Final Day at Sea

Hey all!

The final day at sea!!!  Tomorrow we land in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida as our final destination.  This has been a long trip around the world and I am ready to get home. 

Today was our convocation, or pseudo-graduation, from the Semester at Sea program.  I had the honor of being recognized as a student leader.  I was one of 7 kids to win the Semester at Sea Leadership and Service Award for the Spring 2009 voyage.  I was also recognized for having a 4.0 GPA on the Semester at Sea voyage, with about 20 other students.  I also was recognized as a Distinguished Individual of Academic Excellence for my work in MICE over the last semester.  For this I got to participate in the Academic Gallery a few days ago in order to showcase my work within MICE. 

Packing is finished; they have my big heavy bags in holding so they can offload them after we arrive in the morning.  Almost all is set.  I can just chill the rest of today and tomorrow night I will be home. 

It is hard to try and sum up what this trip has meant to me.  At different stages it meant different things.  I’m so glad to have done this and remember it is never too late to go on this journey yourself.  I will post a nice long post after I get home and I have a little time to process what this trip has meant to me and how it has changed me.  I will also write about how I hope to continue to live the voyage in my life.  Please, if you have enjoyed reading this blog and following along with my travels, go to www.semesteratsea.org and apply.  It is one of the best and most life changing experiences one could ever have. 

Please keep in touch, Facebook me, Steven Trombetta, and please write me at spt5t@virginia.edu.  I hope to continue blogging on different things coming up in my life, like my summer in Seattle, next summer at the World Cup, and so on, so stay tuned for that!

I love you all,

Steven at Sea (SAS)

Final MICE Concert Listening and Watching

I thought I would post this again for those of you who missed it the first time.

 

MICE World Tour presents
El Mundo Unido
a live concert on the Panama Canal

at 2PM Eastern Standard Time


On May 3, 2009, MICE (Mobile Interactive Computer Ensemble) will perform a live concert on the Panama Canal in Panama, Central America.
The concert will take place at 1pm and will stream live on the MICEcast web audio server, the Panama Canal Authority Webcams, and by radio broadcast on WTJU 91.1 Charlottesville.

Webcam link:
http://www.pancanal.com/eng/photo/camera-java.html?cam=Miraflores

MICEcast link:
http://std1.ladio.net:8000/MICEcast.m3u

program and concert flow:

MICE Introduction: The peice written by me

That which bodiless: sweet drum and bell peice

Piano Peice performed by Justin Thompson

Kanja: song made in the pool by the MICE swimming, splashing, and singing underwater
       
World Strings: Major ensemble peice featuring string instruments around the world

Laptop Peice performed by Keith Carlson

Sandprints: Dance Song played using sand from Morocco and various computers

Drum Peice Performed by Brandon Van Louks

 

 

 

Please tune in, it will be a very fun concert!

 

Steven at Sea

Update at Sea

Hi,
So yesterday turned out to be a great day for myself aboard the MV Explorer. First off I found out I was nominated as a Distinguished Individual of Academic Excellence for my work in MICE. Only a small percentage of the students aboard Semester at Sea were nominated for this and we will be participating in the Academic Gallery in order to display our work to the rest of the ship.

The programming and events committee and I have been leading a photo contest from each port. There is one winner from each port and it is judged by the voyage photographer John. I found out that I won the Hawaii contest! That means I got 30 free internet minutes to use now! The photo is of a young girl looking at the wall of names of the people who died aboard the USS Arizona during the attack on Pearl Harbor.

Finally, the day ended very well when I found out that I received an A+, that's right, not just an A but an A+, in Money and Banking. I'll take an A+ any day of the week, especially on a college transcript.

Today is another free day, so lets hope its as good as yesterday. Then it's off to the Panama Canal!

-Steven at Sea

The Final Port: Guatemala

Hey guys,

 

So we just left Guatemala, our last port of call before coming home to the United States.  I was extremely scared before going there because of the many things I had heard about the country before arriving.  We were told of the many violent crimes that have taken place in Guatemala.  These include busjackings, murders, muggings, etc. related to gang violence and economic desperation.  We experienced these things due to the fact that as we rode on the roads of Guatemala, there were billboards advertising bullet proof vests.  You know it’s dangerous when it is economically sound for a company to advertise bullet proof vests in the open like that.  Also, for our SAS sponsored trips, we had armed police officers escorting us wherever we went in order to keep us safe.  Lastly, almost every establishment that might have money, say a shop, a bank, etc., had a guy with a shotgun standing outside to protect the place.  The country is a dangerous place, but a beautiful place as well. 

