Belgium wasn’t overly kind to the ship in terms of weather—at least not on the first day—but voyage participants didn’t care. They put on their rain jackets and scattered all over the country, visiting Ghent, Bruges, Brussels and beyond. Many stayed right in the port town of Antwerp, as the MV Explorer docked smack in the center of the city.

Antwerp is a regular stop on Semester at Sea’s Atlantic Exploration route and not only lays claim to one of the world’s largest diamond districts, but also is the seat of global diamond trading.

And, of course, no visit to Belgium is complete without a waffle and a box of chocolates from one of the city’s dozens of artisan chocolatiers.

After two full days in Belgium, the MV Explorer departed and sailed overnight to neighboring Amsterdam.

Thanks to a late spring, passengers were greeted with a delayed tulip season, which was extended this year until May 20, at which point all the tulips are cut down.

As a result, the most popular activity among passengers was to take a day trip out to Keukenhof Gardens, in nearby Lisse, which is only open for eight weeks a year.

At Keukenhof, Europe’s most well-known garden, more than seven million bulbs are planted each year over a space of 32 hectares–and not just tulips. The park is rife in orchids, lilies and other flora, too.

After getting their nature fix, many passengers returned to Amsterdam to hit up all the iconic museums, from Anne Frank’s house to the Rijksmuseum. And then it was back on the ship and onward to the British Isles!

image via San Diego Air & Space Museum on Creative Commons

McGinnes, who spent more than three decades at University of California Santa Barbara as a professor in the Environmental Studies program, describes the time as a vibrant movement. “When there is a pressure on decision makers, decision makers like me will respond,” he says. He has since been taking on environmental issues as a public institution lawyer, as well as teaching at the University of California Berkley, where he received his law degree.

McGinnes sees the environmental challenges for the future as reinvigorating the idea of citizenship to make it vibrant–so the label of consumers has no weight at all. “Let’s convince citizens, who have rights and responsibilities, that they are not just consumers,” he explains.

Another member of the discussion, George Kembel, founder and educator of the Stanford Design School, does not consider himself an activist because there is a much more of a practical link between being active and the benefits for the environment, he says.

“There is a marriage between improvement in lifestyle and environmental well being,” he explains. In other words, it’s easier to do what is right when there are advantages at multiple levels. As an expert in problem-solving and the innovative design-thinking technique, George has his own firm stance on the issue. “People think being resourceful equals a less abundant life. How do we make it not viewed that way?”

One beneficial aspect of Enrichment Voyages is the eclectic cumulation of its members, with a plethora of perspectives, fueled by vast and varied experiences. At one point during the discussion, Lincoln McDonald, an Australian on board for the adventure and learning opportunities, mentioned that Rwanda celebrates an Earth Day-type observance on a monthly basis: The last Saturday of every month is dedicated to a mandatory five-hour community clean up. “From this community effort comes a great national pride and one of the cleanest environments I have ever seen, anywhere. Maybe second only to Singapore,” states the world traveler. This came as a bit of a surprise to the community who had yet to experience the developing nation firsthand.  “People are not going to throw trash on the ground when they are just going to be picking it up next week. They are proud of their country and take care of it,” explains McDonald.

Monaco was the inaugural stop on the docket, and while it drizzled on and off all day, passengers didn’t let that stop them from venturing over into nearby Nice or St. Tropez or keeping dry indoors under the protection of the glitzy Monte Carlo casino.

Next up, it was two days in Livorno, Italy, the perfect jumping-off point for a myriad of activities, from foodie fun to cultural encounters. Voyagers went as far away as Rome or stuck nearby to assist the tower of Pisa from toppling over.

Many also took the train westward up the coast to Cinque Terre or opted to ride it an hour inland to explore the Renaissance glory of Florence. From there, the ship headed back to its country of voyage origin, sunny Spain, but this time docked along the southern coast of Cadiz, located just next to that famed rock of Gibraltar, populated by Barbary apes. Sevilla was a popular city for many participants to visit, as it’s chock full of Moorish architecture, tapas bars, Flamenco dancing and, of course, sangria.

