So I met Archbishop Desmond Tutu and his wife Leah after lunch just now. It was only for a few minutes though. I hope to get a picture with him and an autograph in my copy of his book at some point. He's a really funny, down-to-earth kinda guy. A lot of fun to be around.
Tuesday, August 31, 2010
Another fast update... also send me some Emails!
The address is sgchastain@semesteratsea.net
Spain is coming up on Saturday. I'm pretty stoked. Can't wait to see Cadiz and environs. Hopefully I'll also be able to bus up to Seville or Grenada for cheap. Those are supposed to be mindblowing. Anyway, the classes are looking to be pretty low-stress so far, but other people are getting writing assignments after only 1 of each. Mine'll get like that soon enough. I'm getting about a chapter in each textbook for each class a day, so they've found a way to keep us busy. I'm not looking forward to having to do a bunch of journal updates while travelling in port countries. In my experience you are a brand new kind of exhausted at the end of each day of traveling like I will be and I won't feel like writing a big entry while it's fresh in my mind. Oh well we'll see how that goes. Can't wait to try to write it by flashlight in Ghana or Morocco while I'm homestaying!
But yeah. There's tons more to say already but there'll be tons more more stuff to say after we finally get to a port. If you wanna talk about it right away send an email. If you wanna wait until Saturday or Sunday but get a more detailed answer then comment on the post. I can't read these without using up internet minutes which are absurdly expensive.
PS: Second day of classes at Pitt today, I hear. Have fun kids.
Monday, August 30, 2010
Fast Update
So as of today I've attended all of my classes once. There's only 4 of them but they're all actual school with textbooks to read and journals to keep, although I can do the reading for them on the back of a cruise ship (or rather a voyage ship... they don't let us say cruise). Anyway the weather's been nice yesterday and today. Its the calmest sea yet today, although now that I've said that we're going to go through a tropical depression tonight. The ship grazed the outer edge of Hurricane Danielle 2 nights ago and nobody slept cuz of all the rocking and pitching. The pitching is especially bad in the bow, where the student union is. I had global studies (the required course) in there yesterday morning when it was still choppy and there was a steady stream of kids going to puke. It was pretty horrible.
Anyway, 4 days until España.
Saturday, August 28, 2010
Days 1 and 2
So I would’ve done this update last night but I was too exhausted from all the stuff we had to do on the first day. I woke up in The Westin Nova Scotian in Halifax around 6:30, ate breakfast, and boarded the ship at the port terminal which was right across the street. I win, because some people got hotels by the Halifax airport and had to drive 40 minutes or so to get there.
Anyway, after a bunch of security stuff I finally got on board and found my cabin in room 2030. It’s on the second-lowest level of the ship (below us is crew quarters and a bunch of ship type stuff that you as a passenger don’t need to worry about.) So throughout the day it was unstructured as everybody boarded at different times. I wandered around the ship with a few people I met along the way. At 4 we had a lifeboat safety drill, where everyone had to put on their life jackets and warm clothing to go stand in 3 ranks by the lifeboats while Svetlana the crewmember called roll for everybody assigned to that boat. It took about 40 minutes.
The ship departed Halifax at 5 and everyone waved to their parents and it was all sad and whatever blah blah. One bunch of parents had gotten a custom made banner for their kid which everyone got a big kick out of. But after that the ship pulled out of the harbor slowly and then hit the gas once it was far enough away. The weather was great so I took a bunch of photos of the sun setting off the stern of the ship while I ate dinner with the people who were around me in line for food. The food is ok but I can see why it’ll get boring after a while.
After dinner was an excruciatingly long “meet the faculty and staff” meeting in the student union. The student union is very close to the ship, so it goes up and down a lot in addition to rolling. Seasickness hasn’t bothered me too much. I feel dizzy and loopey, but not sick to my stomach. Apparently the Atlantic Ocean crossing is the worst, so its good we’re getting that over with first. By the way there’s also a category 2 hurricane south of us coming this direction. Oh well, what’s life without a little excitement right? Our venerable Croatian captain Roman Krstanovic, assures us there is no danger involved, but a big stack of barf bags has turned up at every trashcan in the public areas of the ship.
The last organized thing yesterday was our deck meetings where they promised to keep it brief and then had all 60 of us say our name, home school, and cabin number. I could hardly keep my eyes open at this point.
