My Big Fat Greek Week🇬🇷

Five days in Greece just wasn’t enough time to fully enjoy everything. Time went by so fast so everyday was jam pack full of adventure. When we first arrived at the port at 7:00 am on Monday, it felt like Christmas morning. About half of the people on the ship were out on all the decks screaming “Land Ho” because we were so excited to finally get to land, although I feel like we were more excited for the cell service. By 9:30 I was already out in the city with my Services Marketing class for our field trip. We toured 4 hotels around the city of Athens including the Intercontinental, Hilton, In[n] Athens, and the New Hotel. The objective was to see and compare large and small hotels and what they do to meet the high standards and demands of the consumers. The cool part about the trip was that we got to get a your of the city as well so we got to see the Acropolis, Parthenon, as well as several churches. Later that evening, me and a group of about 25 people went out to the downtown area to explore the city. We got a phenomenal dinner and then went to a 360 degree lounge that gave us a full view of the entire city that was unlike any other. Afterwards we just walked up and down the streets of Athens and saw live music and street performers. 

The next day I woke up at 6 am to catch my ferry ride over to the beautiful island of Santorini. After over 6 hours of cruising, we finally reached our destination. We hopped on a bus that took us immediately to Fira where we had a nice lunch and got to roam the city. The view from everywhere just was so cool!  Nothing compared to the place I stayed at called the Caldera Romantica. Me and 3 other guys got an apartment for the night and literally lived like kings. We enjoyed the pool right in our backyard that was immediately followed by a three course meal prepared on site😋. That night when we went out to the downtown was probably the most fun that I have had to date on this trip. There were easily over 200 kids from SAS out and we basically took over the entire city. Everywhere I turned there was someone I recognized. 

The next day was probably the most exhausting day to date on this trip. Fun fact, Santorini is basically a volcano island and when it erupted it covered everything in ash and lava (kind of like pompeii). We went to an excavation site called The Cyclades where we got to see the ruins of the old city. Getting the whole run down of the history was surprisingly interesting because I didn’t know that Santorini had all of the history behind it. Afterwards, we bussed our way up to the very north of the island to the town of Oia. This is the city that when you type in Santorini on google 9/10 the picture of this town. With the white buildings and blue roof tops overlooking the water I felt like I was walking through a postcard. Literally every building was white and had some sort of a crazy view.  We walked up and down the streets just admiring every little detail. By this time is was about 1:00 pm and we decided that we wanted to go swimming. I kid you not, we backpacked this island for about 4 hours trying to find the perfect beach. After thousands of footsteps and several bus rides we finally made it to one of the most beautiful beaches that I have been to; the Agios Georgios of Perissa. We immediately dropped our stuff and bolted for the water and couldn’t have been any happier. Themselves the salt water and the touch of the rocky black sand made for an amazing evening. Unfortunately all good things had to end, and we had to leave to head back to the port so we could catch our 1am ferry ride back to Athens. 

Upon arriving back, all I wanted to do was eat and catch up on sleep, but somehow I was on a train headed right to the heart of the city towards the Acropolis. Although no one told me that we had to hike all the way to top, it was definitely worth the trek because the view of the city and all of the historic sites was just amazing. I could’ve spent hours up here admiring everything! The tickets that we got gave us access to all sites so we just took our time walking by and reading the history behind the sites. Afterwards, we walked endlessly throughout the city, visited a couple markets, and wandered down several alley ways. 

Anyways, that’s about all that happened to me in Greece🤘For more pictures go check out my Facebook! And if you wanna contact me then download the app “WhatsApp” or email me at: andrew.santiago.fa16@semesteratsea.org
Next stop—-> Civitavecchia, Italy & Livorno, Italy. 🇮🇹

