Ship life, once again, is incredible. These past few days have been so much fun: getting back into the routine of classes, talking about our experiences with our professors, playing music with John Rosenberg, whom I call Uncle J now, getting a mad tan, getting ready for Sea Olympics, etc. We are in the middle of the Atlantic(to be specific, Latitude: 02º 14.8N, Longitude: 037º 27.6 W, currently traveling at 20 knots). Everything we do on the ship constantly keeps my mind in a zone of pro-activeness, and with every single day that passes by, I feel more and more accomplished as an individual. Just found out that I will be obtaining a Ghana Visa when we arrive in port, which is incredible. I'm so glad everything worked out and I believe that this next country will be one of the greatest. This blog is going to be kept short, I've got a Biology test tomorrow and drum practice with Rosenberg and a couple guys, for our pre-port Ghana drum group. I'm super stoked about what's to come, and I'm so fortunate that this dream of traveling the world has actually come true. Also, I will be starting up a Freedom in Creation chapter with Jake Fitzgerald when we arrive back at USC. It is going to be awesome, and we are going to change the world.
Stay classy you people on land,
Eric
Monday, January 31, 2011
January 29-31, 2011
Saturday, January 29, 2011
January 23-28, 2011
It was the numerous riverboat adventures. It was the vast waters and colors that portrayed a feeling of unity. It was the eating with the locals. It was the giant lily pads. It was the amount of Cayman/alligators. It was the structures, monuments, and city sights. It was the immense amount of poor and underprivileged indigenous people. It was driving the riverboat, canoe, and kayaks. It was the bus rides through the most beautiful land I’ve laid eyes on, untouched by Homo sapiens for miles upon miles. It was the lack of electricity, fresh water, and food among the villages. It was the children whom had never seen “white people”, or westerners ever in their entire life. It was the love that everyone showed to people who were obvious not their countries inhabitants. It was the riverboat, to bus, to ferry, back to bus, to riverboat, to canoes to get to where we stayed in the Amazon Rainforest. It was the 200 ft. tall tree house we slept in hammocks in for 3 nights while doing community service. It was the nighttime alligator spotting, boa constrictor catching, and destinations into the unknown, with Jake and our tour guide. It was the baths we took in the Amazon River every night we got home from work in 114-degree weather. It was the meeting of the waters. It was the local businessmen and women whose faces lit up when they say a group full of students coming to support their hardworking businesses. It was the 20 minute long canoe ride to work every morning through the black river that appealed to all of my senses. It was the monkey that lived at our village. It was when this monkey would lie in my hammock with me and acted like a human being. It was the interactions with the students, tour guides, and faculty (whom included John Rosenberg). It was the children who were way younger than us, that we played soccer with every single day at work, and interactions with these children who knew no English… not too mention my Portuguese isn’t rather strong either. It was jumping off of our 2-story riverboat every single day after a long day of work into the Amazon River. It was the painting of the children school, the building of the bridge, and the incredibly delicious coffee that made my taste buds never want to drink coffee from home ever again. It was the fish markets that smelled atrocious. It was the late night Samba street party in the city, which was something that I never even knew, existed. It was not only these things, but many more, which will be reflected in the pictures and videos we took throughout this entire week.
To say the least, Brazil was absolutely, unbelievably, incredibly, exceptionally extraordinary. On the way to Ghana, I’ll be at sea for nine days. Super stoked about taking on the Atlantic waters.
Sunday, January 23, 2011
January 22, 2011
Today was definitely the most chill day yet that we've had on this ship. Semester at Sea had no class today and instead, we had a "reading day". My reading day consisted of waking up for breakfast, taking a nap, tanning by the pool, eating lunch, hanging out by the pool some more, eating dinner, working out, and hanging out by the pool some more. I'd say that it has been a successful day, and such a perfect way to end off the week. Tomorrow morning the ship will stop in the port of Manaus, Brazil, where we'll embark on our South American part of the journey for the next 6 days. The first day I'll be traveling down the Amazon by river boat, fishing for Parana's all day long, followed by a night out on the town. The next 4 days I'll be isolated in a remote village 100 miles away from our ship, where 20 other students and I will perform a community service project. I cannot wait for this leg of the trip, where I will be aiding the natives with repairs to their schoolhouse, construction of a community center, and whatever else they through my way. Get ready to hear about my amazing experience in a couple days to come! Hope everyone at home is doing fine, and wish me luck in the rain forest!
