Hello all!
I am back aboard the MV Explorer after four days in our first port of Spain! Though it’s disappointing to have to leave already it’s about time I catch up on my sleep. Spaniard’s definitely know how to party… no one in southern Spain sleeps until 6:00 am and when you have to wake up to catch a bus at 9:00 this makes for a long day. The Spanish guest lecturer we had onboard our ship suggests that perhaps this is the reason for his country’s relative economic inefficiency but this makes Spain such a lively place. It seemed to me that the lives of Spaniards are much more focused on being social than are our lives. I’ll tell you a little about that later.
Our ship docked in the little city of Cadiz in southwest Spain. To me, the coolest thing about Cadiz is its history. Cadiz is the oldest city in western Europe—it was founded 3,000 years ago by the Venetians. Since then it has been ruled by the Romans as well as several Islamic, Jewish, and Christian empires. It’s said that Cadiz was founded by Hercules himself; images of the Greek god can be found in artwork throughout the city. Cadiz accumulated immense wealth in the 16th century because, for a time, it was the main port for trade between Spain and the New World. Because the city is on a peninsula surrounded by high sea walls created hundreds of years ago to protect the prosperous city from invaders, Cadiz is also the only city in Spain that never fell to Napoleon. Sorry to bore you all with the history lesson but I just thought it was amazing that Cadiz has been around for so long and has been through so much yet it still remains a lively, functioning city. Another piece of the history that was shocking to me was the fact that people still live in these houses and buildings that are 300 to 700 years old. I mean, people probably died of the bubonic plague in those houses.
Some friends and I also went to Seville which is an absolutely gorgeous city inland about an hour from Cadiz. There we saw the third largest cathedral in the world, the oldest palace in the world that is still in use by a royal family, and the final resting place of Christopher Columbus (I’ve never seen a more elegant crypt). Not just in Seville, but in all of the cities we visited I was amazed by the beauty of the churches but even more than that I was amazed at the lack of religion in a place where people had once spent such vast amounts of money to erect and adorn these beautiful churches. We visited a huge old cathedral—one that even had the bodies of two five hundred year old saints displayed in it—on a Sunday morning! Apparently there was only one mass a week there and it was held in the afternoon. For a country in which 80% of its citizens consider themselves Catholics, Spain seemed to lack religious presence everywhere other than in its grand old churches which have truly become religious relicts.
Though the Spaniards lacked religious tradition, there was so much culture elsewhere. One of my favorite experiences was when some friends and I visited Ronda, a city high in the mountains of southern Spain. It was another beautiful old city with tiny roads that only Volkswagen Beetle size cars could drive through. There were many grand, several hundred year old houses crowded together on this mountaintop because it was where many of the wealthiest families in Spain, and even France and England, had their summer homes as it was known to have the cleanest air in Europe. Back in the day the best way to try to live long lives and be healthy was to have (1) proper nutrition and (2) fresh air so this is why they headed all the way to Ronda. And I digress again. Anyway, we just so happened to be in Ronda during the week they celebrate their fellow Rondian who created the sport of bullfighting several hundred years ago. To celebrate, of course, they have bull fighting events. Our tour guide said the worst ticket would cost at least eighty euros. I guess people pay that for an Eagles ticket, but it wasn’t the price that amazed me—it was how much of an event the bullfight was. We didn’t get to go inside the arena itself but we saw all of the Rondians, young and old, dressed in their best for the event. Young women rode to the arena in carriages pulled by lavishly decorated horses. The young women themselves looked so elegant. They wore long beautiful dresses and lace veils that our tour guide said were often two hundred years old—passed from mother to daughter—and could cost up to one hundred thousand euros for the very best ones. I was so surprised and fascinated by all of this because I had never previously thought of a Western country having such rich, distinct traditions.
One of my favorite aspects of Spanish culture is how important their meals are. It’s not just about great food, it’s so much about spending time with family [and in our case, friends]. One night some friends and I went out to a nice restaurant on the river in Seville for my roommate’s birthday. We got there around 8:00 and stayed until 11:30. No one bothered us to leave, in fact, after three and a half hours we finally had to ask for the check.
Drinking and partying also seemed to be important to Spainards, as I have previously mentioned. In order to be good travelers and really immerse ourselves in the culture my friends and I tried to do as the Spaniards do and went to some bars. I had “cerveza” down, but communicating our wants for other drinks with my broken Spanish required a bit more creativity. In trying to order my friend her whiskey sour we ended up with a shot of whiskey, a glass of ice, and a bottle of lemon Fanta. Still, it did the trick and we had a few good laughs with the bar tender.
