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100 Days to See More


By Robbieana Leung

The metal exit door from the cafeteria to the deck is extremely heavy and I slam my body against it, in hopes that the momentum will help me loosen its grip. Once I exit, I enter an entire new world. My pupils immediately shrink as a full blow of white light pours into my eyes. My jacket sheds itself against the heat. My heart calms at the relaxing, melodic caving of the waves. Amidst a sea of people on lounge chairs, a handful tan while others look rather ridiculous as they attempt to read with eyes completely closed. As I continue to climb my way up the stairs with the worst sea legs ever, a group of three catches my eye.

The moment my head is level with the floor of deck seven, the girl sitting upright on her chair beams at me and says, “Hi Robbie! What’s up!” Ahh…my friend, and yet, my victim to this paper. I tell this Kele Pickler double about the interview I must conduct and ask her if she would like to be my interviewee. In her delicate Southern accent, she agrees and signs the paper. At first she allows me to use her real name, but being influenced by her male counterparts, sitting on either side of her, she adopts the name, “Seamoor Butts.”. Not only is this a sly name, but a rather fitting one, with respect to her major, Marine Biology…and…lets just say, her hobbies. Rather, her daring and somewhat illegal hobbies. Inviting me to sit down, she offers me her attention, pausing her talks with her two goofball friends – one floating in and out of consciousness and the other having a very productive day with the complicated task of moving his ID card from his nose to his forehead, to other parts of his face every couple of seconds. Occasionally we are interrupted by him, to aid him with the question, “Where shall I put my ID card next?” Seamoor tells him in between his sunglasses.

Laughing and showing off her pearly whites, Seamoor tells me of her love for marine biology, which has warmed her heart for twenty years. In particular, she loves dolphins because not only are they cute, but incredibly smart as well. She enjoys the SAS privelge of sitting above open ocean, which she hopes will soon reward her with the sighting wild dolphins. Miss. Butts tells me that she thoroughly enjoys this unique college experience, which she first heard about from a friend who had gone on the voyage two years ago. As she listened to her friend enthusiastically chatter about SAS, she found being deterred by her original study abroad plans in Australia, thinking instead “Why go to one country when you can do ten?” Seamoor, having never left the continental United States, marvels that in only 100 days, she will be traveling all over the world, and to a multitude of countrise that her auntie took a lifetime to go to. Moreover, she praises another advantage of SAS – saving financially on travel expenses, as going to each individual country by plane own her own would cost expontentially more.

When asked what she thought of Hawaii, and if she felt strange for being the minority in a land dominated with Asians and Polynesians, and a hybrid culture, Seamoor shook her head and sang, “No! Race doesn’t phase me, I am not racist or discriminatory in any way. Plus, people in Hawaii are so friendly! I didn’t feel at all out of place.” This was an intersting contrast to Gmelch’s article, “Lessons from the Field”, where he talks about his Caucasian American students realizing for the first time racial tension due to color of skin. Perhaps Seamoor could not identify with the students in the article, because of Hawaii’s ethnic and cultural diversity, which blurs the definition of “minority”. Or perhaps it was Seamoor’s own friendly and optimistic personality that played a key factor in her comfortability in Hawai’i. Perhaps she felt as though she was emerged in a similar culture as her own, after all Hawai’i is a part of the United States. Either way, Seamoor loved Hawai’i, especially her cage diving experience, where she was placed in a cage and had close encounters with sharks around her. When she told her mother about the experience, Mom excitedly replied, “Hey Shark Girl, don’t do anything stupid tomorrow! Have fun!” The blonde laughs at this recollection.

While Seamoor misses her mother, gets occasionally seasick and is uncertain whether she will get housing when she returns back to Coastal Carolina College, she is completely excited for the rest of her Fall 2006 semester. With an audacious spirit shining through her mischievious eyes, in a true display of her independence and thirst for adventure, she exclaims, “I especially can’t wait to see snow monkeys in Japan or pink dolphins in Hong Kong!” Looking around me, Seamoor Butt’s energetic personality encourages my own spirits to soar, uplifting my mood and own enthusiasim for the journey I have already embarked on and the many more to come.

Return to course home Send me your comments: robbieanaleung@yahoo.com