BRASIL

Brazil was a port filled with many ups and downs, but I will save those moments for later.

        The voyage that I am on is the first SAS voyage to ever sail down the Amazon River.  We had to sail down the Amazon River 1,000 miles, which took 3 days, to get to the port city of Manaus.  Now here is a note; the Amazon River is HUGE!!!!!!  I have been on many rivers in my life, so I thought I knew what to expect…..boy, was I wrong.    First off the Amazon River is extremely muddy and brown in color.  It is really amazing to go from the navy color of the ocean, to the rich brown color of the Amazon.   The reason the Amazon is so brown is because the river is extremely fast moving, so the flow picks the sediment and mud off the bottom and brings it to the top!  Another crazy thing is the sheer size of the Amazon.  At some points during our trip down the river neither one of the sides could be seen.  It could also get up to 300 ft deep.  That being said, there are also huge moving sandbars.  At one point the sandbar shifted so much, that our ship on had 3 feet of clearance to make it over.  I do not even want to think what might have happened if the ship became grounded.

        Another cool thing that happened while we sailed down the Amazon was seeing all the small riverside villages.  Most of these people had probably never seen a ship the size of the MV Explorer, so they would get in their CANOES and paddle out to get a closer look.  They were as amazed of us as we were of them.  It was really cool passing riverboats of people commuting to work taking pictures of us, as we took pictures of them.  One of the best moments that happened while sailing down the Amazon was sailing into and out of rainstorms.  It would be bright and sunny one moment, and a torrential downpour the next.  This on and off rain made for some AMAZING rainbows. (They definitely rivaled the rainbows in Dominica!)

Now onto my time in Brazil’s mainland.

     My first day in Brazil was kind of like a sandwich gone bad.  The “bread” of my day was awesome, but the “meat” was kind of rotten.  I joined a random group of SAS people who, like me, just wanted to walk around the city of Manaus and find the famous opera house.  We walked through a street fair that was selling some amazing crafts and other knick-knacks.  We found the opera house and it was BEAUTIFUL.  90% of the materials that made the opera house was shipped in from Europe when Manaus was in the height of its rubber boom.  The top of the Opera House had a dome that was made completely of Mosaic tiling.  It was so unique; I had never seen anything like it before!  When the group arrived at the entrance to the opera house there was a long line.  Thinking that they were giving a tour of the place, we jumped in line.  They ushers told us, in Portuguese, to sit down.  They said other things, but we could not understand them.  Little did we know we walked into a free orchestra concert.  It was great, especially for the price…LOL!    Now here comes the rotten meat part of my day.  After the concert I could not find anyone from my original group so I jumped into a group of different SAS people.  My plan for the day was to go to a Brazilian BBQ place, but the guy in a group wanted Japanese food (even though in a few short months we are going to Japan where we can get real Japanese food!)  When I outright refused to go he became mad and pouted for the rest of the day.  I compromised and went to a local eatery that was really good.  The food was really yummy, but the guy’s sour mood made the meal awkward and kind of unbearable.  At least the end of my first day was crazy amounts of fun.   The inter-port lecturer set up a group of people who were practicing for Carnival to perform for us at a street party.  A few hundred SASers showed up, as well as a few hundred local Brazilians to have an amazing dance party.  By the end of the night over 1,000 people were there having a great time dancing in the streets.

     For 2 days and 1 night I stayed in a remote Amazon village, which was a 3 hour riverboat ride away from Manaus, called Acajatuba.  The people of this village are extremely poor and have to rely on farming and a small arts and crafts co-op for income.  These people may be poor, but they are so happy and spirited.  It sounds crazy, but the cheesy saying “money doesn’t buy happiness” is very true.  I hope that one day I will be as happy as the people in this village.

     During our stay we stayed in the homes of people from the village.  I stayed in the home of a married couple and their 8 month old daughter.  I also had a roommate during this trip, who just so happened to be the Academic Dean of the spring 2011 voyage, Dean Lisa.  It was really nice to get to know a dean outside of an academic setting.  Dean Lisa’s two daughters (15, 19) were also staying at the village.  Our Assistant Executive Dean (also known as the Voice), Marti, was also on the trip with her partner, and their young (10ish) daughter.
    
