Pizza, Pasta, Gelato, Oh My!

Even though we only left Italy yesterday, it feels as though it was
forever ago that we were there. Maybe its because we spent 6 days in the
country which is the longest time we've spent in any place so far. Our
time in Italy was divided between two ports, one outside of Florence and
one outside of Rome, with the option to travel overland which meant that
we didn't need to get back on the ship between the two ports. I've been
to Italy before, specifically to Florence, Rome and Venice, so I wanted
to make sure that my experience this time was different and that I saw
new places that I hadn't been before.

Our first three days we were based out of the port of Livorno. Livorno
is actually a really nice town which was pretty much destroyed during
World War II and has rebuilt itself since then. Most people left the
ship right away to start their adventures throughout Italy and didn't
return to the ship until our last day in our second port. For the first
day, I decided to stay close by and head to Pisa which was only about a
15 minute train ride from Livorno. What I didn't know was that the walk
from the port to the train station was an hour. I went to Pisa with two
other staff members on the ship and we decided to have a really relaxed
day with no specific plans. We arrived in Italy on a Sunday so a lot of
things were closed but we still managed to have a great time. We
wandered around Pisa, stopped for a slice of pizza, stopped a second
time for large beers, and then we finally ended up at The Leaning Tower
(we also managed to pick up a fourth staff member on our way to the
tower). The area around the tower was nice, but was filled with lots of
tourists. It was still really neat to see, but I honestly thought it
would be a lot taller than it was. We took pictures, but none of the
stereotypical tourist pictures and then headed back into town stopping
for gelato and then finding a nice, off the main road, family restaurant
where we shared multiple pizzas amongst the group and drank homemade
wine that was cheaper than water. That night several of us went out for
my birthday and ended up at a little cafe outside the port talking,
eating, and drinking more wine (we were in Italy, so its totally ok). It
was really nice to spend time with some of my friends on the ship for a
pre birthday celebration.

The second day, my birthday, I spent my day leading a field program to
Sienna and San Gimignano. My last semester at UT, I took a Renaissance
history class as an elective that pretty much only talked about these
two places so when I saw this was a field program I could go on, I knew
I needed to sign up for it. Sienna is absolutely beautiful and I wish I
had been able to spend a couple days there. The city was built on three
hills and is divided into 17 districts (kind of like the Hunger Games).
Each district has there own crest and when you walk around the city you
can tell what district you are in because each of the roads have little
crests. I really wish I had been on a tour of all 17 districts. I think
we ended up walking through about four. I also ended up having a
delicious birthday lunch with five of my co-workers at a restaurant that
we just happened upon. We had three bottles of house wine, two appetizer
plates with different local meats, and then for my entree I had a
ravioli pasta with pear and cheese inside with a Gorgonzola cheese cream
sauce and walnuts on top. If your mouth isn't watering right now, then
we can no longer be friends. San Gimignano was our second stop of the
day and it is a city that used to be full of lots of towers. Today only
a few remain. It was a neat town, but far more touristy that Sienna had
been. We had free time to walk around, so I got more gelato and shopped.
It was a great day which was then topped off by my actual birthday
celebration where about eight of us went back out to the port cafes and
hung out for several hours.

The third day began my independent travel in Italy where myself and one
other RD headed off to explore two other places while the ship sailed on
to Rome. Our first stop was Milan which is really just an urban city
with lots of shopping. I got a little lost going to our hotel, but we
finally found it and were able to get settled and then head off to the
city. We went down to the main cathedral where we quickly realized
neither of us would be getting int because we didn't have appropriate
clothing on. This was really disappointing, but it was still spectacular
to see from the outside. The rest of our day was spent consuming Italian
food, shopping, and wandering the city with an early night in at the
hotel. Milan was nice, but it isn't somewhere I feel the need to go back
to unlike the place we visited on our fourth day.

My fourth day in Italy I absolutely fell in love. We visited Verona
which was about an hour and a half away from Milan by train. I didn't
know this, but the entire city of Verona is a UNESCO World Heritage
Site. It is absolutely beautiful and so picturesque that I could see
myself living there at some point. Maybe I'll end up having a house in
Santorini and another one in Verona :) We spent some time in the main
Piazza looking at memorials, the fountains, and the super impressive
Roman Arena which is second in size to the Colosseum. After that we
headed in the direction of Casa de Guilette and on the way stopped for
some coffee and to do some shopping. Casa de Guilette, which is where
Juliet's balcony is and if you have seen Letters to Juliet is where the
start of that movie takes place, is just incredible. As an English major
it was really cool to see that area that may have inspired the play.
When you walk in, the tunnel walkway walls are covered with large boards
that you can sign and write messages on. These are up nowadays to
encourage visitors to write on them instead of putting gum on the walls
to tack up letters and notes. When you walk through the tunneled walkway
you come to the small courtyard which houses the balcony and the statue
of Juliet. Legend says that if you rub the right breast of Juliet's
statue that you will be lucky in love, so you better believe I rubbed
Juliet :) The other cool thing that was in the courtyard were large
gates where you could take a lock, write note on it, and then attach
your lock to the gate. The gift shop sold locks, so of course we decided
to buy the locks and put them up. It was a really neat experience. After
that we went to another piazza for lunch and then continued our walk
around the city finding the old castle and bridge. We then headed back
to the main piazza, shopping more and getting more snacks. We ended our
day taking a little train that went around town in about 30 minutes
which was really nice to sit back, enjoy the sites, and learn more about
the city from our audio guide. We had a long trek back to Rome, the
port, and the ship after that but the day was worth all of the traveling
we ended up doing.

