Countdown: One Month!

For those of you who don’t know, on August 28, I will embark on Semester at Sea’s 100th Voyage around the world! Over the course of this 109-day adventure, we will visit 11 countries on 4 continents! I hope to keep everyone updated via this blog, as I will have very limited means of communication otherwise.

While aboard the MV Explorer, I will be taking 4 classes (The Economic Development of Asian Markets, The Economics of Tourism, Making Global Business Work, and the Global Studies course that all participants must take, focused on Globalization and the increasingly flat world) …while in port, I will be doing a combination of sight-seeing, service projects, fieldwork for my courses, and cultural exploration.

Rewind about 10 or 15 years, and zoom in on my Aunt Bonnie and Uncle Joel’s house. Our family would (and still does) gather here for many of the holidays. While the adults played a riveting game of “Dead or Alive,” us kids occupied our time playing sardines, solving the wooden block puzzle, or finding Waldo for about the millionth time. At a very young age, I memorized his hiding spot in several locations – at the circus, on the ski slopes, in the park – to name a few. Waldo’s famous red-and-white-striped sweater will travel with me to some new and exotic locations! Over the course of the semester, we will visit the following ports:

Halifax, Nova Scotia (embarkation)
Cadiz, Spain
Casablanca, Morocco
Accra, Ghana
Capetown, South Africa
Port Louis, Mauritius
Chennai, India
Ho Chi Minh City, Viet Nam
Hong Kong/Shanghai, China
Yokohama/Kobe, Japan
Honolulu/Hilo, Hawaii
San Diego, California

As you follow my travels, see if you can spot me!