     The people of the Acajatuba village have totally figured out the solution to the problem of figuring out sleeping arrangements on Thanksgiving.  They just put up hammocks for people if they are sleeping over.  It is the perfect solution!  The one problem with hammocks is that there is a special way to be able to sleep comfortably in them, and unfortunately, I was not able to find this special way.  Between not knowing how to sleep in a hammock, and the rooster crowing every hour all night long, and having to get up at 5am to watch the sunrise and spot dolphins, it was not a very restful night.
I did learn some interesting facts about village life in Brazil while I was there.  The village I was in did not get there school until 5 years ago, and until then the children had to travel up to 2 hours by boat to get to school.  Also, if something bad should happen in the village, the police would take 3 hours to get to the village.  This leaves the village very vulnerable to attack.  I also found out that most people in the village get pregnant, and then get married.  This was the case with the family I stayed with in the village.

     In Brazil I also did a service visit to an orphanage for abandoned special needs children.  The people in the orphanage were ages 0-38, but were all considered children.  We took these children to the zoo.  Almost all of them had never been to the zoo before, and it was exciting to see them experience the zoo for the first time.  It was an inspiring and upsetting day that I would remember for a long time.  I will especially remember the lack of human right laws had in Brazil for years.  Up until 5 years ago parents could beat their children and not get into trouble for it.  I thought these laws were appalling and I am glad that they are changed.

        I had a great time in Brazil, but I am extremely excited for Ghana!

I Have Totally Been Slacking......

SORRY!  I know I haven’t put up my blog on Brazil yet, but I promise it is almost done and it will be awesome! 

        Today our voyage was able to celebrate one of the traditions that happen during Semester at Sea…….SEA OLYMPICS!!!  Sea Olympics is a competition between the seas (kind of like our dorms) and the winner gets to get off the ship first in San Diego.  The ship is split up into different parts, such as 3rd deck starboard (right) side aft (back) (which is where my sea is located), and each part is named after a different sea around the world.  My sea is the Caribbean Sea and our color is ORANGE!!!  I was able to provide a lot of people with clothes to wear with my vast collection of orange.  There are 8 student seas, 1 faculty/staff sea (the Luna Sea), and 1 life-long learner sea (the sea salts).

        My voyages Sea Olympics experience was unique when compared to other voyages.   Most of the Sea Olympics from past voyages take part during the middle of the voyage, so they had tons of time to prepare.  Our Sea Olympics was in the 3rd week of the voyage, and we only found out the exact date until 3 days ago.  This left us less than 72 hours to make up cheers and chants, choreograph dances, and paint posters. 

        I competed in the Trivia Bowl and Dress Your LLC (who is like our RD).    The Trivial Bowl did not go as well as our team planned.  In the end we had too many strong minded people on the team, all who believed they had the right answer.  Even though we did not win this event, we received points for showing up, having spirit, and good sportsmanship.  Dress Your LLC was tons of fun.  Each Sea received a category to make a costume out of the items we have in our rooms.  The category our sea received was “clown”.  My teammates and I made bright orange pants out of a rain poncho, which we stuffed with pillows to make large legs.  We made a top out of a tie-dye t-shirt and a pair of yellow sweatpants.  One of the guys made clown shoes out of a pair of his dress shoes, cardboard, and red duct tape.  We filled an umbrella with baby powder so it would spray all over when opened.  We painted our LLC’s face with lipstick, watercolor paints, and eye shadow.  We did not place in the top three in this event, but we got 4th place. 

        Some other events that were part of the Sea Olympics were Tug-o-War (1st place), crab soccer, Dodge ball (2nd place), Hula Hoop (1st place), card stacking, relay races, limbo (2nd place), and synchronized swimming.  At the halfway point of the day my sea was in 1st place, but in the end we received 4th place out of 10, but missed winning 3rd place by just 1 point.   I think in the end the lack of participation from some of our sea, as well as some funky scoring, hurt our chance of winning.

