The Night Before Bahamas!

Mom, Dad and I just arrived at our hotel for the night. My flight to the Bahamas leaves at 8:15 tomorrow morning! I can't believe I am already leaving!!! The time has flown by and I am so excited to see Kate and be in the warm weather!!!! 5 more days to set sail!!!!!!!!!!

Old friends and new...

One of the best things about this trip is that I am going to meet so many new people from all around the world and on top of that I am going to be with one of my best friends, Kate! Table Mountain here we come!

This is the beginning...

It is the 23rd day of the year 2007, a year that will embrace many firsts. My hopes, dreams, fears, expectations, desires, perspectives, everything will be challenged and changed. I do not want to be the same person at the end of this year that I am today. I want to be more humble, more educated, more....alive. This is my journey. I begin on the fourth day of February. When the boat sets sail...I will not be looking back. I will be looking forward to new faces, new experiences, a new me.
This is the beginning...

Great Teachers...

Nobel Peace Prize Winner Desmond Tutu will be sailing with us for the entire voyage. Serving as Distinguished Lecturer in Residence, Archbishop Tutu will be a guest lecturer in courses including anthropology, history, religion, and political science. He will also present a series of lectures between Brazil and South Africa. "I have had and will have again this coming spring the good fortune to be a small part of a wonderful experiment in education called Semester at Sea," said Archbishop Tutu, who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1984."The mission of this grand experiment has been to foster greater intercultural understanding by exposing its participants-young and old, students and faculty-to people and cultures around the world while providing them with a sea-going classroom in which to study and absorb what they've seen and learned."

Along Desmond Tutu's teachings...I will be taking four classes:

• Global Studies
• Global Public Health
• Mass Communication: Global Setting
• Health Promotion

We will have class every day that we are on the ship and are required to do field practica in all the countries. There are 650 other students from around the US and world joining me.

17 Days to go!

There are 17 days to go until I set sail for Semester at Sea on the MV Explorer!

My 100 day itinerary includes:

1. Nassau, Bahamas
2. San Juan, Puerto Rico
3. Salvador, Brazil
4. Cape Town, South Africa
5. Port Louis, Mauritius
6. Chennai, India
7. Penang, Malaysia
8. Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam
9. Hong Kong, China
10. Qingdao, China
11. Kobe, Japan
12. Honolulu, Hawaii
13. San Diego, California

I left San Diego on the 22 of December, 2006 and on the 14 of May I will have gone around the world, literally...one more dream came true!