Since we were only there a day, there wasn’t really much too it, except everyone’s extreme overuse of their cell phones since we had returned to the US (if only briefly). We got off the ship around 10am and headed to our first destination: Walmart. We were desperately craving chips with salsa and guacamole, candy, and your everyday snack foods. And boy, did we stock up! We knew exams were coming and that we would need sustenance other than the dining hall food to keep us going. I also needed to buy an external hard drive to store the over 10,000 pictures taken on this trip…much more than my computer could handle! On the way to Walmart we were sort of in a state of shock. People drove on the right side of the road (we’re some of the only ones that do so), there were shops we recognized, and everyone spoke English! So that was particularly exciting, especially after China where we had so much trouble getting around because of the language barriers. After Walmart we made a quick stop back at the ship to drop our stuff, and made our way to Waikiki to spend Thanksgiving day in the sun, on the beach, and in the water! For many of us it was the first time we had gotten the opportunity to swim in the water we had been sailing over for so long…and it felt great!
After a long, relaxing day on the beach in Hawaii, with some of us surfing, sailing, swimming, or just tanning, we all headed closer to the ship for dinner (to make sure we made the 9:00pm on ship time – we didn’t want any dock time in Costa Rica!). Indeed we tried to have Thanksgiving dinner at Hooters but we got there too late and headed to another waterfront restaurant instead.
After quite the long and complicated meal, we headed back to the ship a few at a time for some much-needed rest. After all, we did have school the next day.The next 8 days or so from Hawaii to Costa Rica we filled with papers, finals, and lots of studying. The weather was getting warmer and warmer, and it was getting harder and harder to stay inside and study, so we adapted our methods. Up and out on the 7th deck early, study when the wind wasn’t blowing our notes away, and in by 3pm to get some real work done. Luckily for me, I finished exams on December 2nd, 12 days before we got off the boat, and 5 days before we reached Costa Rica, so I had the time to work on a really nice tan! It was also super fun to be out on the 7th deck all day during the day because different people would come up and visit when they weren’t studying, people would be playing in the pool with Frisbees or footballs, and the coolest thing of all was when people would bring their instruments (mainly guitars) outside and just sing and play for a while. I didn’t even need my ipod! There was always someone up there to talk to and keep me company, so that was great.
The other nice thing about my schedule was that I got to sleep in, go lay out, and stay outside until the sun went down every single day. I saw the most beautiful sunsets that lit up the sky almost every night!
I would be sitting with either my friends or a good book, holding my afternoon cup of tea, watching the sun go down around 5:00pm – it was just perfect.
There was also one night when 8 of us decided to do fine dining, an option I’m sorry I didn’t take more advantage of! We were in a separate room, at a beautifully set table, served a seemingly 6-course (surprising delicious) meal.
Rob and Eric, two of my guy friends that sang in a cappella with me, are perhaps the most entertaining boys I have ever met in my life, and it was a riot to hang with them for a couple of hours.December 4th, three days before we got to Costa Rica, was Jesse’s 22nd birthday, so we set up a dinner in his favorite place – outside on deck 6 – and organized a cake and lots of people to sing happy birthday (even though he hates it). The chefs specially made him a HUGE Oreo ice-cream cake, which the boys proceeded to finish after I went off to a cappella practice.
Before we knew it, we had arrived in Costa Rica. Thankfully this time the tendering process wasn’t as bad as Malaysia had been, but it did provide a few problems! We got off the boat on the 7th to meet Laura Flynn’s mom and her friend Lorraine, who had taken a vacation to Costa Rica to visit our six friends. It was so nice to have them there – we had all forgotten what it was like to be able to see our moms! It definitely made me a tiny bit homesick; the first time I had felt that way the entire three and a half months I had been away. The 9 of us, Mrs. Heller, Lorraine, Christine, Jen, Jess, Kierstin, Laura Flynn, me, and our friend Emma, all made our way to the town of Jacó, about an hour or so from Port Caldera, where the ship was tendering. We stayed at a beautiful resort with tons of palm trees, mountains, and the ocean in the backdrop. After we ate lunch Jen, Christine, Mrs. Heller, Lorraine, Laura Flynn, and I all headed into the rainforest for a zip line canopy tour…and it was SO FUN! While we were walking towards the trees and platforms we could hear the group ahead of us screaming and laughing, so we knew we were in for a good time!
We all got strapped into our harnesses, and make the hike up into the trees to our first platform. There were a total of 14 platforms, with 7 zip lines in between. The highest platform was over 100ft up, almost over the tops of the trees! You could essentially do anything you wanted while on the zip line, granted you were comfortable. Lamar, one of our guides, told us we just needed to “protect our personalities” and make sure we didn’t get hurt while going upside-down, backwards, or a combination of both!
