Does anybody know who this is? Some famous surfer guy. I don't know... everybody was taking a picture of him, so Mary Chandler ran after him and stuck her camera all in his face. It was hilarious. Oh and p.s.... it's KELLY SLATER.

The girls on the ship the night of our fancy dinner. Man I'm gonna miss this bunch a lot.

Hawaii
Dec 4-7

What a perfect port to end on. Warm sun, white beaches, turquoise water. We hung out on the beaches of Honolulu for 2 days and sailed to Hilo on the big island. Hilo, a tiny town, was overcast and not that interesting, but we went back to Honolulu for a day to avoid the big swells and bad weather that we would have run into on our trip to San Diego. So study day was back on a beach instead of cooped up in the hull of the ship!!! Couldn’t have been more excited. Cut my foot on some coral so I’m hobbling around, but I’m just going to hobble to the beach. Too bad I’m being so active. We went to the Quicksilver surf competition on the North Shore for the day and saw Kelly Slater and some other really impressive dudes rippin’ it out there. Huge competition… just like Blue Crush. They said the waves were the biggest that day than they had been in 10 years.

It’s really weird to be back in America. Some of the clichés jumped out at us… like the monstrous portions and abundance of everything. Magazines, food, pop culture, tabloids, shopping, planned communities. Also the touristy American uniform of middle age men… tall white socks, Adias flip flops, polo shirts, khaki shorts, baseball hat. I can’t tell you how many of those we saw. It was strange to begin filtering our conversations in public spaces again; everyone can understand us now! Directions were easy to come by, and sarcasm from bartenders and waiters came back into our lives. Jokes don’t translate that well abroad, so it was nice to banter again. Cell phones sprung up again everywhere and welded themselves to the faces of SAS kids and my friends, much to my dismay. I didn’t miss mine one bit. It’s actually still in Cleveland, MS; I refused to take it. I loved not having it. You meet your group at the coffee shop down the road at a certain time and if you’re not there, you’re not going. You just hop on with another group and end up having a completely different but usually just as great experience. You live in the moment with the people you’re with and relish what’s going on around you. You don’t love your friends less because you are out of contact; interesting trinkets, certain conversations, or even a laugh can bring them along with you better than a cell phone. So much of this trip would be lost in wireless oblivion if I tried to explain it via phone. Oh, our public transit is horrible too because everyone uses their own cars. And I almost tried to barter for a piece of jewelry. Reverse culture shock, here I come.

The overall experience I have had with Semester at Sea has broadened my horizons and helped me in my quest to become a global citizen. I have learned so much both inside and outside the classroom about globalization and the blends, distinctions, and preservation of cultures. The academic experience of Semester at Sea has been challenging and enriching. My expectations of academic life were, for the most part, reversed, in that I anticipated Global Studies to be my favorite course and dreaded Operations Management. The latter, with Dr. Dan Duran, stretched me, challenged what I thought I could do and what a professor could ask, and stressed me out. I learned more about public speaking, group dynamics and projects, and a deadline crunch than I ever would in a public speaking class or leadership seminar, but I came away from the course with a plethora of new applicable knowledge and enormous respect for Dr. D. My Business, Government, and Society class was also surprising; I was not anticipating but was thrilled at the focus on Corporate Social Responsibility. I thought CSR was what I wanted to do before the voyage; reading the assigned text from the Harvard Business Review on the subject confirmed it. The only class I anticipated correctly was Non-profit Leadership; I knew I would love it and did. I could not imagine a better way to present the subject than heavy class discussion and debate, and it stimulated all of us. I was impressed by the thoughts of my peers on the subject and proud of the philanthropic spirit that our generation appears to hold.

It seems that a lot of the world is not what I expected. Surprises wait in every new experience and adventure, and memories of them change shade and color your mind and perspective with time. I have seen the everyday life of people all over the world, increased my empathy and urge to contribute, and been surprised by the hope and entrepreneurial spirit I have encountered in people. By the grace of email, I have strengthened some of my dear friendships at home and awoken again the excitement and richness of the letter. I have made lifelong friends on Semester at Sea, and given the nature of the goldfish bowl ship, they have seen me in my raw essence. It has taught me to coexist with people in close proximity all the time and to relish it. This experience has also confirmed my adventure-seeking spirit and taught me that the worst thing that you can do for yourself is to remain stagnant. Stagnant minds, bodies, and souls that are not nourished grow flabby and discontent; challenges bring inspiration. I take this premise back with me as life experience and will always remember my bedroom ocean view of the semester I spent on the sea.