BARCELONA

Barcelona – 6/27

            Buenos Dias! This morning we arrived in port! I got up early to watch us dock before breakfast and it was a beautiful Mediterranean morning. We then had a quick bite on the ship and went to our briefing from the US Consulate. Everyone was itching to get off the ship and ready to explore. A bunch of my friends had field labs for classes so once off the Explorer I set out with a few other buddies to check out the city. We walked out of port and into the city and experienced some funny sea legs as we navigated solid ground for the first time in awhile. Once we made it to Las Ramblas we wandered up the street that is filled with artists, cafes, and souvenir stands. Being that it was nearly 11am we decided there was nothing inappropriate about stopping for a beer and game-planning our afternoon. After a frosty beverage we set out to see the Picasso museum. Along the way we stopped and bartered for some Spain jerseys as it was game day! Unfortunately when we reached the Picasso the line was a solid quarter mile long so we had to scratch that plan figuring our time could be spent more efficiently elsewhere.

            Next we walked towards the water through small alleyways and traditional Spanish architecture until we reached the beach and boardwalk. We sat down to a customary Tapas lunch and enjoyed all sorts of new dishes. Really tasty and surprisingly cheap! Once we finished up we grabbed some large water bottles and set up our towels on the beach. A swim has never felt so good or funny, especially in the Med, where clothing is fairly optional for the locals! We spent the rest of the afternoon having a mojito and tanning before walking all the way back to the ship to get ready for the game.

            Once cleaned up a big group of us set out for George Paynes, a famous sports bar, but the place was packed to capacity and we had to find another spot. We ended up watching the game at Dow Jones bar and did a little “economic research” while there. Spain winning in penalty kicks was truly special and something we were very lucky to be a part of! After that it was off to Chipitos, a novelty shots bar which is really popular. They serve most all drinks on fire or in some fun kind of way and the bartenders were really skilled. Finally it was time for Opium, a nightclub down on the beach to which we had tickets. We arrived and a ton of SAS kids were showing up and we spent the rest of the night dancing on the packed dance floor or hanging out on the large back patio while people watching. The place looked like something out of Entourage! Private tables, roped off areas, the works. A few kids let loose and paid for some of these amenities and invited us to hang out with them, it was sweet! Finally we took a cab back to the MV to rest up for the next day.

6/28/12

            We slept in until about noon and then rallied to go be tourists all over the city. We made good use to metro system and naviguessed our way to some famous sights such as La Sagrada Familia and Parc Quell. The Sagrada is an unbelievable Gaudi structure that is actually still being completed. Afterwards we grabbed a quick tapas lunch before continuing on. We hiked a huge hill to get up to the top of the Parc and it was completely worth it! Vast views of the city and crazy architecture everywhere. Underneath the Parc is the Gaudi district which is home to the largest mosaic sculptures and structures you can think of. We spent lots of time exploring these areas and took a lot of great pictures. It was a long hot day of touring but so worth all of it! We now feel comfortable using the city transportation and were never too lost at any point. I am back on the ship now getting ready to head back to the beach for a nice dinner. We plan to eat around 10pm, so different that the US! This short blurb doesn’t quite do our day of touring justice but it was great!

            After getting cleaned up and organized a group of us sent it down to the beach area to look for a restaurant. We settled on a nice seafood spot on the boardwalk since we weren’t planning on going out afterwards so we enjoyed a killer Mediterranean dinner of Hake fish and white wine and coffee ice cream for desert. The time really gets away from you eating later and in the company of new friends and by the time we returned to the M/V it was around 1am. I also met up with Amanda Taselaar, a Georgetown sailor, briefly because she is studying abroad here. All in all a great day in Barca!

6/29/12

Early morning wake up call for our tour of Camp Nou, the FC Barcelona soccer stadium! We took the bus there and had a guided tour through the museum, massive stadium(all the way down to about ten rows from the field and press skybox), and apparel megastore. This tour included a visit to the opponent locker rooms which are really not too nice. They say that the FC one is 5x the size and never ever allowed to be seen as players keep personal belongings there. Messi is a god-like person around Barca and they had the coolest interactive video boards of all his goals for the club. Also there is the large trophy room which houses what seemed like every trophy a team could compete for. After the tour we continued on the bus to the stadium that was used in the 1992 Summer Olympics. Also very big and had cool pictures of events that were held there. That stop was much more brief but cool nonetheless. Once back to the MV we snagged a quick lunch on the pool deck and packed up bags for an afternoon at the beach. It was crowded because it was a weekend day but we found a nice spot to lay out and buy a beer off one of the hundred gypsies roaming the sand, these guys are relentless! After a couple swims and a few hours under the sun, we headed back to nap, eat, and gear up for our last night in Spain.

            Around 9pm we woke up and started to get our friends together and left the ship by 10. The rest of the night was spent bouncing from bar to bar, conversing with SAS kids and snacking on the occasional tapa. We made it back somewhere around 4am and I went to bed because of a “field lab” for class I had the last day. It’s funny because even your professors tell you that you can sleep once you get back to Boston so everyone rallies to pack as much in as possible whether it’s daytime, nighttime, or somewhere in the between.