        To finish out a fun day we had an amazing BBQ on the pool deck.  We had some of foods we had not had in a long time, such as hamburgers, hot dogs, ribs, and corn on the cob.  We also had a yummy ice cream sundae bar, which is a big treat!  All in all, today was a really fun and exciting day that helped break up the 9 days it takes to get from Manaus, Brazil to Takadori, Ghana.
Peace and Love

P.S.  We are now officially 5 hours ahead of east coast time.

Atlantic Ocean...........

YOU SUCK!!

Dominica: The Nature Isle of the Caribbean

*EDIT:  This entry would have been up A LOT sooner, but the internet has been extremely unreliable!*
       
     There are no words to describe the beauty of Dominica. (It is said Dome-in-EEE-kah)  I could talk about the lush greenery, the powerful waterfalls, the mighty volcanoes, and the magnificent rainbows.  I could even tell you about how amazingly friendly and helpful the people of Dominica are.  These words can give you an idea about what this small Eastern Caribbean Island is like, but the only way to really see this place is to experience it firsthand.  Dominica is one of the few Caribbean islands that has not seen the tourist boom and is almost untouched by globalization.  The island has no McDonalds and only one KFC.  It was nice to see what islands like the Bahamas and Barbados were like before they became tourist trap destinations.

     The MV Explorer started pulling into Dominica at 0600.  My roommate and I planned to wake up for the sunrise which was at 0635, so I set my alarm for 0615, but I forgot to turn it on.  I woke up at 0730 and immediately went outside.  My first thought when walking onto the 6th deck was “Is this real life?”  I was in awe of what I saw and knew that I had to make the best of the less than 48 hours I had in this paradise.
       
     On the first day one of my friends set up an independent hiking trip.  We took a 45 minute hike to Middleham Falls.  The hike was through a rainforest, so it was very humid and it damp.  Because Dominica gets over 300 inches of rain a year everything is green.  It is amazing to see the wonderful plants and wildlife there is in a jungle.  The beautiful smells that come from a rainforest are intense and sometimes overwhelming.  When we finally arrived to the falls there was a rainbow forming in the mist to great us.  To get to the area where we were going to swim we had to climb down some very slippery rocks (Don’t worry mom, we watched each other and made sure no one fell!)  The water that we swam in was very cold, but extremely refreshing after our hike through the muggy rainforest.  My favorite part about this waterfall was the area of rocks we could jump off of into the water.  After our swim we hiked back to the buses and drove to a tiny café to get lunch.  I do not know how the lady did it, but she made regular sandwiches taste AMAZING!!!
       
     The next place we went to was Trafalger Falls.  We did a short 10 minute hike to see these 2 dueling waterfalls.  The tall and skinny waterfall is called the waterfall and the short and fat waterfall is called the mother.  The mother waterfall is much more powerful and the Dominican people calling it the mother shows how much they respect women.
       
     The next stop of the day was to a hot spring sulfur spa.  Since the island of Dominica has so many volcanoes, natural hot springs pop up all over.  Locals take advantage of this and make businesses   for tourists to visit.  Even though the spa we went to had a sulfur component to them, the smell was very mild.  When we got out of the spring everyone felt rejuvenated and the sulfur made everyone’s skin very smooth.
       
     We were supposed to go snorkel in the famous Champagne reef next, but we had a little trouble with our plans and were unable to go.  We did get to see the beach and the water, though, and it was amazing.  When I can get enough internet service to put pictures up on this blog I will. (Even though the pictures are nothing compared to real life.)  The last thing we did on our tour was to go to a local bar to try the rum punch.  The owner pumped up the music and we had an impromptu dance party while watching the sun set. (This was, of course, BEAUTIFUL!)
       
