Hey friends and family!
I set up this blog to keep you all updated on what I’m up to this Fall as I circumnavigate the globe on my Semester at Sea voyage!
For those of you who don’t know much about what I’m doing, this Fall I am studying abroad in a rather unique way. The University of Virginia has a program called “Semester at Sea” on which you travel around the world (literally) on a large ship with 700 other students and faculty. Yes, we take real classes and actually do school work but we also have the time we’re docked in each port city to ourselves to explore the different countries.
I’m not really the blogging-type but it’s going to be difficult [and expensive] for me to contact any of you individually while abroad so I figured a blog would be the best and easiest way to update all of you at once. I’m sure I’ll be really busy but I’m going to try to keep this blog as up-to-date as possible. Also, if you need to contact me or just want to say hello the best way would be via e-mail (sarahvancleve@gmail.com).
My Fall 2009 voyage is planned as follows:
- Depart Halifax, Canada on August 28th
- Cadiz, Spain
- Casablanca, Morocco + Camel Riding in the Sahara!
- Accra, Ghana + Togo and Benin
- Cape Town, South Africa + Safari near Johannesburg!
- Port Louis, Mauritius
- Chennai, India
- Ho Chi Min City, Vietnam + the Mekong Delta
- Hong Kong, Beijing, and Shanghai, China
- Yokohama, Tokyo, and Kobe, Japan
- Oahu and the Big Island, Hawaii
- Arrive in San Diego on December 14th
- Then back to the East Coast for less than two weeks before snowboard season begins in Mammoth, CA!
Obviously there’s not much to tell you all at this point. Everything is packed and ready to go. I fly up to Halifax this evening, board the ship tomorrow, and then start the trek across the Atlantic. Of course last minute anxiety is kicking in--have I packed everything I need? what if my roommate is awful? is everyone on the ship going to get seasick when that hurricane traveling up the east coast hits us?--but I know that I have the most important things (passport, visas, credit cards, and the best immunity to exotic diseases that the developed world can supply) so I'm confident that everything will work out and I'm extremely excited to start this once-in-a-lifetime trip.
Well, I'm sure I'll have more exciting news once I've actually been “at sea” and in other countries but I hope you all get a chance every once in a while to check out what I’m doing this Fall.
Check back soon!
svc
