So Sas...

    I'm going to spend this post explaining a little ship terminology we have started using and some stories that make it relevant. Here on the ship we use the term "So SAS" to refer to any occasion that completely fulfills the educational and experiential goals laid out by the Semester at Sea program. Usually these events are completely spontaneous, involve interaction with locals, make Type-A folks nervous, and offer unexpected learning experiences. Sometimes, SAS is as a joke to refer to situations that were the antithesis of the things above. The club we infested in Berlin was referred to as "So SAS", as were a few other disgraceful instances I heard about. However, the term SAS isn't really a joke-it is just a way of quickly describing experiences that would be worthy of one of the neat pictures that decorate the walls of the MV Explorer.

For example, in Belgium I hopped off the ship with two friends and no plans. The only thing we knew we wanted to do was climb to the top of a museum in Antwerp that has a patio with a view of the city from the tenth floor. We started off for the museum and arrived around 9:45. On top of the museum we met a (relatively) local man from the Netherlands named Jonathan. We asked him about his favorite things to do in the city, and he gave us a list of his top five must-do things for Antwerp. We thanked him for his time and proceeded to do everything he told us was worth doing over the course of the day. From chocolate to the train station to a printing museum etc. etc, we checked off all of the items on Jonathan's list before heading back to the MV Explorer that evening. We hit a few big landmarks, but we were also able to visit lesser known locations that we wouldn't have found without our buddy Jonathan. To be sure, it was a very SAS day.

However, last night was so SAS I don't want to even compare it to that day in Belgium. I headed out around 8 into Dublin alone, intent on finding a quiet bar, a corner booth, and some wifi. As I passed Trinity college I decided to stroll through campus, recalling that my architecture professor mentioned the old school earlier in the week. Several buildings appeared busy, so I walked into one that was the location for various club meetings on campus. A few minutes later I was seated in the audience of a debate of The Hist (Trinity College History Society, Est. 1770) on the Israel-Palestine conflict. The debate was chaired by an Irish senator named David Norris who has worked on human rights issues around the world since the early 1980's. It was an interesting experience to say the least. Following the debate, everyone headed upstairs to socialize in their 'clubhouse' room. I introduced myself to a few people and after a discussion of American presidential potentials they invited me to grab drinks nearby. I spent the better part of two hours in a tiny Irish pub sipping Guinness with random students from Trinity college while discussing the weaknesses of various political philosophy.

So SAS.