And now, as if it wasn’t difficult enough trying to communicate in Spain where I actually knew a bit of the local language, we’re off to Morocco—a country whose official language was unknown to me until our pre-port lecture this afternoon. [F.y.i. They speak Arabic. Who knew.] It’s sad that now we have one less stop to see but I am so excited for what still is to come—cultures that will be even more different from our own. When we wake up tomorrow we will be in our first African country! And it should be something else--we’ve been told that us women need to cover up and that none of us should eat in public because it’s disrespectful to the 99% of Moroccans who are Muslims and are fasting for Ramadan. I’m going to need to brush up on my Islamic customs!
Well I need to get that rest before I embark on new adventures! I’ll be sure to write back soon to tell you all about Morocco!
Se amo!
svc
Thursday, September 10, 2009
Wednesday, September 2, 2009
At Sea!
Hello from the middle of the Atlantic!
I’m currently writing from the MV Explorer as we travel east towards Cadiz, Spain. We’ve traveled about a thousand nautical miles since Nova Scotia and have another 1,700 or so to go before we reach our next destination.
The closest point of land is a mere 455 nautical miles away—we are absolutely in the middle of nowhere. Yesterday I saw the first sign of life other than us as a cargo ship passed in the distance. Let me tell you, it was a huge deal. We were in the middle of class when someone spotted it and everyone immediately got up and ran to the windows and starred at it as if we were five year old kids who’d never seen a ship before.
With that said, it’s an awesome experience to live aboard a ship. [We are often corrected for calling the ship a “boat” because this offends the captain and crew—they command a grand ship not just a little boat.] We’re lucky enough to be on a huge 25,000 ton ship that was built only eight years ago specifically for the Semester at Sea program. It has seven decks complete with two luxurious dining halls, a library, a computer lab, ten classrooms, a basketball court, a gym, a spa, a pool, a bar, a “campus” store, and other great facilities.
Though all the common areas in the ship are extremely nice I can’t say our cabins are as high class. My roommate and I joke that our room is a closet they converted to living quarters. We’re on the inside without a window so when you wake up it’s impossible to know whether it is 5:00 in the morning or noon. Still, it’s really not awful—we have our own bathroom and everything we really need. I guess that’s just the price you pay for living aboard a traveling vessel.
Even though we have everything you’d need at a normal college campus it’s impossible to forget that we live aboard a ship. The most shocking part of the experience for me thus far is how much the ship sways back and forth. The seas are relatively calm and the MV Explorer is pretty large but there’s never a time when you can’t feel the movement. I can’t really describe feeling but you feel as if you’re going to tip over in your chair yet your glass of water doesn’t slide from the table. It can be quite entertaining to watch groups of people walking down the hallway as they simultaneously move from side to side and sometimes collide with walls.
Our ship is home to almost 900 people. There are about 550 students from all over the US, around 40 professors, another 15 or so staff, the families of the faculty and staff, 30 or 40 “life-long-learners” [who are mostly retired people interested in learning and helping us to learn so they pay to join our voyage], and about 200 crew members. It’s great getting to interact with the professors’ young children and the friendly and wise life-long-learners who sit in on our classes and eat with us. The crew are also great. They are truly from all over the world: the UK, China, the Netherlands, the Philippines, Mexico, the Caribbean, and many many more places. [Our Captain is British--I always imagine that our ship would be on fire or sinking and we'd still hear his calm, clear British accent over the loud speaker. Before I met him I thought that all of the announcements were recordings.] Every day our beds are made, our rooms cleaned, our food served to us, and our plates are cleared by the friendly and seeming very happy crew. Life is good.
Really everyone I've encountered thus far has been awesome. All of the students are extremely friendly, outgoing people. The first night I flew into Canada I ran into other SAS students at the airport (it was pretty clear which kids were students as there aren’t many people that regularly fly into in the little city of Halifax). Immediately we were all talking and a few Dartmouth kids let me crash with them in their hotel so I didn’t have to look around for a place to stay at midnight. The next morning I was outside of the hotel waiting for a cab when a family from Geneseo, NY spotted me with my two huge duffel bags on wheels and offered to give me a ride to the ship since they were taking their daughter there as well. This open kindness amongst people is so common onboard. The life-long-learners really want to get to know students, as I said before crew are always cheery, the professors and their families are extremely glad to be here (it’s actually harder for a professor to get accepted to the program than it is for students), and obviously all of the students are stoked on traveling around the world with five hundred kids their age. As we sit out on the back dock watching the sunset and chatting we can’t help but occasionally throw in “I can’t believe we’re here right now.” It really is the coolest trip—we’re all so excited to be here even though for the time being “here” is precisely in the middle of nowhere.