My fifth day was my no fun day where I was on duty and per usual got
less than three hours of sleep. I have officially been cursed on this
ship with duty and am not looking forward to my last two 24 hours duty
days which happen on 2 of the 3 last days of the voyage in Lisbon. I'm
really looking forward to being back at UWF with my normal duty and not
getting as many calls, or having to spend the night in the observation
room with students. Because I hardly slept, I almost cancelled my plans
for day six which were to just go into Rome by myself for a few hours.
I'm glad I decided to push through and go because I needed a day just to
be alone wandering the city. I went over to the Vatican but the line to
get into St. Peters was too long and it was way too hot to stand outside
waiting. I did end up doing a lot of shopping and then I ended up at the
church of the Caupchin monks whose crypt has the bones of over 4000
monks arranged in different patterns (including mummified monks) in five
rooms. It was a really neat experience going there and was somewhere
different than most tourists go to. In the first room there was a sign
that said "what you are, we once were. what we are, you will be." The
sign made me really think about life and death and how it was absolutely
true, one day, hopefully a long time from now, I will be just like the
monks on those walls- all that will remain of me will be my bones. This
experience also reminded me how important life is though and it cherish
every moment that you have.

Our final day in Italy was a class/port day. What this means is that we
are still in port, but students have classes throughout the day. Between
classes, students are allowed to leave the ship but have to stay in our
port city. Faculty and staff are permitted to leave the ship anytime
throughout the day so I got off the ship around mid day and headed into
town to explore which turned into me shopping more. I ended up getting a
new purse, several pairs of earrings, four new dresses, and souvenirs
will I was in Italy. It was a little ridiculous to tell you the truth.
The port city was actually nice and I decided to have my last Italian
meal in a little pizza restaurant that I found. I was by myself and when
I told the waiter I needed a table for one you would have thought i was
asking for the world. It took them five minutes to figure out where to
put me and then I ended up in a corner by myself next to the kitchen. I
felt really awkward but stayed and ordered food which turned out the be
the largest pizza I have probably ever seen for one person. I didn't eat
the whole thing because I had to save room for gelato which was great
because my last gelato was my favorite for my entire stay- half coconut,
half pineapple. Italy was great, but my bank account is probably not
happy with me right now.

We spent last night and all day today at sea and tomorrow morning we
arrive in the very small island of Malta. I'm excited to visit because I
really don't have any expectations about Malta and what my experience
will be. I'm taking it easy tomorrow with an afternoon field program and
then duty tomorrow night. It should be a good three days, but I'm
starting to get sad about it being the end of the voyage so soon. Five
ports to go.

A Much Needed Vacation

Some of you who think that this entire trip is a vacation will probably
be laughing at the title of this blog post. Parts of this trip are a
vacation, but there is a lot more work that goes into being an RD on
Semester at Sea than many of you probably think and honestly, I can't
adequately describe all the work that goes into it to make you all
understand what we've been going through every day on the ship. Right
now I am sitting on our top deck, eating an ice cream, and enjoying the
view so clearly today isn't that busy of a work day, but most days are.

Four years ago I took a vacation that was my first ever cruise. We went
around the Greek Islands and Turkey. On that trip I discovered that I
really did not like Athens, but loved the islands-especially Santorini.
When I looked at our itinerary for this voyage and saw that we would be
docking in Piraeus which is right outside Athens, I immediately knew I
wanted to spend any time I had available in Santorini. I was really
blessed to have my parents contribute funds to me getting to Santorini
so I have them to thank for my perfect vacation days.

