I am all done with Semester at Sea Summer Voyage 2010. It is hard to put into words what this summer has been and meant to me, so, instead of trying to, I will sum up the last couple of days on the ship first.

We had a day of reflection and packing after the Alumni Ball. Packing was a stressful experience. You travel to all of these places and just start buying without thinking, I have to get this stuff home. I regretted that today when I walked only 3 blocks to the hotel from the ship and about died because we had 7 bags between 2 people, haha. (Five of them with wheels and two back packs). It was rough fitting it all in, but when I was done I was proud of myself, but it was one of my first signs that the end was near.

On the 19th, the work study students had an appreciation, which was nice. We got to go up to the teacher’s lounge and eat. The campus store supervisor, Yvonne, gave me a certificate for anything in the store for free. It was a very nice gesture.

The last full day on the ship we had convocation and then a mandatory meeting on how to get off the ship and what to expect. It was nice. I had a speech for convocation, which I will post at the end of this blog. Jack and I gave it together. They had asked me, but Jack is pretty darn good speaker so I asked if she’d join me. It went very well, surprisingly ended with a standing ovation.

This morning we got off the ship in the order that we placed in Sea Olympics. We first had to say goodbye to some of Jack’s girlfriends. They were great, and we will both miss them dearly. We got off second, which was nice, but at the same time, I had some difficulty leaving. I was excited to be on the way home, Lord knows I miss my dog (oh yeah, my family too) but, this trip has been special, and I met some good people and made some great friends. When we got off and I finally had to say goodbye to my roommate, John, I couldn’t. It was hard to say goodbye to the kid because he was such a great friend and roommate. I just kind of hugged him. Jack said goodbye for me, and we went our separate directions. I am hoping him and I and some others are able to get back together sometime in the future.

Most people we knew got flights out today, but Jack and I have ours out tomorrow. We hung out with some friends from California, a couple, James and Shelby. They are nice and we hung out with them this evening. They are in the hotel with us, sharing rooms to make everything cheaper. Tomorrow, we head out for Tucson, and on Monday, I start school. The following Monday, I start work.

It is hard to say that a month ago I was in Turkey, and now, I will be in school on Monday. In the past two months, I have experienced more than most will in a lifetime. I understand the value to that, but I have yet to discover all that it can and will bring. I am excited for the future. I hope to travel again to many of the places I went to and hopefully make a difference in some of the ways that life is lived there. Neoliberal policies give great power to young American businessmen and women.

It is hard to sum up this summer. I won’t try. If you run into me, I will probably talk your ear off. I am sorry. I can’t say I have a favorite port. They were all great. If you make me:

Best Food: Greece (Other than Italy, it almost shouldn’t count)

Best History: Italy (Maybe Egypt)

Best Overall Experience: Egypt (Great friends, great memories, Great Pyramids)

Best Adventure: Croatia

Best Deals: Morocco

Best Strange Architecture: Spain

Best Port (If I had to): Turkey

I love and miss all of my friends. I will be excited to be back in Tucson. I appreciate you for reading this blog. If you truly kept up with it and read most of it, then you should be congratulated, checked out for being slow, or instituionalized, because I wrote over 31,000 words in this blog, I added some more photographs to my MobileMe gallery and as well as some videos. You should check out the videos. I worked decently hard on them and I think they do a good job rehashing the trip, even better than the photos.

gallery.me.com/jamest4

Here is our (Jack and I) speech (more or less, this was more of an outline of what we said):

Convocation Speech: Numbers

Good afternoon and congratulations on becoming Semester at Sea Alumni. As business students, we felt that the best way to sum up our trip was through some numbers:

Before we get started, we would like to thank Tom Jelke for providing all of these statistics for us.

