Part 1: Ship life, 10/15/16-10/21/16
So for the past 6
weeks my “school week” has been completely out of whack. School days
have been on Saturday and Sunday and my “weekends” have been Monday-
Friday. It has been absolutely amazing. I’ve already seen and done so
much and my voyage is only just beginning. Heading towards Senegal is
the first time since leaving Germany that I’ve been on the ship for more
than 2 days and while it should be nice and relaxing, the reality of
school has begun to set in.
The entire ship has been in such a frenzy
due to cramming for exams, writing extensive essays, and preparing for
group projects. You would think that the course load would be a lot
lighter, but it’s quite the opposite; I personally had 3 exams and 1
group project. That, compared to what other people had to do, wasn’t
even that much.
You can definitely tell who’s taking the classes
Pass/Fail and whose grade actually affects their GPA because some people
are hitting the books hard and others aren’t stressing out at all. But
after many late nights and lots of terrible ship coffee, I finally made
it through. The day before we arrived in Senegal we had game night game
night with all of the teachers kids on the ship. We played Uno, twister, and of course charades!
Part 2: Senegal, 10/21/16-10/25/16
Senegal, for me was an amazing night experience. The culture was very different than Morocco, but much more representative of Africa. My first excursion was to the Bandia reserve, about an hours drive from Dakar. We got split up into groups of ten and piled into safari trucks and we explored the reserve looking out for animals. Over the course of a few hours we saw hyenas, giraffes, ostriches, rhinos, all sorts of monkeys, horse antelopes, zebras, and even gators!
Our driver got us up close and personal to the animals and the animals let us. They were so accustomed to humans that they weren’t even phased by it. Afterwards, we made our way to lunch at this fancy hotel. It was buffet style so we could eat as much as we wants to and it came with one of the best views ever!
Later that evening I went to sickest hotel I’ve ever seen. It’s called the Radisson Blue and it’s absolutely stunning and had the best wifi. There were over a hundred of us there, and they opened up one of their restaurants and turned it into a discotek club for all of us where we danced the whole night away.
Day 2 and 3 in Senegal are definitely in the top 5 of amazing things that I have done on this trip. I signed up for an Impact program which is basically like a community involvement program called the Life of a Fisherman. We started the day off by making our way down south towards Joal Fadioth and Petite Côte. On the way we stopped off to admire the Baobab trees which are the second symbol of Africa (the first being the lion).
Upon arriving in Joal we met our guide who walked us across a bridge to the village we would be visiting. Everywhere I looked there were seashells. It was basically a gravel path comprised of all these shells and when we went to the little island they were all there too. We learned all about the culture, religion, and how they live day-to-day lives.
As we were walking through, every person thought that I spoke French and much to their dismay I only knew enough to get by. Some of the locals even thought that I was the tour guide liaison because of how I dressed and spoke. It was one of the funniest things ever. We also made our way across another bridge to the sea shell cemetery where the Christians and Islams of the island are buried.
Here,
we had an amazing view of the entire island. And we got chauffeured
back to our original starting point via canoe. It was about a 30 minute
ride and we saw so many seagulls and Pelicans. We even saw some of the
sea gulls diving down to hunt for fish. 
For lunch, we went to a local restaurant where we were fed barracuda, shrimp, rice, and French fries and it was SO GOOD. They gave us so much food it took about 2 hours to finally finish it all. The description of the program made it seem like we were going to be sleeping in huts with fisherman but boy was I wrong. We ended up at this 4 star resort at the beach and it was nothing short of amazing. Good drinks, better food, and the best company!
We befriended some locals and other kids from France who were there on vacation who eneded us showing us around and taking all of us out that night. We spent most of the next day at another fishermans village where we learned more about the process of how they catch, process, and deliver all of the fish that they catch. We also saw how they make their canoes. My favorite part of the day was hanging out with all of the kids.
They
loved taking pictures with all of us and in return they just wanted to
hang out. We kicked the ball around on the beach and played lots of tag!
While it was so sad to say good bye, we left them with bracelets we had
gotten so they could remember us by. Even though I was only in Senegal
for a few short days, I felt like I did and saw so much. If anyone is in
the area then I would definitely suggest that you stop by!
Part 3: More ship life, 10/25/16-11/1/16
Well the 7 day trans-Atlantic voyage has definitely been interesting. Luckily I don’t have any test or projects to work on so I have been relaxing and hanging out like no other. Since we are bordering the equator the weather has been amazing and I have seen so many Dolphins! To pass by the time I have been playing so many card games and watching movies. With literally zero access to Internet out here we all downloaded movies onto our portable hard drives prior to boarding, so we have been sharing movies with each other and needless to say, I have a pretty good collection built up.
On October 28th we crossed the equator and it was the most fun we have had on the ship to date. SAS has a tradition where we are greeted by King Neptune himself and we get covered in fish guts (slime) and jump in the pool as polliwags and as we get out we leave as shellbacks and have to kiss a dead fish.
It sounds weird but it was such an incredible experience. The second part of the tradition was to get your head shaved, so naturally I did it. Not only was everyone else doing it, but it was also a free haircut so I was all about it. Since we were so close to the equator we had perfect weather and spent the entire day outside. The last major thing that happened was our big Halloween party.
We celebrated on October 30th and had a big costume party on the top deck It was definitely a great way to end our 7 day Atlantic adventure.
