Semester at Sea has changed my life in so many ways. It has given me a whole new perspective on life. Semester at Sea is a study abroad program where you travel for one semester around the world on a ship. You travel to 11 countries. It is a great way to see the world and learn about other countries, people, traditions, and cultures. At the same time, life at sea is also a special part of the voyage.
On the ship, I loved my independence. When I woke up, I went to breakfast without my parents and ate with my friends. After breakfast I would either go to Oceanography class or a Life Long Learner (a non-college student passenger) meeting. I loved all oceanography classes — especially the videos of the bioluminescent sea life — but some of Life Long Learner meetings were more interesting than others. I liked the one where we learned about how Easterners see the world differently than Westerners. For example, when shown some pictures and told to group them, Westerners usually group a monkey with a panda and Easterners usually group a monkey with a banana. I didn’t follow the usual Westerner answer because I grouped the monkey with the banana. Maybe that’s because I’ve been traveling for so long. Every day at sea, we all went to a class called Global Studies together. That is where we learned about the places that we were going to. I sat in Global Studies with my family and learned so much. The rest of the morning, we would go to the Lido restaurant to study. My mom would teach me math. I just finished my 4th grade math book so I am really ahead, since I’m only in 3rd grade!
Lunch started at 11:30 everyday and I was always first in line. There was usually good food, but sometimes not. One time I got to pick the menu for the lunch and dinner. I picked enchiladas and ice cream for lunch. For dinner, I picked fish and chips and Pad Thai with apple pie for dessert. My favorite part of the day was after lunch because I got 1 hour and 45 minutes of free time. I usually played games with Luke and my friends. One time Keatten taught us how to throw cards. It’s pretty easy once you get the hang of it. At 1:30 each day, all of the young kids got together to do an activity. Sometimes I liked it better than others. One of my favorite kids’ club activities was making cookies. They tasted so good and it was fun to cook. It was also interesting to hear the students from other countries talk to us about their lives.  Kids club finished at 3:30. When It was over, I had a writing tutor or I would read or hangout with my friends until dinner every night. At dinner I would eat with my friends or my family, sometimes with new people. It was so fun to get to know so many different college students. After dinner, we played games with friends and  college students — Ace of Hates and other card games, SASopoly, Life, and Clue. My usual bedtime was between 9pm and 10pm, which is a lot later than at home!

It was so hard saying goodbye to Semester at Sea and to all of the amazing people I met. I actually felt like brothers with some of them. I am always going to remember everyone from the ship. I have made so many memories with so many new people from all over the world. I am really going to miss the ship and all of my very very good friends.  I can’t wait to sail again!