Tag: Around the World

2017 Fall

Shemar Blakeney: Post 2

Shemar Blakeney Semester at Sea Fall 2017 Life is different on my study abroad program.  My commute to class is easy because I can get anywhere in about 3-5 minutes. I can always hear people talking about their experiences from the last country we visited, or their plans for the future countries. My living space is nice and moderate. My room does not have any windows, so I wake up to pitch, blackness every morning as if it is 3’o clock in the morning, but it may 2’o clock in the afternoon. My roommate’s name is Curtis, he is from […]

2017 Fall

Shemar Blakeney: Post 1

Shemar Blakeney Semester at Sea Fall 2017 I chose to participate in the Semester at Sea Program because I will be able to travel to multiple countries instead of just one. Even though I will not be able to immerse myself as deeply as other study abroad programs, I have the opportunity to go experience a lot of different cultures. I am extremely excited to visit South Africa and Japan; however, I am looking forward to traveling to all of the countries. I want to put meaning and faces to all of the places I have read and learned about […]

2017 Spring

Tillmon Cook: Post 4

Tillmon Cook Semester at Sea Spring 2017 Greetings from 38° 54.34’ N 009° 51.47’ W! Since my last blog post I have been to three different ports including Cape Town, South Africa, Tema, Ghana, and Casablanca, Morocco. All three of these places have been incredibly different and each have their own culture. In addition to time in port, ship life has been really fun as well. There was a crew talent show that was phenomenal! Who would’ve known that the people on our ship’s crew were so talented! Also, everybody that was on the ship became Emerald Shellbacks. If you […]

2017 Spring

Tillmon Cook: Post 3

Tillmon Cook Semester at Sea Spring 2017 Greetings from 28.22° S 37.16° E! I am approximately 830 nautical miles from Cape Town, South Africa, and I could not be happier to see land. It has been 10 days since I’ve walked on solid ground and I still have another two days to go. Since my last update, I have been to two ports. From Ho Chi Minh City, we sailed to Yangon, Myanmar, and from there my voyage traveled to Cochin, India. We were supposed to sail to Mauritius, but sadly, a lot of difficulties regarding the ship came up […]

2017 Spring

Tillmon Cook: Post 2

Tillmon Cook Semester at Sea Spring 2017 Greetings from 05°02.61’ N 106°18.37’ E! Since my last blog post, I have now been to 4 different countries around Asia. From Hawaii, I have sailed across the Pacific to Japan, China, Vietnam, and visited Cambodia for a short time. I am currently sailing from Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam to Yangon, Myanmar (Burma). I’m very excited about our next port because I know that this country is one of the most undiscovered places around the world! Sailing the Pacific was definitely an experience. There were days that were calmer than others, but […]

2017 Spring

Tillmon Cook: Post 1

Tillmon Cook Semester at Sea Spring 2017 “My name is Tillmon; I am from a small, rural town outside of Charlotte, North Carolina, but I go to Hampden-Sydney College located in central Virginia.”  This is the line I’ve been saying for the past two weeks while trying meet all the new people that I’ll be spending the rest of four months on a ship with. I am currently sailing to Kobe, Japan from Honolulu, Hawaii.  I have now been a part of the sea-life for eight days, and even though my voyage has been to one port, I have seen […]

2016 Spring

Michael Willis: Post 8

Michael Willis Semester at Sea Spring 2016 Neptune Day is a historic maritime tradition. The transformation from pollywogs to shellbacks. This tradition takes place after you cross the equator for the first time aboard a ship. The MV World Odyssey has adapted this tradition to include the tradition of sailors shaving their heads after crossing the equator and being accepted into King Neptune’s court. The ceremony of King Neptune’s court consisted of our ship’s captain, Captain Kostas painting himself green, wearing a Santa beard, and being dressed in traditional ancient Greek regalia. A sailor first started the process of being […]

2016 Spring

Michael Willis: Post 7

Michael Willis Semester at Sea Spring 2016 “O, to die in Cape Town”, said Andy Pringle, the 89 year old gentleman sailing around the world with his family. The MV World Odyssey docked in Cape Town on March 15th 2016. This was the most westernized port we had been to in a very long time. It felt like your typical United States city with its own African flare.  Cape Town is a city where it was easy to find something to do; between exploring the V&A waterfront which was full of local musicians and western chain stores, to hiking table […]

2016 Spring

Michael Willis: Post 6

Michael Willis Semester at Sea Spring 2016 The country of Myanmar is a beautiful country that has much more to offer than expected. The MV World Odyssey arrived in the industrial port an hour and a half south of the former capitol city Yangon on February 18th 2016. We first got off the ship and boarded a shuttle that would take us into the city center of Yangon. While on the shuttle bus you can see a wide variety of sights. You can see the elegant gold pagodas that litter the country side, back dropped by extreme poverty. You can […]

2016 Spring

Michael Willis: Post 5

Michael Willis Semester at Sea Spring 2016 On February 9th, 2016 the MV World Odyssey arrived in Ho Chi Minh City Vietnam. We arrived a day later than scheduled due to extreme weather conditions on the Saigon River. Vietnam was a fantastic country. The weather was hot. When we arrived it was 91 degrees Fahrenheit. This was so comfortable after the two weeks of winter we experienced in Japan and China. As we sailed up the Saigon River to get to the Ho Chi Minh City port we saw brown, murky water under us and on either side of the […]