My favorite food abroad was during our food tour in Athens, Greece. We were a little unsure about how it would go at the start since we had an early wake up time and weren’t sure what to expect. Our tour guide, Georgia, was so energetic and happy and truly made the experience one to remember. The first stop was to try the Greek koulouri, which is bread with sesame…
I sit on a train bound for Paris as I write this blog post and reflect on my semester abroad. Studying abroad is the best thing I could have done for myself in college. I was able to learn so much outside of the traditional classroom setting and experience much more of the world than I had before. I was able to see the applications of theories and knowledge we…
My favorite day abroad was during our last port in Lisbon, Portugal. It was a mixture of adventurous, historical, and cultural, but my favorite part was getting to spend this day with 10 of my best friends. Our day began early in the morning, as we were all stressed out to find an Uber to drive us an hour and a half outside of Lisbon, as we had reservations to…
For this post, I want to explain why I chose Semester at Sea. The reason is very simple: the shipboard community and experiences while on the ship. Semester at Sea is a unique study abroad program because you travel to several countries instead of one, but perhaps rarer is a strong community and tight-knit friend groups. Three months in as I am writing this post in a café in Copenhagen,…
Hi! My name is Ana Koulianos and I’m embarking on the spring 2022 voyage of Semester at Sea. This voyage we’re exploring the Mediterranean, visiting 12 different countries over the course of 4 months. Travelling on a ship during the pandemic has been tough and our voyage has been ever changing. In June 2021, our voyage was changed from visiting 4 different continents to just Europe and Morocco. But a…
One historical site I was fortunate to visit was the Acropolis in Athens, Greece, which has been on my list of sites to see for a very long time due to my childhood love of Greek mythology. The Parthenon and the rest of the builds of the Acropolis were more amazing and awe-inspiring than I could have imagined. I felt miniscule in comparison to the looming marble ruins (In Greece,…
Hi, my name is Melanie Fischer and I am a junior marine biology major studying abroad through Semester at Sea. I chose Semester at Sea because it gave me the best chance to travel and see the most differing cultures in the span of a semester. The unique learning experience and onboard community also drew me in. As for goals I set for my time abroad, I want to experience…
*Written previously* Aboard the MV World Odyssey, we are taught from day one that we must learn to be flexible. Flexible with ourselves, the staff, the seas, but most importantly, the journey. This got put to the test pretty early into our voyage, as we learned that due to the Coronavirus, our itinerary was shifting. Rather than traveling from Japan to China like originally planned, there was a quick detour…
Our most recent port was to the island of Mauritius, off the coast of East Africa. Although the original itinerary had the ship staying for just one day, with the recent changes of the Coronavirus we stayed for 6 days. With the original itinerary, the one day stop meant that each student had a mandatory field program assignment, and would partake in that for the day. As a result, I…
South Africa: our last and final port on the semester at sea. Over the course of the recent weeks, we have had many itinerary switches and changes of pace. While these are necessary to ensure the safety of the ship, they are still difficult to grapple with. After leaving the port of Mauritius, we were informed that due to the Coronavirus, we would be ending earlier than planned and eliminating…