All aboard the MV World Odyssey

10.09.16-17.09.16

What a time to be alive. I still can’t believe that all of this is actually real. I honestly didn’t expect September 10th to arrive so quickly, nor did I know how I was going to react once it did. Well let me tell you, whatever expections I had- they were far surpassed. Life aboard the MV World Odyssey has been nothing short of amazing.  When my dad and cousins dropped me off and I walked onto the ship, it finally hit me that this is going to be my life for the next 104 days. My cabin is way nicer than I thought it was going to be, and we have a lot of storage. My roommates are both from California and are “hella rad”, as they like to say over and over. I keep telling myself I’m not going to pick up their lingo, but when you live, eat, and school together it’s quite challenging. No worries though, I promise they’ll be saying “y’all” like no other by the time this voyage is over. Moving in and meeting everyone brought me right back to freshman year, except this time I wasn’t just a dumb freshman; I was an experienced senior. I’m meeting new people every single day. People are from all over the globe, but a good chunk of them hail from California and among  them a whopping 60 kids are from the University of San Diego. I’ve found my group of friends who I do everything with and we definitely keep SAS weird. The second day we were here we played basketball on the top deck and were joined by the kids of some of the teachers and afterwards we got to was the sunset out on the horizon and it was amazing. It’s so relaxing here that sometimes I forget I’m even taking classes. But, as far as those go, I’m taking all upper level marketing classes for my minor and they are actually pretty interesting. My last/first day of school as an undergrad was Monday the 12th and it went great! The classes don’t seem too hard here,but hey seas do get degrees. Skipping classes isn’t really an option here because running into your teachers is inevitable, especially at dinner, and it just makes for an awkward conversation. (And no, I haven’t skipped…that’s just what someone told me). 

Also some of you have asked me how life on the ship has been, so I’ll give you the the run down. First off, the ship used to be the set for the German TV show Das Traum Shiff so everything looks super extravagant and over the top.  Our cabins are really neat and we have an awesome view of the water! The ship itself has 9 decks- 2 of which are for dining. They only serve us 3 times a day and let’s just say I really, really miss Brough (best dining hall at the UofA). As far as the faculty and staff goes, everyone aims to make this the best voyage it can possibly be. They are really friendly, but since we are on a ship they strictly enforce the maritime culture, which I’m still getting used to. The other shipmates are super cool and aside from the fact that the doors are solid metal and I swear weigh about a ton and a half, everyone has an open door policy, so it’s just constantly meeting new people and making new connections. Also, the tvs in our room have a channel that shows us exactly where we are in the world, and so far we have traveled 3202 nautical miles or roughly 3,685 miles. Even though the MV World Odyssey is a huge vessel, the motion of the ocean is very, very real. Several people, including teachers, have been puking up a storm. In the bathroom, in the stairwell, in the classroom, and yes even in their own mouths. They have puke bags every where you look and give out Dramamine like its candy. The water has been a bit choppy the last couple of days and we are all feeling the effects of it. And, the craziest thing of them all is that the captain said these are the smoothest the seas are going to be, so hopefully we will all get used to the swaying by then. 

To pass by the time we have been playing ping pong or sitting on the deck at the back of the boat and just watching the waves and looking out for other ships or sea life. We even got visited by a helicopter..although we still don’t know why it was there.  Another weird thing is that since we have no cell service, in order to communicate with people we are leaving sticky notes on people’s doors or in their mailbox . It’s also strange to be all together with everyone and have plan our next rendez-vous point because we have no group chat that we can just make. Also, there are a ton of other Beta’s here that I’ve met, and guess where they are from? That’s right, THE UNIVERSITY OF SAN DIEGO (but one does go Oklahoma State University).

Lastly, at two o’clock in the morning on September 15, we passed through the Straight of Gibraltar where we could see both the coast of Spain and Morocco.  I know it’s kind of hard to see, but it was such an amazing view. Since the skies were clear, we could also see the constellations. 

Well that’s about all I’ve got for now! We just docked in Greece, so hopefully I’ll be able to update once more before I leave, otherwise it’ll be when I arrive to Italy. 

As always, for more pictures go check out my Facebook! And if you wanna contact me then email me at: andrew.santiago.fa16@semesteratsea.org

Destination—-> Athens, Greece. 

Willkommen in Germany 🇩🇪

What an incredible past couple of days this has been. Honestly, I didn’t really know what to expect when I got here, but whatever my expectations were they were far surpassed. Right now, I’m on the ICE train (fancy term for the fast train) headed north to Hamburg, where we will be staying until I board the ship on Saturday. 
The city of Berlin is absolutely amazing. From the people, food and drink, and culture all the way to the history, landscaping, and attractions. Everything is so much different here. Everywhere we went we either took the train or subway. The entire city is connected by the S bahn (city train) or the U bahn (subway). If people weren’t taking the train then they were riding their bikes. I know, strange. I swear, I had a greater chance of being hit by a bicyclist than by a car. Bikes were everywhere and the people took them everywhere and would even wear their work clothes on them…like do you even sweat?! That, to me, was very interesting and is still hard for me to fathom. As far as good food, everything I had was nothing short of delicious. From the pastries to the bratwurst and everything in between- it was all delicious. Also, while is may be 5 o’clock somewhere it was 5 o’clock all the time here. Breakfast, lunch, and dinner you could always find someone enjoying themselves whether it was at a restaurant, on the train, on their bike, or even walking. It was pretty awesome lol. 

