g in class. Elyssa Tanenbaum, a student from the University of Florida, who is in a Military Force class, is studying different military forts that she comes across during her port visits. In Barcelona, she was able to spend some time at Castell de Montjuic, a fort that has played a prominent role in a number of military engagements. Rebecca Bressler, a student at Penn State enrolled in a World Religions course, chose to study the many churches that she was able to see in Cadiz and Sevilla and is looking forward to being able to compare and contrast them with the places of worship that she encounters in Morocco.
Below is a new feature of the blog. Periodically, we will have students post their own writings and reactions to events on the ship and experiences in port.
Guest Blogger: Greg Lessans, a University of Maryland student aboard Semester at Sea talking about his experiences in Spain
I was asked by the videographer of our voyage a question the very first day of SAS. I was literally unloading my bags from the taxi and Jerry ran at me with a camera rolling:
“So why did you choose SAS over a traditional study abroad program?” Jerry asked.
It hit me like a ton of bricks, and I wasn’t sure of my response. I fumbled out some line I had read in a brochure somewhere, and hopped in line to board the ship. Now, with one country behind me, I’m more sure of my answer. I’ll be much more sure in three more months, but, now I have an idea.
I had studied Spanish my entire career in high school and for a semester in college. I figured I had a pretty good handle on Spain’s culture and history. So I was shocked when, throughout global studies class across the Atlantic Ocean, I heard things for the first time. Like how Spain was a dictatorship less than three decades ago, or how they transitioned to a functioning democracy in less than one. We learned about the culture, the people, the customs and the traditions of Spain, and by the time we were a day away from Cadiz, I felt like I knew the country inside and out. The ship was bustling with excitement as Spain came over the horizon (it had been a long 9 days without any land in sight), and it was an unforgettable feeling descending the gangway to Spanish soil.
In my time in Spain, the things that we learned through classes, interport lecturers and pre-port
meetings came to life. I spent a day in the local southern town of Cadiz, rich with Roman architecture and Spanish reforms. There, my friends and I investigated (and enjoyed) important delicatessens that we learned about like Bocadillos and Churros con Chocolate. All the while, we struggled to make conversation with locals who were always happy to talk to us. The culture I had longed to meet in person for the past 10 years was finally laid out in front of me.We boarded a train the next morning and headed to Madrid, the cultural and political capital of the Spanish people. One of the most fascinating things we experienced was the difference in time. EVERYTHING was later. Businesses opened in the late morning before closing for siesta. They reopen in the late afternoon, and dinner isn’t until late, late at night - the restaurants don’t even open until 10 or 11 at night most of the time.
We took a great tour of Madrid on our third day in Spain and saw all the sights to see. Our tour guide, a 28-year-old Spanish local could not have been nicer. I took the entire time to ask him about politics, and the real-life living situation in Spain. I required that he speak to me in Spanish and by the end of the day, I had most of my years in Spanish coming back to me. It was wonderful. The relationship that we created with him was real, and we had lunch with him and was even invited to his birthday party that night.
After returning to Cadiz and our floating campus, the shipboard community has rejoined in the multiple stories and experiences each of us bring back with us. “I went to Barcelona,” a friend tells me, “I went to Sevilla,” says another. Stories of soccer games and ancient castles abound, and through each other, we all experience even more.
Mostly, I feel I can answer Jerry’s question to some small degree. The combination of learning about each individual culture and then seeing it in real life is the most amazing education we could ask for. It’s the equivalent of an elementary school field trip to the zoo after a unit on animals, multiplied times infinity. The truth is, we as humans can only learn so much from books and lectures. It’s the promise of seeing it with your own two eyes after those lectures that make everything real.
As we continue to Morocco, I know that pretty soon an entire new dimension will be added to our journey, the ability to compare. Determining the similarities and differences between each culture on our itinerary is truly a gift that simply doesn’t exist in traditional study-abroad opportunities. Now, with 1 out of 12 countries completed, we can feel that something big is on our horizon, something much larger than any of us.
But it’s true; you can only compare one thing at a time. Tomorrow, it’s Morocco.
Thanks for reading,
Greg
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