Our first day in Athens I was on 24 hour duty which meant I was confined
to the ship. If you recall from an earlier post, my first 24 hour duty
experience was terrible and resulted in me not sleeping for over 24
hours. This duty experience was different, not quite as awful as the
last one, but yet again I was up all night and only managed to sleep
from about 8am to 11am the next morning. Security on the ship informed
me that they do not want me to be on duty again because I seem to be
cursed. Unfortunately for them I am on duty again when we are in Rome,
which also happens to be my favorite security officers birthdays (maybe
I should get them an ice cream cake in advance of another Lynsey cursed
duty night??). I also found out that night right after I was called down
to the gangway to start dealing with the first of several incidents that
the chief security officer, who I have given a nickname to and called my
BFF, was leaving the next morning. This came as a huge shock to me (and
I don't deal well with surprises) and I was really really upset.
Basically, had I not had so many issues that night he wouldn't have told
me he was leaving and I would have been even more upset. The ship crew
are on different lengths of contracts so we've had several people come
and go already, but to have one of my favorites leave made me really
sad. I made my other favorite security officer promise me that if he is
going to leave mid voyage (which he isn't supposed to) that he would
give me more notice than Vladdy did. He laughed at me, but agreed to do
it. I was also on duty our last day in Athens, but luckily nothing major
happened that day since everyone was really just coming back to the ship.

My middle 2 days, plus part of the morning on the last day, was spent in
Santorini. One of the other RDs, Tiffany, traveled with me and we had an
amazing time. After everything that had been going on, it was nice to
have a mini vacation away from the ship and students. We did run into a
few students while we were on the island but they didn't bother us and
everything was great. We took an afternoon flight to Santorini and it
might have been my worst flying experience ever. The flight was delayed,
the plane kept starting and stopping as we were traveling on the
gangway, and then a part of the wing literally was falling apart while
we were in mid air. The Santorini airport is also ridiculous. There is
not good way to describe it, so you all should just google images of it
and then you will understand how we felt when we saw it. We were staying
in a hotel that was about a 10 minute walk from Fira (which is the
capital of the island) which was absolutely gorgeous, had an amazing
pool, and a great owner named George who was really helpful in giving us
directions and suggestions of what we should do for our time on the
island. After throwing our stuff down, we immediately went into town to
find a cocktail and explore.

We ended up at this tiny little bar called 2brothers which had great
drink specials and had our first cocktail of the trip and a toast to
Vladdy. Supposedly the bar is a pretty big place for people to go to at
night, but when we were there it was only us and three other people
which was nice. We then spent some time venturing around Fira and
stopping in about a million different shops. We made a friend in a
pastry shop where we had baklava and bougasta while we watched the
sunset which was incredible. After the sunset we ran into some students,
said hello to them, took some pictures for them, and decided where we
were going to go for dinner. We went back to our hotel before going out
to dinner so that we could change and get ready for the night. When we
went back to the hotel we met two local guys who worked at one of the
other hotels in our complex, Thomas and Nico. They were both super
sweet, though Thomas didn't speak much English and claimed that his best
friend was a bird that had its cage over the bar. They recommended
somewhere for us to go that night after dinner and we managed to
convince them to come out with us, though when we left for dinner we
still weren't 100% sure that they would actually show up.

That first night was fantastic. We went to a restaurant for dinner that
had a beautiful view of the city and Caldera and between the two of us
we had five different plates in front of us. We tried a lot of local
Greek specialty dishes including an amazing white eggplant dip with
pita. I could literally eat that every single day and be happy. We also
got Moussaka which we both love, but it was really disappointing. After
dinner we ran into two other staff members, did a little shopping with
them (I bought a new dress that hopefully I will get to wear this week
for my birthday) and then we went to Tango to meet up with Thomas and
Nico. Tango was a really nice lounge, but it was clearly full of locals,
not tourists and we looked a little out of place. The boys did show up
and we probably stayed there for about an hour or so before deciding
that we were super tired and needed to go back and sleep. One thing that
drives me crazy about Europe is the amount of people that smoke. I don't
care if people chose to smoke, but it is just so disappointing and
everyone was smoking where we were. I think thanks to the laws that the
US has now about smoking in bars/restaurants in different places that
I've become a bit of a snob when it comes to smoking. I guess I just
need to get used to it for the next month.

Our second day in Santorini was absolutely jam packed. I had found a
tour company that had a day tour of the entire island which sounded
really great and was a wonderful price. We started the day going up to
the highest point in Santorini where a monastery used to be and a
military base is now. From this point we were able to see the entire
island (which is actually comprised of 5 different islands) and look at
the small crazy runway we had come into the day before. It was a
beautiful view and a great start to our day. From there we headed to a
local village where we got to climb a bunch of stairs (there is a lot of
climbing in Santorini) see beautiful blue domed churches, and more
spectacular views of the island. Our next stop was down to the old port
where we boarded a wooden boat to continue our tour. We headed over the
caldera, which is an active volcano which last erupted in the 1950s. We
had to hike up the caldera, and if you know me, you know that outdoor,
physical activities are not my strong point or my favorite. The caldera
was absolutely beautiful though and I will try to post some pictures of
it on facebook so that you can see hat the volcanic island looks like. I
was really proud of myself for climbing all the way up and down without
dying.

