Semester at Sea – Spring 2007 (Alex Song) On a ship, traveling around the world, at 20 miles an hour

We are almost to our vacation spot! Semester at Sea in itself may seem like a vacation for most, but Mauritius is the one place where learning opportunities are hard to come by. If you look at the field programs, they are all somehow related to touring the island, hiking, snorkeling, etc. There’s a couple of service projects and 5 FDPs, but even those are mostly “tour this nice area with the pretty sights, eat local food, and learn a little about the history”.

Not that I’m complaining. In addition to two short SAS programs, I’m spending a full day deep sea fishing.

On Thursday, immediately following our pre-port briefing, I’ll be put in some type of moving transport, which I’ve been told is air-conditioned and will travel to a elevation of -114 feet. It’s also apparently only one of ten places in the world where I can do this. Anyways, I’ll be “discovering” the undersea world: corals, different species of fish, and the wreck of the “Star Hope”. Afterwards, I’ll be visiting Marine Conservation at Pointe Canonnier and having lunch before we return to the ship half past noon.

At which point I’ll probably spend the rest of my day shopping, going out to the clubs, or chowing down some sushi.

Friday, I’ll be participating in a FDP at L’Adventure du Sucre (The Sugar Adventure). Sugar seems to be fairly important – this program has been adopted as an FDP by 3 instructors. We’ll be at a restored sugar factory, learning about the history of sugar, immigration, and the island’s population through DVDs, giant screens, historical documents, walking through cisterns and crushing mills and even an old field locomotive. And of course, no site in tourist-crazed Mauritius can’t be without a museum, restaurant, boutique, and auditorium. We get back to the ship at noon, where I’ll be repeating the aforementioned shopping/clubbing/sushiing routine.

Saturday, my most anticipated day in Mauritius, I’ll be deep sea fishing with five other SASers for nine hours, returning to shore around 4pm. I arranged this independently, and I’m surprised that there were others on the ship that were interested in fishing, and even moreso that they’re all females. Score for Alex, Master Pimp of the M/V Explorer. Afterwards, we’ll have about four hours to eat/drink/play before we set sail….for INDIA.

The majority of the ship’s population seem to be renting villas and staying there for our three day stay, opting to swim and tan on the beaches, cook for themselves (a big deal for many, not so much for those of us whose culinary masterpieces include Kraft Mac and Cheese and various other types of pasta), and party all night long. Bums.

This will be our last port in the southern hemisphere, and our last port in which there will be nice beaches and water-related activities (not entirely true, but who wants to goto the beach in Japan?).