Nassau Around The Corner

It has taken me a while to finally give an update on my preparations but here is the first update: Part of the problem may be not quite realizing what is in store as I watch giant snowflakes fall outside my home this afternoon. Plans were finalized around Thanksgiving to fly to Nassau on January 15^th and the ship leaves the Port of Nassau on the 19^th. So my trip around the world is only 19 days away!

Some may be curious how I actually came across and decided to pursue this voyage. First off, studying abroad for a semester has always been something that I wanted to do in college. The problem was I couldn’t exactly figure out where I wanted to go. I first came across Semester at Sea in one of their advertisements on a United flight magazine while traveling across the country to Hawaii in the spring of 2010 (A little ironic I thought). I can almost remember my first reaction to it…“No way would I want to spend a whole semester on a ship.” Out of curiosity I decided to check out the website and when I came back for my sophomore year at Elon I had a solid idea that this was something that I wanted to do. More research and a visit to Elon from one of the programs representatives only solidified my interest and eagerness to get it started. I applied and was accepted into the program in October of 2010, so this whole experience has been 15-16 months in the making. To say the least the buildup of the trip has been immense and only adds to the drama of traveling around the world. Over the past year, I have known two people that have gone on the semester voyage’s and it has been amazing listening to their stories.

Currently, I am doing a lot of research and preparation on each of the ports to figure out exactly what I want to do. I also just purchased my textbooks for the classes I will be taking because yes this is also for studying as well, even though many find that hard to believe. The last few weeks have been filled with doctor appointments and finalizing any extra paperwork that needs to get done before departure. I’ll provide more updates between now and the start of the voyage, just wanted to get something on here.