Despite the fact that Semester at Sea has created a school environment that is lavish, in India Semester at Sea provided students with an experience that was abysmal to some and amazing for others.

While in India I went to Delhi, Agra, and the Taj Mahal with a Semester at Sea sponsored trip. The first day, of the three-day trip, was spent traveling to Agra. We started off by leaving the ship at 4:15 a.m. to catch an early flight from Chennai to Delhi. Once in Delhi we caught a train to Agra, which took about 5 hours. The train ride took 5 hours because it was a second-class train. While a number of the students complained about the trains lack of air conditioning, odor, plethora of beggars at every stop, regular vendors, iron barred windows, and lack of cleanliness; I embraced the experience. (It should noted that the return first-class train ride took about 2 hours to go from Agra to Delhi, which was air-conditioned, free from beggars/vendors, and relatively clean.) I was very fortunate to find an India family sitting near where I was sitting and I took advantage of my position and talked with the family for the majority of the train ride. I spoke with the father and played with the boy’s and we had a grand time. The children taught me how to speak some Hindi. I taught the children how to play a few simple games. We talked about school, the caste system, and life in India. It was an amazing experience and I am extremely glad I had the opportunity to meet and speak with the family.

In Global Studies (the class everyone on the ship is required to take), we have been told that there is a difference between a tourist and a traveler. I believe that I understand the difference. I would like to think that I am a traveler. While I am a tourist at times, I also travel. I take opportunities that most people would never think of doing and turn them into experience that people yearn to experience. While I was in Myanmar I was taking pictures of a friend of mine talking with some local people and one thing led to another and next thing I knew it is 7:30 p.m. and I am riding in a pony drawn cart to this families house to have dinner with them. Traveling is more than just seeing the Taj Mahal, the Great Wall, or Angkor Wat. Traveling is about experiencing a culture. Traveling has depth, soul, and heart. Traveling is experiencing a culture and not just seeing it. I do not believe I am some amazing traveler or anything, but I have learned how to experience a culture in a different way and that is how I am a traveler and not just a tourist.

Semester at Sea is like no other experience I know of. You travel around the world in an extremely short period of time. You see so much in such a short period of time. I truly believe that in mid-February I am going to sit down with some friends at North Central and suddenly realize I have traveled the world. I have had the fortunate experience of seeing things that so may people dream of seeing. I hope that when I return to America that I can be a good ambassador of the world and show people what the rest of the world is truly like. Help other people see the world in a new way. Help make the world a much more globally aware society.

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Have you ever walked down the street with a man talking about something and have them shush you? I can now say that I have. These past few days I have been in Myanmar (pronounced me-an-mar and formerly known as Burma) and let me tell you that this country is like no other place I have been. Myanmar is run by a military dictatorship and because of this you really cannot talk about the government without threatening the life of the person you are talking to and your own well-being. Also, because of the military dictatorship the United States has created and enforced a number of trade sanctions, which means that no one in the United States is allowed to legally trade with Burma. This means no foreign investment, which is a major disadvantage to economy in Myanmar. However, I did read a local newspaper and found out that China has begun to invest in Myanmar, which will help the countries economy.

Myanmar is decades behind the rest of the world. I went to an “internet café” with a friend of mine and well the café was a room with an old computer in it and dial up internet. The power was so unreliable and unsteady that the computer was on a major surge protector and an extra power supply. Every few minutes you would hear a few clicks and a beep from one of the many boxes in the room, which indicated that the power had surged or dropped and the computers support system prevented it from being destroyed. There are so many other ways that Myanmar is behind, but it is hard to describe them all. I will just say this…I took a hot air balloon ride early one morning and got into a conversation with the British balloon pilot. He said that occasionally they will land in places were no white people have ever been seen. In these cases the pilot will speak the little Burmese that he knows to assure the villagers that the people in the balloon are not gods or evil beings.

I did not know that my world could be this shaken up. I experienced things in Myanmar that I am going to have a difficult time describing. I have realized the best thing I can do is tell everyone stories and let everyone come to his or her own conclusions. However, I know that telling stories is nowhere near the same as experiencing it, but stories are the best I can do at explaining my experiences.

I have begun to wonder what I will think of everyone and everything when I return to America. I might be getting ahead of myself and I might be worrying about the changes I am going through too much (when I should not worry). But all I know is that the past two ports and the next few ports are really going to change my already changing worldview.

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As all of us on Semester at Sea (SAS) have been told we are on a voyage, a voyage of discovery. Up until this past port, which was Vietnam, the voyage had sort of “honeymoon” feeling, but as I told myself earlier this week…THE VACATION IS OVER. This week the honeymoon feeling left and the world gave me a giant slap upside the head. While my worldview has been shaken since I left Ensenada over a month ago my world took a real tumble this past week.

Vietnam was the first port where I actually had to slow down to process things and it made a much more profound experience. The voyage has just become even harder to explain, but I can share some of my realizations and how those realizations came about. The Vietnam war became much more vivid in my life because of my stop in Vietnam. What brought about this change was seeing the Cu Chi Tunnels, the traps the Vietnamese created, the non-American biased presentation on the war, the Zippo lighters being sold to tourists, the dog tags being sold to the tourists, and the American soldiers class rings being sold to tourists. Also, wondering how my peers could be so fixated on shooting an AK-47 at the Cu Chi Tunnels made the Vietnam War more salient. While I was at the Cu Chi tunnels all I could think about is how 30 years ago if I were in that very same location I would fear for my life. The guns shots I was hearing would strike fear in my every step. I would be concerned about a Vietnamese soldier appearing out of the tunnels and killing me or me stepping into one of the horrendous traps the Vietnamese created. War is scary. War is real. And War is hard to comprehend when you through a television, a newspaper, or a textbook. Seeing the burn victims ask for money or the amputees asking for money across Vietnam and Cambodia made war more real to me. The honeymoon ended in Vietnam and my world was turned upside-down in Cambodia.

Despite the fact that the voyage is going to become even more “eye-opening” the people in these places are happy. While we might look at them and think about how bad we would feel to live as they do, we need to remember that we are looking at it through our cultural lenses. They are often times very happy. Maybe we are the people that need help. Maybe we are the deprived ones. We are the ones that are unhappy and we have everything at our feet. Maybe instead of trying to help them we should try and help ourselves learn to be happy with less material items. Maybe we should learn from them to be happy. Maybe it’s a Buddhist perspective, but they all seem to be fairly happy in Vietnam.

One a happier note my birthday passed while I was in Cambodia. Though I toured a genocide museum and the killing fields on my birthday having my birthday in Cambodia on SAS was unforgettable and receiving cards from friends and family was amazing. Not everyone can say that they had a birthday like I did; however, it was kind of depressing to be where I was on my birthday. But sometimes your birthdays aren’t the happiest day ever. But I know one this for sure. I will not forget my birthday few quite a while.

But for now I am going to enjoy my time on this ship. Take in the scenery, the people, and learn to be happier with what I have.

Oh and on a departing note…crossing the street in Vietnam was almost as thrilling, if not more thrilling, than skydiving in Hawaii.

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