     My final day in Dominica another girl and I walked around the capitol city of Roseau, where our ship was docked.  It was crazy to see the contrast between the forests and waterfalls, and the poverty that is in the city.  The area where the ship was docked is extremely nice, with expensive hotels, but a short 2 block walk into the city shows the changes in socioeconomic status.  27% of the people in Dominica are under the poverty level.  (Luckily, there is only a 1.2% malnutrition rate.)  The homeless people of Dominica are provided with government housing, but the conditions are so poor that most homeless people say it is better to stay out on the street.  Even with the poverty rate being high, the people of Dominica are extremely happy.  Our tour guide from the first day found me on the second day to say goodbye and give me her number and address and said to call her if I ever come to Dominica again.  She also said if I ever came to Dominica again and had nowhere to stay, I could call her up at any time and stay with her.
Dominica was a really nice change from the Caribbean islands most people see and it was an AMAZING first port.

Peace and Love!

Email Me!!!

My semester at sea email address is smthompson@semesteratsea.net

This is the only way to get in contact me, so send me an email!!!!

The First Few Days

              I am not the world’s best traveler.  I will get nervous, scared, and uncomfortable, but I will NEVER let those feelings hold me back.  Some people can just go out into the world and not have any qualms about where they are going.  I wish I could be a person that could do spur of the moment things in place I know no one.  I am trying on this voyage of semester at sea to change my thinking and stretch what I think are my boundaries regarding travel.  I want to learn that I can be alone (by alone, I mean with small groups of friends) and not have to rely on a tour guide and a bus driver to get me everywhere. 

                Now onto the fun stuff.  I moved on to the MV Explorer on January 11^th, a day earlier than most of the other students because I have a work study job.  I was really happy that I was allowed to get on early because I got to settle down easier and learn my way around the ship before most everyone else.  The work study students only had 2 thirty minute orientations before we were thrust upon doing our jobs and help move the 600+ students that were moving on the ship on January 12^th.   My job for embarkation day was to tell everyone the prohibited items.  Some items I thought were obvious, such as weapons, but I received some crazy questions about the prohibited items.  My favorite question was the student who asked about bringing his nun chucks on board.  When I told him that he could not bring them on board he pulled them out of his suitcase and gave it to his mom.  WEIRD!!

                The second day was horrible.  We had orientation all day in the Union, which is the rockiest part of the ship.  I had a sea sickness patch on so I was feeling fine, but others were not as lucky.  After a full day of orientation we had to do a writing assessment.  It was SAT style with 25 minutes to do 35 multiple choice grammar questions, and then 25 minutes to right a short essay.  Let me tell you concentrating on taking a test on a rocking ship is no easy task.  After the assessment no one was feeling so hot.  That evening we had an activities air and I signed up for a bunch of stuff.  I signed up for Students of Service,  Extended Family, One World Futbol, Yoga, and Kids Club.  There are a bunch of kids on the ship since there parents are working as professors and faculty. As part of Kids Club I am going to tutor math to 6^th and 7^th graders and I am going to help run a theater club for the kids.  I am very excited for the clubs I signed up for.

                Today (the 14^th) was my first day of classes.  I had Global Studies, which is the class everyone on the ship (including faculty, staff, and Lifelong Learners) has to take.  This class teaches us about the countries we are going to and about the effects of globalization around the world.  This class, as well as my second class of the day, UN and Human Rights Law, are both in the Union.  I feel like I am going to be spending my life in the rockiest part of the ship.   The UN class is going to be tough, but I think I am going to learn a lot of interesting things from it.

                I just realized I never talked about my work study job.  My official job title is Student Ambassador working with alumni affairs.  My job is really awesome.  I get to work with alumni and help promote alumni activities.  I also get to plan the Alumni ball, The Shipboard Auction, and the Shipboard drive.  I also get to plan activities such as cookies and milk night, and spirit week.  Our hope is to make the students who go on Semester at Sea to want to come back and give to back to the program.

Well, this is all for today, I will update everyone more as time goes on.

Peace and Love!

Yes, This is College

So I know I have only talked about the ship, the places I am going to, and what i am packing, but I have not talked about the classes I am taking.  This semester I am only taking 4 courses, which will be weird since I usually take 5-6 courses a semester.

