Waiting for the ship to come in...

17 days.

1. Semester at Sea

Is this real life? Did I really sign up for a trip around the ENTIRE WORLD?! I can hardly believe it. Chris and I leave for Nassau in exactly 17 days. To Chris, it's just a little 5 day trip to Nassau...but I'm packing for four months and I can't exactly stop at the nearest Wal-Mart.

2. Santa

It feels SO nice to be home from school! It was really weird to say goodbye to everyone after I realized I probably won't see them until August 2011. There are so many pro's and con's to studying abroad in the Spring. I get to miss the really boring, yucky, cold winter months of January and February, don't miss any really big holidays, and I have the whole summer to look forward to as well! The only bad thing I can think of is, while everyone packed up for three weeks of winter break, I had to pack up my ENTIRE room and move it all home in 6 inches of snow. YAY. (And then once the car was packed, the car battery was dead. But that's another story....)

I was so excited and surprised to see Chris walk through the door the night I moved back home. We got to have a little Christmas together after all and I couldn't ask for anything better! What an awesome 12 hours!! He's the greatest!

I feel like I can't even think about packing for SAS until Christmas is over, especially since I believe lots of Christmas is going to revolve around the many random things I need for SAS. Christmas is almost here, the best time of year by far! The days until Jan 8th are ticking away but I'm trying to enjoy as much family and relaxation time as possible....I must say, so far it's been wonderful.

3. Summer

Spring is the time of year to look for internships in the advertising industry for the summer months. Except that's a problem. Because I'll be in the middle of the ocean. But of course Chris came to the rescue once again and contacted a mutual friend who offered me an internship for the summer at Clutch Studios in Chicago. I am SO excited to be in Chi-town for the summer. The best part about it is I wont be wondering where I'll be interning in the summer. Knowing before I leave is such a nice feeling! Now I just have to wonder where I'll be living....Maybe Oprah will offer me a little closet in her condo?

Where Does Time Go?

Where does time go?

I'm asking myself this now...wondering how I will fit everything in before my Jan 8th flight to Nassau. I'm sure I'll also be asking myself this very question on April 24th when we arrive back in the states.

Lots has happened since the last time I posted. Last Wednesday I received my two vaccines for yellow fever and typhoid fever. I don't think having a cold helped while getting these shots. I thought I was on the mend with this yucky cold I have had, until Thursday morning when I felt like I was dying of some strange southern hemisphere disease....maybe yellow fever? I felt like that girl in the "Sick" poem by Shel Silverstein: http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/16480 ...except I most certainly didn't want to go out and play.

I keep talking to my Mom about all the things that need to be packed from clothes that cover my knees in India to dresses for the Ambassador's Ball to European plug converters to the amounts of shampoo, conditioner, toothpaste, and ....girlie products I'll need. Apparently lots of it can't be purchased past South Africa. Shampoo+conditioner combination bottles NEVER work for me. Until I found this Garnier Fructis stuff. Which means, less luggage space taken up by bottles and more space for....everything else I need to jam in my bag for four months.

Everyone keeps asking me how excited I am to go on my "cruise." Or how big the boat is. Or they say it's so not academic and just a party at sea the whole time.

Lets clear some things up:

1. It's most definitely not a cruise. There IS indeed schoolwork involved. The syllabi are freaking me out. I'd call it more like a voyage.

2. It's not a boat. I'm not going to be floating around the world in a dinghy. That could get pretty intense and with my clumsiness, I probably wouldn't even make it to Dominica before falling out and being eaten by sharks. It's a ship.

3. I'm excited yes. But I'm also really scared. When I tell that to people everyone is like "But WHY are you scared? That's silly" Are you kidding me?! I've never step foot outside of this country (Canada doesn't count.) I'm scared to be in the minority, to be looked at as the "Ugly American." I'm scared I'll get lost, won't know how to communicate with locals, won't be able to call my Mom or Chris at a moments notice when I feel like the world is collapsing around me!!!!! But I'll make it. I know I will.

