Semester At Sea is, actually, a semester.
I know, it's hard to believe to you all; and it's 10 times harder for us. Imagine taking college classes with 9 or 10 day breaks interspersed throughout the semester. It's pretty challenging to stay focused!
Luckily, the professors are all in the same boat (no pun intended) with us. They, too, are experienceing the travel fatigue and lack of continuity that we all get. That being said, SAS does a great job of actually being a credit-earining college campus, and our classes hold us to that. I had 2 papers and 2 tests in the past 5 days, which explains my slow blog writing... tomorrow, I turn in a paper for my media studies class on an anti-abortion ad I spotted in Spain and then it's smooth sailing (again, no pun) for awhile before any more serious things are due.
The professors have been pretty good and helpful with getting all of the work done, and I find with nowhere to go... you can't leave the ship... it's easy to get your work done if you just pick a quiet place and focus.
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India is close, and everybody is feeling it. There is definitely a sense on board that is different from any other port that we've gone to. Before we sailed into Cadiz, Spain, excitement abounded on board. Before docking in South Africa, a sense of wonder and disbelief took over everyone including myself. However, with India, it's a little bit different.
From everything I've heard about SAS, I hear the most about India. It seems to be the place that all students remember as that pinnacle in the voyage where everything about their understanding of the world changed. Certainly, I've seen it in people I know, in my Dad, who returned from India with a sort of inexplicable silence, a disbelief of what he saw. I think, on some level, we are all cautiously skeptical of what waits on the other side of 5 days in the country.
Today, our interport lecturer, an esteemed professor in India shared about the long history of the nation. It's all part of the routine of learning about this port, but something about it is different. It's not an excitement for a spring break... it's a fear of realization. I'll make a point of posting the information we learn about India in cultural pre-port tomorrow night as well as my itinerary for the days in India tomorrow. We have 2 more days of classes before arriving in Chennai on Thursday.
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In other news, the ship had an intentional 'blackout' tonight. As we are within the tropic of Cancer, only a few degrees south of the equator, the stars are amazing, but often difficult to see with the lights of the ship. Between 2130 and 2330, the ship turned off all of its forward lights so we could gather at the bow and look up. I took one of those... 'wow, look where you are' moments as my friends and I gazed up at the stars. It was as clear as I've ever seen them. The Southern Cross is almost impossible to see as we approach the northern hemisphere, and by tomorrow night, it will be gone from the trip.
For now, it's off to bed. I'm excited to turn in my paper tomorrow, and then to get some much needed sleep before a grueling few days in port ahead of me.
Thanks for writing to me!
Greg
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