Prepping for the Fall 2023 SAS Voyage
At age seventy-six I suspect I will be the oldest professor teaching on the Fall 2023 Semester at Sea voyage. I think it will be an incredible adventure and a heck of a way to rekindle my retirement phase.
The voyage (Semester at Sea never uses the word cruise) begins in early September when Alicia and I board the MV World Odyssey in Bremerhaven. We will spend four months on and off the ship and are scheduled to disembark in Laem Chabang, Thailand, on December 22nd, my birthday. If all works to plan we will race the winter solstice back to our home that same birth day. Over a four month period Alicia and I will share new experiences, teach and learn from others, make new friends, and enjoy some wonderful new sites. This odyssey will us across fifteen countries and several seas, including a special transit through the Suez Canal.
To be straight up this will not be a high-end cruise with nicely furnished rooms, multiple good food venues, well-stocked bars, onboard entertainers, and lots of endowed cruise folk to mingle with. No, this voyage (SAS never says cruise) will be a living-learning campus with miniscule rooms, timed showers, OK dorm food, about five hundred (mostly US) students, thirty or so faculty and staff types and one small lounge that serves drinks at special times, too few times to be honest. It’s understandable why Alicia has mixed feelings about this voyage as we did it twice before, once in 2009 and then again in 2016. So why do this one?
The short answer is that I’m more restless than ever since retiring almost two years ago. I’m afraid of the deepening age pit and the gradual fade of light. I confess I want to escape my daily chores, even the joy of gardening in my backyard, and spend another extended time at sea living in the present, reflecting on the past and wondering about the future as the stars leave all of us at light speed. The stars are shooting away as I pray for another glimpse or two or three. I still want to meet and learn about different people and their lands that call to me, to us.
Alicia and I are preparing for the voyage as best we can. She is figuring out the right mix of clothes and possible expeditions. Together, we are building a solid e-book library on our iPads and making a list of “healthy” snacks. So many other tasks on our “to dos” check-off list. We’ve done a good deal of research on the locales we will disembark at and have identified the more interesting places that we can get to and from in a few days. We can’t afford to miss the ship departure schedule, so the goal is to select and maximize our excursions both in-country and out of country. This voyage is different than most other ship offerings as we will spend days, not hours, at each port.
One reason I’m doing this is to engage students via a meaningful day-long field excursion. I’ve managed to do around 200 college student field trips in more than twenty countries over the last twenty years. This Fall 2023 voyage will allow me to take students on day long field trips in Aqaba, Piraeus, and Mumbai. My hope is to give the students a real work-life lesson as they learn and witness first-hand how global businesses and new ventures impact the economy and the environment. At present it looks like we will meet with the Aqaba Economic Development Zone to better understand their role in the international transport of goods via ship and pipeline. I’m equally enthused about the planned session with Chinese giant COSCO at their Piraeus HQ at the port that is currently controlled by COSCO. The last field trip will hopefully take place at an education and training center for Indian women seeking and using microloans to start and manage their own businesses. Things always change but I have high hopes for these field trips.
During our field sessions we will also meet with and talk to the local people as we try to understand how they cope and react to economic and environmental changes, hopefully for the better, but not always. It’s a lofty goal and I do feel up to it, at least one more time if body, mind, and spirit keep in sync.
I’m confident and comforted that Alicia will keep us on the right trajectory. I’ve updated this piece in mid-July as we are but one month away from departure. The plan is to post weekly updates once the voyage begins but until then think about your current “voyage” and what calls you most dear.