95 pick-pockets from all the ports this summer, mostly in Barcelona

14 the number of passports lost, of which 11 were found and 3 replaced

11748 nautical miles traveled

2825 cumulative minutes spent in Global Studies

8580 Minutes of dock-time given

1786 toasties, of course about 1/3 of those were from Patrick Fogarty

4140 Burgers purchased from the pool bar as well as

24 Ping Pong Balls Lost

8540 Miles ran on the treadmills

933 Itinerary T-shirts sold

542 times that Pursers bailed us out of forgetting our ID cards in our rooms

124 Replaced ID cards

105 Meals were eaten on the ship

43920 ounces of Peanut butter was consumed

15372 Boxes of cereal for breakfast

3995 Cans of beer

4115 Glasses of wine

41, 020 Pages of paper printed, sorry trees

52 Explorer Seminars Held -

9602 Total tickets sold for SAS trips

400 condoms taken

937 visits to the clinic

31247 hours of metered internet

$500,000 to fully refuel the MV Explorer

But we know that not all of the aspects of our trip are quantifiable. It would be hard to get a count on the amount of

New friends you made

The times you laughed or smiled

The number of great stories you heard

worthwhile memories made

So what does all of this add up to?

An experience that you will never forget and I am sure you personally grew from in one way or another.

So, please, we encourage you to do 3 things

First, Spend however long you need and quietly think and reflect on some of the non-tangible gains that you will take away from this voyage, friends, memories, or perspective-changing experiences. These are things you’ll want to remember. They are the things that have changed who you are.

Second, Write a thank you note to someone on the ship that made this voyage worth while for you, it could be a classmate, a friend, a crew member, faculty, or anyone truly and let them know how appreciative you are for the impact they had on you. They made this summer great. Let them know you’re grateful for it.

And finally, Take the fire from this experience, go out and learn more about the world and the cultures around you. We encourage you to let this trip take you to new heights in regards to your current perspectives and your future endeavors.

This summer has been incredible. A life-changing experience. Don’t ever forget Semester at Sea Summer 2010 Voyage.

Thank you.

The finals lasted from 3pm to 5:30pm, which was unfortunate because our Alumni Ball Dinner, Program, and Dance started at 5:30pm. I quickly dressed up in shirt, tie, and some nice slacks (Jack in a nice dress) and we had a very nice meal with a good group of friends (my roommate and company). It was nice. Free champagne, appetizer, salad, soup, entrée (chicken or steak). Dessert was served after the program. I learned that when you are allowed champagne and two glasses of wine and you and your girlfriend dont drink. You can have a friend turn into your best friend. So between some of the friends at our table, we split up our wines and champagnes to them, to my roommate, Charlotte, and Patricks drunken delight. Haha.

After dinner, we head out to the central square where the captain was doing photos. I felt bad for the guy 700 kids wanting to take photos with him, so he just stood there like a cardboard cut out, but I obviously didnt feel that bad because I got my picture with him, gotta love the guy that took you around the world and is bringing you back home safely, deserving of a picture.

We had a program after that, which we didnt know what that meant, but they had fun games and showed a slideshow. The fun game was the Newlywed Game, which my roommate and I entered, haha. We got 2nd place. It was pretty funny. He was pretty drunk from dinner, so he didnt always have the best responses. What toothpaste does your roommate use? Uh, I dont know something with a C, like Crest, or like Colgate haha. The worst one was I was asked of him Most emabressing moment from this trip. I said that is was when he got pick-pocketed by prostitutes in Barcelona. He couldnt think of anything so he said, Probably when I go back to my room and he yells, Jack, put your shirt back on. Jack was more embarrassed than he was. I always say that joke, because he always freaks out, but Jack is always fully dressed and we are usually either watching a movie or doing homework, so it was funny to him and our group of friends that know that I say that, but not so much to Jack who got all red in the face. Shell laugh tomorrow. I hope.

After the program, we had dessert and a dance. Dessert looked better than it tasted. The dance was pretty fun. It is weird dancing when your comparative politics professor is getting down with his wife next to you, definitely different.

At the dance, we learned that our Shipboard Drive broke some serious records. 89% of the ship gave at least a $1 or more, which is okay, not great (other voyages have gotten 100%). The big deal is that between the shipboard donations drive and the auction we raised $53,847.15, which is more than $10,000 over the previous highest total and the donations drive raised over $24,000 on its own, which is more than double the second highest ever by any voyage (2nd place is $11,000). This was the first time any voyage ever had an idea emerge like Jack and mine about the study guide towards the shipboard drive donations It seemingly worked, as we have had plenty of proof from people and from the numbers when it was all said and done that it did. Semester at Sea has been going on for more than 45 years with 55,000 alumni. I am pretty proud that we were able to raise so much.

Today was a fun day, but a full one. I am exhausted, but glad I am done with school. Tomorrow, we have reflection day. I have only two more days of work. Two more full days on the ship. I am still working on my convocation speech. I will post it in two days. It is not that interesting. It is short and sweet, numbers based just like I like.

We took our Global Studies exam. It was not too bad, but it was 40% of our grade, which is ridiculous. We find out in two days the grades on the exam and the papers we turned in. I am anxious to find out. It should be an A.

The Global Studies course, which everyone on the ship takes, Jack and I made a comprehensive 28 page study guide for it. This study guide has led to several nice notions. We find out tomorrow the final number on the impact it has had on the Shipboard Drive. I am excited to find out, because I know that we had more than doubled the average amount raised and we still are not done. We donated our study guide to the Shipboard Drive (donations to Semester at Sea, which is a nonprofit for scholarships and things) and encouraged students that used it to donate some money, at least $25. It is the first time students came up with this idea, and surprisingly, staff and faculty have been giving Jack and I a great deal of love. Not surprisingly, students have been giving us some love for it too. Some kid wanted to help us out too instead of just the Shipboard Drive and set up Jack and I on a Special Occasion Dinner Date, which is normally $25 a person. We went to that tonight. You get all dressed up and have a 5 course meal. It is very nice , and Jack and I were blown away by the generousity because we really didnt know the kid. He just came up to us and told us that we needed to go set it up with the kitchen staff and that he had already paid for it.

Besides that, It has been study, study, study. Two finals tomorrow. It is all coming to a close rather quickly. It is hard to believe that I will be getting ready for my third day of Eller in a week. I am still in the middle of the Atlantic taking care of summer

We also have had some interesting parts to my International Trade class. I wrote a scathing review of the teacher and then found out that instead of typing to the comments left by students like most schools, Semester at Sea just sends them to the teachers in the hand-written form. Problem is: My teacher knows my hand-writing from essay exams. Haha. I guess he will know that I said, One of the worst professors I have ever had. And, I just Semester at Sea for hiring this professor again and again (He has been on several voyages as a teacher.). So, it will be interesting to see if he keeps up with Jack and I after those remarks, because right after our reviews he told Jack and I how much he has enjoyed us specifically and wants to keep up with us. Haha. I dont regret it though, which might be worst.

The Shipboard Drive has been interesting. I got a scholarship to be here, so I wanted to give back some. So far, we have broken every record for the Shipboard Drive donations. Jack and I have brought some decent ideas, including, promoting the Drive through selling a study guide for the class that every has to take. We have the final for that tomorrow, and I swear, Jack and I are like mini-celebrities on the ship because of the 28 page study guide that Jack mostly prepared and I helped out on.

I was selected to give the speech at graduation on the ship on the last day. I am a little nervous for it, btu when I have the speech written I will post it, so you can read it too. I asked if Jack can do it with me too, so we will be giving a team speech.

The next three days are finals. Tomorrow is our common course, Global Studies exam, and then we have a study day, and finally our last two finals for our additional courses. Two more days after that of reflection, a promotion dinner and dance, and graduation, then we are homeward bound.

It has been non-stop on this ship with everything going on. I will try to blog as exciting stuff happens, but with finals, the shipboard drive, the speech, and some communications interview I have in two days, and Jack and I are both in the Global Ambassadors Program (so we may have some training on ship on promoting Semester at Sea on our home campuses). It is tought to find the time.

I am missing all of my friends and family back home. I am really missing some good food. Six more days. Much love to everyone!

So the Shipboard Auction is part of the Shipboard Drive, which I am on the committee of. We had a silent auction and a live auction. The silent auction had signed Pittsburgh Steelers Terrible Towel and Super Bowl Champions Hat by Hines Ward, paintings, and lots of other little goodies. It raised, get this, $7,000+

Then, we got to the live auction. It lasted way too long. 3 hours of auctioning off about 25 to 30 items. Kids on this boat have way to much money. This is the list, I wrote down the item and the dollars it went for, I figured Id share it with you. Its crazy.

