Tag Archives: Russia

The Voyage of a Lifetime

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Jeannie Sullivan is a Junior in Agricultural Sciences with a minor in Speech Communication. Last fall, she embarked on the journey of a lifetime with Semester at Sea. Currently an Ambassador for the OSU Office of Global Opportunities, Jeannie is fully versed on how to make the most of a study abroad experience. Read on to learn about her incredible voyage and the opportunities SAS has to offer!

Jeannie Sullivan (7)

Everyone asks if life on the ship was like “The Suite Life of Zach and Cody” and I always say no, not at all. When we were at sea, we had classes every day. That means we had homework, midterms, and finals to go along with that. When we were in port, we got to go explore the countries and do independent travel. For my program, I was able to see an array of countries. I boarded the ship in London and from there I spent the next three and a half months sailing and having the sea as my campus. The countries that I was able to visit on my voyage were: Russia, Poland, Germany, Belgium, the Netherlands, France, Ireland, Portugal, Spain, Morocco, Italy, Brazil, Barbados, and Cuba. We were supposed to go to Ghana and Senegal, but since that was during the height of the EJeannie Sullivan (3)bola crisis, we were rerouted to go back to a different region in Spain and Italy. While I took classes on the ship, I had a required field lab that I went on for each class. These field labs were hands on learning experiences that brought the classroom and reality together. On my voyage, I was able to go hiking and see flamingos in Tuscany for my invasive species lab, learn about the history and architecture of Portugal for my architecture class, learn about Ireland’s health care system and how the LGBT community is treated for my public health class, and learned how history and communication correlate with each other in Russia.

Living on a ship is pretty much like living back in the resident halls. On my voyage, there were a little over 600 students and 150 professors and faculty on board. One thing that I thought was awesome was that the professors and faculty got to bring their families on the ship, so occasionally there were little kids running around, which was always fun and a nice stress reliever. I was always surrounded by people and it was really hard to get quiet time, but it was nice to always be socializing with people at the same time. For my program, I was still meeting people on the last couple days of my voyage. I was able toJeannie Sullivan (4) meet people from all around the States and the world. Being on a ship, I got to see everyone in their best attire, and their not so best attire. So it was always interesting walking around the ship (I always wore orange sparkly slippers when we were on board). With tight quarters, I got to know my professors very well. I loved having lunch or dinner with them. I got to know them on a personal level, and they did not seem as intimidating as they would have back at Oregon State. While living on the ship, I was able to be put into a “family.” This meant that I was grouped with a faculty member and other students. It was nice to be able to have a group to have dinner with, hear their travels, and meet people that I would not have met otherwise.

Being able to go on this voyage was a chance of a lifetime and full of once in a lifetime opportunities. I was able to go to Cuba two weeks before Obama eased the embargo. I learned how to salsa dance from the locals, I got to meet students from The University of Havana, and got to see the site of The Bay of Pigs. I was able to sail down the Amazon River and sip on coconuts on the beaches of Copacabana and Ipanema in Brazil. I was able to ride a camel in the Sahara Desert (and it just happened to be a Wednesday when I did thJeannie Sullivan (2)at). I was able to experience real Belgium waffles, crepes, pierogis, Brazilian barbeque, and Italy’s pizza and pasta making skills firsthand. I was able to see festivals and listen to local music in Russia and Belgium. I was able to see the filming site of Michael Jackson’s song “They Don’t Care About Us.” I got to overcome my fear of heights by zip lining the boarder from Spain to Portugal. I saw the iconic symbols of Paris and the ruins of Rome. I was able to see a Champion League match between FC Barcelona and Ajax at Camp Nou. But most of all, I was able to meet lifelong friends, see beautiful sunsets and sunrises, whale watch, see pods of dolphins and fly fish, and be able to star gaze while in the middle of the Atlantic and see the end of the Milky Way Galaxy while looking at shooting stars.

Jeannie Sullivan (8)

I could not find a better program that fit what I wanted to get out of my experience abroad. I wanted to see as many places as possible, learn to put my preconceived notations aside, and to take advantage of once in a lifetime opportunities.

Out of Prison and Straight to Wedlock

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Photo courtesy of Michael Donatz
Photo courtesy of Michael Donatz

Michael Donatz is spending a year on the Math in Moscow program, which he petitioned to attend through International Degree and Education Abroad.  Michael is a major in mathematics and international studies.  He also just got the great news that the American Mathematical Society has extended his scholarship of $15000 for the entire year in Moscow. Follow him at http://slavicmath.blogspot.com/

Sorry for the post title, I thought I’d offer a viable explanation for the lack of posts. Actually, I haven’t been to prison (yet), nor have I been married to the love of my life (a proposition slightly more unlikely than the first). I’ve just been having the time of my life.
Classes have started already. In fact, we’re just now writing our midterms and it is is week eight already (of fifteen weeks). Classes are hard. Very hard. I’m taking four math classes (algebra, knot theory, topology, and ergodic theory) and a class on Russian language. Each class lasts for three hours, with some short breaks in the middle.

Now, we all know I love math. And the math here is terribly interesting. No not just interesting, but amazing. However, it’s impossible for me to digest that much math in three hours. It’s lead to a lot of changes in the way I learn. I’m used to sitting in lecture three times a week for an hour, understanding the lecture more or less, and then getting on with my day. But the lectures here feel like a… well like a hammer. If I try to understand as we go along in the lecture (which is taught a fairly clip pace), I will be knocked out intellectually for the rest of the day. So my reaction has been to go polar opposite of my previous strategy, now I take notes (that’s a first for those who are curious) much to the exclusion of immediate understanding. So that adds another time sink outside of class in addition to the grueling, but interesting homework problems.

Without going into too much detail (gotta leave the boring narration for the slideshows that you’ll be dying to see), I’ve been wasting my time around Moscow. I’ve made a bitching set of friends who against all reason put up with me and my Russian. Interestingly enough, the overwhelming majority of them are linguists. Go figure. We’ve been to dachas (think a cabin and you’ve got it) in the outskirts of Moscow, and a citywide scavenger hunt in the capital of an oblast a couple of oblasts away (oblast = state). With the other international students, we went to St. Petersburg shortly after we got here. In Moscow, I happily wander and get lost. Stumbling on a few of the innumerable state sponsored (read : free) museums, concerts, and galleries. While none of the muscovites I know play any instruments (yet! one’s picking up the accordian, another the harmonica. Should I try my hand at the banjo?), but they all know plenty of musicians which makes it easy to find a small, out of the way concert to go to.

I’ve only begun to see the big, and the small of Moscow. The known and the unknown. I have my eyes set on getting to know this city, but also on the rest of Russia. With the renewal of my AMS scholarship, and my visa extended to July 31st, I have seven weeks of vacation in the winter (from a week before christmas to the second week of February), and ten weeks after the program ends (a week before my birthday). I’m like a kid in a candy shop. I have my eyes set on too much of europe and asia, and already I’ve fallen in love with what I’ve seen of the country, the culture, and the people.

The highs are higher, and the lows lower in Russia. Perhaps this is a mix of the emotional rollercoaster of living in another country, the cultural differences being a double edged sword (they both clarify and obfuscate ideas and people), and the beauty and difficulty of the language. In any case, I miss my friends and family (I wasn’t homesick until part of home, Dad and Amy, visited last week), but love the people I’ve met here.