JRP at Sea

Admittedly, I didn't have high expectations for Singapore, partly because our stay in port was much shorter than other locations (only one night and two days before sailing to Myanmar, one of the more exciting destinations), and partly for the likely unjustified and assumed reason that I thought the city, although international, diverse, and modern, would lack uniqueness and character. Also, we were suddenly off the ship more than we were on the ship, by a significant margin. After a long Pacific Ocean crossing we were in Japan, China, Vietnam, and now Singapore, leaving us off the ship for 21 days, and on the ship for 6 days. The pace was rapid, often with 2 days on the ship in between 6 days in different countries. My body was tired. I walked a tremendous amount of miles during the past three weeks, and my legs, especially my knees, felt the distance. However, in keeping with a voyage of endless surprises and adventure, Singapore offered uniqueness, culture, and peacefulness, ...

I remember being in Harrisonburg in the fall, and something, often my Vespa, would remind me that I would be returning to Vietnam in the spring, and I would suddenly be filled with joy and anticipation. My life in the United States has various traces of Vietnam in my daily life, from the Vespa I bought weeks after returning from Vietnam to the Vietnamese coffee I buy in the Asian market and brew with the drip coffee filter I purchased in Saigon a year-and-a-half earlier. Vietnam is close to my heart. When I say that Semester at Sea changed my life, I can make the statement a little less cliché with evidence. How I changed is most evident in my trip to Vietnam six months after the Fall 2012 voyage ended. I booked the trip weeks before leaving, which is action I simply wouldn’t have taken before the Semester at Sea voyage opened up my life to international travel. Something about Vietnam drew me in before I left, and drew me in forever after I left. Bruce Springsteen songs about Viet...

I could write various stories about Hong Kong, including my AirBnB apartment in SoHo, at the top of the Central/Mid-Levels escalator, the longest outdoor covered escalator system in the world, which much more easily takes you up the steep hills of Hong Kong Island, or my adventures around SoHo and PoHo, where I ate delicious food and found quirky stores where I could have designed a wonderfully unique apartment with all the vintage and modern home furnishings I saw, or I could write about the endless dim sum I ate every day and often multiple times a day. I could also write about a friend’s fun birthday, when a group of us went out for dinner, drinks, and dessert, wandering around the streets of SoHo. I could write about the sights I saw, including the stunning architecture in Hong Kong, Man Mo Temple, Star Ferry, Hong Kong Island light show, Kowloon, Temple Street Night Market, or Victoria Peak both at night and during the day. I think the better story is something I wrote one day ...

I didn’t love Shanghai, China, but the purpose of our voyage is not to fall in love with every country. We are here to learn about these countries and cultures, to get out of our comfort zone, to become more open-minded, to increase our global perspective, and to experience new ways of life. I’m grateful for our time in China. Even though the majority of voyagers didn’t like Shanghai, and I share their thoughts, Shanghai offered a much needed awakening to a culture different from our own. Although the experience might not have always been pleasant, the experience was cultural and challenging, broadening our perspective and opening our minds. Japan provided a comfort and familiarity that eased our traveling. Shanghai did not, which first became apparent when we tried to find a taxi to our AirBnB apartment in the French Concession. I heard about Chinese taxi drivers not wanting to deal with tourists who can’t speak Chinese, and to be honest, I don’t blame them; however, watching ava...

Arriving in Kyoto together, on time, was most likely the result of some guardian angels of traveling. I really don’t know how we walked on to our bullet train to Kyoto seconds before the train left. Meeting at large silver bell in the Central Passage of Tokyo Station was easy in theory, but my friends had my ticket, which I needed to enter the Central Passage, assuming I could find the Central Passage, which I couldn’t find. Without a way to communicate with each other we had to guess where to find each other. The bullet train to Kyoto would be a likely choice, but most of us didn’t know where to find the train, including me, even though a nice Japanese woman gave me a temporary ticket to enter the gates. Two minutes before departure time I was closer to our train but I was walking the wrong way and somehow my friends saw me, grabbed my arm, we quickly found the correct platform and the bullet train sped off seconds after we walked on, mostly because the nice Japanese man kept pushi...

After leaving San Diego on January 6 th , we spent 17 of 19 days at sea. During our route to Japan we were alone at sea. No ships, no land, only a few seabirds, and weeks of ocean water. Waking up on January 26 th to finally see other ships and to finally see land, was surreal and I struggled to comprehend that we had crossed the massive Pacific Ocean. The last few days brought rough seas. Students fell out of chairs, dishes slid and broke, my shower water poured out of the shower and onto the bathroom floor, people were slightly grumpy, and I often felt nauseous during the last two days. A week earlier we went hundreds of miles off course to avoid a major storm that would have brought 50 foot swells. Fortunately we only had 18-20 foot swells. Before arriving in Japan, the ocean apparently wanted to remind us that crossing the Pacific is not easily accomplished. After weeks at sea without visiting any countries outside of the United States, and having experienced a Semester at Sea ...

Had we not stopped in Hilo, Hawaii, we would have spent 17 consecutive days at sea on the way to Japan. Our one-day visit welcomingly offered a chance to step on land after 6 days at sea since Ensenada and before 10 days at sea until Yokohama, Japan. I woke up at 6am to watch us arrive in Hilo. After a week of no land in sight, the emergence of the volcanic Big Island of Hawaii was an impressive sight. In the dark before the sunrise, the lights of the island were the first signs of land, until they faded and the ridges of the mountains and the outlines of the shoreline emerged in the early dawn sky, followed by the appearance of the island’s colors once the sun rose and colored in the green trees, black and solidified lava, and glowing red windows reflecting the rising sun. Arriving by ship offers an expansive view that slowly changes and narrows, offering more details as we move closer to the port. The world suddenly comes to life. Whales emerged from the water all around the ship,...