Semester at Sea Fall 2006 Voyage 

• Home Page
• My bio
• Used and Abused:  Religious Sites Around the World (Vietnam, Burma, Spain)
  
• Shipboard Interview: The Nate Chandler Experience
• Train Travel in Japan
  
• Hong Kong: A Weekly Celebration of Community
  
• Vietnam: A Glimpse of Religious Tourism
  
• Burma: Buddhism Laying Down
  
• Spain: God or Money?
  
• Open Letter

I met Nate Chandler during the first few days of the journey.  He is a laidback kid with dreadlocks.  When I interviewed Nate, he was very open to the questions I asked.  Every question I asked him, he seemed to already have thought about it.  His story is an interesting and uplifting one.

One of the first questions I asked is “Was it hard to get into Semester At Sea?”  His answer was “No”; in fact Nate said that after finding out about the program he was enrolled in a week.  His parents supported him fully and in fact pushed him to apply.  He actually was thinking about other study abroad programs but after finding out about the opportunity of Semester At Sea he quickly decided to enroll. 

Nate was brought up in a Christian household and he has continued to be religious.  For the past several years, starting in seventh and eight grade, Nate has been involved in missionary work.  During this time he has spent several weeks in Mexico teaching villagers and helping their community as well as eight days in Brazil doing relief work in four different villages.  This travel sparked his interest in the world around him and is a big part of why he’s on Semester At Sea. 

When I asked the question:  “What are you looking forward to doing while you travel?” he said he was going to do some relief work and have fun seeing the world.  He is using this trip to travel for fun as well as go and help orphans in India and Myanmar.  Along with India and Myanmar, Nate is looking forward to Spain because he wants to use the Spanish he learned in Mexico.