What else....

I got my visas back from Pinnacle and boy do they look SPIFFY!

I applied for a scholarship.....there's about a 1 in 325346 chance I'll get it. Plus with my luck with scholarships my chances decrease to about a 1 in 32534678390 chance. But hey, it's worth a shot. Like the lottery....ya can't win if you don't play. (That just made me sound like a lottery addict. Definitely not.)

I bought a trip to the Taj Mahal. I had a theory that after looking at pictures of it which look fake EVERY time, that the Taj really didnt exist. So my job, is to prove that it does exist. In order to do this Chris says I have to chip off a piece of the Taj and bring it back to him. I'll tell you how that pans out when you receive a letter from me in an Indian jail guarded by elephants. So after a million bank fiascos and talking to fraud and unblocking my debit card (thanks Mom!), I was finally able to book my trip to the Taj through an Indian travel agency's website...travelmyindia.com.

I also signed up for some trips in Dominica, Brazil and Ghana. River tubing, an Amazon culinary class, night time gator hunting on the Amazon (What am I thinking??), and some kind of Castles and Slave Dungeons in Ghana. SAS trips work like a lottery so I might not get any of these but figured I'd sign up for them as a back up.

I REALLY want to do this Basic Great Wall trip where you sleep in sleeping bags on the Great Wall for a night. But I don't know how it will work out with my required field practica for classes. So we'll see.

So I have exams this week. And I should be studying for them. But combinations of a bad cold and thoughts of SAS lead to little productivity and....Facebook. Or YouTube.

Here's a video that was posted by another SASer on Facebook....which led me to YouTube. Imagine that!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m5xCGZuvhWI&feature=youtube_gdata_player

It's slightly ruined by the fact that it's a Louis Vuitton commercial. But I thought about it and this commercial ties in SO well to my interests (and vices...I like luggage/backpacks/bags)

The combination of culture, discovery, travel, pop culture, advertising, and thought provoking messages make me absolutely LOVE the message in this commercial. And the music is perfect too! :)

That's all for now....guess I should study. SIX DAYS LEFT!!!!

World Clock- Time Zones

World Clock - Time Zones

Time difference (based on EST) by port is listed below. To see the current time and date in countries around the world, please see Time and Date.com.

• Dominica (+1 hour)
• Brazil (+1 hour)
• Ghana (+5 hours)
• South Africa (+7 hours)
• Mauritius (+9 hours)
• India (+10.5 hours)
• Singapore (+12 hours)
• Viet Nam (+11 hours)
• China (+12 hours)
• Japan (+13 hours)
• Hawaii (-6 hours)

Mail!

Just because I'll be traveling around the world doesn't mean mail can't reach me! So send me a letter, a postcard, memories from home :) I LOVE mail!

Here's how you address the envelope:

MV Explorer - Spring 2011 Voyage

ATTN: Kaitlyn Talbot
Port Agent Address (from list below)

In the port agent address, put one of the below addresses. Just make sure you send mail in time!...I don't know if they forward mail....I assume they do.