My Courses:

-Global Studies- The Local Geographies of Globalization  A-Day 0920-1035

       The Global Studies (GS) course for SAS Spring 2011 will require all students on the voyage to take a critical look at globalization and its impacts on cities and regions around the world. Globalization is usually defined as an array of forces that are effectively shrinking our world, and in this course we shall be investigating the local consequences of these forces.  The introductory section of the course begins with a look at transnational movements (flows) of trade, finance, information, people and culture. We shall be investigating the way such flows operate in and through a network of linked cities around the world, the top tier of which function as the 'command and control' centers at the so-called core of the global economy (the global 'North').  As we head for Brazil and then across to Africa and beyond, the emphasis of the course shifts to the 'periphery,' where we begin our exploration of the global 'South.' We shall be visiting some of the lower tier cities of the world's urban hierarchy -- in Latin America, Africa, and Asia. The sources for Global Studies will include lectures and readings, supplemented with in-class discussions and debates, supplemented throughout with clips from documentaries and feature films. To this mix Global Studies this semester adds another dimension, involving fieldwork in the cities we visit along the way. This is the unique advantage of the Semester at Sea project, which allows us to step out of the classroom into the 'real' world, to flesh-out the 'local geographies of globalization' we have been learning about on board. One part of the fieldwork will come through SAS-sponsored FDP's and fieldtrips. Another component -- required for Global Studies this semester -- involves student fieldwork focusing on a specific research theme and conducted in groups (see later for a list of topics and a detailed description of the group projects).  

-The United Nations and Human Rights Law  A-Day 1455-1610

       This research seminar will focus on the work of the UN Human Rights Council - the UN's primary political organ for addressing international human rights issues. Seminar participants will engage in substantial research of human rights issues pending before this body.  After tracing the philosophical bases of international human rights law in the context of the positivist legal tradition of the 19th and early 20th centuries, the seminar will examine the shifting structure of the international legal system, as manifested in the creation of the United Nations human rights apparatus.  It will then explore the work of the former UN Commission on Human Rights and will consider the structural limitations of political organs in dealing with human rights matters.  The seminar will then analyze the creation of the Human Rights Council against the backdrop of these structural limitations.  The seminar will culminate in a critical examination of the work of the Council to date, including its work on issues of: hate speech, human trafficking, secret detention, and discrimination on the basis of sex and sexual orientation.  

-The West and the World  B-Day 1045-1200

       This course will explore the nexus of historical and cultural ties between the West, as represented by Europe, America, and western civilization broadly, and the wider world.  Areas of focus will include Latin America (Portugal and Spain); sub-Saharan Africa (Great Britain and Holland); India (Great Britain); and East Asia (Great Britain, France, and the United States).  Major topics will include differences between Portuguese and Spanish conquest in the Caribbean, South America, and elsewhere; Anglo-Dutch rivalry in South America and the emergence of apartheid; Islamic fundamentalism and resistance to the west; Gandhian non-violent resistance in India; and anti-colonial struggles in Ghana, South Africa, Vietnam, and China.  Although America's rapidly developing hegemonic role in global affairs and its limitations will be considered, especially since World War II, the emphasis of this course will be on the unique national and regional responses to western influence.

-Abnormal Psychology  B-Day 1615-1730

       How do you know what is "abnormal" behavior? What if you always fainted at the mere thought of spiders, but no one noticed, and you still got good grades and had friends - is this "abnormal"? We will examine how different factors interact to contribute to deviant behavior and mental illness throughout the lifespan. The causes, diagnostic criteria, and treatment of various illnesses such as schizophrenia, mood disorders, substance disorders, and sexual or gender identity disorders are presented using information from the text, case studies, research articles, and video examples. We will explore historical and current views about how individuals suffering from these ailments should be treated by their communities and the legal system. Students can expect this course to focus on mental health issues in the regions we will be visiting and should be prepared to discuss sensitive issues professionally. A major goal of this course is to come away with respect and understanding for people suffering from mental illness.

Classes are not held while we are in port, so we have class everyday while at sea (Yes, we have class on the weekends!).  This is the reason why we have A-Day and B-Day.  The classes alternate every other day.  One bad thing about not having classes in port is having to squish an entire semesters worth of work in less than 55 days.