It’s been two days out at sea, and so far so good! You have no idea how beautiful it is to wake up to a bright blue ocean outside of your window. And go to class or eat lunch watching the waves push you by, rocking you gracefully with currents and swells throughout the day while guiding us to our next destination.

Today was my first day of class, and so far I absolutely love them! The professors here really know what they are talking about and have so much experience working globally in the field. They really try to get us to think outside of our skin, something that I have never tried in any other of my classes. Today I went to my global studies class, and geographies of cities of the world. Tomorrow I have capitalism and the global economy, and global journalism and the future of democracy. I’m so excited to use what I learn in these classes and apply them to the countries that we visit throughout the trip.

The theme of my Semester at Sea voyage is “thinking globally and acting locally,” and so far I think I have been able to grasp the significance of this theme and see how it has already presented itself to me.

In my global studies class we discuss the impacts of globalization upon small cities and regions around the world and apply this knowledge to the places where we port. Today, we were assigned to various groups to work on research projects that will cover the impacts of globalization on the port of our choice. I was quite upset when I learned that Hawaii (the Hilo port), was not an option for this project. I was upset because Hawaii has been greatly impacted by colonialism as well as globalization: economically, culturally, politically, and has faced many patterns of disease and even poverty as a result. The factors of globalization that I listed above are the main forces that we will be highlighting in the class, which why I was so upset and even puzzled that Hawaii was taken out of the picture.

Although Hawaii is a part of the United States, I don’t think a lot of students and even professors here know how it became part of the US. Most people seem to have looked past or are simply just ignorant of the fact that Hawaii was colonized and illegally annexed into becoming a part of the global world. And on top of that, don’t take into account the how globalization has affected Hawaii, and see the Hilo port as more of a vacation port than a place that we can really learn from. I hope the Hawaii port will be culturally integrated into our academics.  I think it is my job to try to bring these issues to the table.

After a lot of thinking and debating about this issue, I decided to personally speak with my global studies professor about adding Hawaii to our group project. I was glad that he kept an open mind about my concerns, and really agreed with me. He explained to me however that after hearing what I had to say he would like to try, but the only downside is that Hilo is our last port and that I would somehow need to find a way to incorporate Hawaii with another country that we visit, because there will be no time there to engage in fieldwork. He also told me that he would try to talk with the registrar about somehow incorporating Hawaii into our global studies course. I really appreciated the fact that he took the time to listen to what I had to say and hopefully something will happen because of this.

I feel that we are learning so much about how globalization is impacting all of the other countries and cultures that we will be visiting on this voyage, yet we are looking past the one American port that holds so much culture in itself and hits all of us so close to home. I think we all can really learn from Hawaii and compare the result of globalization that has directly affected not only myself and the rest of the Native Hawaiian community, but the students and even professors here who are from the US. If you really think about it, the history behind Hawaii really presents itself as a global and local issue that I think applies to all American students on the voyage.

My classes today really got me thinking about our Semester at Sea voyage theme, something that I thought would not occur to me until perhaps after the voyage.

I hope that something positive will happen after voicing my concern with my professor. I’m thinking about starting a cultural awareness club with one of my friends, so we will see what happens!

I’m looking forward to two more classes tomorrow and two more days until our first port! I really can’t wait for everything that is ahead for me in this voyage and am ecstatic to port in Dominica!

I was going to post some pictures of the ship today but unfortunately my memory card exporter is not working, so I will have to take more on my other camera. I can’t wait to show everyone what ship life looks like!