PORT	ADDRESS OF PORT AGENT	SUGGESTED AIRMAIL DATE
Roseau, DOMINICA Phone: 1 767 448 2181 Fax: 1 767 448 5787	H.H.V. WHITCHURCH & CO 71 Old street POBox 771 ROSEAU, Brazil	January 3
Manaus, BRAZIL Phone: 55 92 3234 4991 Fax: 55 92 3234 4830	INHCAPE SHIPPING MARINE SERVICES Ltda & AMAZON RIVER PORTS Rua Eduardo Ribeiro 520 13° Andar - Sala 1301-1302 Ed. MAnaus Shopping Center Centro MANAUS - CEP 69-010-000 - AM	January 6
Takoradi, GHANA Phone: 233 22 300 894 Fax: 233 22 202 989	HULL BLYTH Seatec House / PO Box CO 214 Akosombo Road Tema, GHANA	January 24
Cape Town, SOUTH AFRICA Phone: 27 21 419 8660 Fax: 27 21 413 0290	JOHN T. RENNIE & SONS 19th FLOOR No.1 Thibault Square 8001 Cape Town, SOUTH AFRICA	February 3
Port Louis, MAURITIUS Phone: 230 202 70 40 Fax: 230 208 5814	Ireland Blyth Limited Shipping Operations Department No 6 Dr Ferriere Street Port Louis, MAURITIUS	February 14
Cochin, INDIA Phone: 84 8 825 7996 Fax: 852 2744 3240	J.M. BAXI & CO N°26/1566 Subramaniam Road Willingdon Island KOCHI 682003, INDIA	February 21
Chennai, INDIA Phone: 91 44 252 12032 Fax: 91 44 252 43813	J. M. Baxi & Co. 3rd Floor, Clive Battery Complex 4 & 4A, Rajaji Salai Chennai 600 001, INDIA	March 2
Ho Chi Minh City, VIET NAM Phone: 84 8 626 19602 Fax: 84 8 626 19603	CONTINENTAL CO LTD 55 Le Quoc Street Ward 12 D. 4, Ho Chi Minh City, VIETNAM	March 7
HONG KONG, CHINA Phone: 852 2786 1155 Fax: 852 2744 3240	Inchcape Shipping Services (HK) Ltd. Units 1802-1805, 18th Floor N° 3 Lockhart Road Wanchai, HONG KONG - CHINA	March 14
Shanghai, CHINA Phone: 86 21 6323 1350 Fax: 86 21 6329 1519	Penavico Shanghai 3/F 13 Zhong Shan Road (E 1) Shanghai 200002, P.R. CHINA	March 17
Kobe, JAPAN Phone: 81 78 391 3046 Fax: 81 78 391 3105	Inchcape Shipping Services (Japan) Ltd. Kenryu Bld, Room 502 6, Kaigan-dori, Chuo-ku Kobe-shi, Hygo-ken 650-0024, JAPAN	March 21
Yokohama, JAPAN Phone: 81 45.201 6991 Fax: 81 45.212 1614	INCHCAPE SHIPPING SERVICES F Asahi Seimei Yokohama Honcho Bldg 36, 4-Chome Honcho, Naka-ku Yokohama-shi, Kanagawa-ken 231-0005, JAPAN	March 24
Hilo, HAWAII Phone: 1 808 599 8604 Fax: 1 808 599 1950	Inchcape Shipping Services 521 Ala Moana Blvd. Suite 256 Honolulu, HI 96813	April 4

Class Descriptions

International Marketing: This course introduces you to the concepts and challenges of global marketing. We'll examine how firms adopt strategies and adapt practices to succeed in diverse economic, cultural, and political environments. Students will evaluate our semester-at-sea destinations as markets to enter and recommend marketing mixes for those destinations.

Prerequisites/Special Requirements:

Small journal (pocket size) to record observations in the field

Global Popular Culture: Socialization is learning to become a member of a particular society. Agents of socialization, like families, schools, churches, and governments, shape and inform young and old alike by providing boundaries for self-identity and public and private behavior. Sociologists traditionally have not seen pop culture as one of those agents of socialization; we will do so in this course. Students will learn to "read" and critically analyze images and

representations. We will carefully examine how children and young adults around the world use pop culture to create their self and social identities, using the lens of gender and sexuality, race, class, and age. We will investigate global advertising, print and visual media, music and dance, as well as other pop culture expressions, like total environment simulacra (i.e.; Disneyland), using a critical cultural studies perspective. The methodology we will use is experiential and ethnographic, with opportunities in every port to gather data. Using all the data collected, we will learn how to analyze it, using critical analytic skills and a sociological imagination. Students will

thus be prepared as part of a team to design, conduct, and present an original research project. Thus, you will not be a passive recipient of knowledge in this class, but rather an active cultural critic, participating in lively discussions, written and oral assignments, individual and group assignments, and in-depth research. At the end of this course, you will be able to think critically about global pop culture, having completed your own original team research.

Global Studies: The Global Studies (GS) course for SAS Spring 2011 will require all students on the voyage to take a critical look at globalization and its impacts on cities and regions around the world. Globalization is usually defined as an array of forces that are effectively shrinking our world, and in this course we shall be investigating the local consequences of these forces. The introductory section of the course begins with a look at transnational movements (flows) of trade, finance, information, people and culture. We shall be investigating the way such flows operate in and through a network of linked cities around the world, the top tier of which function as the 'command and control' centers at the so-called core of the global economy (the global 'North'). As we head for Brazil and then across to Africa and beyond, the emphasis of the course shifts to the 'periphery,' where we begin our exploration of the global 'South.' We shall be visiting some of the lower tier cities of the world's urban hierarchy -- in Latin America, Africa, and Asia. The sources for Global Studies will include lectures and readings, supplemented with in-class discussions and debates, supplemented throughout with clips from documentaries and feature films. To this mix Global Studies this semester adds another dimension, involving fieldwork in the cities we visit along the way. This is the unique advantage of the Semester at Sea project, which allows us to step out of the classroom into the 'real' world, to flesh-out the 'local geographies of globalization' we have been learning about on board. One part of the fieldwork will come through SAS-sponsored FDP's and fieldtrips. Another component -- required for Global Studies this semester -- involves student fieldwork focusing on a specific research theme and conducted in groups (see later for a list of topics and a detailed description of the group projects).

Ethnography: Ethnography is integral to the discipline of anthropology. It is intrinsically tied to the development of anthropological theory and an excellent opportunity to practice various methods-above all qualitative, deep listening skills, that result in detailed description of humans, their behavior and the many facets that give their lives meaning. We will read a host of ethnographies that reflect the various Semester-at-Sea port visits. For each port we will read one ethnography. In so doing, we will explore various aspects of excellence in ethnographic research and writing. Students will try their own hand at ethnographic writing throughout the course by employing ethnographic methods, a number of directed field assignments, and interviewing techniques. The course will culminate with a group "ethnography" of our own experiences of our semester-at-sea. Issues of anthropological ethics, human subjects review, consent, establishing rapport, and respect for collaborators will be discussed in detail. We will also spend a good deal of time working on the skills associated with excellent interviewing techniques.

Class Registration

This morning was class registration at 8AM Eastern Time (I felt bad for all the Californians registering at 5AM!) I was so nervous that I wouldn't get the classes I needed because of my track record with past registration processes with Miami, BUT I got so lucky and got all my classes!!!

Classes are on A days and B days. We have class everyday that we are at sea and don't have class while we are in port. That means theres no weekends but we do have some days off.

We were pre-registered for our required Global Studies class and I was given B day.

Here's my schedule!

A Days

12:15-13:30 International Marketing

B Days

8:00-9:15 Global Popular Culture

9:20-10:35 Global Studies

12:15-13:30 Ethnography

Done by 13:30 (1:30PM) everyday! That means sun, fun & study!

Off to Sea The World - Alma Mater

86 Days

Less than 100 days until I set sail. Around the world.

That is one of the most scary yet exciting statements I've ever said. Never in a million years would I have thought that one of my semesters in college would be spent traveling to 12 different countries on a ship with hundreds of other college kids. It's definitely a once in a lifetime opportunity. 

I've gone back and forth so many times wondering if this is the right decision for me. That maybe I should skip the opportunity and save the money. And then I flash forward 50 years to when I'm 70...telling my friends "I was offered the opportunity to sail around the world but declined....no big deal right?..." I could just see their mouths drop...who in their right mind would decline an opportunity like THAT?! Money doesn't grow on trees. But an opportunity to sail around the world doesn't come around too often either!

So here we are. Less than 100 days. Visas have been applied for. Work study app was sent in. Passport has been received. Countless other forms signed, sealed, and delivered. I knew that the process of preparing for SAS would be long. But seriously...with 86 days until we disembark, I already feel like it's crunch time. 

-I need to get vaccines and malaria pills (that apparently literally make you insane)

-STILL have to write a proposal for a self designed thematic sequence (which can't occur until the official SAS syllabi are posted November 1st)

-I have to start packing (God knows how I'll fit everything into two duffel bags)

-Class registration

-Mail updated transcript (Sorry for the lower grades last semester SAS, I believe that's your fault for brainwashing me and making me obsessed about SAS everyday...)

-Physical forms

-Oh wait what about- What am I doing in EVERY country?!? (Is there a "winging it" club on board?)

-Flight and hotel reservations

& probably 500 other things I've forgotten about....oh yeah like paying tuition by Oct 31....or before that?...I should probably check that date...

A side note on Visas: I used Pinnacle. Yes it may have been slightly more expensive. But knowing they have worked with SAS for many years prior to my voyage gave me much needed comfort. I knew I couldn't possibly get everything done on time by myself. Having another company do it would probably have worked too. But knowing that Pinnacle knows they're dealing with SAS kids and visas makes me happy : ) Once I get my visas back along with my passport, I'll really be a happy camper...err sailor!

Swiped from fellow SAS '11, Alexa Rae
: )

257.19.54.40

So I haven't written on here in forever. I moved SAS to the backburner for a little while and perhaps left it back there too long. Time to start thinking about it again!

I realized that I REALLY need to talk to the financial aid office...before the semester is over (which should be interesting fitting in with exams). That sounds scary. I know it will be worth it but the cost frightens me at times. It's a good investment for my future though.

I also realized that I REALLY need to talk to an advisor to get transfer credits worked out. And my self designed thematic sequence. And proposal. And I need to go to an info session. And I need to figure out what SAS classes I'm taking. And I need to write my essay on work ethic to see if I can get a job. Lord. What HAVE I been doing??! I guess I'm just overwhelmed.

I'm so excited to start researching where I want to go in all these countries. It seems like there will be so much I want to do/see/go that it will just be one amazing adventure after another.

It's a blast connecting with other SAS'ers on Facebook and seeing where their from and having quick little fbook chats with them. I can't wait to actually meet these people who share my passion to see the world. I feel like we already know a little bit about each other through the connections we've made on facebook. Its awesome.

I told my friend the other day that we could only take two bags and a backpack. Her jaw dropped. Yep it should be interesting. Can't wait to wash my clothes in a tiny sink. And possibly not have clean clothes for a few weeks. Seriously though. I really can't wait.

76 days ago, THE most amazing guy walked into my life. Chris and I have thought about SAS and distance and the difficulties it presents....going from phone conversations everyday to email everyday (I promise!!) will be a hard switch. But we have the distance now, and we're an amazing team and I know without a doubt that it will be just fine! I love you.

257 days and the adventure begins.

Changes

SAS took a week off of our trip.....hopefully that means the price will be reduced because its partly based on fuel cost and quantity used. No more Honolulu for me : ( and we leave earlier in January as well.....oh well

The Countdown Begins!

Less than a year from now we'll be setting sail! Destination: the WORLD!
Its so exciting to see more and more SAS'ers be accepted into the Spring 2011 program! Its going to be amazing!

A New Start

It's a new beginning, a new decade, and the perfect time for change. Do something you've never done before. Meet new people. Explore the world around you and live every single day to its fullest potential. There's a huge world out there and it needs to be appreciated, taken care of and loved. Make this year the best yet by starting now. Be positive, be yourself, and take time to enjoy the simplest pleasures in life. Explore. Dream. Discover.

392 days until SAS Spring '11