There’s so much to tell you all about this extremely new experience for me but so much I need to get to (yes, somehow they keep us busy even though we’re isolated to a single environment in the middle of the open ocean). I’ll be sure to write again soon when I get a chance and when I have some more new and exciting things to tell you all about.
Thanks for following!
svc
I’m currently writing from the MV Explorer as we travel east towards Cadiz, Spain. We’ve traveled about a thousand nautical miles since Nova Scotia and have another 1,700 or so to go before we reach our next destination.
The closest point of land is a mere 455 nautical miles away—we are absolutely in the middle of nowhere. Yesterday I saw the first sign of life other than us as a cargo ship passed in the distance. Let me tell you, it was a huge deal. We were in the middle of class when someone spotted it and everyone immediately got up and ran to the windows and starred at it as if we were five year old kids who’d never seen a ship before.
With that said, it’s an awesome experience to live aboard a ship. [We are often corrected for calling the ship a “boat” because this offends the captain and crew—they command a grand ship not just a little boat.] We’re lucky enough to be on a huge 25,000 ton ship that was built only eight years ago specifically for the Semester at Sea program. It has seven decks complete with two luxurious dining halls, a library, a computer lab, ten classrooms, a basketball court, a gym, a spa, a pool, a bar, a “campus” store, and other great facilities.
Though all the common areas in the ship are extremely nice I can’t say our cabins are as high class. My roommate and I joke that our room is a closet they converted to living quarters. We’re on the inside without a window so when you wake up it’s impossible to know whether it is 5:00 in the morning or noon. Still, it’s really not awful—we have our own bathroom and everything we really need. I guess that’s just the price you pay for living aboard a traveling vessel.
Even though we have everything you’d need at a normal college campus it’s impossible to forget that we live aboard a ship. The most shocking part of the experience for me thus far is how much the ship sways back and forth. The seas are relatively calm and the MV Explorer is pretty large but there’s never a time when you can’t feel the movement. I can’t really describe feeling but you feel as if you’re going to tip over in your chair yet your glass of water doesn’t slide from the table. It can be quite entertaining to watch groups of people walking down the hallway as they simultaneously move from side to side and sometimes collide with walls.
Our ship is home to almost 900 people. There are about 550 students from all over the US, around 40 professors, another 15 or so staff, the families of the faculty and staff, 30 or 40 “life-long-learners” [who are mostly retired people interested in learning and helping us to learn so they pay to join our voyage], and about 200 crew members. It’s great getting to interact with the professors’ young children and the friendly and wise life-long-learners who sit in on our classes and eat with us. The crew are also great. They are truly from all over the world: the UK, China, the Netherlands, the Philippines, Mexico, the Caribbean, and many many more places. [Our Captain is British--I always imagine that our ship would be on fire or sinking and we'd still hear his calm, clear British accent over the loud speaker. Before I met him I thought that all of the announcements were recordings.] Every day our beds are made, our rooms cleaned, our food served to us, and our plates are cleared by the friendly and seeming very happy crew. Life is good.
Really everyone I've encountered thus far has been awesome. All of the students are extremely friendly, outgoing people. The first night I flew into Canada I ran into other SAS students at the airport (it was pretty clear which kids were students as there aren’t many people that regularly fly into in the little city of Halifax). Immediately we were all talking and a few Dartmouth kids let me crash with them in their hotel so I didn’t have to look around for a place to stay at midnight. The next morning I was outside of the hotel waiting for a cab when a family from Geneseo, NY spotted me with my two huge duffel bags on wheels and offered to give me a ride to the ship since they were taking their daughter there as well. This open kindness amongst people is so common onboard. The life-long-learners really want to get to know students, as I said before crew are always cheery, the professors and their families are extremely glad to be here (it’s actually harder for a professor to get accepted to the program than it is for students), and obviously all of the students are stoked on traveling around the world with five hundred kids their age. As we sit out on the back dock watching the sunset and chatting we can’t help but occasionally throw in “I can’t believe we’re here right now.” It really is the coolest trip—we’re all so excited to be here even though for the time being “here” is precisely in the middle of nowhere.
There’s so much to tell you all about this extremely new experience for me but so much I need to get to (yes, somehow they keep us busy even though we’re isolated to a single environment in the middle of the open ocean). I’ll be sure to write again soon when I get a chance and when I have some more new and exciting things to tell you all about.
Thanks for following!
svc
Thursday, August 27, 2009
Pre-Voyage
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
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