Final Days

The day after we left Guatemala I had my last finals. I said goodbye to all my professors and got their emails. After classes were over SAS turned into Spring Break 2009. I mean, we didn’t have classes or anywhere to be. All we had to do was eat, sleep and hang around the pool.

After the last finals day was when we transited the Panama Canal. We had a professor narrate what we going through and seeing as we did the 9 hour haul through the canal. We went through three locks saw a lot of other boats. I thought it was really cool seeing the personal sailboats passing by, they were traveling so far! We are the last voyage to completely circumnavigate the globe, the one next semester is starting in San Diego and ending in Florida, once we found out it was $150,000 to go through the canal it all made sense why.

It was SO hot in Panama and there was no sign of a breeze from any direction. We chilled around the pool all day and I thought I was in a frying pan. We were all trying to soak up the sun and last bits of Semester at Sea. There was a ping pong tournament going on and at one point I got up to get some water, I was walking with my bag and I guess I navigated a bit too close to the ping pong table, the ball went into my bag hahaha WHOOPS! The guys are REALLY serious about ping pong, or any intramural sport, so they were not happy with me. They had to start over, I thought it was hilarious.

That night was the Ambassador’s Ball. All the girls get snazzy, the guys wear their Vietnamese suits and we all have a 5 course dinner followed by a night of dancing! The meal was SO good; I had coconut shrimp, French onion soup, Caesar salad and a steak. We were allowed two glasses of wine at dinner but the staff that was serving my table loves me so I got poured a wee bit more, yes! After dinner we all went to a room to have a little “pre-game party.” My friend snuck two bottles of vodka on the ship by pouring them into ziplock bags and stuffing them in her bra. She went from A cup to DD, but hey it worked! We had music playing and once again everything was bitter sweet. After our little party we went up to the dance floor. It was so CROWDED and the ship was rocking like crazy. It was one of the funniest things I have ever experienced, we were all sardines on the dance floor and when a wave would come we would all, as a group, fall completely in one direction and then sway back the other. Feet were bleeding and elbows were thrown, every time I fell on someone I would say, “Sorry, sorry! It wasn’t me it was the wave!” There is always a point in the night when things wind down and people start pairing off as “couples for the night” and disappear. That’s usually when it gets awkward for me, so I just went to bed. The Ball was fun and a good way to begin to say goodbye to everyone.

The next day was packing day. It didn’t take me too long to pack but I had 4 huge suitcases, more than anyone I had seen. I 100% over packed but oh well, I had everything I needed. Once I was done packing I went up to the pool. We all stayed at the pool, grabbed dinner and watched the sunset. I couldn’t believe it had been 4 months already. One more day on the ship…

The last day was called “Re-Entry/Reflecting/Convocation.” At 10am we had a graduation ceremony for seniors and an official alumni celebration. We were welcomed into the Alumni association for Semester at Sea, which includes a 5 day voyage to Cabo san Lucas in January. I emailed my Mom about it saying I wanted to go and she wrote back, “I know you are.” I think it’s good that my parents have accepted that I “ask” for permission but really it is a rhetorical question, the answer is already known. We went back to our rooms when the ceremony was finished and when my sea, the Yellow Sea, was called we had to bring our luggage down to deck 2 in preparation for the next day. After that it was another day at the pool. It was the last day on the ship and it was all we could talk about. How did all of this happen so quickly? I can’t even begin to digest all I have seen.

Everyone had their cameras out for the whole day, taking all the pictures they could in 24hours. We all planned to stay up the entire night to watch the sunrise and see the lights of Florida approaching. I lasted until about 4am, went to sleep for two hours and then got up to meet those who made it through the whole night. We were on the seventh deck and I saw the sunrise, and then I saw the lights. I was excited but sad. I couldn’t wait to see my dad but I didn’t want to leave my friends. There’s something different about friendships when you go through something like this together. We always say how SAS is like a secret society because anyone can go abroad to a country but ONLY SAS can come on the ship and ONLY we know what goes on.

The lights of Florida got closer and closer. My phone picked up AT&T service from shore and that’s when I knew it was really over. We were all piled on the decks to see the parents as we rolled in. I called my mom as we went through the jetties of Ft. Lauderdale Port Everglades harbor. The girl who won the raffle for blowing the horn as we pulled into port made it sound. Literally, she must have pulled it a thousand times; I thought my ears were going to blow off. My dad said that after two horn blows it means you’re in danger, well anyone who was listening would have thought we capsized or were about to go under.

We turned the corner into port and we saw the parents standing waiting for their little Magellans. There was my dad, front center at the gate like I knew he would be. Really, what time did you get there? 6am? Have to get their early. I told my friends to watch him because I know his love for boats; he wouldn’t look for me on the deck until he watched the ship dock. And that’s exactly what he did; if it was his boat and I throw the lines out to early I would get the standard “Don’t throw the lines out yet! Don’t let the guy pull us in from the dock! I’ll do it and then you throw them!” Well no one was going to pull this ship on manually so we didn’t have to worry about that.

Finally he saw me and he lifted his hand out of his pocket, gave me an under the chin wave. I pointed him out to my friends and he gave them a salute. I also told them I feel like our friendships went to the next level because my friends rarely meet my dad so that means we were extra close.

P.S. we were woken up this morning to another ridiculous America song, I just can’t remember what it was because I was sleepless and delusional.

We had a little while before we could leave the ship. When customs was cleared a fellow student came over the loud speaker to say an amazing speech, at the end he said, “DING! You are now free to roam about the country,” wow it was over. My friends and I sat around on the 7th deck outside. They called everyone off by their seas, we were the fifth sea to be called so we all said goodbye to those who left before us.

It was cool that all my closest friends were in my sea so we got to walk off together. Most of my closest friends were guys and it was only me and them left, no tears were shed we were all just sitting together. Finally Luke came on the speaker and said, “Yellow Sea you can now disembark.” We immediately looked at each other and started crying, yes… guys were crying. We all hugged and said our goodbyes, which were some really nice things. We went down to our rooms, grabbed our backpacks then went to the gangway. I got a picture of my last swipe out and we were all just really quiet together. The bag claiming process was intense but we all met up again before customs. We walked through customs and we were outside, on land, in America. It was like a little waiting area in front of the parents once you walked outside so they could see who came out and tell if it was their child or not. I met some of my friend’s parents as I looked for mine. We all did one final hug goodbye and I saw my Dad come through the crowd to hug me. I made it, without a scratch on me. I was so happy to see him and now I was in “home” mode. I just wanted to get back.

Semester at Sea was the most amazing thing I have ever done. Less than 1% of the world’s population circumnavigates the world. I saw poverty up close and experienced current events first hand. In 108 days I saw 12 countries, traveled 34,319 miles, changed my clock 26 times, lost an entire day through the date line and circled the entire world. I recommend this program to any other that is offered, I love being a SAS Alumni. I have made friends I will keep for a lifetime. None of us said goodbye, we just said “See you soon.” Thank you Mom and Dad for the most incredible experience yet. I can’t fathom how I am going to begin to put this on my resume.

Don’t cry because it’s over, smile because it happened.

The theme for our voyage was “Ubuntu.” A person is a person through other persons, no one can be human in isolation.

Thanks for reading,
Bon voyage
Jaclyn