Our boat then took us over to the hot springs. I thought it would be
pretty cool to swim in the volcanic hot springs, but it was not. This is
something that I would recommend you skip doing if you are in Santorini.
When you get to the area of the hot springs instead of it being the
beautiful blue water you see everywhere else, it is orange, nasty, and
smells like rust because essentially everything under the water is rust.
The waves were also pretty strong so swimming was not easy. We probably
stayed in the water for about ten minutes or so before giving up and
going back to the boat. For the remainder of the day I felt yucky and
continually had to scrap large amounts of salt off of my skin from
swimming in the hot springs. So, in short, if you ever go to Santorini
there is no need for you to go swimming in the hot springs. After that
disaster the boat continued on to another island that makes up
Santorini, Thirssa. This is a tiny little island that is the home to
about 300 people. The bottom of the island is the port with little shops
and restaurants and the village itself is on the top. You can either
climb 198 very long and steep steps to get to the top of pay to ride a
donkey. We tried to walk up, but gave up pretty quickly and decided to
stay in the port area. We could have taken the donkeys, but after my
last donkey ride in Santorini where my donkey Fred tried to run me off
the island, I had no desire to pay for a donkey ride again. We had lunch
at a delicious gyro restaurant and spent the rest of the time wandering
the port area and doing a little shopping.

The last stop on our tour was to Oia which is one of the end points of
the main island of Thira (which is what most people just refer to as
Santorini itself if they don't know there are actually five islands that
make up Santorini). Oia is the picturesque Santorini village where you
see the windmill, lots of blue domed churches, the white houses, and the
iconic sunset. We had about two hours to wander before sunset so we
pretty much walked the entire town going into about 1000 different
shops. We found some really neat places though were there were hand
painted crafts and I treated myself to two things for my birthday. We
walked to the edge of the village for sunset and it was the most
beautiful thing that I have seen in a very long time. I took lots of
pictures, so eventually I should be able to post those on facebook for
you all. All in all, even though the day was long it was perfect. We
topped the night off by going to a restaurant that we had made
reservations at the night before and Tiffany had told that it was my
birthday. We were treated like royalty and they had even made a special
cake for me and then brought us Santorini dessert wine which tasted just
like ice wine and I wanted to take a whole bottle home with me but
didn't. It technically wasn't my birthday, but Tiffany and I won't be
together for my birthday and she wanted to celebrate it when we had a
chance. Santorini was incredible and I can't wait to go back there
again, hopefully for an even longer period of time. I honestly wouldn't
mind living there at all so maybe I need to start learning Greek :) I'm
pretty sure my mum and dad wouldn't object to me living there because
then they'd have a place to visit!

The past few days we have been back on the ship and I've been
celebrating the week of Lynsey which includes the time in Santorini, a
hot stone massage in the ship spa, going to an awesome reception with
Mexican food tonight, having a four course meal on the ship tomorrow,
and then two nights of going out in Italy. I've never made a week out of
my birthday before, but I'm kind of enjoying it and may need to make
this happen in the future. It is beverage service now (earlier when I
started writing this it was the afternoon and I was eating ice cream but
I had to go back to work and take a break from writing) and so far the
students are behaving. I'm especially missing my bff Vladdy right now as
security plays a large role in beverage service, but the good news is
that my other favorite will be up here in about 30 minutes so it will
make me missing Vladdy a little better. Just so you all know, we have 6
days in Italy so it will probably be a week or so before I'm able to
write again. I'm spending the first day in Pisa/Florence, the second day
in Sienna, the third day in Milan, the fourth day in Verona, the fifth
day on the ship for duty, and the 6th day in Rome. As you can see, it is
going to be a pretty busy week. I know this was a long post, so if you
made it all the way to the end I'm grateful :) Till next time!

Ice Cream, White Pants, and a Santorini Viewing

Phew. I feel like so much has happened since I wrote last. We've been to
two ports and will be arriving at a third tomorrow, so I figured it was
time I finally wrote again. The title of the blog today has a funny
story to it, but basically I was having an awful day and the three
things that made it better were ice cream with a good friend, seeing
people in white pants, and then a gorgeous viewing of Santorini as we
were sailing from Crete to Kusadasi. Clearly it is little things that
can make me smile :)

I'm really not sure where to begin since I did a terrible job writing
after each port like I have been intending to do. I have a cold right
now which is not making things fun and the ship is super rocky, so I
wouldn't be surprised if we have some sea sick students tonight.
Buuuuuttt, we get an ice cream cake tonight for being awesome so I am
SOOOO excited for that! Okay, back to what I've been doing for the last
couple of ports.