6/30/12

            The alarm sounded at the crack of dawn, well 9am, and I went up to my classroom. My lab was for Food, Gender, and Culture class so we listened to two guest lectures that all had to be translated into English about the influence of gastronomy and it’s historical basis in the city. Around Noon we ventured down to Las Ramblas with our class and were given two hours of free time to explore La Boqueria de St. Joseph. It is a huge marketplace with every food you can think of. There was a whole fish area in it where live lobster were on display and just about every other type of fish that looks fresh out of the sea…the smell was ripe! But there was also creperias, fresh juice stands, and butcher stands. You name they had it at a negotiable price and in vibrant color or smell.

            After the market we walked down Ramblas into the city farther and bent off into a nice shopping district where the 4 Cats Restaurant is located. All 30 of us dined off a partially set menu that was phenomenal. Our first course was salad with fresh duck. Next for the main course I chose veal with potatoes..amazing! So nice to have really good meat. We finished up with a traditional tiramisu, of course red wine was present to complement the entire meal. What a neat day at school! Ha this program is unreal! Once we finished everyone was burned out and we made tracks back to the MV one last time. We boarded and then waved goodbye to an amazing four days in Spain as the sun set over Barcelona while we left the harbor. All said and done, Spain was fancy at times, wild at times, touristy most of the time, and an absolute blast the whole time! We are now bound for Italy and will arrive early Monday morning. I guess one day of class isn’t much too complain about. Everyone is busy sleeping, planning, and getting organized for a week long stay off the Explorer.

MOM AND DAD: THIS TRIP IS AMAZING SO FAR AND I WANT TO THANK YOU FOR EVERY MINUTE

There are many more stories and loads of pictures to be shared but I will have to save those for our return. Thanks to those who are following my adventure and reading these long posts!

Adios,

Jeff

Land

Excitement is in the air aboard the M/V Explorer today after seeing land for the first time last night! I had dinner as usual and then went up to the back deck to watch the sunset. Much to my surprise when I stepped outside there was lots of shouting and clapping. First let me fill you in on the less than ideal conditions for entering the Strait of Gibraltar; large waves rolling past the ship quickly, breeze easily in excess of 25kts, and thick wet fog whipping by. Not exactly the picturesque arrival I had been hoping for. Anyways, I walked over to the aft starboard corner of deck 7 and gazed south and what would you know, large mountains of Northern Africa were visible just above the clouds and through the fog! The clouds were so dense that nothing could be seen on the Spanish/Portuguese side but everybody was excited to know that we had made it! We took a bunch of pictures but you can’t quite see what’s behind us unfortunately. This morning the water has laid down and the sun has poked through some more, we could see Spain off our port side while eating an early breakfast and accommodating our last time change. Glad those are done with! Everyone onboard is busy making plans for the days in Barcelona and here are a few of our ideas for what we may do. The first night will be a highlight for sure because the Spanish soccer team plays Portugal in the semi-finals of the Eurocup. We plan to watch the game with the masses and then get a late Spanish style dinner before going to a famous nightclub that we have tickets to. Hopefully they win so the city is alive all night! The next couple days we plan to tour around to the famous sites and visit the FC Barcelona soccer stadium and museum. If we get a chance to get some free wi-fi I will try to post some pictures to make these readings more interesting. Thanks to all who are following along back home and a special cheers to Brooks for his birthday! Hope it was an epic one buddy, did you get my email? We dock tomorrow morning around 8am, stay tuned for a report in about four five days from our adventures in Barcelona!!

Jeff

Experiences

Hello all,

Here’s what we have been up to since I last posted. Last night after Pub night a bunch of people stayed up late laying around the pool deck for some stargazing. We decided that because last night marked our halfway point on our Atlantic crossing that we would sleep outside and watch a mid-ocean sunrise. It went alright despite a stiff breeze but the sunrise was pretty cool. Some clouds made it less than perfect but how many people can say they’ve watched the sun make a full lap around the horizon from the comfort of a chaise lounge whilst in the middle of an ocean?? I took a good nap today after being up so early and then took a tour of the bridge after class! It was so cool to see how it all operates up there and all the computer systems involved. While we were hanging around near the helm a radio call came in from a small sailing vessel that we were approaching. They were in no trouble but simply calling just to check in, even though we were in 25+ knots and 3 meter seas.  Later in the afternoon I layed out for a little while and then played some pickup volleyball. We are full steam ahead for Spain and everyone is getting anxious to be in port. The Sea Olympics begin tomorrow afternoon so we are having meetings tonight to plan for that. Pretty much all for now. Cool to check off some things from the bucket list! By the way, I have never appreciated Goldfish as much as I do now that they aren’t just a few steps away.