Even Mrs. Heller and Lorraine tried it out! I also somehow acquired a nickname from Lamar. Since I was wearing yoga pants, and harnesses tend to accentuate certain features, my bottom appeared to be larger than it actually is (I hope). And since we were swinging in the trees like Tarzan and Jane, he decided that my new name would be Booty Jane. It stuck for the remainder of the day, if not the entire trip! After the zip lines there was a final belay, and we headed out of the forest and back to the hotel to get ready and meet our friends out in Jacó later that night. The town of Jacó is slightly seedy, lots of touristy shops selling the same types of things, and strange-looking bars and clubs (but with cheap drinks – perfect for college students), but the locals were nice, and we had a good time! The next day we spent by the pool, hanging out in the sun, and enjoying our last time to be in port together. Sad. But the weather was beautiful, all leading right up to the most gorgeous sunset.
Lorraine and Mrs. Heller took us to a very nice outdoor restaurant at another resort to get drinks, watch the sun go down, and then have a lovely dinner.
Jen was particularly happy because they had cheesecake! Afterwards we headed into town to do a little shopping before we showered and got ready to go out. By the time we were all ready, only three of us wanted to make the trip into to town for the night, but it was so worth it! My three best guy friends, Josh, Brad, and Jesse, had all been away on a rafting trip, and so I got to meet up with them, and spend my last night in Costa Rica with my boys! The next day we had a little more time by the pool and in the sun (mainly spent eating nachos and chips with guacamole), before we headed back to the ship, now docked in Puntarenas.So Costa Rica was amazing! And while not exactly the most educational port, it was by far the most relaxing and also so much fun!
Back on the ship, everyone was done with classes at this point, so we had 5 days to hang out, go to our Ambassador’s Ball, transit the Panama Canal, and say our goodbyes. The day after we got back on the ship, December 10th, was the Ambassador’s Ball. It’s the final formal dance, where everyone dresses up really nicely, has a sit-down dinner, watches the entertainment (student performances), and dances the rest of the night away in the Union. All the boys looked so handsome in their suits (many of which came from Vietnam), and the girls looked beautiful. Our little six-pack, as we were called, of Jen, Christine, Jess, Kierstin, Laura Flynn, and me, had dinner all together at a big table just laughing, reminiscing, and having fun!
This picture would be us with Lazlo, one of the staff captains on the ship! The dance itself started around 10pm and ended at 1am, and it was so fun to hang out and let loose just one last time.
That night Jesse and I attempted to sleep outside with a bunch of people, and made it until around 4:30am…and then called it a quits! It was getting cold!In just a few hours from then, our ship started her transit across the Panama Canal, a very cool experience to be a part of! We went through many series of locks, finally rising over 85ft above sea level, winding and curving along the Amazon look-a-like Canal. The entire process took all day, and at around 6pm we were pulling away from the last lock.
Up until this point, our a cappella group had been hard at work for hours every day putting the finishing touches on our songs, and figuring out choreography for our show, the night of December 12th. I’m not sure if I’ve mentioned it before, but we had practice every day on the ship during the entire voyage for at least an hour a night, sometimes more, working to create a medley we would perform for the entire shipboard community. The afternoon of the 12th we had a couple hour mic practice and run-through, going through our 15-minute long medley the best we had ever done it! We decided on costumes, and met for one last practice from 6:30-7:30pm, before our show started at 8:00pm. I was an absolute nervous wreck. My solo was first, starting off the entire medley, and I had never sung alone in front of that many of my peers before. However, when I got to the show, I saw that Laura Flynn, Kierstin, Emma, Christine, Jess, Jen, Victoria, Nora, Cara, John, Phil and Diego had all reserved the front row seats to watch us perform! While it was scary to have all my good friends front-and-center, it was comforting as well! The show went amazingly, we got a standing ovation, and I’ve never gotten more compliments from people I didn’t know in my life!
The audio-visual guy, who has to attend every show on the ship, said ours was his favorite! Here’s a picture of the whole group. In the back row, starting from the left is Lauren, Allison, Erin, me, Dana, Adrienne, and Krista. Then for the boys from the left is Rob, Eric, Joey, Danny, Ryan, Mark, and Bobby on the very bottom…only missing Todd!
We had so much fun together as a group. I’ve never been a part of something where people from all over the world, from so many different backgrounds and groups of friends have come together out of a common interest and pure love for something, and created an amazing, unforgettable friendship and bond. A cappella is for sure one of the things I will miss the most about Semester at Sea.After our show was the final pub night on the boat, and it was CROWDED! Everyone that still had on-ship drinking privileges was up on the 7th deck, just hanging out, playing Catch Phrase, or cards, and just enjoying one of the last nights all together.
That night and the next day were devoted to signing each other’s maps, writing in other’s journals, packing (which surprising didn’t take too long), and cleaning out our rooms. For Christina and I this was particularly sad. We had come to think of cabin 4147 as our little home away from home. And while we didn’t have the same group of friends, or hang out too much in port, Christina was one of my best friends on the ship in the most unconventional way. That fact that we weren’t in the same group of friends brought us closer because we were allowed to talk to each other and give unbiased opinions on situations and problems. We laughed daily, and she always kept me entertained. I am so glad that I decided to do the “random roommate” experience, she turned out to be one of the coolest people I have ever met, and she helped to grow as a person in more ways than she could know. Christina helped me to see the world differently because we are so inherently different, and for that I am truly thankful.
The last night on the boat was the commencement ceremony for seniors graduating this semester. About 20 students took Semester at Sea as their last semester in college, and the entire community had a ceremony to honor them. But it was more than that. Talented student musicians had written songs about Semester at Sea, and performed them on guitar and piano. My friends Allison and Adrienne sang a duet that brought me to tears. As a speaker from each of the faculty, staff, and student body got up to wish us well and say final goodbyes, everyone came to the realization that it was actually over. A four-letter we had been avoiding for the past week. After the ceremony, the shipboard photographer, Brittany, made an hour-long slideshow of photographs she had taken on the ship, and in each port. It was really amazing.Our friends had decided a few days before that the last night was no night for sleeping, so about 10 of us stayed up all night playing an epic 6 and a half hour game of charades. It was some of the most fun I’ve had on the ship! I think when we started getting down to phrases like “haunted agricultural facility” and “presidential weenie roast”, we knew we should have instituted this game as a weekly tradition on the boat. What fun it would have been to have had an ongoing boys versus girls charades tournament for four months!
At about 6:30am or so the pilot boat from the Miami harbor pulled alongside the MV Explorer. As the sun came up over the city, tears fell down many cheeks – boys and girls alike – including mine. This wonderful, life-changing experience I never wanted to end would be over in just a few hours.
On the ship I witnessed amazing sites, events, and cultures. I met people who have challenged me, made me grow, and will remain in my heart for a lifetime. And finally, I recognize that I have grown as a person, in more ways than I could have hoped for or imagined.
Since the Arabian Sea was last off the boat, I had the tough task of watching every single one of my friends get off before me. First Jess, Christine, and Diego, then Josh, Jesse, and Victoria, then Laura Flynn, Kierstin, and Kelly. Then Brad, Mark and Jen left, and I only had Christina. I guess it was fitting really, that I would spend my last moments on the boat with the one person who probably knows me the best, whether or not I knew it, or appreciated it at the time.Luckily after we got off the boat I had a few hours before catching my flight, so Cara, Nora, Victoria, Eric, John, Rob, Phil, me, Josh, and a few others got a chance to grab lunch and say one more round of goodbyes before we all went our separate ways. In the airport Christine and Kierstin, along with Christine’s mom, were all waiting for me as I sobbed my way through security lines and airport gates. On the plane I was a mess, to say the least. I was alone, and thinking nonstop about how the past four months of my life had been the greatest ever. But when I got to Regan Airport, and saw my family at the end of the terminal, it felt a little better.
Now that I’ve been home a little over a week, I’ve had plenty of time to think back and reflect on what I’ve been through, accomplished, and experienced. It was a jam-packed three and a half months, and no doubt it’s going to take much more time to decompress, but I am starting to see how this whole thing has changed me. In both subtle and overt ways, I am different, and as much as I owe that to each country and culture I have visited, I owe it as well to the people I met, who have so deeply influenced and changed my life.
So, now that I am done writing about this amazing trip of a lifetime, I hope what I have shared with you has given you a taste of what the world has to offer. There are truly incredible places to visit, people to meet, and cultures to understand, and through education and travel, we can better appreciate them. I hope that I have somehow influenced to change your life in some way. I both saw and met so many starving, poverty-stricken people that remain optimistic about what life has to offer, and despite their hardships, always have a smile on their face. So stay happy, appreciate what you have, and maybe share that with others. Volunteer at a soup kitchen, a hospital, a homeless shelter, and you will see that by creating joy in others’ lives, you create it in your own.
And finally, Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, and a Happy New Year to all!
Love,
Sarah