As some of you know, our original itinerary included a stop in Istanbul.
With everything that has been going on there, ISE had to make the quick
decision to change our voyage. In rerouting us, we got two ports for one
and even though I was really disappointed not to be going to Istanbul, I
was excited to be headed back to Crete and Kusadasi (I visited both
ports in 2009). Because of everything that had been going on
personally/professionally which i vaguely wrote about in my last post, I
decided to use Crete to relax and spend time with my other friends on
the ship who aren't RDs so that I could really separate myself from work
as much as possible. Crete was AMAZING. The first day we spent walking
around Heraklion which was the part of Crete that we docked in. The town
was really nice and we did a lot of walking. We ate lunch at a delicious
Greek restaurant that one of my friends found in Lonely Planet and I had
Moussaka which was absolutely amazing and I could literally eat every
single day. I'm so excited that we are headed back to Greece tomorrow so
that I can have even more yummy Greek food. After lunch we took a public
bus up to Knossos Palace which was nice, but pretty disappointing
compared to other places I've been to. It was still nice to journey a
little bit out of the main port area and do something "cultural." The
rest of the day was spent wandering the city center some more, doing a
little shopping, and then having a happy hour drink. We went looking for
dinner after happy hour, but ended up finding a rooftop bar with a
gorgeous view and had another drink instead of eating. I was with such a
great group of people who kept me smiling and laughing all day which was
exactly what I needed.

The second day in Crete four of us decided to head out of Heraklion and
go visit another part of the island. Our main goal was to eat more
delicious Greek food and find a beach to relax. We made a last minute
decision to head to Agios Nikolas which was on a postcard that someone
had bought the day before and looked really pretty so again we braved
the public bus (which was actually a very organized, easy to use system)
and headed on about an hour and a half journey across the island. When
we got to Agios Nikolas, I looked around and realized that this was the
port my ship had docked at in 2009. I was excited to be back because I
really loved the town. We took a walk down to the lake area in the town
and then found a great restaurant for lunch where we did indeed have
even more delicious Greek food. The funny thing about any SAS
participant is that when we find restaurants and cafes that have good
wifi we will sit there and not talk to each other because good wifi just
doesn't exist on the ship and that was the case with where we went to
lunch. Our waiter was super nice and talked to us about his life and
what he does before work every day and even recommended a beach for us
to go to. We were hoping for a sandy beach, but it ended up being a
pebble beach. That was okay with me though because nothing will compare
to the white sand beaches in Pensacola and the water was so clear,
beautiful, and absolutely wonderful to go swimming in. I even wore my
bathing suit and didn't care who saw me in it or what they thought (yay
for me!). It was seriously the perfect day and just what I needed after
all the craziness that was going on.

We had one day at sea between Crete and Kusadasi which was my super
crappy day on the ship. I will say this, in the past two weeks I have
learned that I have absolutely amazing and caring people on the ship
with me who are ready to literally fight for me if they needed to. It
has been wonderful to be surrounded by such a caring family while I work
through everything. When I was super upset I had a co-worker come find
me and just chat, and then after that I had another one take a break
from work and buy me ice cream on the 7th deck which was amazing (hence
the ice cream in the title) and then another who yelled at me to make
sure I got a white pant sighting to make me smile :) Our captain made
the decision to sail through Santorini so that we could all see the
island that evening and I appreciated that so much. It was what I needed
and to see students looking at the amazing island for the very first
time brought a huge smile to my face. I'm so much more excited to go
back to Santorini this week now!

We arrived in Kusadasi on Thursday and spent two days in that port.
Because I had been to Kusadasi before, I decided to add another field
program and served as the liaison for it. The field program went to
Ephesus, Pergamum, Gallipoli and Troy over the course of the two days.
It was a lot of driving, but was well worth it to see different places
and to go from one continent to another twice in one day!! I had been to
Ephesus before, but it is such an incredible place and somewhere I think
if you get the chance to go to, you need to go. The layout of the city
is incredible and there is just so much history there. Pergamum was also
an interesting city to visit and we had a great view of the acropolis
from the city ruins. We spent the night in an AMAZING hotel in Cannakale
which is where the horse that was used in the movie Troy is currently on
display. A student didn't show up for the trip, so I ended up getting my
own room which was nice because I had another chance to just be by
myself and relax. During the trip we also got to eat a lot of different
Turkish food which was a really nice bonus.

The second day we got up and took a ferry over to Gallipoli. I literally
could have spent both days just going around Gallipoli. It is such an
incredible place and to think about what happened there is unbelievable.
For those of you who don't know, Gallipoli was an eight month campaign
during World War I that resulted in over 500,000 casualties. Throughout
the peninsula you can see many monuments, memorials, battlefields and
trenches. I really do not think we spent enough time there, but I am so
thankful to have had the opportunity to go to a place where so many
people gave their lives. We also got to go to a new museum about
Gallipoli that was a simulation center where we through about 12
different rooms to learn the history of the campaign (of course it was
told through the lens of the Turkish). I am really glad that we went to
this before we headed out into the battlefields so that the students on
the trip could really understand where we were going. After Gallipoli we
went to Troy which was really disappointing, but still neat to see
especially with all of the stories that surround Troy. We arrived back
to ship very late last night and due to my cold I went to bed almost
immediately.

