Hello again everyone!  As promised, here is a more detailed post about my upcoming semester.

As I mentioned earlier this week, I decided to apply for a study abroad program called a Semester at Sea.  After the amazing experience I had in Italy, I knew I wanted to study abroad again before my time in college was up.  After hearing nothing but amazing things, I decided SAS was the program for me.

What is it, do you ask?  Semester at Sea is a study abroad program where students and lifelong learners (adventure seekers who have already graduated from school, but want to continue pursuing their dreams of travel and education) live on a [mini-cruise] ship called the MV Explorer for the study abroad period.  There are several voyages throughout the year, both short-term, summer, and the two semester programs.  During the spring, the voyage takes students on a circumnavigation of the globe.  In the fall, the voyage I will be participating in, students sail around the Atlantic.

We had big news this morning...the program had been granted permits to dock at another port!  In none other than the exotic Havana, Cuba!  It had originally been on the itinerary, but when they were unable to secure the necessary permits, it was removed.  This brings our total count to 16 different cities in 14 different countries!

In approximately 66 days, 2 hours, and 20 minutes (not that I'm counting), I will be taking off to head over to London, where our voyage will begin.  I'm staying there for four days before departure.  Our journey officially begins on August 24, on our tour of Europe.  We will be sailing to St. Petersburg, Russia; Hamburg, Germany; Antwerp, Belgium; Le Havre, France; Dublin, Ireland; Lisbon, Portugal; and Cadiz, Spain.  We then head to Africa, where we will be visiting Casablanca, Morocco; Takoradi and Accra, Ghana; and Cape Town, South Africa.  From there, we cross the Atlantic to South America where we will port in Buenos Aires, Argentina; Rio de Janiero and Salvador, Brazil.  Our last and final stop will be Havana, before disembarking back in the US in Fort Lauderdale, FL.



There have been quite a lot of pre-voyage preparations to do so far.  After receiving my acceptance package, I had to start the process of researching and petitioning classes.  After getting approval from my adviser, department heads, and a Newhouse official, I was able to get 8 or 9 classes approved for transfer credit to fulfill the 5 credits I have left for my diploma.  As of right now, I'm taking two classes that will transfer to Syracuse, and two that I will be taking just for fun.  My four classes are Human Sexuality, Global Music, Photography, and Acting Techniques in Interviews.  The first two will transfer over.  I am incredibly excited to finally take a formal photography course, and the acting class should greatly help me when it comes time to begin interviewing for jobs.  The wonderful part about these courses is that they all include a mandatory field lab in various countries.  These labs are designed to take what you're learning in class, and apply it to life in a particular port.  For instance, in my Global Music class, we will be going to the University of Ghana to take place in an African drum workshop and learn about the importance of music in this culture.  I'm certainly looking forward to some incredible hands-on experiences with the classes!

The next major step was applying for financial aid (this process was spread over several months).  After getting accepted, I applied for merit and need-based grants, and at the beginning of May, I applied for some other scholarships and work study.  With the generosity of the program, I was able to receive several grants and a work study position (at the Activities Desk).  These awards add up to paying for half the trip!  Throughout the summer, I will continue applying for scholarships and looking for local business sponsorships.  Some of the other SAS students and I are also collaborating to form a Kickstart program to raise funds!

Like I had written this week, I also submitted my visa applications yesterday.  WHAT A PROCESS!  I thought applying for my Italian visa was difficult, but that was nothing compared to this.  We need three visas in order to go on SAS: Russia, Ghana, and Brazil.  They all have their own requirements and applications, and it was a very time-consuming (and pricey) process to go through.  By the time I finally mailed everything in, I had put in around four hours organizing everything I needed.

At this point, there are only a few additional major things I need to check off my to-do list.  First, I still need to get a loan.  I'm currently in the process of doing that.  Second, I need to get all my shots.  This is the thing I've been least looking forward to.  We are required to get the yellow fever vaccination for the Ghana visa application and in order to be allowed onto the boat.  I'm not sure what other vaccines the travel clinic will want to give me, but I'm sure I won't enjoy them!  Last, but certainly not least, I get to sit down, look at the potential field programs the school has organized, and I get to plan out my semester.  Some of it, at least.  I need to research every country and every port, to get a sense of what I want to get out of each location.  I don't want to book and plan too much yet since I don't really know anyone going on the trip, but I want to sort out all my major trips before I leave for London.  Each of these countries are so different from each other, and I absolutely cannot wait to see what they hold in store for me!

So.  My flight and hostel are officially booked for London.  I know when I need to report to the ship, and will have all the necessary documents by the time we board.  While I am so excited to be living on Martha's Vineyard for the summer, I am anxiously counting down the days until I embark on the most incredible journey of my life!!

Abbracci e baci!  xoxo

Hello all!  It's been far too long since my last post, so I've decided to write something up very quickly.  I left you all after detailing my trip to Sicily last spring.  Given how much I had going on during my last few weeks in Firenze, I didn't have time to blog about my last weekend trip.  I had been planning on doing it before finals started, but disaster struck.  The basement of my homestay flooded, and my computer decided to go for a swim.  I temporarily lost everything and never got around to blogging about the rest of the semester.  I did, however, tell each and every one of my friends and family more details than they cared to have heard more times than they cared to have listened, so my life changing experiences did not go untold.

After Sicily, I only took two other trips.  Easter weekend I spent on the Amalfi Coast with some friends through a travel group called Florence for Fun.  We visited Mt. Vesuvius, Capri, Positano, and Pompeii.  After the semester was over, I spent 10 days in Greece on the Greek Odyssey.  It was a traveling seminar course put on by the school.  We went to Crete, Corinth, Mycenae, Epidaurus, Napthlion, Andritsena, Bassae, Olympia, Delphi, Athens, and Sounion.

I wish I could express to you how incredible that last month was.  Between my trips (especially Greece) and the time I spent in Florence, getting on that airplane was one of the most difficult things I had ever done.

My travels continued during this Spring Break, when I went on a cruise with some of my best friends from the U.  We went on a 7-day Western Caribbean tour and made stops in Mexico (where I hung with the ancient Mayans), Belize (where we zipped through the rain forest, jumped off cliffs, and navigated through caves on an underground river), Roatan (a beautiful island off of Honduras), and Grand Cayman.  Though I didn't get my passport stamps like I was hoping for, it was the best spring break I ever could have imagined.

During my semester in Florence, I was (obviously) bit by the travel bug.  After speaking with friends about other study abroad programs they were participating in, I learned about a program called Semester at Sea.  I started talking to a sorority sister who had gone on a voyage that fall, and I started doing research into it.  I became obsessed.  I quickly realized that I wanted to participate in this program more than anything in the world (literally).  After speaking with SAS and my advisor at SU, I realized that it was 100% possible.  It was no longer something I wanted to do, but it was something I felt I had to do.  I knew that if I didn't make it work, I would regret not taking the opportunity for the rest of my life.

That brings us to today, and where my journey in life is taking me.  Tomorrow, I'm putting a big package of visa applications in the mail because I made it work.  Semester at Sea is actually happening.  I reorganized my final year at Syracuse and petitioned all sorts of classes.  I was also granted permission to walk with my class in May at graduation.  I had your typical senior year...the only difference being I will receive my diploma in December after sailing the globe.

I will be posting later this week with more details about my upcoming voyage: what it is, the preparations I've done so far, and everything I have left to do.  Until then..

Abbracci e baci!  xoxo