Thursday, January 20, 2011
January 20, 2011
So, never in my entire life would I ever have thought that class would be enjoyable. Especially subjects like Biology. Turns out, one of the coolest classes I’ve ever taken, due to the awesome professor teaching this course. The only thing that is hard about these classes is the fact that you can look right outside your classroom window and the see the Amazon River and a bunch of random locals in wooden canoes traveling along side the shoreline. Another cool/key part to this class is instead of just talking about birds in class, any time we see one flying by the ship we stop class to look at the sights and admire our beautiful classroom outside the ship’s interior. After lunch, had another hard day out by the pool, getting some more mad sun from the equators finest, and playing some intense ping-pong and swimming just a little bit. Finally it’s time to relax from a long day of school and hard work, and sit back, do a little bit of homework while watching Planet Earth on the ship’s TV system. Just checked out the ship’s report too, and we are going about 12 knots down the Amazon river, not too fast, but perfect speed to be rocked to sleep. Night world.
January 19, 2011
Entering the Amazon River. Kind of a big deal and this is the first year that Semester at Sea has attempted to do it. Didn't know this little bit of vital information before embarking on this wonderful voyage, but turns out it worked out really well. It was pretty entertaining listening to all of the crew warn us about standing on the top deck of the ship, and if we were to do so that we needed to hold on tight to the hand rails. Captain Kingston came on the loud speaker and warned us that "the ship might roll a bit", due to them taking off the stabilizers for the ship so that we could enter the shallow waters of the Amazon River. So yea, Mr. Captain could we please use another ship term to substitute rolling? Though it was kind of funny, and it turns out that we had the smoothest sailing yet once we entered the Amazon. Anyways, that was the night time fun of my day, and during the day was just a regular old two classes a day, lunch, gym, lay out(which I only did for 30 minutes because we are currently directly on the equator), and then dinner. Ship life = incredible. Every single day on and off the ship is so fascinating that I have such a hard time choosing what to blog about. Over-privileged is an understatement. For anyone back home who can't decided where to study abroad or deciding if it's financially possible, make it possible. We all live once and this is truly the best gift anyone can receive from their college life. I'm going to get back to studying for my classes, a.k.a. sitting out by the pool reading a book, so until next time blog readers.
And by the way, for a little fact of the day...the Amazon river is super brown and really wide.
Wednesday, January 19, 2011
January 18, 2011
Once again, another awesome day at sea. Started out feeling pretty queezy in my 8:00 Biology class, due to insane waves in the Atlantic. But soon to be followed by an incredible presentation from this guy who does not-for-profit work in Nepal. This professor on board started his non-profit quite a few years back, and it is devoted to saving young girls lives from being exploited by men from around the area. It was so moving to see what the work of one man can do to a small town. For years, young girls in this village continued to disappear from school, and no one would speak of what happened to them. With time, this professor came to find out that a group of people would kidnap these girls, and there first day gone from there families, they would be raped at a minimum of 10-15 times a day. The life expectancy of these 12-13 year old girls would be at most 3 years. Could you imagine if that happened in our home towns? Every week, a new girl gets kidnapped. It is so sad and this presentation was way too entirely moving for my comfort. It was sad to see what went on in Nepal, but incredible to see what this one man did for these young girls. He currently has saved over 75 young school girls and has built a safe school for them to attend to get away from the crime and hate that they have endured all of there lives.
It seems that every day aboard this ship, I feel more and more educated beyond any education I could receive any where else in the world. We are currently traveling at 24.5 knots and we're are headed for the Amazon River entrance. Looking at my live streaming map on the TV in the room, it looks like we are going to be on the Amazon in just a couple hours. Once on the Amazon, we'll be traveling over 700 miles to a little town called Manaus. I cannot wait to get there, and it's just a matter of time until I'll be living with the locals in a remote village 100 miles away from Manaus. Along with 6 other students and this professor I previously spoke of, we will be living and barracks and helping this village repaint there school and aid in construction of there community center. It's going to be eye-opening, and I'm counting down the days!
For everyone at home, thanks a lot for all of the emails, and to anyone who doesn't have that email adress, its embouchard@semesteratsea.net Once again, I miss everyone and hit me up when you get a chance! Peace world.
