunity to be a port. A port means we enter in with a humble heart and learn as much as we can. We take out a knowledge for that area and a respect to do whatever is best for them. I'm a global citizen now. I live my life daily to serve those around the world. There are small and big ways to do that. But no matter the case, I want to constantly live in a way that benefits others. Although I've been in denial, I'm finally admitting that my Semester at Sea journey really is done... but only physically. Internally it will never be done. It's a part of my life that I will continue for years to come. We'll see where that leads :) lol. But what I do know is this:

My thirst for traveling was not quenched... it only grew bigger. 

So my journeys are just getting started :)