Tomorrow we arrive in Athens (technically Piraeaus) and will be here for
the next four days. I'm on duty the first and last days, but I get to
spend time in Santorini in between and I cannot wait to be back in
Santorini :) There are some concerns about a strike happening on the
16th, so I'm keeping my fingers crossed that everything goes smoothly
getting to and from Santorini.

I'm sorry this post has been kind of all over the place, but with the
cold medicine, rush to get something posted before we get to the next
port, and my putting two ports in one post made for a scatterbrained
Lynsey. I'll be coming to you from Greece again tomorrow :)

Mixed Emotions

There is a lot that I would really like to talk about in this post that
I just won't be able to. The title of this post is pretty much the best
way to describe how I'm feeling right now after my experience in
Antalya. This job is absolutely amazing as I've said before and is
offering me opportunities that I have never experienced, but it is hard.
Really hard. When you live in such a small community, and especially one
that when you are at sea, you can't escape from, things become much more
intense than they would in any other situation or community. For student
affairs professionals, this is a great learning environment and
professional growth environment, but any one out there who wants to
apply for this job just based on the fact that you get to travel around
the world, also needs to be prepared to work hard, work long hours, and
deal with many situations you wouldn't be faced with on a land campus.

For those of you who have never heard of Antalya, Turkey before (which I
hadn't until it became a port after we took of Egypt and Tunsia),
Antalya is located in south Turkey right on the Mediterranean Sea. The
port city has a very long history dating back to around 150 BC and is an
area with several incredible ruins from the ancient Roman and Greek
periods. Today, Antalya has turned itself into a resort city. There are
just over a million people who live in Antalya, but the city has over
500,000 hotel beds. It is a top vacation destination from Germans and
Russians and if you ever get the chance to see Antalya, you will
immediately understand why- it is absolutely beautiful. The mountains in
the area are gorgeous and are more like the Rocky Mountains than the
Smokies, and the harbor/general landscape reminds me a lot of a scene
out of Tuscany. The weather was great while we were here, though very
very hot and the old town was a great area to spend time during the
night and at night to explore, shop, and eat delicious food.

The first day in Antalya, I was schedule to go on two field programs.
Immigration was running late again, so we left about half an hour after
we were supposed to, but luckily I made it back in time from the first
field program to eat lunch and make it onto the second. The first field
program was supposed to be a city orientation but it ended up being an
hour and a half in the Antalya museum and then about 20 minutes quickly
walking through old town. I did not feel oriented with the city at all
at the end of the program. As a history nerd though, the museum was
really cool as it was filled with all kinds of ancient artifacts and
statues. My second trip was much better and was to two ancient sites,
Aspendos and Perge. Our first stop was Aspendos which is an ancient
amphitheater. They still use this amphitheater from performances today,
though it is currently under some renovations and is not being used this
summer. A lot of you won't know this, but I love ruins and ancient sites
so I was pretty impressed by the state of the ampitheatre and we were
given time to walk around, explore, climb up the steps and pictures.
During my time at Aspendos, I was approached by a Turkish man dressed in
a gladiator costume who attempted to seduce me and would not let me
leave until I took pictures with him (which of course I could purchase
at the gift shop). It was a funny experience for sure. Perge is a city
about 40 or so minutes from Antalya that is in ruins but still fairly
complete. It was amazing to walk through the ancient city ruins and
learn about the history and what each piece of the ruins was and how it
connected to every day life back in the time when the city thrived. It
reminded me a lot of Ephesus, though on a much smaller scale. I'll
hopefully get some pictures posted on facebook soon so you can see the
city. That night, I decided to go back in Antalya with a group of
friends for dinner and drinks. We walked around old town and ended up
finding a hole in the wall place with all outdoor seating and a Turkish
musician singing and playing guitar. No one in the restaurant spoke
English so we were only able to order beer not food but it was a great
place to unwind and spend time with friends. After that we went back to
the main square and had delicious lamb and chicken donner sandwiches and
watched some fire throwers down below. Overall the first day was great!