3 boxes of Girl Scout Cookies – $135
Dr. Campbells headband (Literally, a teachers that he always wears) – $110
Tickets to the Big Apple Circus – $850
One day of unlimited internet on the ship – $305
Two free bags of laundry done -$30
4 pool lounge chairs reserved for the last couple days of the voyage – $100
T-Shirt with all of the Questions of the Day – $600
Opportunity to Steer the Ship (30 minutes) – $475
Select the dinner menu for an evening – $400
First off the ship – $450 (Two kids at 450, holding hands down the gangway first)
Map of the Captains with route and signatures – $525
Raise the U.S. Flag as we enter Norfolk – $400
Breakfast in Bed served by your dorm leader (LLC) – $300
Sailboat race – $100
A Weekend with a Dorm Leader (Peter) in Santa Barbara – $650 (2 trips 1300 total)
30 minute phone call home – $90
Do Noon and 5:30pm announcements – $300
5 nights in a ski lodge in Big White Ski Resort in Canada 3 groups of people at $2,600 so $7,800 total
Photo session with ship photographer – $350
Visit the Steelers training camp and be on the field with lunch 2 groups at $650
Write a question on Global Studies final – $150
IT Guys Vest with lots of pockets – $140
Last Student off the ship – $500
Private tour of NYC with local for a day 2 groups at $300
Three days at Resort in Italy with spa treatment – $800
Bubble Bath in Deans Office Two groups at $150
Dinner with a faculty member in the nicer lounge two groups at $325
Reserved spot on deck as enter Norfolk – $350
Private dinner for two in Exec Deans Office Two groups at $250
Table with Captain at Alumnis Ball – $1,000
The Announcements giver does a voicemail on your phone two kids at $120
Pie Dr. Bowler in the face – $400

Grand total with silent and live auction, $30,981!

I wish I was kidding. Haha. Now, the Shipboard Drive, which is straight donations.

With that calling card, I was able to contact work. I go back the 30th, oh no! We were able to change hotels, so Jack could use her Marriott discount. Finally, we gave our parents one last call before we are off to cross the Atlantic for 11 days. It was nice to talk to them.

Now, I am just doing homework. The Shipboard Drive, which I am part of the planning committee, starts tomorrow, and the Campus Store, where I work, starts the end of the voyage sale. So, I should be pretty busy tomorrow. Hopefully I can sneak some homework in; classes begin again the day after tomorrow.

I made a small little picture collage postcard. If you want me to send you one, then please send me an e-mail with your address. I am going to get them made when I get home and send them off sometime after that. It has some pictures from each port and a spot where I can write you a little somethin something.

My e-mail while I am on the ship is: jctaylor@semesteratsea.net

I went back to bed though, which was nice, and I woke up at 1pm, totally forgetting about all of my anger from this morning. We went to the grocery store, where I stocked up on Coke for the return trip home, also very stress relieving. It was a bit of a downer, because Jack and I walked around for an hour in the heat trying to find the place, because we were told that it was walking distance. Moroccans speak either French or Arabic, not English. I ended up finding someone that spoke Spanish and they told us where to go, which I sort of understood. The many talents one can acquire when working 2 years in housekeeping, able to listen to but not speak Spanish.

After the grocery store, Jack and I went to a Souk, or a bazaar, a place to buy things for cheap where you bargain. It was a nice time. We found all sorts of fun little items. It was not that touristy either, because Casablanca is more of the business center, it was a lot of locals, all of the tourists are in Marrakesh I was told. Haha.

After that, we got some dinner at a Pizza Hut. I know we sold out. It was a day where I was hoping for some comfort food. Then, back to the ship, where we did homework. Tomorrow is our last day in Morocco. We do not have that many plans because we cannot risk being late to the ship. If we are late here, or anything goes wrong here, we cannot catch back up with the ship until the US, which means we failed all of our classes and the trip was for nothing, so we will be careful to stay near the ship tomorrow, no huge adventures.

The palace was huge. It was well guarded by men with huge guns. It was not the most impressive palace I have been to, but it had a large front garden area, one of the biggest I have seen. The palace has its own mosque for the King to go to. The mausoleum was also guarded by men with huge guns, but it was also guarded by men on horses. We got to see the changing of the horses and guards, which was good timing. I forced Jack for a photo that she didnt seem to want to take because she didnt want to get that close to those horses. The Old Medina was neat. Walked through a garden area, over looked the city, snuck through picturesque little streets of white and blue. We went into a little bakery that bakes all of the bread for the people of the town for free so that the people of the town didnt have to have their own oven or have an oven heating their house during the summer months, very communal.

