Today was a pretty good day overall. We actually arrived early to Varna this morning, but because our berth isn't ready until tomorrow (plus we have to deal with immigration and customs), we've been anchored in the middle of the sea all day. We will dock tomorrow morning, and officially be in Bulgaria! They also told us that immigration will be stamping our passports! Hooray!
I'm very excited for Bulgaria. I've heard it is a beautiful country. I've never experienced Eastern Europe before, so this will be a first! I'm also excited that the exchange rate is for once in our favor! 1 Bulgarian Leva=1.35 USD. I only have one field program for this country, which is the "Salt Lakes of Bourgas, Healing Mud, and Nessebar" trip. Both of my roommates are going on that one too, so I bet it is going to be a great time! Other than that I don't really have any solid plans as of right now. I might try to get on the "Wonders of Bulgaria" trip with Amanda tomorrow afternoon because it would be nice to get to see the major points of interest, and to be honest I feel a lot less prepared for this country than I did the others. I have much less of an idea of what I want to do. One thing I believe my friends and I might do is go to the Dolphinarium! I'm not sure whether or not we would actually get to swim with the dolphins, but either way it would be a lot of fun!
During our preport lecture (where they discuss the cultural and logistical issues regarding each port) tonight, we had a special guest visitor, who was from the TED Conventions. For those of you who are unfamiliar with TED, here is their mission statement: "We believe passionately in the power of ideas to change attitudes, lives and ultimately, the world. So we're building here a clearinghouse that offers free knowledge and inspiration from the world's most inspired thinkers, and also a community of curious souls to engage with ideas and each other." If you would like to learn more about TED, you should check out their website: www.ted.com. It really is a phenomenal program. They place all of their "TED Talks" online for free. They have conventions all over the world, and within the past few years, an extension of TED has been developed called TEDx. This allows third parties to hold their own TED conventions, and promote their concept of "ideas worth sharing." I feel very privileged to be a part of the Semester at Sea Summer 2011 Voyage because we are the first voyage to be forming a partnership with TEDx and begin having our own TEDx presentations. The inaugural SAS TEDx event will be happening in a couple weeks. I am so excited!
I had a really big highlight today. Something that I haven't posted about on my blog yet, but that I've really been thinking about is the possibility of me sailing on Semester at Sea again. I am planning on applying for the Spring 2012 voyage. I have calculated that as long as Semester at Sea would give me scholarships once again, that combined with my financial aid from Aurora and the government, I could receive nearly a full ride for a semester-long, around the world voyage. The summer voyages are focused on one particular region, whereas the fall and spring voyages actually circumnavigate the globe. Here is the itinerary for next spring:
Nassau, Bahamas
Havana, Cuba
Manaus, Brazil
Takoradi, Ghana
Cape Town, South Africa
Port Louis, Mauritius
Cochin, India
Singapore, Singapore
Ho Chi Mihn City, Vietnam
Hong Kong, China
Shanghai, China
Kobe, Japan
Yokohama, Japan
Hilo, Hawaii, USA
San Diego, California, USA
Doesn't that sound absolutely incredible? SAS has been so profoundly life changing for me. I have this intense desire to see more and learn more about the world around me. I can't get enough. I need to see beyond America. I need to see how the rest of the world works. I need to be outside of my comfort zone. I need to be culture shocked. I need to have my world turned upside down. I made this voyage happen; I can make another one happen.
Anyway...the reason why I brought this up is because of how this ties in to the highlight of my day. I have been worried that SAS might not give me scholarships again because they really do try to spread their aid out to provide as many people with this experience as possible. I had one of my supervisors make sure there was not a policy about giving people scholarships twice (you would be surprised at the amount of students who sail for a second time). Fortunately, there is not. It is all on a case-by-case basis. Since the potential of me sailing again relies so heavily on SAS's scholarship, it has been of concern. I know I have mentioned several times recently about how I've been encountering the Dean of Students, Beth Hellwig. While it has always been positive, it has been somewhat superficial. Today I marched up to her, and told her that I would like to talk to her. I told her that she should get to know me. I told her that I'm here for all the right reasons. I work hard, I've gotten an A on every single assignment so far, she will never see me in the "drunk tank" (where they hold students who come back to the ship drunk until they sober up), I have so much passion about this experience, I'm paying for it almost entirely by myself, and it has been so profoundly meaningful and inspiring to me. I told her about my plans to try to sail again, and that it would mean so much to me if she would take the time to get to know me because nothing would look better than a letter from the Dean of Students on this voyage (the faculty/staff is different each voyage) advocating on my behalf about how I deserve the scholarships again. She told me that she would absolutely love to get to know me. She said that she would love to get together for dinners or various other activities on the ship. This is such a huge deal. I felt so brave and so proud of myself for going up to her and saying all of that, and it means so much to me that she cares so much. This also really relieves some of my nerves about the situation because I think that a letter from her coupled with a letter from my work-study supervisor will go such a long way.
I feel on top of the world right now. Watch out, Bulgaria, here I come!
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