By the way, the ocean is big. Stupidly big. I bitched the whole way to Halifax about how big Canada was while I was driving through two of its smallest provinces, but while I’m writing this (about noon eastern time on Saturday) we’re already further from Halifax than I drove in Canada. We’re about one Newfoundland-length south of Newfoundland.
Anyway, today is orientation day. We heard all about the UVA honor code for about the 18th time this morning, followed by a small group discussion of the “summer reading” assignment. We were supposed to follow this discussion up with a 1-page reaction to the book, but then they said it isn’t due until next week, virtually guaranteeing I’ll forget to do it. Right now I’m about to have to go to the “faculty meet and greet” and the captain discussing safety, health, and behavior issues. Endless fun abounds on the high seas!
Hopefully I’ll get more sleep tonight (and for the majority of the voyage).
Monday, August 23, 2010
Moseying Our Way Up to Halifax- an update on the way
So we all know the ship leaves from Halifax, NS on the 27th of August. That's this Friday. But I left home on Saturday so my parents and I could visit a few places on the way up and make a road trip out of it. Here's an itinerary and my all-important opinions:
Saturday: left from Fairfax County, VA. Drove through Baltimore. Kept doors locked. Took the Jersey Turnpike. Kept the windows closed and oxygen masks fully deployed. Got to Rockaway, New Jersey (west of NYC) a short 6 hours later and met up with my aunt and uncle. We had some great Thai food for dinner and stayed at a hotel. Thanks again for the food, guys!
Also tried to watch the Redskins preseason game but could only get the Steelers beating the Giants. So I decided to text someone back home about the game.
So how 'bout those Redskins, guys?!
New Jersey rating: 5/5 fun times, family, and good food.
Sunday: Breakfast with aunt and uncle at a diner and then we headed off to our next stop at Mystic Seaport, Connecticut. I had never been further east in the US than New York City, so this is officially "here be dragons" territory now. Mystic Seaport is a 'typical' old fishing town that has a touristy trappish area in it where you learn about ships and whatnot. It was a relatively interesting insight in to how much less shitty ocean travel has gotten in the past century. They pooped in holes off the side of the boat and the sailors slept in cots hardly wide enough for a decent laptop downwind from where they cut up and burn whale blubber.
Connecticut rating: 3.5/5 The state is extremely boring to drive through. The Merritt Parkway in the western part of it is hacked out of a forest and you can't see anything. Then 95 is just as boring except you get to go through the smelly ports of New Haven and New London. There might be other things to do in Connecticut but I'm not going to let fact-finding delay my knee-jerk judgment of this place. Also, it was raining the entire time we were there. Yes, that's your fault, Connecticut.
Monday: Woke up early, which is good I guess since I have an early class on the ship. The rain storm, according to the weather website, will be following us at least until Maine. Fantastic. Anyway, 95 took us through Rhode Island, Massachusetts, New Hampshire (home of tax-free liquor stores! I guess, like Delaware, they needed a gimmick), and finally Maine. Maine is bigger than it looks on maps. We drove and drove and it actually cleared up and stopped raining after two hours. You know the weather's messed up when you have to go to Bangor to get some clear skies. Anyway I'm updating the blog now after a very good seafood dinner at Bar Harbor, our overnighting destination. Hopefully tomorrow will be a good day for hiking, cuz we're going hiking regardless (that's just what you do here).
Rhode Island: 4.5/5 Rainy but a good Dunkin Donuts stop; got it over with quickly.
Massachusetts: 4/5 There is no way its that big. It took like 2 hours to drive through it.
New Hampshire: 0/5 The highway is in your state for barely 30 miles and you charge a toll?
Maine: 5/5 Scenic, which makes up for it being huge. I'll be able to say more about it next update but so far so good. I shouted for you Henri, did you hear?
Saturday: left from Fairfax County, VA. Drove through Baltimore. Kept doors locked. Took the Jersey Turnpike. Kept the windows closed and oxygen masks fully deployed. Got to Rockaway, New Jersey (west of NYC) a short 6 hours later and met up with my aunt and uncle. We had some great Thai food for dinner and stayed at a hotel. Thanks again for the food, guys!
Also tried to watch the Redskins preseason game but could only get the Steelers beating the Giants. So I decided to text someone back home about the game.
So how 'bout those Redskins, guys?!
Why do I even bother asking anymore?
Sunday: Breakfast with aunt and uncle at a diner and then we headed off to our next stop at Mystic Seaport, Connecticut. I had never been further east in the US than New York City, so this is officially "here be dragons" territory now. Mystic Seaport is a 'typical' old fishing town that has a touristy trappish area in it where you learn about ships and whatnot. It was a relatively interesting insight in to how much less shitty ocean travel has gotten in the past century. They pooped in holes off the side of the boat and the sailors slept in cots hardly wide enough for a decent laptop downwind from where they cut up and burn whale blubber.
Connecticut rating: 3.5/5 The state is extremely boring to drive through. The Merritt Parkway in the western part of it is hacked out of a forest and you can't see anything. Then 95 is just as boring except you get to go through the smelly ports of New Haven and New London. There might be other things to do in Connecticut but I'm not going to let fact-finding delay my knee-jerk judgment of this place. Also, it was raining the entire time we were there. Yes, that's your fault, Connecticut.
Monday: Woke up early, which is good I guess since I have an early class on the ship. The rain storm, according to the weather website, will be following us at least until Maine. Fantastic. Anyway, 95 took us through Rhode Island, Massachusetts, New Hampshire (home of tax-free liquor stores! I guess, like Delaware, they needed a gimmick), and finally Maine. Maine is bigger than it looks on maps. We drove and drove and it actually cleared up and stopped raining after two hours. You know the weather's messed up when you have to go to Bangor to get some clear skies. Anyway I'm updating the blog now after a very good seafood dinner at Bar Harbor, our overnighting destination. Hopefully tomorrow will be a good day for hiking, cuz we're going hiking regardless (that's just what you do here).
Maine scenery now that it finally stopped raining. I'll upload more in Halifax because there is no way their Wifi could possibly be slower than the stuff here.
Rhode Island: 4.5/5 Rainy but a good Dunkin Donuts stop; got it over with quickly.
Massachusetts: 4/5 There is no way its that big. It took like 2 hours to drive through it.
New Hampshire: 0/5 The highway is in your state for barely 30 miles and you charge a toll?
Maine: 5/5 Scenic, which makes up for it being huge. I'll be able to say more about it next update but so far so good. I shouted for you Henri, did you hear?
Sunday, August 15, 2010
Ribboncutting
So here's my travel blog, for Semester at Sea for Fall of 2010. I don't leave for Halifax to depart until the 21st, and then the ship doesn't leave until the 27th. The parents and I will be making a road trip out of the way up there.
Quick credit to my buddy Andrew for inspiring the URL name of the blog.
Chances are if you're reading this you already know me, but if you don't I'll introduce myself and what this is all about real quick.
I'm Stephen and I go to the University of Pittsburgh. I was born and raised in Northern Virginia and live there when I'm not at school too. I haven't declared majors yet, but its looking a lot like Anthropology and Environmental studies. Semester at Sea is the first of the study abroad programs I hope to be doing during undergrad, and its going to be epic. You get on a ship, you sail around the world, and you stop in a ton of countries along the way. Below is their info page for this voyage because I'm too lazy to type out the entire itinerary.
http://www.semesteratsea.org/voyages/upcoming-voyages/fall-2010.php
This is my personal blog so I'll try to be recording personal thoughts in here. I'll have at least 1 other blog I'm obligated to do during the trip for Vicarious Voyage. That's a program where I send photos and updates back to an elementary school in the US, which just happens to be the school where my mom works as a librarian. More info on this (and a link) when that gets sorted out. No rush yet!
Quick credit to my buddy Andrew for inspiring the URL name of the blog.
Chances are if you're reading this you already know me, but if you don't I'll introduce myself and what this is all about real quick.
I'm Stephen and I go to the University of Pittsburgh. I was born and raised in Northern Virginia and live there when I'm not at school too. I haven't declared majors yet, but its looking a lot like Anthropology and Environmental studies. Semester at Sea is the first of the study abroad programs I hope to be doing during undergrad, and its going to be epic. You get on a ship, you sail around the world, and you stop in a ton of countries along the way. Below is their info page for this voyage because I'm too lazy to type out the entire itinerary.
http://www.semesteratsea.org/voyages/upcoming-voyages/fall-2010.php
This is my personal blog so I'll try to be recording personal thoughts in here. I'll have at least 1 other blog I'm obligated to do during the trip for Vicarious Voyage. That's a program where I send photos and updates back to an elementary school in the US, which just happens to be the school where my mom works as a librarian. More info on this (and a link) when that gets sorted out. No rush yet!
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