Once back to Casablanca from the tour, we were able to talk to our parents on Skype. It was nice talking to them. We probably talked an hour and half or so. It was tough seeing my dog, because I am miss her pretty bad, haha. I am pathetic.

We had plans to eat dinner with two professors from the ship. They are not our professors, but they seem to like us. It is funny they do because we are nothing like them. They are in their 60s at least. They both teach liberal arts, one Shakespeare the other another form of theatre. It is blows my mind that they like us business kids so much. I think it is because Jack and I are like 80 year olds compared to the typical college students that we are on this trip with.

The Gillespies (the two professors, married, teach at University of Michigan-Flint) took us to a very nice local restaurant. We had three different traditional Moroccan meals, two kinds of desert, and some mint tea. It was a great meal! We had lamb with olive and lemon in a tagine, a chicken and almond pastilla (which is like a cinnamon crusted pot pie with nuts, super different sounding, super good), mixed meat couscous, and some Moroccan pastries. We ate and chatted with them for probably three and a half hours. They showed us the teachers suite up on the top deck with a balcony where we talked again for a bit. It was a nice evening.

Now, we are back to the ship. Jack is doing homework and I am starting to work on making a video from our trip. I cant believe we in the second week of August and we are on the last port of our voyage.

Tomorrow, we plan to go to Marrakesh. It is a cultural center. We will be there all day, should be fun.

Morocco is not near as bad as they had warned us it would be. Everyone was really helpful today. The port area is a little sketchy at night, plus it is a long walk, but if you are with a group, it is not a big deal. The city is cleaner and more beautiful than in Egypt. I had a great first impression of Morocco.

We started out on a Casablanca City Orientation. The orientation was kind of weird in the way that we bounced around all day. We went through different neighborhoods, down the beachfront, which was very nice, and we went to the third largest mosque in the world, the Hassan II Mosque. It has the tallest minaret, at 689 feet. We went to a little shop as well, where I finally bought myself a mini silk rug. We have been through all of these Muslim countries that sell beautiful rugs and I have been stingy, but now that the conversion rate is 8.4 Moroccan Durham to 1 USD, I loosened up the pocket book.

After the city orientation, Jack and I head back to the ship, where we ate some lunch with our friends, my roommate and company, where we decided to go back on the beachfront area, because it is the place to be at night. First, we stopped by at Ricks Café from the movie Casablanca. We got some drinks; I sipped a cola, with the movie playing in the background. It was pretty cool going to that place because of its significance in that regard, it is owned by a rich American lady, now.

We finally made it to the corniche, or beachfront area. We walked around a bit. Ended up talking to some girls from France for a while, who gave us some pointers on places to go in Morocco. Ate some good food and then made it back to the ship, relatively early.

Tomorrow, we are going to Rabat, which is the capital. It is a short trip, because when we get back we are hoping to Skype our parents. Two professors (A married couple who are both professors on the ship) have taken a liking to Jack and I, mostly Jack I think though, and invited us to dinner tomorrow, their treat. We are excited for a nice little meal with some of the faculty.

We got back out tests. I got pretty much straight 90s on all of my tests I have taken on this ship. Six tests, six 90%s more or less. I am still getting the Taylor 90, work hard enough to get that A, but never as hard as Jack. Jack has gotten only 100 percents so far other than in International Trade. 5 tests for her, three 100s and two 90s, what a loser. Haha. She has gotten more and more attention for being one of the biggest nerds on the ship, which in turn makes kids think I am as nerdy, but I am not quite at her level.

We are off to Morocco tomorrow. We are going through the Straits of Gibraltar this evening, and we have been told to secure all of our belongings because the ship will be doing some substantial rocking. Tomorrow, we are going to do a Casablanca city orientation. Some professors asked to go to dinner with Jack and I, which we will be doing our second day in Morocco. I cannot believe we are on out last port already.

Dont worry about me, but I guess this is supposed to be our most dangerous port yet. Some years they have knifings involving Semester at Sea students at this port.