Next, the MV Explorer traveled swiftly down the Atlantic coast of Africa overnight to Casablanca, Morocco, where the ship’s mates scattered from Fes to Marrakech and everywhere in between.

With its ancient cobblestone ways and bevy of castles, the next stop–Lisbon, Portugal–was a favorite among families who climbed all the way up to the Castle of São Jorge and hiked out to Belém for a living history lesson.

And just like that, it was time to disembark in Le Havre, France. Many passengers stayed on for Segment II, while others headed to Paris for a couple last days of vacation before returning to their respective homes.

With so much ground covered in the first two weeks alone, we can’t wait to see what the next five hold!

Humber is Canada’s largest college and boasts approximately 27,000 full-time students in certificate, diploma and degree programs. Each EV, a group of curious minds from the college’s Tourism Management, Broadcast Television, Food & Nutrition Management, Culinary Management and Fitness & Health Promotion programs set sail. Before disembarking tomorrow, the students sent us their reflections from the past two weeks traveling on the MV Explorer.

Tourism Management students have presented at each pre-port meeting, Broadcast Television students have been filming on board and at each port, and Fitness & Health Promotion students have been running morning exercise classes every day. While participants from each program are working within their curriculum, there are also opportunities for students to learn from each other and from their shared experiences.

In Morocco, we had the opportunity to participate as a group on a service visit to the SOS Children’s Village in Ait Ourir, just outside Marrakesh. If you saw professor Mary Lendway’s lecture on voluntourism you will know that finding a way to support the communities you visit may also offer a deeper more meaningful experience for the traveler.

SOS Children’s Village organization has been working to meet the needs and protect the rights of children around the world since 1949. This NGO helps children who are living without their biological families by providing a safe and nurturing home environment. Humber students worked in the village gardens all afternoon, weeding and planting, followed by an energetic soccer game with the children. A significant amount of funds were raised before the voyage to donate to the village, and we brought toys and supplies for the children too. Many Humber students did not want to leave. It was a meaningful experience for all participants.

Students on this journey will bring their Enrichment Voyage experiences back to share with the Humber College community, and their time on this voyage may also help them launch meaningful careers.

]]> http://enrichmentvoyages.org/2013/05/09/humber-college-students-study-at-sea/feed/ 0 http://enrichmentvoyages.org/2013/05/06/friendship-without-borders/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=friendship-without-borders http://enrichmentvoyages.org/2013/05/06/friendship-without-borders/#comments Mon, 06 May 2013 14:00:00 +0000 ISEComms http://enrichmentvoyages.org/?p=2929 The first segment of the spring Enrichment Voyage is filled with a number of traveling groups that embarked on the trip together, from the Humber College students who join the ship annually as part of their university curriculum to OLLI (Osher Lifelong Learning Institute).

But only the Friendship Force International has President Jimmy Carter backing its efforts. The organization was founded in 1977 during Carter’s presidency, and the First Lady was an honorary board member and active in the organization that lives by the philosophy “a world of friends is a world of peace” for 25 years.

George Brown, the president of the Atlanta-based organization, joined the ship in Barcelona with 60 of his club members, who hail from the United States, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. Brown has been on staff at the Friendship Force for 23 of the last 30 years and has served as president since 2004, though he will retire next month. Friendship Force boasts 20,000 members worldwide in 315 cities in 56 countries on six continents.

Most Friendship Force trips are organized by the individual chapter a year or so in advance and involve 20 members traveling to another country to participate in week-long homestays. As Brown said, “the student exchange is too good to be left to students. The idea [behind FFI] is very similar to a student exchange where you get to learn about the culture by being with the people.”

“The great thing about an Enrichment Voyage is that it’s so well designed for our people—they can just go off and do their own things, attend lectures and go to workshops. We try to keep our members in contact with each other [while on EV] but we find that they’re not as interested as being cliquish as they are being a part of the ship’s family. The Australians in particular are great advocates as everyone wants to talk to them and find out why they’re here.”

While the demographic of the Friendship Force tends to trend more toward retirees, Brown says it’s the organization’s goal to get more Baby Boomers involved—and their children. “That generation is very well traveled. They want more flexibility, and as a result, are doing more of a variety of things. We hope to develop programs that have a shorter homestay; that way, it will be easier to get younger people involved as hosts and members. The younger people like the idea of traveling around and having a homestay component but not just having a homestay, being able to tour a place, too.”