Jeff

Routines

Classes began yesterday and have been fairly interesting thus far. Because we are doing about 300 miles or so each day, we have to adjust our clocks as we move across the time zones towards Spain. This means that each night before bed we push the clock forward one hour and your “8am” class becomes 7am, and today, 6…that said nights are fairly short and naps are becoming part of our daily routines. Here’s what a normal day is like for me aboard the ship. I wake up around 730 and pull on a sweatshirt to catch a bite of breakfast before my first class at 8. That one is food, gender, and culture which is neat but has lot of readings. Then at 925 global studies begins. This one is pretty funny because it is in the huge auditorium that is furthest forward on the ship i.e. you can feel the motion of the ship the most in the classroom. It’s really difficult to not nod off for awhile during the lecture. After that class let’s out I usually head down to the cabin to drop off my books and change into a bathing suit and grab a book. I head for the pool on deck seven to catch some rays and read some.  Not too long after that I’ll grab a few friends to eat lunch with before my International Marketing class at 1230. Once that’s all done it’s time for a few dips in the pool and some relaxation or a workout in the gym if I’ve signed up to use a machine (running on the treadmill is pretty entertaining when the ship starts moving around) Then we’ll get cleaned up for dinner and see if we have any work to get done that evening. Last night was our first pub night, which means that we can have three beers or wines on the pool deck. It’s not much but still nice to hang out with everyone and get a taste of home, Budweiser. Nights have been warm and the breeze is pleasant. I noticed today that the wave direction has changed some and we are now running with the swells which is cool. I haven’t bothered using any internet really as we’re consumed by other things out here so if anyone out there wants to send me some news or sports updates from back home that’d be great. Please use the address Jeffrey.aschieris.a12@semesteratsea.org reading emails doesn’t take up internet time so feel free to write often. I think that’s about it for now. I’m going to try and attach a picture or two to this post but I’m not sure whether or not they will load. All good out here, we have gone over 1000 miles but still have some 3000 to Barcelona where we will arrive in one weeks time!

Over and Out,

Jeff

ps. the pictures are of SAS'ers watching our first sunset and the Charleston kids at our first pub night last night

Learning to Walk

Yesterday morning Michael and I boarded the M/V Explorer to set sail for Barcelona. We spent most of the day unpacking our bags into our deck 4 cabin. We have a window which is really nice and we wake up to blue water washing by. The ship pulled out around 530pm and we all watched from the rail as we waved our last goodbyes to parents ashore. It hadn’t really sunk in until that moment that we are actually going to spend 10 days at sea. After dinner on the back deck we napped for a little while then went to our Sea meeting. They divide the ship into different seas and we are in the Bering Sea. There are a lot of nice kids in our sea so it has been easy to meet new friends. The waves rocked us to sleep easily as we were pretty tired from all it took to get ready for the trip. Some students aren’t having as much luck and have been fairly seasick but in general people are doing ok. The food has been alright thus far but nothing extraordinary. The pool deck snack bar seems inviting because everything is so cheap there. A large burger is only $3! This morning we got up early for breakfast and began our long day of orientation. The meeting are fairly repetitive but not too bad. We are on a break now for about 2 hours so I may go layout by the pool or grab some lunch with friends. We’re still getting everything around the ship figured out IT wise, so my email isn’t quite working properly yet. It’s really nice not to be dealing with texting, tweeting, or facebooking while out at sea. It really makes us appreciate and the enjoy the endless expanse of ocean we are crossing.

p.s. anne marie – I met Karen! She is hilarious and very friendly. Everyone is jealous of the fact that I have a SAS sweatshirt already. The ship is indeed cold!

Bonefishing in the Bahamas

This morning my dad and I rallied early, around 630am, to set out on a half - day fishing charter. We were lined up with capt. Phil who was to take us down to the east end to fish the flats. We drove about an hour to end and were then dropped off on the side of the road near a pier. After about 15 uncertain minutes a small boat powered up and motioned us aboard. It was GT, our guide, we ran out to the flats over beautiful blue-green water which was at most 5 feet deep. He took us up right to a great spot and began teaching us how to spot the Bonefish. They move in schools but given their color they can be hard to see. It was a day full of sight casting and good fishing. We ended up landing 4 average size and 1 larger bonefish that our guide decided he would keep for his dinner. It was an awesome day on the water all-around. We board the ship early tomorrow and will depart sometime around happy hour.

Best,
Jeff

Leaving Home

I write to you live from terminal B at Charleston International. My dawn patrol flight was conveniently delayed by the time I got to the airport this morning....eventually I'll be making my way down to Freeport via Miami this afternoon. Maybe I'll run into some other SAS students at the next terminal though. Here's a map of our route for the summer! I'll finish with the worlds most overused travel quote, and my next post will come from aboard the Explorer most likely.

“Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.”

 

 

-Jeff

Introduction

To whom it may interest,

I will be leaving Charleston in just a few days to set out on Semester at Sea aboard the M/V Explorer. Over the next two months we will visit the Bahamas, Spain, Italy, Croatia, Greece, Turkey, Morocco, and Portugal. I look forward to experiencing new things as we make our way through the Mediterranean and across the Atlantic Ocean. Stay tuned to this blog for updates of my adventures in port and on the ship. I'm looking forward to calling this ship home for the next two months