Monday, January 17, 2011
January 17, 2011
I've thought all day long about how I'm going to start off today's blog, and I can't even express a piece of happiness that has generated in the past 12 hours. It is simply astonishing how loving and caring people are on this beautiful island. It’s something I could think about all day long, and yet at the end of the day I still wouldn’t have found a way to express this beauty. Started of the day early, waking up at 7 in the morning, then immediately getting of the ship to make the most out of my last day in Dominica. Chilled in town for a little bit, then headed with a group of amazing friends out to this little black sand beach called Mero. Met some of the coolest locals today, including this guy who calls himself the “Rainforest Mushroom Man”. These people were so incredibly welcoming and had some of the greatest food that I’ve had in a long time. After spending a couple hours there, we headed back to Roseau where the ship was on port, and we walked around for hours checking out the locals life and the bountiful markets full of people willing to do anything for some money. The only difference here compared to everywhere else I’ve been, they don’t beg for money. They want everyone to have a good time and it means the world to them to give a second of your time to simply talk and ask them questions. One man I spoke to today told me, “Happiness is everything, we feel that we have accomplished our deeds of the day when we see you smile. One of the most loving places I’ve ever visited and definitely a place where I’d like to come back to some day for a longer time period.
January 16, 2011
Crazy times in Dominica, and it’s not pronounced the way I’ve thought for all of this time. It’s more like (Dah-men-eek-uh). Started off the day with nothing planned, ended the day having the best time of life! We began today by grabbing a local taxi van, and convincing him to drive us around for the whole day for 10 dollars a person, which was the best idea we had ever made. We headed out into the center of island, starting off at the Titou Gorge, this incredible cave that I wish I could’ve taken pictures of. We all started swimming in this river, soon to find out that the river got ridiculously deep. The river started to narrow, and we were soon surrounded by massive cliff walls that were engulfed by the rain forest. Everything was so green, the smells were intriguing, and the water was incredibly clear. After a short swim, we found ourselves climbing a waterfall inside of a cave, with the help of the local tour guides. You know those movies with the absolutely unreal water caves that glisten the reflection of water on the walls, that is completely covered, letting minimal light through, with random water falls all around? Yea, it was just like that. Absolutely incredible. After leaving the cave, we went to a high point on the river where we jumped into the unbelievably blue water from about 50 feet. Next, we headed to a national park, which had two huge, beautiful waterfalls that were only accessible by climbing on rocks. It was definitely worth the climb, which you’ll see in my pictures when I get a chance to upload them. After hanging out there for a couple of hours, we headed back towards the shore, and on the way stopped at a sulfur spring, that smelled atrocious. Next, we went to the highest point above Roseau, to look down at the beautiful city, which had our huge ship in the background. Our last stop was back where we started, at the port, where we jumped off this dock, and swam for about an hour. We did soooo much in one day and I still can’t believe I got to see all of these amazing sights. For dinner, I ate on the ship and it was once again, delicious. After a shower, I went out with a bunch of friends to a local bar and it was the prefect ending to a long hot Dominican day. I would say that day 5 was definitely a success.
Saturday, January 15, 2011
January 15, 2011
After going to my two classes today and my wonderful two-hour nap, I got to enjoy the ship’s gym and pool. By the way, it is so hot during the day in the middle of the Caribbean… just to let everyone know at home who is currently freezing, not to rub it in though. But anyways, ship life is incredible, and I’ve already found something that has moved me more than anything could ever do at home or at my regular campus. Who would think that on day 3 of this voyage, I would be completely and utterly moved by an opportunity that I’ve been searching for a long time, but just couldn’t find a way to make it actually happen. There’s this guy on the ship, named Andrew Briggs, who participated on a Semester at Sea trip about 9 years ago. His story is so moving, and it is what I’ve been searching for a really long time. He spent a good part of his lifetime after SAS traveling around the world, searching for a calling, or a place that he could help out in. Finally, he stumbled upon Uganda, which seemed to hit his heart the most. Long story short, he is the founder of Freedom in Creation, INC (which I hope everyone that reads this blog looks up on the internet to find out more information). He simply found an area in the world, and implemented a plan to help these people in ways they could not achieve on their own. He has built multiple schools, helped rebuild water pumps in many towns, which in turn has saved many lives in these remote areas. I’ve been searching for my calling, and lately I’ve believed that being a part of a non-profit, or not-for-profit foundation would be a great way to start off my post-college life. Later on today, my roommate, Jake Fitzgerald, interviewed this guy for his job position on the ship, serving as the Communications person onboard the ship. During this interview, which lasted quite a long time, Andrew listened to what Jake had to say, which consisted of our dream of starting a non-profit foundation somewhere in the world. His response, which absolutely blew my mind, was an invite to join this guy and his partner in his foundation. I mean seriously, that would be the coolest job in the entire world, to travel with these guys, raising money for the foundation, and hopefully one day joining them in Uganda to help work and aid these people. Anyways, sorry about spilling out my thoughts on this blog, but hopefully you enjoy what I’ve got to say! I can’t believe this is day 3, and I’ve already felt like a changed person. Peace out world, I’ll be visiting Dominica tomorrow and all day Monday.
January 14, 2011
First day of class, definitely a success. Woke up late once again, due to not having a clock with the proper time, which I found out should be set in Atlantic time. First class, Biology, was at 8 o'clock and it was far more interesting than I though it would be. What I've learned very quickly on the ship is that every single one of these professors are not only ridiculously intelligent, but they are all in the same boat as the students are, no pun intended. Most of them are so excited about the trip, and many of them have done the program before, which makes me so much more excited to learn about their experiences and how it relates to the subject at hand. Right after Biology, I had my Global Studies class, which is quite enjoyable as well. This class however is on the 6th floor of the ship towards the very front, and it's hard to not get a little dizzy when the waves are constantly swaying everyone in the room. Following class, that ended before noon, I proceeded to lunch. Lunch was never the less delicious, and directly afterwards I went out on the 7th deck by the pool, where the weather was definitely over 80 degrees and the Caribbean sun was beaming on my skin. Everybody on the ship is so easy to get along with, and even though it's our second full day at sea, I already feel at home. Later tonight, we stopped in Puerto Rico for a fill-up on gas, which was totally awesome to watch. We pulled into the harbor, and a gas vessel came to us and filled up the ship, slowly but surely. We weren't allowed to get off the ship, but I stayed up to watch ship leave San Juan at 2 in the morning. Another great day in the Caribbean.
Thursday, January 13, 2011
So it’s the first full day on the ship, and it’s been full of meetings, seminars, and a dumb writing assessment. It’s been a long day, but in the end, I’ve realized that the food on the ship is pretty dank after all. Another thing I’ve quickly learned, it is so much easier to stand bad weather in the room, compared to the 6th or 7th deck on the ship, which can sway tremendously. The mixture of a slight side-to-side motion, the music in my ears, and the slight rumble coming from the ships engine is very soothing while lying bed. Started off the day right, missing breakfast due to the fact that we lost an hour of sleep, and my phone and laptop decided not to recognize that time change. It’s nice walking up the stairs of the ship and suddenly realizing that instead of enjoying a nice warm breakfast, you’ve got to sit in a 2-½ long seminar about safety on the ship and about the expectations for the rest of the voyage. All in all, today has been pretty chill and I’m pretty excited about starting my first day of classes tomorrow and meeting these incredible professors… bright and early, at 8am.
Monday, January 3, 2011
Dates in Ports/Weather
Roseau, Dominica- Jan 16 through 17: 77 degrees
Salvador, Brazil- Jan 25 through 30: 87 degrees
Takoradi, Ghana- Feb 6 through 10: 85 degrees
Cape Town, S. Africa-Feb 17 through 22: 78 degrees
Port Louis, Mauritius- Feb 27: 83 degrees
Chennai, India- Mar 6 through 10: 90 degrees
Singapore- Mar 16(only one day?!?!): 88 degrees
Viet Nam- Mar 19 through 24: 92 degrees
China- Mar 26 through Apr 1: 65-71 degrees
Japan- Apr 4 through 8: 63 degrees
Hilo, Hawaii- Apr 17-18: 80 degrees
San Diego, Cali- Apr 24 68 degrees
Courses on Ship
- History of the World in the 20th Century HIST 2559
- General Biology BIOL 1559-502
- World Poetry ENGL 2559-501
- Global Studies PLIR 1558-501