Anyways, I just arrived in Salvador Brazil and I leave for Rio tomorrow. For more pictures go check out my Facebook! And if you wanna contact me then download the app “WhatsApp” or email me at: andrew.santiago.fa16@semesteratsea.org
Next stop—-> Salvador, Brazil.
--
Don't miss the boat!
Read more from Jordan at https://suitelifeofsanti.wordpress.com/
Find your own study abroad program to hone your professional skills and enhance your resume at: http://studyabroad.uark.edu/search
If you need help getting started with study abroad, take a look at this: http://studyabroad.uark.edu/getting-started/index.php
Senegal, for me was an amazing night experience. The culture was very different than Morocco, but much more representative of Africa. My first excursion was to the Bandia reserve, about an hours drive from Dakar. We got split up into groups of ten and piled into safari trucks and we explored the reserve looking out for animals. Over the course of a few hours we saw hyenas, giraffes, ostriches, rhinos, all sorts of monkeys, horse antelopes, zebras, and even gators!
Our driver got us up close and personal to the animals and the animals let us. They were so accustomed to humans that they weren’t even phased by it. Afterwards, we made our way to lunch at this fancy hotel. It was buffet style so we could eat as much as we wants to and it came with one of the best views ever!
Later that evening I went to sickest hotel I’ve ever seen. It’s called the Radisson Blue and it’s absolutely stunning and had the best wifi. There were over a hundred of us there, and they opened up one of their restaurants and turned it into a discotek club for all of us where we danced the whole night away.
Day 2 and 3 in Senegal are definitely in the top 5 of amazing things that I have done on this trip. I signed up for an Impact program which is basically like a community involvement program called the Life of a Fisherman. We started the day off by making our way down south towards Joal Fadioth and Petite Côte. On the way we stopped off to admire the Baobab trees which are the second symbol of Africa (the first being the lion).
Upon arriving in Joal we met our guide who walked us across a bridge to the village we would be visiting. Everywhere I looked there were seashells. It was basically a gravel path comprised of all these shells and when we went to the little island they were all there too. We learned all about the culture, religion, and how they live day-to-day lives.
As we were walking through, every person thought that I spoke French and much to their dismay I only knew enough to get by. Some of the locals even thought that I was the tour guide liaison because of how I dressed and spoke. It was one of the funniest things ever. We also made our way across another bridge to the sea shell cemetery where the Christians and Islams of the island are buried.
Here,
we had an amazing view of the entire island. And we got chauffeured
back to our original starting point via canoe. It was about a 30 minute
ride and we saw so many seagulls and Pelicans. We even saw some of the
sea gulls diving down to hunt for fish. 
For lunch, we went to a local restaurant where we were fed barracuda, shrimp, rice, and French fries and it was SO GOOD. They gave us so much food it took about 2 hours to finally finish it all. The description of the program made it seem like we were going to be sleeping in huts with fisherman but boy was I wrong. We ended up at this 4 star resort at the beach and it was nothing short of amazing. Good drinks, better food, and the best company!
We befriended some locals and other kids from France who were there on vacation who eneded us showing us around and taking all of us out that night. We spent most of the next day at another fishermans village where we learned more about the process of how they catch, process, and deliver all of the fish that they catch. We also saw how they make their canoes. My favorite part of the day was hanging out with all of the kids.
They
loved taking pictures with all of us and in return they just wanted to
hang out. We kicked the ball around on the beach and played lots of tag!
While it was so sad to say good bye, we left them with bracelets we had
gotten so they could remember us by. Even though I was only in Senegal
for a few short days, I felt like I did and saw so much. If anyone is in
the area then I would definitely suggest that you stop by!Part 3: More ship life, 10/25/16-11/1/16
Well the 7 day trans-Atlantic voyage has definitely been interesting. Luckily I don’t have any test or projects to work on so I have been relaxing and hanging out like no other. Since we are bordering the equator the weather has been amazing and I have seen so many Dolphins! To pass by the time I have been playing so many card games and watching movies. With literally zero access to Internet out here we all downloaded movies onto our portable hard drives prior to boarding, so we have been sharing movies with each other and needless to say, I have a pretty good collection built up.
On October 28th we crossed the equator and it was the most fun we have had on the ship to date. SAS has a tradition where we are greeted by King Neptune himself and we get covered in fish guts (slime) and jump in the pool as polliwags and as we get out we leave as shellbacks and have to kiss a dead fish.
It sounds weird but it was such an incredible experience. The second part of the tradition was to get your head shaved, so naturally I did it. Not only was everyone else doing it, but it was also a free haircut so I was all about it. Since we were so close to the equator we had perfect weather and spent the entire day outside. The last major thing that happened was our big Halloween party.
We celebrated on October 30th and had a big costume party on the top deck It was definitely a great way to end our 7 day Atlantic adventure.
Anyways, I just arrived in Salvador Brazil and I leave for Rio tomorrow. For more pictures go check out my Facebook! And if you wanna contact me then download the app “WhatsApp” or email me at: andrew.santiago.fa16@semesteratsea.org
Next stop—-> Salvador, Brazil.
--
Don't miss the boat!
Read more from Jordan at https://suitelifeofsanti.wordpress.com/
Find your own study abroad program to hone your professional skills and enhance your resume at: http://studyabroad.uark.edu/search
If you need help getting started with study abroad, take a look at this: http://studyabroad.uark.edu/getting-started/index.php
