A Rough Day!

“This has been a rough day man,” Erika says. And yes it truly has. Besides a day of classes a lot of has happened in this short day at sea.

As usual the student body joined in the union to be prepped for our arrival in Istanbul. This time it was a bit more extensive considering the heightened cultural difference and the necessary awareness of Terrorism in Turkey. In the past few years there have been attacks in the city of Istanbul and last summer Semester at Sea even diverted their voyage from docking in the city and instead reset their itinerary for Egypt. The notification of these happenings is certainly of importance but the faculty made it seem like there was something we could do to prevent any sort of attack from occurring. They discussed high alert places as well as our dress. The high alert places are tourist attractions: the exact places that we will be visiting and I don’t see what effect our clothing has on a terrorist’s intentions. So again I emphasize what is the reason in frightening us and paralyzing our travels in this city for the next five days.

“I don’t want to die,” Erika in a worried state announces to the group. She is one of the paralyzed that I was fearful of. She doesn’t even want to venture out into Istanbul because of the paranoid talk during our Pre-Port meeting. There were tears in her eyes as she vocalized her fear. Me? I’m not so worried about terrorist attacks. I live in New York City which is probably the number one target of such incidents and I live freely each and everyday. Erika however, this entire trip has been in a state of panic. She is always anticipating the next part of the trip so she can envision her ultimately safe back at home. People living their lives in fear is the exact goal of a terrorists and I refuse to give in. We also have no control of when and where it is going to take place. We leave our safety up to our governments who we don’t even know we can fully trust. So all and all we are on our own. Especially when traveling to a foreign country. This discussion isn’t to induce fear but instead to highlight vulnerability where ever we may go. We are never guaranteed safety so what is the point in worrying? I feel bad for Erika and only wish that she too could relax, as I can.  I understand her fear but I just handle it in a different way. She has expressed to me that the fear doesn’t stem from her but from her family. We just don’t want any devastation brought upon to our families back home. We pray for safe travel and a safe return.

“I’m afraid to lay down,” Erika confesses. Her fear doesn’t end with just Turkey. Us on this secluded boat aren’t even safe. This evening Erika had quite the meeting with a bug. Becca, Kevin, Erika and I went back to my room to watch a movie. Erika went on my bed to lay down. She was cold and needed the comfort of the blankets. She was laying down for about five minutes when all of sudden she screamed. “A bug just went in my ear.” But it didn’t just go in and fly out. No. The bug literally crawled into her ear. I have goose bumps as I’m writing this. She could her the buzzing of the insect and she explains it is as high-pitched screaming as she could here the wings inside her head. Once again their were waterworks as we tried to asses this odd situation. Kevin was brave enough to examine her ear. “Oh I see it,” he says as he caught a glimpse of this small centipede sort bug.  I myself didn’t see the creature. I’m working off of others descriptions. We were all in a flux of either laughter or screaming over the thought of this bizarre situation. I kept asking Erika if she wanted to go to the doctors but she kept dismissing me saying that she’d feel stupid going with such a strange reason of a bug crawling inside her head. She still could hear the buzzing.

“I think its out.” Kevin did one last inspection with a flashlight and a tissue and supposedly got rid of the pesty thing. I was in awe of the last ten minutes and in laughter over the drama-filled life of Erika Morrissette.

Now I sit, anxiously awaiting the arrival of Turkey. I’m always in either a state of boredom or excitement and don’t know how to balance the two. We have put on a movie to try to relax the mood. But tonight should be an early night. It is a 6:30 sunrise.

Explore. Dream. Discover.

~Michael-Anthony

P.S. I hate things that crawl.