My Semester at Sea voyage is complete. 26 days of learning and adventure. There were good times; there were challenges; there were moments I hope to never forget. This has been a unique opportunity that less than 60,000 people have ever done. Considering the world has over 6 billion people, that's a miniscule percentage.
It was, of course, to have to say farewell to my new amigos (and way of life) of Semester at Sea. We all have Facebook, but I imagine it'll still be a challenge to stay in touch as we re-immerse into our lives at home. I was lucky to meet some great people from all over the world and have an awesome roommate. Excursions, adventures, and human interaction are what really make my experience worth it, not to mention I learned a lot in class.
Today has been flashing by. I had breakfast, gave a lot of "good luck and I wish you the best" hugs. Many didn't want to say "good-bye," rather "I'll see you later" or "Let me know when you're in the area, we'll get together!" I was off the ship before 10am, so I had some time to kill in Nassau. I tried a Kalik, the Bahamian beer, which I received in a brown paper bag. I waited about 5 minutes, which felt like 20, for her to fetch the brown paper bag…it was the slowest bar I had ever been to. It was refreshing, especially considering the sweltering heat, but I'd prefer to adhere the German phrase, "Kein Bier vor Vier." (No beer before 4pm, which in Germany, at that time it was 4pm ;). I piled in a taxi with 6 other SASers and fortunately the taxi was much cheaper than when I arrived. This taxi driver took about 25-30ish minutes for a 45-minute ride to the airport. Fortunately we made it safely. The airport was fine, some of the security officers seemed rather annoyed…I guess it was all of the SASers that went through customs before my group. The customs officer showed me a picture of my suitcase on his computer screen, asking if it belonged to me. Makes me wonder if technology is sometimes too good. I'm currently on a flight to Atlanta and I set my personal TV screen in German, but the map is in Spanish.... Delta's programming seems to be offering a multilingual experience. Despite about an hour long delay, this flight went smoothly.
The memorable story begins with my second flight. I did not expect to have much time to eat because of the delay, so I jammed a sandwich and donut down my throat as I hastened down to the next gate. I was joined by Deborah and Grace who had later flights. Unluckily, a storm arrived just in time for my flight. They kept postponing the departure time for about 40 minutes. During this time I spoke to my parents and said my good-byes to Grace and Deborah. After that was a false alarm, we went to get a snack. When I got back to the gate, I was the very last person to board the aircraft. I thought I was lucky, but we ended up sitting on the runway for 2 hours, and then were required by law to return to the gate. During this time I was on the phone, so the time passed by quickly. We unboarded the plane, arriving at a different gate from our original. This time we waited attentively for more information about if the flight was going to be cancelled or not. I got some baked ziti, which did a great job of curbing my hunger, because by this time (around 11pm), I should have been home by then. At midnight, we were ready to start board the aircraft again. The process moved very slowly as many people were aggravated with the travel delays and cancellations. We eventually filed in and I claimed a double seat to myself in the back of the plane. I sacrificed the quieter part of the plane for my wiggle room. It started to rain again, as it took another hour of waiting behind multiple planes on the runway, but we finally made it into the air at 1:25am. The flight was scheduled to depart at 7:29pm. I got quite lucky because my SASers have been left stranded or in more difficult situations with their flights being cancelled. I think our pilots were great with their determination and honesty about the situation that was at hand.
I arrived in New Jersey at 2:54am and after a hassle-free luggage pick-up…my Dad picked me up. We sat in traffic on the turnpike for 30 minutes because of a morbid accident, involving what looked like two motorcycles were involved. My Dad commented, "What's one more delay till you get home, Matt?" I finally made it home safely with all of my luggage at 4:45am. (I know I'm a lunatic for posting this before going to bed.) I hope my fellow SASers that are stranded make it home safely tomorrow!
I guess I'll be sleeping in tomorrow…to catch up on some much needed sleep. I don't feel like I panicked or was stressed out in this situation because I knew I didn't have any control of what was going to happen to the flight. I saw others get very frustrated, and honestly, it seemed to only worsen their mood and had no effect on improving their circumstances. Almost everyone else is sleeping on the plane, but I'm probably going to crash when I get home…probably around 4am. Just another funny story to share while travelling from Semester at Sea! Oh… and I should mention things will work out like they're meant to. :)
When I've had enough sleep, I will provide more insight to my overall opinion of the Semester at Sea experience that I had.
Bis bald,
Matt
Matt
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