end of voyage report

there are two days left on the ship. like most universities, there's lots of studying, paper grading, and programming going on, including a shipboard bazaar to swap and buy questionable acquisitions; a burma teach-in to encourage s@s not to stop there during the fall voyage (it was removed from our itinerary because archbishop tutu refused to be a part of the voyage if we stopped there); a dependent children's theater production; lgbt awareness week, with drag show; a screening of independent short documentary films by ben wu (global nomads); theater, director screenwriter, and travel writing class readings and performances; a convocation for graduating seniors, end of the semester parties, etc.

as the end approaches, some have mixed feelings about ending the experience and returning to their normal lives, others are ready and excited to move on. for all, emotions are high and near the surface. the questions on everyone's mind are:

q: would you do it again?
a: yes, a few years down the line, conditionally. i'd do a summer voyage, which is shorter and has a lower student enrollment, about 200. a cabin with sunlight would be another stipulation. i'd prefer not to do another voyage alone. brenda, the nurse practitioner, who is also sailing alone, put it well - "i'm welcome everywhere, but not expected anywhere"

q: what were your favorite ports?
a: culturally, south africa for its multiculturalism, and vietnam for the people and the vibe. in terms of my port activities, my brazil experience was much fun because of the physical activity, accommodations, food, and more importantly, the company - the wonderful guys at pousada santa clara and the mature students on the trip.

q: what are your plans for the summer?
a: i go back to work june 1. i also want to continue to develop my indexing skills and look for some freelance indexing work. reconnecting with friends and doing some serious nesting is also on the agenda. a todos santos (bcs, mexico) trip is in order, since our annual spring retreat didn't happen this year.

q: what will you miss?
a: although i live on the california coast and see the pacific daily, i will miss the awesome views while at sea - the cloud formations, horizon, big sky, and sunsets are spellbinding. when sitting out on the garden lounge deck, it's nearly impossible to take your eyes off the horizon. the problem, is that due to my work schedule, i only had a limited amount of time to fully enjoy it - basically just meals. the spouses, partners, and lifelong learners, not employed by ise, really have the sweetest deal on the ship. for the rest of us, time management remains an issue. considering someone is cooking and cleaning for you daily, and your door to door commute time is 2 minutes at most, it doesn't seem possible, but meals, happy hours, and work is scheduled, which doesn't leave too many daylight hours. in the evening there are tons of programs and meetings. then there's time consuming activities like doing anything online and planning in-port travel. and, gawd forbid you actually want some time alone.

the one thing i haven't completely figured out is what advice, i'd give future voyagers. other than doing homestays whenever possible, the only other thing i can think of is not to buy, in advance, a lot of s@s field trips for each port. leave time for independent travel. except for pre-sale and manifest (overnight) trips, one can usually join a trip at the last minute, like flying standby.

finally, for those of you who like choices, another shipboard university was established last fall. its called the scholar ship. for the first time, s@s has some competition. the major difference from s@s is that it's not an around the world program, but they visit many ports; in terms of institutional sponsorship, student body, and ports visited, the program is more transnational; and there is a graduate program. uc berkeley is the sponsoring institution in the u.s., but credit is given by an australian university.

and, yes librarians, they do have a library, or what they refer to as a "learning resource center".

on my way home

aloha friends and family. we leave honolulu any minute. i can't wait to get home and see and talk to you. i desperately want to know what you've been up to, what i've missed. next time i go away, you're going to have to keep blogs too. i miss you guys so much. also, i can't wait to wake up to sunlight, go to my kitchen, make my own cup of morning coffee, how i like it, and sit on my own deck. i wanted to make sure i had enough luggage and boxes to get all the stuff i bought off the ship, so i've already started packing. while packing i discovered all sorts of stuff that i forgot i bought. i'm tempted to just lay it all out for you guys and say have at it. san juan seems so long ago.

students are done with classes. there are a couple of study days, a couple of days of finals, the convocation, a free day (for packing i guess), then san diego. doesn't seem possible that things can change so much so quickly.

on my way to the post office to buy a box, i saw the rohwedders on the way to the beach. shaun, baby ryder's (our resident gerber baby) mom, was fumbling around trying to get organized so that mom, dad, baby, and baby things could make their way to the bus that would take them to waikiki beach. she sighed heavily and in exasperation before saying "it never ends". of course, my reply was "it will in a week or so". it took her a good 30 seconds before the reality of it sunk in and and she yelled ahead to me (i had kept walking) "you know you're right", as if she hadn't thought of it before. it's all i think about.

it was nice having this u.s. port before arriving back on the mainland, especially california. today, i found myself hesitating when dealing with people. in most countries i at least tried to greet and thank the locals in their native language. in hawaii i found myself wanting to do the same, even when they weren't native hawaiian. getting use to hearing english off the ship is going to be strange, as well as other things i've yet to discover i'm sure.

honolulu was a bit of an international experience of it's own. i had an incredible cambodian ginger chicken for lunch, and afro-cuban food, (soul de cuba), for dinner while listening to south african jazz and kwaito (south african hip hop music).

i also discovered another strangling fig.

i knew we were back in the u s of a when we had to clear the ship this morning, something we do at each port. rarely is the procedure the same, but the customs process this morning, the first part of clearing the ship, was more confusing than any other port - the good ole inept american bureaucracy. in japan we had to have our temperatures taken the night before and the morning we arrived. the morning we arrived we were walked before a camera-like device, a "thermoscan", that supposedly took our temperatures. personally, i believe it took our picture - you know those facial recognition photo thingys - not our temperatures. very crazy stuff, but they were very clear and efficient about the whole process.

after we docked, most of the ship went to waikiki. i passed on beach going with a bunch of twenty year olds with boob jobs.

i did some nearby historical and cultural sites; had a "shave ice"; bought a new yorker - yeeees, i'm getting my life back - and saw stomp the yard at a one dollar movie theater. it was the most predictable film ever made, but it was fun watching those bodies move.

a few days ago we crossed the international date line so that makes me feel closer to you. in addition, to catch up, we had two may 2nds, one on wednesday and one on thursday. since then we've also had to move our clocks ahead one hour each night. i'm definitely looking forward to keeping good time again, and having time change only twice a year.

love ya, miss ya, see ya soon.

"oh the places we've been"

"oh the places we've been" is the theme from last night's ambassadors ball, the long awaited formal event of the voyage. if you want to view photos from someone who actually went, you'll have to look elsewhere:

it was a beautiful evening.



from the garden lounge deck at dinner, with the whole place to ourselves, since we (judyie and i) were pretty much the last to arrive for the half hour serving time for the 30 or so non-conformists who chose not to attend.

judyie with crew members who had the honor of working the dinner detail for us:



young, gifted, and black attendees, robin and hanan. hanan is borrowing face paint from mom judyie while we watch, chat and work on a bottle of wine.





after all the wine was gone, it wasn't guite as glamorous, but a few of us with less impressive rooms continued to hang out in judyie's, enjoying her comfy sofa, king size bed, balcony, ocean views, the sound of the ocean, and the laughter.