A Semester I Will Never Forget

My name is Storm Mattos, and I am currently studying around Europe on a cruise ship through a program called Semester at Sea. I know this might sound a little strange given the situation with the pandemic, but it is like living in a dream.  

So far, I have been to ten different countries since January and have three more to go. I take classes while traveling on the water from place to place. There is no real knowledge of what day of the week it is since class days are A or B and port days are numbered with the number of days we are in port.  

Something unique to Semester at Sea is we are all in the same boat, quite literally. I can go to class then eat dinner with my professor and their spouse an hour later or go on a trip with them to a cooking class in the given country.  

The people I have met so far are the friends I know I will have for the rest of my life. With only a month left on our voyage, we have already started planning when and where we will meet again.  

Almost all the countries we have traveled to, I plan to visit again. Some of my favorite places thus far were Valletta in Malta, Lisbon in Portugal, and Greenock, Scotland. We still have Denmark, Sweden and Germany to travel to within the next month.  

Even though this is the chance of a lifetime, I do miss knowing what day it is and having a real weekend. Two years ago, I would never have thought I would be able to travel anywhere again, let alone internationally on a cruise ship. I could not have wished for anything better.