Right now, I bet you have a crumpled dollar or two in your pocket. Did you ever stop and wonder what a couple of dollars could buy you around the world?
On this trip, I learned the value of a buck: a metro ride in Japan; the daily salary of cigar rollers in Myanmar; a rickshaw ride in India, and the cost of a pirated movie in Vietnam. But I have learned that you cannot put a price tag on my Semester at Sea experience.
As far as I know, there is no other program that immerses students into 10 different cultures in one semester.
During my last hours in Japan, the last port of call, I went to a traditional Japanese public bathhouse where I literally had to bear all. The first five minutes in which I felt entirely out of my element were terrifying. But as I became part of Japanese culture, I gradually became comfortable in my own skin and was no longer uneasy.
This experience accurately reflects how much of my Semester at Sea experience required me to step out of my comfort zone. As I went from port to port, I experienced this initial scare in each country in some way or another. And in the countries where I traveled to multiple cities, I experienced this shock each time I visited a new city. But over time, I overcame my fears and reservations.
For most of the trip, I was in a world where my cell phone didn't work and calling home often was not an option. There was no signing onto AOL Instant Messenger to talk with friends. This disconnect was very difficult for me at first, but after a short time had passed; I actually began to like having no contact with the Western world.
Without my phone and a constant Internet connection, I had more time for myself. This journey has forced me to be detached from technology, and in turn I discovered much more about the world and myself as a result.
But parts of this trip were also extremely frustrating. I cannot tell you how many times I was hopelessly lost in a country in which the street signs were in a foreign language, and no one around me spoke English.
Fortunately, there were times when it all came together, and I was in awe of how beautiful life is around the world. I wanted to go on this trip to see for myself how people live in various countries. Ultimately, my journey was a celebration of life.
All around the world, it was the children of each country who touched me the most. My favorite day of the entire trip was Valentine's Day, when I went to an AIDS ward in a children's hospital in Cape Town, South Africa. I spent the day with orphaned children inflicted with AIDS. I did not speak their language; they did not speak mine, and our communication was minimal. But fortunately, these children did not want to talk. Instead, they just wanted to be held by someone. So that is what I did while I was there, and I do not think I have ever felt more useful in my life.
Whereas I spent my time in South Africa helping children, the time I spent in rural India learning about child labor practices has encouraged me to alter my lifestyle when it comes to the products I buy. Spending time with child laborers helped me to put a human face on the Lacoste store. When I saw some Lacoste clothing recently in China and Japan, the feelings I had during my time in India came rushing back to me.
All of the columns I wrote in this series portray a unique journey. Writing about my experiences each week in a column format changed the way I experienced each of the places because I had to be more outgoing with the people I met in each country.
The most important part of the trip was witnessing the reality of each situation. While textbooks are informative to an extent, there is nothing more real than experiencing a place and its culture firsthand, and I will forever be changed by this reality.
Sometimes this "truth" was too hard for me to handle, as I would often be upset days after I witnessed the extreme poverty in the favelas in Brazil and the townships in South Africa. The truth hurts, and I have learned that over and over again.
Perhaps the most important conclusion I have come to is that all of us inhabit this world and we are all the same. In some way or another, I found a way to relate to people in every single place I traveled. We were so different and yet so similar. When it comes down to it, this trip has taught me that most people want essentially the same things, and it is nice to know that.
The greatest gift of travel is the people I have met. Years from now, I may forget the feeling of climbing the Great Wall of China and laying on the beaches of the Bahamas, but I will never forget the people and the profound gifts they gave me.
