The planning for a S07 voyage reunion has begun!
When? Summer 2008
Where? Europe.
What? An extended indy trip through Europe.
Check Facebook for more details.
IT’S NOT OVER
July 1st, 2007Changes (So long, cabin 2056)
May 13th, 20071. Perspective - I am ashamed to say it, but I’ve never really paid much attention to the international section of the news unless there was a major disaster or event affecting the U.S. I mean, who cares what’s going on, on the other side of the world if it doesn’t affect me? After this journey, I can now count myself as one of those people that does care about the rest of the world. I’ve been there, I’ve met the people, I’ve made friends there. I’m connected to them now and I want to go back to each and every single one of these countries to see how they’ve progressed, what changes have been made, and how my (and our) visit has impacted them.
2. Identity - Before, I saw myself as a 2nd generation Korean-American, a citizen of Seattle, Washington and a citizen of the United States of America. Now, I truly understand what it means to be an American and a child of immigrants.
3. Personality - This is a big one for me. Semester at Sea did wonders to boost all the positive aspects of myself. The things I did here are things I never would have imagined myself doing if it weren’t for the trip. Things like hiking a mountain for 6 hours in the Chapada Diamantina in Lencois, Brazil, or bungee jumping from the top of a cave from that same third-world country, or jumping out of a plane at 9,000 meters in Cape Town, South Africa - things that get my adrenaline pumping. Or other things, like dropping myself into the middle of a country where no one speaks English and somehow getting by, armed only with a green sheet and cultural packet. And the people! The students on this voyage are probably going to be the group of people I have gotten along with the best in my entire life. Never have I felt so accepted and so loved by a school community.
I’ll be off the ship in less than 12 hours. I unfortunately did not have time to say goodbye to each and every person on the voyage that contributed to my life-changing experience, so if you’re one of those hundred people, I apologize. And to all of my fellow shipmates: I consider you all to be my brothers and sisters. I hope we all keep in contact, and I hope to see all of you in a summer semester, reunion voyage, or any stateside (or international…that means you, Dave’s Lencois group!) reunion. I hope to see you if you ever pass through Seattle, and also if I ever pass through your neck of the woods. I know I’ll definitely be hooking up with some of you professionally (yeah politicians, lawyers, and law enforcement officials - that means you!) in the future. You’ll all forever be in my heart.
To all of my readers and commentators: Thank you for joining me on a journey of a lifetime. Your thoughts and readership are appreciated. I know I’m missing recaps from Vietnam onwards, and pictures from..everything after South Africa. In the coming weeks I plan to post a final recap of the entire voyage - the same one I’ll be screening for my friends at home.
10 hours and 40 minutes to go until my sea’s scheduled disembarkation from my new home. I’m gonna go spend them with my shipmates - peace out!
This sucks
May 10th, 2007Having finished all of my classes days ago and having nothing to do, I’ve been moping around all bored and depressed (due to the boredom).
Now, having absolutely nothing to do, I’ve started to pack a few days early not only in an attempt to keep me occupied (and therefore not bored and not depressed), but to also beat the mad rush of students trying to get boxes from the crew on the Packing Day (I’ve already gotten 2…I may need more).
Like it was plucked straight from some sappy movie, each item I handle and pack opens the floodgates to a sea (no pun intended) of memories - strong, happy, significant, and life-altering memorable moments of my 100 day journey that has helped me discover the world as well as myself.
I’m reminded of the words of alumni, how no one will understand when you get home, how you’ll have changed so much in such a short span of time, how differently you’ll see the world. And you know what? It scares the shit out of me. I will not be the same Alex Song that lived in Seattle, Washington, but Seattle will be the same. Everything will be the same, but also at the same time, everything will be different.
How appropriate. As I paused from writing, the cheesy song playing on channel 1 is composed of the chorus “You’ll never have to say goodbye again.” It’s a great point - I will never have to say goodbye again to any of these people. I know for some, this will be my final goodbye as life will take its course and we’ll drift apart until we’re nothing more than people in a photo or fragments of some lost memory. For others, I know I’ll be seeing them again. The ones that live in my state, I’ll definitely be running into them again soon - maybe we’ll have lunch, or a little Washington reunion. For the really close friends I’ve made on the s/xzAqhip and in my voyage, I know that my travels will take me to wherever they may be - Ohio, Florida, West Virginia, California, New York, North Carolina, Delaware, Massachusetts, Oregon, Canada, Montana, Brazil, South Africa, Vietnam …you get the idea.
