TABLE
OF CONTENTS
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Shipboard Interview with Matt
Palmer
By Melody Heath
When
one really thinks about it,
one realizes that Semester At Sea (SAS) is a truly unique experience. However, if it is such a unique experience,
then why do so few students attend? All
of the people on this ship come from different areas of the United States
and even the world. All of the people on
this ship have attended hundreds of different high schools, are
pursuing
various majors, and attend multiple colleges. Through
all of these differences, we all have at least one
thing in
common; we chose Semester at Sea for the fall 2006 semester as our
study abroad
experience. What made us collectively
decide to attend SAS at this point in our lives?
I
began to answer this question by interviewing a student named Matt
Palmer from
UCLA. Matt first heard of SAS from the
television show, “Real World.” The “Real
World” is a reality based show on MTV that depicts college aged
students daily
activities—usually the drunk kind. Already,
I assume that what he expects to experience on
SAS may be
different than some other students. However,
I didn’t find him partying it up at the Aft-Hours
party like
you may see on Real World, I found him sitting casually by the snack
bar trying
to read his textbook, The Prize.
Even though he has
traveled to places like England
and France
with his family, Matt’s never made it to any of the countries that we
are
visiting. So, senior year of high
school, he and his friend decided to go on SAS as roommates. And already, he notices the difference in
people on the ship compared to the average campus.
“Everybody’s much
more outgoing,” he explains. Since no
one really knows anybody, you want to meet people and it seems to make
people
nicer. He does concede that we don’t really get to know and immerse ourselves
in the cultures this way, but already he’s learned a lot about the
world. Each class really emphasizes the
places that
we are going to visit and he knows he will learn from this experience.
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