Connections Halfway Around the World

Life was so crazed over the holidays that I didn’t get a chance to write about the end of last semester or my time in Hong Kong. Currently we are sitting at the mouth of the Yangtze River waiting for fog to lift so that we can head into Shanghai. Yup we are missing our first day in port just sitting and waiting. Since we have this extra day on the ship I’m treating it kind of like a Saturday (we don’t get weekends on the ship) and using it as a catch up day – finishing up work stuff, cleaning my cabin, catching up on emails, actually relaxing a little and writing a couple blog postings.

So after our week in China we headed to Hong Kong. We spent two days in Hong Kong and then we did the strangest thing. We went back out to sea for three days just to then come back to Hong Kong. We did that so that we had time to finish up classes and hold some closing activities. After all of the chaos, disorganization and craziness of the semester all of the students were crying and talking about how amazing this experience had been for them. Even during the worst parts I knew that students would probably feel this way. No matter what happens on the ship you can’t go halfway around the world visiting eight countries and not leave unchanged and unaffected by the experience. I’m thankful that for most students, in the end, the total experience outweighed the frustrations and challenges that wrought the entire semester.

Those last days on the ship and our last day in Hong Kong were a bit crazed for me. I didn’t know quite where to focus. Wrapping up this semester, preparing and planning for next semester, getting ready to go home for Christmas and saying goodbye to everyone from this semester. It was a lot to balance. When we arrived in Hong Kong I was trying to balance saying good bye to everyone and welcoming my dad to the ship. Yes – my dad came to Hong Kong to see me! That was quite fun. It was really nice to be able to show him the ship. The ship is my world right now and it’s weird to think that no one in my life has seen it or has any concept of what it is like. That’s why it was exciting to welcome him on board and show him around.

After many tearful goodbyes I left the ship and my dad and I spent two days together before I headed home. We actually spent Christmas Eve in Macao – it was a Portugeuse colony until it was turned back over to Chinese control in 1999. Now it’s like the Las Vegas of the East. I have to say it was pretty cool to see my dad in Hong Kong. We only see each other every few months so going four months without seeing each other was no big deal. But it felt like a big deal to be hanging out together halfway around the world. It was quite fun and I appreciate that he came all that way to see me.

The whole wrap up of the semester, saying goodbye, our time in Hong Kong, my quick trip home and now the start of this second semester have all been such a blur. I don’t think that all that has happened in the last month has totally sunk in yet. I haven’t had time to wrap my brain around it all and think about how I feel. Can you tell I'm feeling a bit scattered? I think to have a better sense of how I am feeling about last semester I need to write about how this first semester has begun.

That will be my next post – stay tuned!