Anyways, I’m not sure exactly how to end this entry. I guess I’ll have more to write in a few days, so we’ll leave it as..
To Be Continued
Connected
May 7th, 2007I can’t sleep. All of the kids with Verizon cell phones have had service since late afternoon last night, and the rest of us with Cingular/T-Mobile/other cellular providers have been patiently waiting for our phones to start working again. And as of 4AM local time, we now have coverage! A lot of the ship’s population have been up all night, and we’re now all chatting away with friends and family back home without fear of being charged $4 a minute.
This, combined with being on United States soil for the first time in 80 or so days and being in a port where everyone speaks English…
We’re almost home!
Plans - Hawaii
May 7th, 2007Hawaii is here! Disembarking in about 8 hours or so…
First stop: U.S.S. Arizona memorial.
Afterwards, we’ll see what happens. Beach?
Also, from the Ambassador’s Ball:
School’s Out!
May 7th, 2007I completed all of my final exams and projects for my classes today. I am officially done with classes!
…and I’m suddenly very bored and a little depressed.
What am I supposed to do with the next 7 at-sea days? Everyone else still has final exams and projects through the next week, leaving me to fend for myself. Gah.
Also, our TV picked up a QVC-type channel yesterday, and today we’re picking up C-SPAN. We’re pretty excited - this is the first time since we left that we’ve seen American TV.
The end?
May 4th, 2007My computer crashed sometime during the night. The hard drive is faulty, meaning it’s out of commission for the rest of the voyage.
Not only does this mean no more movie watching at night or surfing the net at my whim, it also means a hell of a lot of work for me to re-do my final assignments that were in-progress but are now lost. The hard part: finding an open computer in the lab during this time. This sucks hardcore.
In other news: Ambassador’s Ball tonight.
Edit: My computer has started working again. Yay!
Rock the Ship!
May 2nd, 2007..would be a cool name for an onboard concert. Unfortunately, there is nothing quite “jammin” about the events taking place (that was really lame, I know.).
We’re in the middle of the Pacific between (you guessed it) Japan and Hawaii, and we have hit the worst sea swells yet. The past 48 hours have been pretty bad - we’ve been sailing at an average of 20 knots, and many of us have been getting tossed around. I have an outside room on the lowest deck (deck 2) in the aft section, where it’s supposedly the calmest, so I shudder to think what my upper deck/forward peers are going through. My roommate and I have had items slide off our table (first time for that), and we’ve also had waves constantly pounding on our porthole. While it’s pretty cool the first few times, it serves as a constant reminder that we’re currently living at 0 feet above sea level and that a breach in the hull would mean we’d be the first passengers on the ship to get soaked.
Also - this is also the first time where it has been cold on the outside decks. It’s like Seattle in the early spring, and we’ve all been donning our counterfeit North Face jackets out there. A nice little reprieve from the past 3 months of heat, but many of us are ready to get tossed back into the sun when we hit Honolulu, San Diego, and the summer season back in our hometowns.
Japan Day 2 recap
May 2nd, 2007(Written the night of April 26th, our second night in Japan)
Megan and I hung out. Shopped at the mall, got my disposable cameras from Carnival (Brazil) and rafting (South Africa) finally developed, replenished my stock of fiber (the hair product, not the stuff for your system), bought some American music to catch up (Modest Mouse, The Ataris, and….Avril Lavigne. What?), took the Shin-Kobe cablecar up to Nunobiki Herb Park (which I can only describe as pure bliss - quiet, amazing view of the city, blooming flowers, and the perfect sunny weather to go with it), had what I can only describe as breaded, deep-fried lobster (there’s a word for these things, I know) with miso soup and assorted veggies for lunch, internet cafe’d it for a bit (woohoo picture update!), got the last piece for my Ambassador’s Ball outfit, got fraps, and came back to the ship.
Since then I’ve been watching the pirated copy of The Sopranos I purchased in Vietnam and listening to my new CDs. As I do so, I’m preparing the backlog of picture posts that I need to get on here.
Like all the other Seattlites have remarked, Kobe feels just like home. It’s really nice to be able to have some alone time, not in a third world country, with high speed internet, without sweating from the heat, without going thirsty from lack of drinking water, without going hungry from lack of non-contaminated food, and without fear of becoming a victim of crime. Japan now tops Singapore as my favorite place to be after the United States of America.
And they have Ichiro posters too!
Picture!
April 26th, 2007Jetting out of here now, but heres a picture from a few hours ago:
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