It's a Big, Big World... Go Explore It

San Diego here we come.  Last night I bought our plane tickets for January 6th, a mere 122 days until Kelly and I are set to travel around the world for our second time.  Needless to say we are very excited.

The Parliament building in Budapest

Getting lucky enough to do Semester at Sea twice is amazing.  I did my first voyage six years ago at the age of 26 but it wasn't my first trip overseas.  When I was 15 I spent a month in Europe with the People to People student ambassador program and I've been in love with traveling ever since.  I can't thank my parents enough for allowing me to take advantage of that opportunity.  Those twenty-four days our group spent exploring Austria, Hungary and Italy shaped me into the person I am today.  I climbed a million steps on that trip and I saw enough churches to last a lifetime,  but it was the experience of staying with a local family in Budapest, Hungary and Vienna, Austria that really had the most impact.  Getting to spend a few days living with them and seeing how despite the world being so big and so different, we are all just people who love our family, to laugh and have fun and eat delicious food.

I think it's sad that so few Americans travel outside of the States.  According to a 2011 CNN article, only 30% of Americans have passports.  I'm sure many that do only have one to go to party-stops like Cancun or the Bahamas, never getting into the heart of the country where the flavor of the people lives.  I feel like if more people explored the world it wouldn't seem so scary and people wouldn't be so willing to blow up other people because they would feel a connection to them.

The top of Table Mountain

Fortunately Semester at Sea allows us to go off and explore each port on our voyage.  Staying in local hotels and meeting people on the street is a great way to make the world a smaller place.  SAS provides us with some great opportunities too, like when I got to climb Table Mountain in South Africa with the former mayor of Cape Town, Frank van der Velde.  Getting the chance to have a conversation with people like him is knowledge you just can't get by reading a book.  Same is true for the local band, Eat This, Horse, that we met in a Cape Town bar.  We discussed what Apartheid was like and the effects it was still having on the country all while having a pint and shooting some pool.  That is why I travel.