The Highs and Lows to Hilo

As we prepared for this trip for the past 18 months we never imagined getting to the ship would be an adventure in and of itself.  The arctic blast that hit the northeast the first two weeks of January presented us with three cancelled flights out of Buffalo (the cancelled flight alert ring from the United Airlines app was like a shot in the gut each time).   While United was happy to reschedule a new flight out of Buffalo, we were not.  We now were assured to miss the entirety of faculty orientation and one more miss would have us missing the ship altogether.  So, Maria and I looked at each other and started to go through the closest airports that had reasonable flight success the past day—we rented an SUV (totally against our enviro-ethics, but large enough to fit us and 4 months of luggage), drove to Cleveland, kept United on the phone and eventually secured a flight the next morning to San Diego (where the ship was docked) through San Francisco—we arrived on the ship a few hours before departure, took a giant exhale of relief and thanked the traveling angles who were looking out for us.  By the way, Ana from United reservations is an amazing soul and has made me a lifetime United airlines groupee—above and beyond—Thank You Ana.

The MV Explorer is small city of positive action…all the time.  We were immediately plugged into shipped life, embraced by all of our SAS family and remember the environment like it was yesterday.  There is a sublime energy on the ship—185 crew members from around the world, 40 faculty, 30 staff and 600 undergraduate students from over 230 different home university campuses.  Since we have been planning this trip for so long it is wonderful to replace the email address with the faces.  There are many returning staff, faculty and crew from our last voyage in the summer of 2011. 

We sailed from San Diego to Ensenada, Mexico where the students boarded and set sail for Hilo, Hawaii on January 10.  We arrive in Hilo on the 17^th.  This first crossing allows for crucial community building time—the students have extensive orientation, the faculty/staff meetings and everyone a chance to get their sea legs.  Like a land-based campus, the first week of classes is an adjustment period where syllabi are exchanged, questions answered, classes added/dropped and new routines established.  Actually, the best way to describe the routine of Semester at Sea is: beautifully inconsistent.   The best advice I continue to give first timers:  surrender to the rhythm of the voyage.  The rhythm and movement of the ship, the rhythm of classes, the rhythm of meals, the rhythm of life at sea.  While we have consistent classes for this first passage, the typical routine is anything but typical since we only have classes when we are at sea…”sea days.”  On “port days” the world is our classroom as we explore each new city in a variety of ways:  class assigned field programs, SAS sponsored trips that we are free to purchase and traveling scheduled on our own.  We will be engaging in all three varieties of in country travel. 

Nate goes to school on the ship only on sea-days as well.  All of the children (about 30 total) meet for three hours in the morning and three hours in the afternoon as a group.  The morning session is their schoolwork where each student is taught individually by their caregivers and the afternoon session is enrichment actiivities and time to catch up on homework--yesterday they ran about the ship feverishly trying to win the scavenger hunt. We worked with Nate’s teachers at City Honors for several months prior to the voyage to prepare his curriculum—they were extremely helpful and accommodating.  Some of his work is exactly what his classmates will be doing in Buffalo and some of it has been adapted to connect to the various countries we will be visiting.  Maria and I feel VERY fortunate to be providing this unique experience for Nate.  A terrific addition has been college students who have volunteered to tutor in various subject areas.  This is a true win-win:  great lab experience for future teachers and impassioned, informed instruction in those areas Maria and I may be a bit rusty in…in other words, WE FOUND A MATH TEACHER—HURRAY!  All 5^th/6^th grade students at City Honors are required to take Chinese….who did we find for that?  Why a Chinese student from Peking University of course!  She is also in my acting class….the world is being good to usJ

My classes are filled with bright, curious, adventurous students who consistently take advantage of my “office hours”….breakfast, lunch or dinner.  I am teaching Acting I:  A Universal Vocabulary and Introduction to World Theater  where we will investigate the performance traditions of the countries we will be visiting as inspiration for the students creating their own stories to be performed for the campus community at semester’s end.  They will be deeply engaged in the process of creating original theater and, hopefully, left with the tools and vocabulary for storytelling that can be applied the rest of their lives.  They were a bit surprised by this concept initially but seem to have warmed to the idea.  They all sparkle when I share the work of the Anne Frank Project—several students have already voiced interest in coming to Rwanda.  Anne Frank continues to shine as the theme of our voyage is Ubuntu.  This is Nelson Mandela’s credo that has become South Africa’s commitment:  I am because you are.  Sound familiar?