First pic is of me, my dad, and my cousin, Pennie. She grew up in Germany so she’s fluent and even though she got us lost a couple times, she was an awesome tour guide. As soon as we landed in Berlin, she met us at the airport and we took a taxi to our hotel and within 30 minutes of checking in we were already back on the streets headed to the train station. 
We took the train to the Brandenburg Tor (look it up its actually pretty neat) and walked around the plaza, with pastries in hand, just admiring all the history that had taken place here not too long ago. We also went to the infamous Checkpoint Charlie and got our picture taken with the security officer that was there. Later that evening, Pennies Aunt drove in and she and her husband took us for dinner and ice cream in the city which was also delicious. 

The second day we did a “hop on hop off city tour bus”. If you can’t figure out what that is it’s basically a bus that you hop on, tour the city, and when it gets to a stop you want to explore then you hop off and explore and then hop back on the next bus that comes. So we pretty much saw all the must-sees of Berlin including the Holocaust Mahnmal, Siegessäule, Berliner Mauer, Museumsinsel, and the Berlin Cathedral (look those up too). The second picture is the view from the Siegessäule where we could see the Easy and West skyline, the countryside, and all of parks the city has to offer. *Not pictured is the over 300-step spiral staircase we had to hike in order to get to the top, but it was definitely worth it.* My favorite part was the boat tour that was included in our city tour bus. It took us up and down a short segment of the Spree River and gave us the history rundown of the all of the historic buildings alongside it and through the government district.  The coolest thing about it was that in the business district I got to see the Berlin office of PricewaterhouseCoopers (The accounting firm that I will be interning with in the Spring of 2017)! Upon returning back to our hotel that evening we found out that literally across the street from our hotel was an actually segment of the Berlin Wall, so the next morning after breakfast we walked up and down it. You can see all the wall art in the background of the last photo. 

For more pictures go check out my Facebook! And if you wanna contact me then download the app “WhatsApp” or email me at: andrew.santiago.fa16@semesteratsea.org

Next stop—-> Hamburg, Germany. 

Cão!! 

So close yet so far away🛳

Well with just under 50 days left until leave everything if finally coming together and I’m so excited!! 🤗 I haven’t started packing as yet (and  knowing me, I probably won’t until the week before), BUT I finally know what I’m gonna be doing in some of the countries. I’m visiting family in both Getmany and Trinidad& Tobago. Staying in the gorgeous Santorni, riding camels Morocco, zip lining across Costa Rica, and even cruising around the Balearic island to the infamous Ibiza and literally so many other things that I haven’t even planned yet. So between that and packing that’s basically the rest of my summer. Yeah, I know it’s a rough life lol.   Anyways that’s about all I got for now. When I know for sure what I’m doing you’ll be the first to know!  

The first of many

Sup y’all and welcome to my blog! My name is  Jordan Santiago but everyone just calls me Santi. I am now a Senior at the University of Arkansas majoring in Accounting and minoring in Marketing.

For those of you that do not know, I am studying abroad with Semester at Sea this upcoming fall. (if you have ever seen the tv show “The Suite life on Deck”, that is exactly what I will be doing) I will be living aboard the MV World Odyssey for 104 days while traveling across the world. The ship will be my floating campus and will travel to Germany, Greece, Italy, Spain, Morocco, Senegal, Brazil, Trinidad and Tobago, Panama, Peru, and Ecuador!

Not only will this be a life changing opportunity because I will be living on a cruise ship with students from all around the world, but also an amazing learning opportunity because I will see, hear, taste and interact with several different cultures first hand. While abroad, I hope to see the world and my own culture through a different lens. Even though I will only be in each country for about 4-5 days, I want to be able to absorb as much history and culture as possible. I want to learn new ideas, discover different methods of thinking,  see the combination of unity and diversity come to life, and be able to teach others what I have learned!

I don’t leave until September 10th, so between now and then I am going to looking for things to do while I am in each country. If you have any tips/stories/ recommendations/advice for any of the countries I’m going to, PLEASE let me know. I don’t want to miss out on anything while I’m there!!

Thanks for reading and stay tuned!

-Santi