Although it’s only Brown’s second voyage on the MV Explorer, he has a long history with the University of Virginia, Semester at Sea’s academic host, as he received his PhD in international studies from the academic institution a couple decades ago. And Enrichment Voyages offers the perfect opportunity for global engagement that Friendship Force members crave, Brown says.

“[Friendship Force members] have said for years, ‘why don’t we do cruises?’ They’re becoming increasingly popular. The cruise is a huge market for our demographic,” he explains. “I said, ‘we’re not going to do a cruise just to do a cruise. We’re not a travel club, so it has to be a cruise that fits in with our philosophy.”

This won’t be the last voyage for Friendship Force either. Even though Brown retires this June, he says he would like to get the organization more involved in the Lifelong Learner program on Semester at Sea—and broaden the nationalities from Friendship Force that participate.

“It would be nice to internationalize our passengers with more nationalities. I think people enjoy it not just being a North American group of passengers.”

Dr. Gayle Allard, who is lectures on “The Euro Zone Crisis & the Periphery” among other EU-centric topics, has been a hit, as every one of her four talks has been standing room only. As the voyage travels the coast of Europe from the Mediterranean to the British Isles and up into the Baltics and Russia, Allard’s talks have been particularly of relevance to the upcoming ports.

As always, artist-in-residence Ciel Duke has ignited a passion for painting and sketching into her students. Leading two workshops a day for which passengers must sign up due to limited space, Duke has turned beginners into budding Picassos. 

After a few rainy days in Spain and Monaco, the sun came out just in time for Italy and has followed the MV Explorer through the Mediterranean. Passengers have acted accordingly, making use of the sun-drenched seventh deck and pool.

The ship has welcomed a bevy of talent, from a Spanish juggler-magician to a classical opera singer. Every night, passengers fill the Union to see what entertainer will be showing off his (or her) comedic chops on that given night.

We’ll be back to recap cities we’ve explorer so far—which include our port of embarkation, Barcelona; Monaco; and Livorno—but for now, we hope you’ll follow along for the ride via our live updates on the Enrichment Voyages Facebook, Instagram and Twitter accounts (#EV113).

Wellness expert Katherine Anderson spoke during the voyage about many health issues, including staying healthy during the voyage. In case you missed her lectures — or if you’d like to brush up before the next voyage — here are Katherine’s tips for staying healthy while traveling on the open sea. As Client Relations Manager for Mevident, a corporate wellness platform, Katherine and a her team connect employees to wellness practitioners who facilitate on- and off-site functional medicine services. Katherine is currently completing her first book, A Non-Chef’s Guide to Office Eating – Awesome Meals Using a Microwave, Butter Knife, and Kitchen Sink.

When traveling, we have a responsibility to keep our body, mind, and soul in good health. Below are some helpful food and lifestyle suggestions to keep you hale, hearty, and having fun during your adventures at sea or anywhere else while on the road.

1. Mindful Eating and Healthful Thinking
To feel great in your body and to maintain a healthy weight when on the road, remember the basics. When hungry, eat. When full, stop. When not hungry, give yourself permission to miss a meal and choose a small fruit or other healthful snack instead. Trust your instincts; they’re right 100% of the time.

2. Keep Your Hands Clean
Plenty of viruses and bacterial germs pass between passengers on a voyage. One effective way to stay healthy is to keep your hands clean. Carry sanitizer with you. Wash your hands before every meal, following an event on the ship, and during an in-port excursion. The Purell stations dotted around the ship are there for good measure, so definitely take full advantage.

3. Drink Water Wisely
Water’s great, especially when it’s hot out. Yet, it can be troublesome, too: When we introduce non-familiar bacteria from foreign, untreated water sources, travelers often get what’s known as the “travelers trots”!

H-pylori and Giardia are two super-infamous bacteria that can really ruin your day. So, let vigilance prevail. When traveling, be open, take chances, and broaden yourself – just not with the local water. Sealed bottled water is always the way to go.

