Semester At Sea... What the Heck Is That?!
This fall I will be studying abroad.
"Oh that's so exciting!" You say, "Where are you going!?"
Everywhere. The answer is everywhere.
I am going on Semester at Sea. What's that, you ask? I will tell you.
You that show that used to be on Disney Channel, The Suite Life on Deck?
As you can see I start in London. So in late August, I will be flying over to England, and from there I will board a cruise ship and call it my home for the next four months. I will take four different classes. We do not have weekends, our "weekends" are when we are in port. We do not have class when we are in a country, but when we are on the ship we have class every other day.
So far I am taking International Business, Travel Writing and hopefully Marine Biology. My fourth class is still up in the air. Each classes curriculum generally goes along with what ever country we are about to be in and each class will have a "field trip" in one country.
You can do a lot of other field excursions in the countries. Semester at Sea has a bunch you can sign up for through them or you can set your own thing up in each country. I don't have any field programs lined up yet, that won't happen until July.
The ship itself is small but nice. It was built in 2002, is 590-ft long, has 7 decks, and has a maximum capacity of 836 people. Generally about 750 of those are students.
There are a lot of activities that happen on the ship and a lot of students form their own kind of clubs. They have an activity fair at the beginning where you make your own activities. You can find people with the same interests as you. People form work out groups and study groups and things like that. There are also a lot of activities that are put on for us to enjoy, like ship-wide olympics. And from what I have read it also seems like they bring a lot of speakers aboard to hold seminars.
It looks like I am going to be really busy. I'm nervous about going away but I hope I will be so busy that it will go by really fast and I won't be hit with any homesickness.
I am extremely blessed to have this opportunity to travel the world and while I am nervous about being away from everyone for so long I know that in the long run I won't regret it. There are still a million things to do before I leave, it is crazy!!
That's what I am doing in the fall in a nutshell. If you have any questions about Semester at Sea, just let me know! I'll be happy to talk to you about it!
"Oh that's so exciting!" You say, "Where are you going!?"
Everywhere. The answer is everywhere.
I am going on Semester at Sea. What's that, you ask? I will tell you.
You that show that used to be on Disney Channel, The Suite Life on Deck?
Best show ever, I know. That is a very accurate representation of what I will be doing. Living on a cruise ship and visiting lots of different countries. Sixteen countries to be exact
As you can see I start in London. So in late August, I will be flying over to England, and from there I will board a cruise ship and call it my home for the next four months. I will take four different classes. We do not have weekends, our "weekends" are when we are in port. We do not have class when we are in a country, but when we are on the ship we have class every other day.
So far I am taking International Business, Travel Writing and hopefully Marine Biology. My fourth class is still up in the air. Each classes curriculum generally goes along with what ever country we are about to be in and each class will have a "field trip" in one country.
You can do a lot of other field excursions in the countries. Semester at Sea has a bunch you can sign up for through them or you can set your own thing up in each country. I don't have any field programs lined up yet, that won't happen until July.
The ship itself is small but nice. It was built in 2002, is 590-ft long, has 7 decks, and has a maximum capacity of 836 people. Generally about 750 of those are students.
There are 9 classrooms, a pool, 3 dining halls (one is outside), a wellness center, a campus store, a computer lab, and a gym.
The rooms are very small, just like an actual cruise. And you don't spend all that much time in your room, just like an actual cruise. I will be taking the "take half as much as you think you will need" philosophy to heart. I have a deck 4 outside cabin.
There are a lot of activities that happen on the ship and a lot of students form their own kind of clubs. They have an activity fair at the beginning where you make your own activities. You can find people with the same interests as you. People form work out groups and study groups and things like that. There are also a lot of activities that are put on for us to enjoy, like ship-wide olympics. And from what I have read it also seems like they bring a lot of speakers aboard to hold seminars.
It looks like I am going to be really busy. I'm nervous about going away but I hope I will be so busy that it will go by really fast and I won't be hit with any homesickness.
I am extremely blessed to have this opportunity to travel the world and while I am nervous about being away from everyone for so long I know that in the long run I won't regret it. There are still a million things to do before I leave, it is crazy!!
That's what I am doing in the fall in a nutshell. If you have any questions about Semester at Sea, just let me know! I'll be happy to talk to you about it!
