Classes at Sea

You may be wondering what it’s like taking classes on the ship. Well I’m here to tell you that they’re not easy. So often I hear that the classes students take during study abroad programs are pretty laid back...not so here at Semester at Sea. We have classes every day while we’re at sea (minus a few reflection and reading days), and that includes weekends. Days are divided into A and B days, instead of specific days of the week, which often leads to never actually knowing what day it is.

Here’s my schedule for the semester:

A Days
World Religions: 1455-1610
Music and Cognition: 1615-1730

B Days
Global Pop Culture: 0800-0915
Global Studies: 0920-1035

I love that my classes are back to back, but the 8am class I have on B days is a tough one to get up for, especially when we always lose our hours the nights before B days. And although my workload is constantly pretty heavy (I’m writing papers everyday!), I enjoy my classes for the most part.

World Religions is an introductory class into the study of religions. I love this class because without it, the religious practices of the rest of the world would most likely overwhelm and confuse me. So far we’ve talked about Judaism, Christianity, Islam, and Hinduism--as well as lesser known religions like tribal and native religions, Jainism, and Rastafarianism.

Music and Cognition is an upper level psychology class that delves into why and how the brain process music the way it does. The big question that we’re trying to form opinions about in this fairly young field of research is “Has music evolved as an adaptation of language or is it simply enjoyable cheesecake to the brain?”. Because this is such a new field of study in the psychology world, most of our work is speculation and critical thinking about the topic. This class is interesting but definitely work heavy. Preparing for class usually requires reading a couple chapters in our text book accompanied with several (rather long) scholarly articles and scientific studies. And then we have to write a two page reflection paper for each set of reading for every class. In addition to that we have field work and other papers to turn in along the way. Somehow I’ve been keeping up in this class, but to be honest, I have no idea how.

Global Pop Culture is a sociology class that focuses on the pop culture of the countries we visit on Semester at Sea. We focused mainly on advertising for the first half of the course, but now we’re on to working in groups on a big final project. My team is studying  music and nightlife. The class mainly focuses on attaining a sociological perspective and increasing critical thinking skills, which can sometime prove difficult since I haven’t taken any sociology classes back at Western, but all in all, it’s an interesting course.

Global Studies is a tough course to explain...probably because it tries to incorporate the topics and workload of about 4 different classes at once. Global Studies is our core class that every passenger aboard the MV Explorer is required to take. Global Studies is designed to provide background and insightful information about the countries we travel to, and boy do they try to pack in as much as they can. The class usually consists of a couple minutes of announcements, a regular lecture and then a guest lecture, and my favorite minute of B days: the geology minute. We have reading and attendance quizzes, a group project, and a huge comprehensive final to take before completing the course. What makes this class a lot of work is that in addition to the rather large amount of reading we have for Global Studies, we are also responsible to know all the information in the professors lecture powerpoint slides, even if he doesn’t finish the lecture (I’ve yet to see him finish a lecture). Global Studies is a standard experience for people who attend Semester at Sea, and to most--myself included--we have a love-hate relationship with the class. We do learn some valuable info about the countries we visit, and the geology minute--a brief overview about our geographical location mixed in with some geographical features of where we are--is always interesting.

I wouldn’t say that the classes here are any harder than the ones back at my home institution, but here’s what they don’t tell you in the brochures...the environment that we’re supposed to work is anything but ideal for schoolwork. First of all, you’re on a moving ship, which either makes you seasick or very sleepy. Seasickness is a completely valid excuse to leave or not come to class. Even professors have had to excuse themselves from their classes to compose themselves. Seasickness doesn’t discriminate. For those who never get it, let my jealousy be noted. Also, reading on a rocking ship is something you just have to train yourself how to do. The key is to take lots of breaks!

Second of all, the ship becomes a lot smaller than you think if you’re trying to find a quiet place to study. There are people hanging out all over the ship, because cabins are far too small for all of your friends to congregate there.  So it’s much easier to get caught up socializing with your friends, instead of tackling your ever-present homework.

Finally, because internet access is nearly slim to none while at sea, students are forced to travel backwards on the technological timeline and use--dare I say it--actual books in the library! Well in less you want to use one of our free online pages, Wikipedia, as a reliable academic source. Thankfully we also have access to the University of Virginia’s online sources as well, but that’s only if the internet decides to work that particular day. 

My intention for writing about classes on the ship is not to simply voice my complaints, but rather spark some empathy or compassion for the students of Semester at Sea, however brief it may be. We are all very fortunate to be apart of this incredible opportunity, but we have all worked extremely hard to get and stay here, and I think that should be commended.

Onward to more studies!
Anna