4. Probiotic (Pro-Life)
It’s a great idea to stockade healthy intestinal bacteria to combat any digestive weirdnesses acquired along the way. To do so, you’ll need to supplement a multi-strain probiotic before, during, and after a trip. Choose a probiotic that contains acidophilus (for a sour tummy) and saccharomyces boulardii (for diarrhea).

Renew Life’s stable-at-room-temperature probiotics should do the trick. These supplements can be found at most natural food stores, including Whole Foods.

5. Take Time to Relax
Lying down is an awesome approach to soothing and grounding yourself. Prop one or two pillows directly under your bottom and elevate your legs – up against a wall or up against the back of the couch – for 10 minutes.

This activity, or inactivity, will give you a chance to reflect on what you’ve recently experienced. In less than half the time, your disengaged enteric nervous system will refresh you in the same way a nap or a good night sleep will.

Balance is a foremost priority for our body and soul. When on the go or at home, dial inwards and become your own in-house nutritionist. Ask yourself: What do I need? What do I want? Is it food I crave? Or is it something more? So, be sure to have fun, laugh like a child, and enjoy amazing food, all the while liberally applying good, healthy decisions to each adventure.

With that, I wish you an enriched life with ISE and beyond!

Dr. Rohwedder is Department Chair of Environmental Studies and Planning at Sonoma State University.

With several voyages for both Semester at Sea and Enrichment Voyages under his belt, Dr. Rocky Rohwedder is no stranger to the MV Explorer. Combine that knowledge with his expertise in environmental studies and you can just imagine the sorts of questions that students and voyagers have asked the Sonoma State University professor. In his lecture entitled “Ecotourism and Latin America,” Dr. Rohwedder, whose book Ecological Handprints is due out in 2013, shared his top 10 list of frequently asked questions regarding environmental matters aboard our favorite ship:

10. Are there regulations ensuring that ship operators are “doing the right thing”?

Yes, there are international laws for ship-related waste, but enforcement is always a problem. Our ever-evolving technology, however, is making it easier to identify offenders: Garbage and chemical markers now make it possible to track down those ships that dump illegally.

9. Is the MV Explorer any different, environmentally speaking, from most cruise ships?

Dr. Rohwedder pointed out that, due to the insistence of Semester at Sea students, the MV Explorer has adapted sustainable practices that put the vessel far ahead of most of the world’s ships. The Explorer is now considered a “green” ship, meaning it meets strict ISO 4000 standards.

8. Is it true that the treadmills in the spa power the ship?

Yes! So please start working out more often and your cabin rate will decrease. (Just kidding. The treadmills are in no way connected to the ship’s power source.)

7. Why is it so cold on the ship?

For health and safety reasons, the ship’s temperature is kept low (around 65 degrees Fahrenheit) to create an inhospitable environment for molds, viruses, and other organisms that promote disease. It also helps Enrichment Voyages sell more sweatshirts in the campus store. (Just kidding about that last part.)

6. What does the kitchen have to do with the engines?

Used vegetable oil finds second life as additional ship fuel.

5. Where does the food waste go?

The galley crew does their best to eliminate as much waste as possible, but there’s always some food leftover. These meal scraps are ground to fine particles and then released into the ocean, where they are eaten by sea animals and pose no environmental harm.

4. Where does the MV Explorer get its fresh water?

The ship possesses a state-of-the-art desalination system, which converts sea water into fresh water. Because this process requires fuel resources, we request that guests be conscious of their water consumption.

3. What happens to the aluminum cans and other solid waste that is tossed into garbage bins aboard the ship? Why aren’t there any recycling bins?

Deep inside the ship is a miniature village that remains invisible to most participants. This is where your laundry is cleaned, your food prepared, and your garbage sorted, crushed, and recycled. So fear not! That can isn’t going overboard: It will be properly disposed of when the ship reaches a port that can handle the waste-management process to our standards.

2. Do we really dump our trash into the sea at night?

No. While the law allows for some items to be thrown overboard, the only items that are disposed of into the ocean are greywater and food scraps, both of which are biodegradable and/or environmentally safe.

1. What happens to our poop?

The water that comes from our toilets is considered “blackwater,” which we do not dispose of at sea. Instead, blackwater is stored on ship until we reach a port that can handle its safe processing.

