Category: Uncategorized

I am finally in Austin. I was incredibly lucky that my parents came to San Diego to do a business trip and picked me up to go home together. I have so much to tell my family and friends, but first I’m grateful for some days to return to normalcy. I think the hardest part of getting back to real life is not gonna be the change of pace, or the weather– it’s going to the fact that everything will look the same as it was, but I will be different. I will process life differently now because I see that I am small. My life is trivial, but my actions are imperative.

I had wanted to do the  Spring semester trip that goes to Asia because I thought that was more foreign to me and that going far was important for me to learn. I thought I’d already new about this side of the world because this is where I’m from…

I realize now that I underestimated how important the mediterranean still is to modern society. This is still after so many centuries, the most important area for modern immigration. The Atlantic ocean has been the stage for the most important movements in history, and I need to understand it because that’s the world I inhabit.

I still think we are entering the century of the Pacific ocean, but the past needs to be understood before we can proceed into the future.

I count myself lucky to have taken this trip as part of my college education. I appreciate my place in the world as a person first and as an artist second. There is so much more traveling I want to do and the greatest thing is that I have no excuse to fear! So hell yeah, I’m backpacking it out as soon as I get the chance.

Thank you to my friends and family back home. Thank you to my friends on this trip who became my family. Thank you to all the people I met in every port, whose eyes lit up when I explained my journey and wished me luck on my way.

I’m so immensely happy.

—Aline.

This has been an incredible journey and I can’t believe we’re at our last port. WHAAAT??

I signed up for a program through semester at sea where we volunteered at a turtle conservation center. It was one the “IMPACT” programs that SAS does, and it was probably the most immersive program I did, largely because we stayed with local families in their homes. The conservation work consisted of taking down data about the Olive Riddley turtles that come in huge numbers to this particular beach to lay their eggs. We were incredibly lucky to get to Ostional Beach precisely on the day of the last “arribada”… and this was a once-in-a-lifetime experience. We saw 70,000 turtles in one night. 70,000! And they’re like 40 Kilos each so it was difficult to even walk through them at night. They’re extremely light-sensitive so we had to use these dinky red lights and I could not get any quality pictures that captures the sheer quantity of turtles, but trust me, it was insane. We walked for miles during our 8pm-12am patrol and I could barely get by without feeling like I was gonna step on a turtle or in one of their nest holes.

They are amazing creatures. They are so not built for land roving but they do it! These mama turtles do incredible things to make sure their 100 eggs are settled before they go back to the sea.

The great thing about this project is that the conservationists are trying a new program to help the community of Ostional get involved. Since turtle eggs are commonly eaten, to prevent them being sold in the black market the municipality has created an official group of people that get to harvest a certain quantity of eggs to sell. They make a fair amount of money from it and their community makes sure that there is no need for smuggled eggs anymore. Since they have the education to do it correctly, they do not harm any other nests in the process. And the most amazing thing- the reason we were here- is that it is actually good to take some eggs out of this beach. There is so little coastline suitable for these turtles anymore that they’re all cramped on top of each other and there’s actually too many eggs cramped in. This lowers the rate of survival as the eggs get smashed and cause infections that kill them all. The data we helped collect is going to destined to reinforce previous studies that back this claim.

These are the type of conservation projects that really make a difference in the world. Conservation isn’t about the environment, it’s about society. The world is gonna keep on turning one way or another and nature will outlive the human race in one way or another, but we are the ones that have to decide how much destruction we want to stop inflicting.

On the very last day in port I spent in great company doing an action-packed tour of a volcano and a waterfall and a mud-bath and a horse ride. One of my favorite days overall!!

I feel like I really did some amazing things here though, and I’m ready to do finals and head home!!

—Aline

I interrupt our regularly scheduled blogging to bring you this post on how we crossed the Panama Canal! It was so exciting to be going through this marvel of engineering that has had such an impact on the movement of the world.

THIS WAS A QUICK LIL TRIP.

I absolutely loved the Island of Trinidad in the short 2 days we had there. Our inter-port student Samuel showed a few of us around his home town, Port-of-Spain. He took us to the high school he attended, a highly regarded prep school for boys in a gorgeous historic building. After that we ate Roti, which is like a burrito made out of Indian food. Because amazingly there’s a large Indian population here!

We visited the Zoo and I got to feed a giraffe named Mandala! And I saw a lion only 5 feet away from me which was pretty amazing to behold.

The next day I had my field lab for Global Music and it. was. incredible.

We were incredibly lucky to spend a day with The Melodians, a prolific steel pan band. They have a sister band in London and their leader Terry flew all the way to Trinidad to come speak to us and receive an award. It was so exciting to meet him. There were lectures on how the pans are made and then we got to play music! I loved that it was so hands-on… My high school in Austin had a terrific steel pan program in the Fine Arts Academy so the sound of the pans reminds me of high school. It’s an amazing instrument and I loved learning about it from the people that truly live with the pan. It’s a life-style… These bands are run by families and whole communities. The competitions are enormous! Trinidadians are very proud of their music.

I loved this place! I want to come back soon and see more areas of it.

—Aline