Blog post #1 from the ocean!

Hiiiiiii to all who are reading this! Sorry it has taken me so long to post an update on here, I’ve been very busy! I am currently on the water along the western coast of Africa. For those who don’t already know, you can go to Semesteratsea.org and the website will show you exactly where the ship is on a world map. It’s very cool. Anyway, I will do my best to update you all on the past 3 weeks without writing a novel on this thing. So, here we go…

Before I get into any of the countries, I’ll start with the ship. To clarify to everyone, apparently there has been some confusion, I am on a “ship.” I am not on a boat. Also, I am on an “academic voyage.” I am not on a cruise… well, at least what the teachers on here want us to tell all you guys back at home. But who are they kidding, I lay out by the pool every other day and they clean my room every single day, fresh towels included! How nice is that? On a more serious note, I do in fact have classes. I really like all of my teachers, and while they do not seem terribly hard there is plenty of work to be done. What I find very interesting is how the teachers incorporate the countries we are visiting into the lesson plan. So, very often, my assignments will have to do with the places that we dock at. I have been meeting people from all over the country, and a few from around the world. Out of over 500 schools that are represented on the ship, the University of San Diego has the most students on board, 43 to be exact. So it’s great knowing so many people already, but also meeting new kids at the same time.

Port #1: Cadiz, Spain.
Beautiful, gorgeous, amazing, incredible… basically any positive word that you could think of will describe Spain. While many students ventured to other parts of the country, I remained in Cadiz the entire time because 3 of my very good girl friends from USD came to visit. They are studying abroad in Paris (sounds rough) and found a cheap flight to Spain to see me and a few others. It was so great to see them. My time in Spain consisted of what I like to call the 4 S’s: Sun tanning, shopping, seafood, and sangria. Oh and uuuh school activities. So lets make it the 5 S’s. There was a great beach, La Playa Victoria, which is rated one of the top beaches in all of Europe that I went to almost every day. They had great little cafes and restaurants right along the sand that were perfect to stop in for tapas right before siesta time. There was a bit more of a language barrier in Spain than I had anticipated, but luckily my high school Spanish classes came back to life and I was able to communicate pretty easily. Except for the one time that I thought I was ordering some ham dish for dinner (the ham in Spain is supposed to be incredible.) and I accidentally ordered ham and eggs. Oops. Other than that, Spain was full of nothing but wonderfulness. I have no complaints at all. Well, except maybe the lack of sleep. Spain sure does stay up late… seeing the sun rise before going to sleep definitely had its tolls on me. But it was worth it.

Port #2: Casablanca, Morocco
After Spain, we had one day at sea and then we reached Casablanca, Morocco! While Casablanca may not have been the greatest city ever, I still learned to love Morocco. On the first day, which was unfortunately raining, a large group of students left the ship and walked to the 3rd largest mosque in the world, The Hassan Mosque. While it is the 3rd largest, it is actually the tallest that exists. It was beautiful. There were all sorts of colorful tiles and designs, which I learned later were all over Morocco. We took a tour of the inside where we had to remove our shoes and cover our heads with scarves. While Casablanca seemed to be pretty broken down, the Hassan Mosque gave us all a little glimpse of beauty. Oh, I forgot. I went to a restaurant and they had a dish named after Obama. I kid you not, everywhere I have been someone mentions Obama. Annnyyywaayyss………
I signed up for a few Semester at Sea sponsored trips in the summer before I left, and one of them took place in Morocco! So on the second day I hopped on a bus with about 40 other students for a 3-4 hour ride to Marrakesh, Morocco. Marrakesh is known for its huge market where you can buy almost anything, literally. But before that, we had a camel ride planned. Yes, I just said camels. We were on the camels for about an hour where we rode through a palm tree grove and into a Berber village. All the houses were made out of mud, rocks, and straw. As we rode through the village, all the kids would run out of their homes waving and asking for us to take their picture. They loved it. Among the people were chickens, roosters, sheep, dogs, and cats. It was a very eye opening experience to see how so many people live in Morocco. Following the camel ride, we went to the largest restaurant in Marrakesh which can seat over 1,000 people. It was huge, beautiful, and the food was amazing. Lots of meat, carrots, olives, and toonnss of cous cous (the food so nice they named it twice). We stayed at a hotel that SAS booked for us in advance, and the following morning we woke up for a tour of the city and some free time in the markets to shop. I visited another mosque, a few small markets, and then the larger one that everyone knows of. There were snake charmers, trained monkeys (on chains, very sad to see), fortune tellers, palm readers, and then a vendor or shop for just about anything you could imagine. It was fun, yet sometimes a tad scary, interacting with all the people and bargaining for items. Lets just say I didn’t make too many friends in Marrakesh because I never paid for anything unless I got them below the halfway mark of their initial price. Mom and Dad would be proud. I was able to get lots of great gifts, so come Christmas time, be on the lookout for a present with your name on it. The next day I got back on the bus and we made the trip back to Casablanca. It is not difficult for me to say that Marrakesh was way better than Casablanca, but both places were still experiences that I am glad to have had.

As of now we are sailing down to Ghana! I should arrive in about 4 days, I think. I have a few trips planned which include a hike to the largest waterfall in Ghana where we’re supposed to see tons of Mona monkeys, a tour of historical slave dungeons, and a visit to an orphanage. I cannot wait to get there. With all that said, I think that’s about it for now! I will try to post blogs more often so there are more that are a little shorter! I hope everyone is doing well, and I miss you all very much! If you have any other questions about my trips or just want to say hi, please e-mail me at acbozich@semesteratsea.net I love e-mail, so don’t hesitate! Talk to you all soon.

Love,
Alex