The second day I was confined to the ship and was on duty. Luckily this
port had a little cafe off the ship, so I was able to leave the ship
twice and go down there for lunch and then for a snack later on in the
evening. I also spent some time in the pool while on duty which was
really nice because usually when the students are on board, I would
never get time in the pool because it is pretty small. Duty went pretty
well until about 3am when I was called down and got to spend 3 hours
with a student in our observation room. This is the part that I want to
talk to you all about and want to share my experience, but I just can't.
One because it is still fresh/I'm still trying to process everything and
two because even though I would be sharing from my perspective and what
I went through for three hours, it is still about a student and I just
don't think I should talk about it. I will say that it was one of the
worst experiences of my life and there is going to be quite a lot of
healing that needs to happen that might take a while both for me and for
the student. If you saw my status on facebook the other day, it was
about my experience that night and if you really want to check in and
know more, just email me. I have a great support system on the ship so
I'm being taken care of so try not to worry (though I know some of
you....mum...will worry anyway). And this experience made me love our
ship security staff even more than I already did...they are pretty
amazing and I'm thankful to have them around! Also, for those of you who
have read about my "love" of beverage service on facebook, there is
something I like even less than that now and I will stop complaining
about beverage service :)

The third day (which was when I got off duty at 8am) I had only slept
for an hour but I really needed to get off the ship so two RDs and
myself went into town and went shopping. Shopping is a great cure for a
rough night. And we had dessert for breakfast/lunch which was also a
good life choice. I bought waaayyyy too much in Turkey and went super
over my budget that I had for this port, but it was such a great port
that I can't complain. I also had gangway duty last night which wasn't
bad because we didn't have as many large groups coming in at once and
all our students made it back on time again! After gangway duty a few of
us went down to the port cafe for a drink and to relax so that was nice.
And we got to see a lot of the crew in regular clothes, relaxing which
was also great because they deserve time off the ship any time they can
because they work so so hard!

Today was our last day in port and it was actually a bonus day for us.
The students had class and could leave the ship between classes (but
would have a huge penalty if they missed class) but as staff our boss
gave us the day to go into port if we wanted to. Six of us headed back
into town and went to a Hamam, Turkish Bath, that I had found because we
didn't want to leave Turkey without that experience. Some folks on the
ship had really bad experiences at Hamams earlier in our stay so I was
really worried that the place I had researched and found wouldn't be
good and then everyone would be made at me, but luckily it was amazing!
There were 5 women and 1 man so we were separated by gender into our own
bath areas. We all paid for the full package which included a "sauna",
exfoliating rub, what I'm calling the bubble pillow bath, and then an
oil massage. The experience was amazing, so relaxing, and I will never
feel as clean again in my life. I'm going to take a shower after I
finish this post and I know I'm going to be so disappointed with the
ship shower after having the Turkish Bath experience today. If you are
ever in Turkey, this is something you need to do...just do a little
research before to make sure you end up somewhere good. Before heading
back to the ship, we had lunch at a little cafe in town that we have
grown to love and it was delicious. On ship tonight was our belated 4th
of July BBQ which was great! I am so exhausted now though and can't wait
to go to sleep soon and sleep in tomorrow because my body needs to catch
up on sleep so badly after the past few days!

We have one day at sea and then we will be in Crete where I have made
absolutely no plans and haven't done much research at all (I am sure you
are all shocked right now!). I'm looking forward to it because I'm going
to spend time with my non RD friends so it will be a different
experience than I've had in port so far :)

Finally Sailing in the Mediterranean

We've been at sea for five days now, and during the trek from Casablanca
to Antalya we have been quite busy. I know I've said it before, but the
amount of work that we do as a student life team in the small amount of
time that we do it in is just ridiculous. Most of my students had a
great time in Morocco and are looking forward to Turkey, but there were
a couple who did not have as a good of a time and have spent the last
five days getting support and talking through the bad experiences that
they did have. I'm hoping our students are more aware and look out for
each other more in Turkey. My biggest fear is that as we hit ports that
are more like home that our students will start taking things for
granted and will end up in a lot of trouble. All we can do on our side
is be proactive in talking to students about being safe and then be
there as support if they get back on the ship after making a bad
decision or having something happen to them in country.

So what have I been doing the past few days while we have been sailing?
Most of my time was spent planning and then executing Sea Olympics which
was held on Sunday. Sea Olympics is a Semester at Sea tradition where
each of the seas (the decks where the students live are divided into
seven seas on my voyage) compete against one another and then two other
teams made up of the shipkids on one team and the faculty/staff/lifelong
learners on another team. Myself and one of the other RDs, Tiffany, were
in charge of coming up with the entire days worth of events. Sea
Olympics day is pretty much the only day while we are at sea that
students don't have classes, so they all really enjoyed being able to
let loose, have fun, and turn the pool into what looked like spring
break in Cancun at one point. Luckily for Tiffany and I the spring RDs
did a great job keeping all the electronic files for the events so we
were able to look at those and then start planning Sea Olympics for our
voyage. We did not have a lot of time to put the event together and I am
still amazed that we were able to do it and that it was successful.