 

Our first day started very late.  They didn’t open the gate until 11 or so.  That means we didn’t get under way until about that time.  I went with my friends Ruth and Audrey to a small village called Monterricco on the coast of Guatemala.  This town was so small, it only had 1 ATM in the entire town and it was broken…  There was a black, volcanic sand beach there where we spent most of our time.  The waves that were created on the beach were 10 to 15 feet high, the riptides were dangerously strong, and the sand was hot, but it was extremely beautiful and fun to spend time on such a unique beach.  My phone also got wrecked by the waves :’(.  I spent a large portion of my time there kicking a makeshift soccer ball around with a local Guatemalan kid who was about my age.  He didn’t speak a word of English, but I knew enough Spanish to talk about where we were from and what our names were.  His name was Michael.  He was a lot better on the sand then I was, I guess he was used to it.  We also had the most amazing lunch at this small restaurant.  It’s like they took Mexican food and made it 10 times better.

 

The next day I journeyed with SAS to Volcan Pacaya.  It is an active volcano in Guatemala.  A group of about 25 of us hiked to and on the volcano.  It was by far the best hike I’ve ever done.  We got to saw flowing lava, a small eruption, and some of the most beautiful scenery on the planet.  The pictures I took there can’t do it justice.  The hike took about 2 hours up and an hour and a half down.  It was not strenuous, but it was beautiful.

 

The final day I spent on another SAS trip to Antigua.  Antigua in the old days was one of the most important cities in central and southern America.  It is also the former capitol of Guatemala.  The trip was to mountain bike through the surroundings of Antigua.  We got to see parts of Antigua that we never would have seen without going on this trip.  We went down back roads, saw many cathedrals, through narrow passages, through coffee farms, and so on.  It was an amazing trip.  We biked about a total of 15 or so miles.  It was a lot of fun and makes me want to start biking more when I get home. 

 

Overall, Guatemala was a great country to visit, but I’m not sure if I’d go back again due to the fact that it is a dangerous place.  I would never go to Guatemala City as I hear it is one of the most dangerous cities on earth.  I’m glad I visited, but I can’t wait to be home.  I can’t wait to hang out with my friends, sleep in my own bed, etc.  It is amazing that we have gone this far and the trip is almost over.  I only have 5 days left aboard this vessel, then I am home.  There will be updates along these final few days.  We still have the Ambassador's Ball, Convocation, and Disembarkation.  I hope you all have enjoyed my blog over these few months.  I have worked really hard to make it interesting and informative.  I’m curious to see who has been following it as I went around the world.  If you could email me at sptrombetta@semesteratsea.net, that would be really cool.  I just want to know who has enjoyed it and what they enjoyed about it because I am planning on doing a blog over the summer of my summer in Seattle working for Microsoft and I want to get better at doing this.

 

Thanks,

Steven at Sea

 

P.S. here is the information regarding the final performance of MICE on this world tour:

MICE World Tour presents
El Mundo Unido
a live concert on the Panama Canal


On May 3, 2009, MICE (Mobile Interactive Computer Ensemble) will perform a live concert on the Panama Canal in Panama, Central America.
The concert will take place at 1pm and will stream live on the MICEcast web audio server, the Panama Canal Authority Webcams, and by radio broadcast on WTJU 91.1 Charlottesville.

Webcam link:
http://www.pancanal.com/eng/photo/camera-java.html?cam=Miraflores

MICEcast link:
http://std1.ladio.net:8000/MICEcast.m3u

I don’t know about the time yet, but I’ll post that when I know it.

SLIDESHOW

Hey guys!

So after my trip to Pearl Harbor, I was asked by the ship photographer John if he would like to have a word with me about our trip.  I said yes and took a quick little interview.  If you go to http://www.ise.virginia.edu/video/S09/vid_12.html and watch the slide show you will hear me talk about my experiences at the Arizona Memorial.  I am the last person to talk on the video if you can't remember what my voice sounds like :).  I think I'm in the background of one picture too, but I'm not sure.

 

Enjoy,

Steven at Sea

The beach at monterrico

Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry

Monterrico

Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry