The Bahamas

Current Location: Nassau, Bahamas, the Sheraton Resort.

It's hard to believe that I've been here for less than 6 hours and I already feel like I have enough to write about.

My anxiety over making it from the airport to the hotel was much relieved when I met up with 3 fellow SASers (Semester at Sea-goers) at the Atlanta airport. A bunch of students had coordinated beforehand to wear yellow bandanas to find each other more easily and it worked! One other student was on the plane with me so we were able to catch a taxi together after our flight landed.

I'll skip through the boring process of check-in and finding the hotel room (confusing) and jump to my wandering about the hotel, mainly to check out the pool but also to begin the search for SASers. It didn't take too long for me to start finding more students. As our group began to grow, it became far easier to find each other as our hesitancies about asking random people if they were here for Semester at Sea wore off. Eventually a group of us hung out at the beach for a while and talked.

Most of the students were planning on heading to Senor Frogs, a local bar in town, but I was far more concerned about finding dinner, after making a bad decision not to grab food at the Atlanta airport. Not surprisingly, all the food at the resort was incredibly expensive. Eventually, I decided it was best I just stop at the cafe in the resort and try to grab a bite to eat before it got too late. I grabbed my laptop before I headed downstairs with the intention of starting this blog post and checking email as I ate. However, as soon as I sat down, two adults at the table next to me (who happened to have a pizza box I had been eying) asked if I was traveling with Semester at Sea. As it turned out, they were Lifelong Learners traveling as well (Lifelong Learners include non-traditional students and older passengers). I asked if I could join them and they said yes (and offered me their last piece of pizza, score!). Mike & Janelle introduced themselves, and we had a long conversation that jumped around from Mike's experience as a chemical engineer and the lectures he'd be giving on board to their daughter's time at CSU (a fellow Ram!) and plans for boarding the ship tomorrow. I really enjoyed our conversations and ended up arranging for fellow cab-mates for the trip to the pier.

-----UPDATE: I’ll cut off this blog post here because my plans to hang out at the resort/beach for the following day before my boarding time turned out dramatically different -----

One Day to Go

Tomorrow I begin an incredible journey. At 9:00 am, I board a plane, on my way to the Bahamas where I will embark on the MV Explorer with over 350 other students to take part in the inaugural Short Term Voyage. As you can see from the lovely picture below, this "Maymester Voyage" will take me to 7 different international ports-of-call over the course of 26 days as I take classes in sustainable development, energy resources, and Spanish.

From the start of the Voyage on Friday, May 20th, it will be my goal to post at least once for every port visit. I will share my experiences from the ship, classes, people, field excursions, adventures in port, and whatever else may come up.

However, for my first post, I will give a little background about my trip and how I got to this point, 30 hours away from departure --

I first learned about Semester at Sea's "Maymester Voyage" towards the end of my fall semester. This was the first-ever Short-Term Voyage and the theme was set to be "Engineering a New Tomorrow." That was my first clue that this was an experience I could not miss. Originally, when looking at colleges, I was dead set on taking time for a study abroad. Of course, after enrolling as a mechanical engineering major, I quickly realized that finishing my undergraduate studies in 4-years and doing a study abroad were just not compatible goals. A little disappointed, I told myself that at least I could do a summer study abroad and left it at that. When the Maymester Voyage came up, I had an option that exceeded my goals - not only would I be able to study abroad in the summer, but I could practice my Spanish-speaking skills, enhance my Spanish studies visiting five different Spanish-speaking countries, and I could take engineering classes at the same time. For people who know me well, my dream is to work in sustainable energy development. Taking a class on Energy Resources while studying and visiting the real-life examples in different countries could not be a better fit for me.

When Spring Break came around, I made a decision that I should have made months earlier and applied for Semester at Sea (I had been held up by the hopes of getting an engineering internship this summer). In a matter of about a week, I completed the application and was accepted for the Voyage. Within another week, I had applied for a work study position and was awarded a position as a Resident Assistant aboard the ship (I'm also a current RA at Colorado State University). I began to select my classes, apply for field development programs and excursions, and submit the final paperwork. In the process, I also applied for a generous scholarship from the National Society of Collegiate Scholars (NSCS). Just over a week ago, I found out I was one of three recipients for the $3,475 award. I am incredibly thankful for the scholarship and the support of NSCS. The aid has taken an enormous burden off my shoulders and made me appreciate this opportunity all that much more.

So that's a pretty good summary of why I chose to study with Semester at Sea on their Short-Term Voyage and how I'm incredibly lucky to be paying very little for an amazing education and experience. I hope that you come back and check out my next posts to hear some interesting stories from an engineer at sea.

Allison