Reverse Culture Shock

I have now been home from Semester At Sea for a little over a month and am settled into the next phase of my life- living in New York City for the summer before my senior year of college. I’m sitting on a train on my way home for the weekend and although the rocking of the train isn’t quite like the rocking of the ship on the open seas, it does bring back memories of getting rocked to sleep if I close my eyes. I don’t know if it has hit me yet that I literally circumnavigated the world last semester, or that I faced my fear of change and overcame it. I do know that Semester At Sea was the hardest but most rewarding experience of my life and I wouldn’t change a thing about my experience. From laughing so hard tears were rolling down my face while horseback riding through the rainforest of Costa Rica to the real uncontrollable tears rolling down my face in Malaysia when I was so homesick I didn’t think I could make it one more week, I cherish the good times and the bad. I believe that without the lowest of lows there wouldn’t have been the highest of highs.

The rollercoaster of emotions I experienced during those 4 months came from my eyes slowly being opened to the world around me. From realizing how horrible the conditions in India are or how technologically advanced Japan is to noticing the approachability and genuine happiness of the kids in the township in South Africa to learning about the awful genocide in Cambodia I have come to the conclusion that although there are so many atrocities in the world, it’s the human resiliency through these atrocities that makes the world so unique and interesting.

Looking back on the trip I have come to realize that it was not the countries I visited but the people that I met along the way that changed and affected me the most. At the beginning of the trip I was really unsure about my decision to travel around the world because I was scared of the unknown and nervous about the cultures I would be immersed in. Four months later, traveling is now a part of me that will never go away. Recently I have noticed so many people talking about going to Mars or discovering life outside our world; however, I now believe that there are so many worlds within our own world still left to be discovered.

Four years ago I was designing my senior yearbook page. I had a hard time deciding on a quote to put on the page that represented the way I felt about life and where I was in my life at the time. In the end I chose a quote by Louisa May Alcott and to this day believe that I couldn’t have picked a more perfect quote to symbolize my life. On the page, below a picture of myself with the farm in the background, the quote read “I’m not afraid of storms, for I’m learning how to sail my ship”. I believe that I am still learning how to sail my ship but I am pretty confidant I now have the basics mastered.

I couldn’t have asked for a better abroad experience. Semester at Sea gave me the world, and for that I will always be grateful. Thank you for traveling around the world with me. Thank you for taking the time out of your busy lives to read, think about and comment on the things I experienced. Thank you all for your love and support throughout not only this semester but throughout my life. Although my blog ends here, my journey does not and neither does yours. Travel if you have the means to. Explore, Dream and Discover the world around you and know that it is never too late to begin learning how to sail your own ship. 

Costa Rica

After 10 straight days at sea full of studying for finals, cramming to get last minute homework turned in and conferences with teachers, it was a nice change to be on land. However, this change was bittersweet because I knew that Costa Rica would be our last port of this entire journey. We arrived in Puntarenas on the Pacific coast of Costa Rica early Saturday morning and like usual got of the ship quickly to start our short two day stay. A couple of my friends and I decided to go to Jaco which is about an hour away from Puntarenas because we heard there was a lot more to do there than in Puntarenas. We took an hour long cab ride to Jaco, had lunch then decided to visit some travel companies set up along the road to see what kinds of adventures we could get ourselves into that day. ATVing, paragliding, surfing, horseback riding, and just about any watersport were options. We decided to think about it for a while while we went to the beach to swim and sunbathe for a couple hours. After exhausting ourselves trying to bodysurf in the strong currents of the pacific ocean we ventured back to the adventure companies. We had our options down to two- we would either go ATVing or horseback riding. As college students on a budget, we chose the cheaper of the two- horseback riding.

We got in a car that took us to the bottom of a mountain where we were met by two 12 year old boys and a man that looked like their grandfather. Horses were set up a long the road and we each not so gracefully got onto our chosen horse. We nervously headed up the mountain with our 12 year old guides. The horses were in control and as amateur horseback riders we were frightened by the thought of our horses galloping out into the sunset with us through the Costa Rican rainforest leaving the rest of the group behind. Ok so that is a bit of an exaggeration but lets just say we weren’t too confident in our riding skills. Rudy took the lead up the mountain and in no time we all got our bearings. Mikes horse stopped to eat every 3 minutes, Leila’s only wanted to walk slow or gallop at full speed and Ben and I laughed the whole time watching each other unsuccessfully attempt to horseback ride. We luckily got back down the mountain with no injuries and no lost friends. We said goodbye to our horses and got into a cab laughing hysterically at what we had just done the past few hours. Exhausted from a long day of adventures in Costa Rica we headed back to the ship for a goodnights sleep.

The next day I woke up early to hopefully get on a trip to go to a Costa Rican zip lining park. I got a ticket and got on the bus, unfortunately this was not the bus my other friends were on so I made a couple new friends as we headed to the park. This was an interesting last day on land for me because the first day in our first country of Puerto Rico I also went zip lining through the rainforest. I almost felt like I had come full circle as I got harnessed on to the lines. The best part of this morning was that I went to the park with one of the tallest and longest zip lines in the world. The last zip line in the park was over a kilometer long and over 2,000 feet high. It took about 60 seconds to fly across it. It was so much fun and I would definitely make that a priority if I ever venture back to Costa Rica again.

After returning to the ship in the afternoon, we went to the beach, had lunch, walked around the shops and took in our very last sunset from land before boarding the ship for the VERY last time. It was emotional as we swiped our card to get back on the ship as we realized that the next time we would be getting off the ship in Miami we would not be returning to the place we now considered our second home.

That night I sat by myself on the 8^th deck listening to music, and waiting to watch the ship leave port. As I looked up into the sky as dusk turned to night, I caught a glimpse of a star and like always when I see the first star appear in the night sky I recited to myself “star light, star bright, first star I see tonight, I wish I may, I wish I might, have the wish I wish tonight”. Staring up into the sky with the engine rumbling underneath my feet as the ship pulled away from the dock, I paused and realized that for the first time in my life I had nothing to wish for. I have an amazingly supportive family, more friends than I honestly know what to do with, and now a pure sense of accomplishment and purpose in life. I was genuinely happy, healthy, and savored that moment. As I head back into the real world I know I will see a star and have hundreds of things to wish for, but I will always cherish and remember that moment sitting on the deck feeling the happiest and proudest I have ever felt.