Liz and I completed our visa applications today for the four countries that require them in advance: Ghana, Brazil, India and China. This my friends was like doing taxes. Follow instructions exactly, wondering if the requirement to send a photocopy of a university student/faculty ID card with the packet will be resolved in our favor since Liz does not have one. Oh well, hopefully the company, Pinnacle, will realize that not everyone on SAS is affiliated with a university and the process will not hold up return of our passports. Oh yeah, almost forgot to mention the $731 (each) visa fees. At least they accept our travel Mastercard so we will get miles to spend later!
We started looking at the sample field programs to participate in along the way. We are like kids in a candy store. Safaris, Habitat for Humanity houses, immersion programs, Taj Mahal, Great Wall .... who knows what we will choose. Some are really expensive so there may be some hard decisions to make. On many we will wait for recommendations from seasoned SAS'ers aboard the voyage before committing. I'm sure we'll make some great friends on the voyage who we will want to travel with on some excursions.
Yesterday we also went shopping and found some awesome hiking shoes on sale and both got a pair along with some zip-off pants/shorts for me, which we have decided will work quite well on this adventure. I am having a much better time finding these on sale in male sizes than Liz, who may have to pay full retail later at REI or Columbia if she can't find them on sale soon. Starting to realize why women spend more time shopping ... much tougher to find a proper fit.
Also astarted putting together a list of all the to-do's that must be done before leaving for such a long period of time. I look at this a spring training for our future of travelling. After preparing for this one, they will all be easier (I hope). As word has begun leaking out about my exciting new adventure, I have been asked by no less than three other chiefs who also want to do the Semester at Sea gig. Starting to think maybe I shouldn't help them too much, don't want to increase my competition for future voyages (just kidding). I've put a photo of the MV Explorer on the wall in my office to remind me that I leave in just over three months!