Want to know how you can help maintain a sustainable ship? Read these green tips for voyage participants.

The nativity scene at Fortaleza Real Felipe.

Doug Mack, author of Europe on 5 Wrong Turns a Day: One Man, Eight Countries, One Vintage Travel Guide, is sailing as one of the lecturers aboard the December 2012 voyage. He took time out of his travels to relate his recent experiences traveling through South America during Christmas time.

One of the great joys of travel is the strange combinations and juxtapositions it creates. High culture meets low, foreign meets familiar, and even the most commonplace tableaux take on a new surrealism when paired in unexpected ways.

It is not terribly remarkable when I tell you that I saw many elaborate, handmade nativity scenes in Peru, the exact sort of large-ish but not quite life-size creches that you might expect to see on church lawns back home in the states.

It’s a lot more interesting when I tell you that I saw one such large display — roughly four feet by four feet by four feet, featuring all the expected characters, plus blinking lights and Christmas carols rendered in electronic bleating from unseen speakers — behind the counter of a post office.

Even more unexpected was the similar display I saw the next day. This one was built using an oak table and assorted other pieces seemingly bought at a thrift store, and stood inside Fortaleza Real Felipe, a historic fort that is also still an active military installation. (I learned this latter fact when I started wandering aimlessly and was confronted by a man in a flak jacket.)

Nativity scenes? Seen ‘em. Post offices and forts? Nothing to write home about. Nativity scenes inside forts and post offices? Wait, what?!

And one of the great joys of the Enrichment Voyage, too, has been just this: the strange, sublime combinations.

Morehouse College student Jordan Jones

Atlanta’s prestigious Morehouse College has sailed with Enrichment Voyages for three years running. Each December, the historically black school accepts a small group of students to study aboard that month’s Enrichment Voyage. This year, Spanish and English major Jordan Jones offered his impression of studying at sea and the true meaning of travel.

Fourteen days have passed since we first boarded the plane in Atlanta and arrived shortly thereafter in the Bahamas. Fourteen days have rushed through us like a salty gush of ocean wind. We’ve made memories over the Atlantic and Caribbean, as well as on land in Jamaica, Columbia, and Panama. Transiting the Panama Canal was a memory unto itself, and then we made more memories over the Pacific and in Ecuador and Peru.

To account the experience day by day while at sea would be challenging and tedious, not to mention futile. For me, the sea days have reinforced the on-land experience tremendously. As we sit and bask in the comfort of sunlight or mystery of moonlight, we share our stories. And each story is like a different port: You quietly take in a world entirely different from that to which you are accustomed. My world as a Morehouse student from Washington, D.C., has been altered for having learned the worlds of an El Salvadorean restaurant owner, a special-education teacher, a Jamaican bar tender, a retired librarian, and the first woman Supreme Court Justice. All of these worlds are so moving that when the swaying of the ship ceases, the physical world that we all share is that much more impactful.

Traveling is more than a series of pit stops, price-haggling, and drinking on beaches. In reality, very little of that even requires traveling. Traveling, especially in the short time we have at each port or the ship — and in life — must be exercised with a great deal of inner reflection and empathy. Humans have traveled since the dawn of mankind, whether across the Bering Strait or across the living room to change the television channel. The verb to travel suggests only a physical relocation: My pen has traveled much since I began writing. But the true essence of “travel” is one that is deeply personal and mutually exclusive from the number of stamps on a passport.

The way we interact with each other oftentimes suggests how we are as travelers. Do we enter each conversation with prejudices based on a rumor or external experience? Do we try to impose our way of thinking? Do we grow bored? Are we afraid of differences? Or do we delight in the vast spectrum of experience? Do we seek commonality rather than division? Do we see ourselves in each other? To me, this has been the difference between merely physical relocation and spiritual empathy. Traveling, or changing location, is as fleeting as is staying still. Tremendous people have done both and tremendously awful people have as well. The lesson that each passenger and crew member takes from an experience such as this voyage will differ greatly and manifest themselves uniquely. But for me, as I reflect on the last fourteen days, I hope that the spirit of travel is with us wherever we go.