For our Sea Olympics day we had events ranging from dodgeball (where one
faculty member was playing so intensely that he tore his Achilles heel)
to ping pong tournaments to synchronized swimming to a shipwide relay.
It was an amazing day and each of the seas did a great job representing
themselves. I won't lie, I was very worried about my sea because they
didn't seem very enthusiastic and it took a lot for me to get some of
them to participate and plan events. I was really disappointed that we
ended up not having a synchronized swimming team (even though three
people told me they would take care of it) and I even made a last minute
offer to one of my students that I would get in the pool in my clothes
and just come up with something. They didn't take me up on the offer,
and I'm kind of glad of that because I had white shorts on. The students
from my sea who did participate showed so much spirit and made me really
proud. They also came in first place for the shipwide relay, which in my
opinion was the hardest event of the day because it took so many
participants and because there were 14 mini events throughout the relay.
We ended up placing 6th, but that's ok because we didn't come in last
place :) The shipkids actually did really well, placing 3rd which might
be the best they have ever done. They were so serious about the events
(even holding tryouts!!!) and all of the students were blown away by
every shipkid who competed throughout the day. They even won the cheer
and synchronized swimming events!

The best part of the day for me though was when it was done because it
was just so much to plan. We also talked the hotel director into having
taco night for dinner after the Sea Olympics and oh my gosh it was
soooooo good! I had heard about taco night on the ship, but ugh it was
so much better than what I had expected and I wish we had taco night
once a week. I also got to celebrate Sea Olympics being over with some
friends on the ship (and I made some new friends as well!) so I don't
think I went to bed until like 3am that day. The next day I was very
sick (a combination of celebrating the end of Sea Olympics and a stomach
bug that I had since we got back on the ship in Casablanca) so I took
the day off to rest, relax, and get better. Last night we had our pre
port appetizers in the lounge and it was a great way to relax and get to
taste a little bit of Turkey before we get there. The RDs also got to
play detective with Vladdy (my favorite crew member) last night which
was a great bonding experience and a really funny, albeit serious,
moment in the evening. I also had my last beverage service duty for at
least two weeks so you will not be hearing me complain about it on
facebook for a while which should probably make some of you happy!

I've also being dealing a lot with seeing the privilege of the ship this
past week. I knew that a lot of students were going to be privileged
just based on the history of the program and the cost of Semester at Sea
but I really hadn't seen it much (with the exception of some lovely
residents who boarded the ship looking like they had just walked out of
Pretty in Pink and were best friends with the character Blaine) until
this week. A lot of the privilege I've seen has been in the way that
some students treat the crew or even speak to us as staff. I'm trying to
process everything but it isn't easy. I want to have educational moments
with students about what they are doing, but there are times when you
just can't or that you know isn't a battle for you to pick at that
moment. Overall though, the students are amazing and I feel very lucky
to be working with this community.

I've also struggled over the past week with my own identity. What I mean
by this is that I am so aware that I am a white straight woman. I think
this is because the majority of the student life team are not white and
this is really the first time in my life in any situation- and
especially a work situation- where I have been in the minority group. We
are such an amazing team and I believe a very open and inclusive team,
but I'm more aware of my race than I've ever been. It has also been hard
because after the first port, I became pretty good friends with another
white female staff member on the ship who then brought me into her group
of friends who I adore and have so much fun with, but its a group of all
white people. I've never been so aware of this in my life and I'm
constantly worried now when I hang out with that group and not hanging
out with the RDs, that people are looking at me and saying things like,
oh, Lynsey's hanging out with the white kids. I feel like I'm stuck in
the middle of two groups and its hard to deal with some days because we
are such a small community and every sees what you are doing and who you
are hanging out with. I'm trying really hard to balance my time with
both groups and somehow try to bring them together, but I'm just not
sure its working and at some point I may have to chose, but I really
hope that doesn't happen. Even though I am really struggling with this
right now, I want you all to know that I am having an incredible time
and learning so much, so please don't worry about me.

We get to Antalya Turkey in about 8 hours. I'll be up around 6am to
watch us come into the port and then get breakfast with some of the RDs
before we have immigration and customs duty. I have two field programs
tomorrow, one in the morning that is just an orientation of the city
which will be helpful for when I have a free day to explore with some
folks on the 3rd day we are here and then a trip to Perge & Aspendos in
the afternoon. Tomorrow night a large group of us are hoping to get off
the ship and explore some of the nightlife in the town. We are getting
recommendations of good places to go from some of the crew since they
are really familiar with the port and like us so they wouldn't send us
anywhere shady. Don't worry mum and dad, I'll stay with the group and be
safe :)

Tomorrow I'll be coming to you live from Turkey :) And I'll write more
when our four days here are done.

PS Check out this great story and amazing pictures from Sea Olympics:
http://www.semesteratsea.org/2013/07/02/summer-2013-sea-olympics/