I sailed around the world in 100 days during the spring semester of 1999. The steamship was campus for over 600 other college students, and we attended classes at sea for credit. I took four courses in the humanities and social sciences. While in each of the ten international ports, I had free rein to explore the countries as I pleased. Some of my trips include floating the Amazon River (3 days/2 nights) with a native guide, crawling through the original Cu Chi tunnels near Ho Chi Minh City, and riding a bullet train to the Hiroshima Memorial Peace Park. The best one-line summary I can give is that my expectations for a great all-around experience were vastly exceeded.

The program is run by Semester at Sea and courses are accredited through the University of Pittsburgh. Applying was easy; see http://www.semesteratsea.com/ for an application and general information.

The benefits of studying abroad are based on real travel. I'm talking about the type of travel that exposes you to the elements of a culture and place that are deeper than what a cursory tourist's glance reveals. On a study abroad, you have opportunities that are unavailable to those merely taking a vacation. Instead of hopping from one tourist-ridden oasis of pseudoculture to another, you talk with locals, visit their homes, and intimately observe their daily lives. Interaction with their culture is on a level that leads to a meaningful exchange between you and your hosts. This exchange makes all the difference between study abroad and a vacation to another country. It's a difference so satisfying and rich, I believe one fully understands it only after experiencing it.

The greatest lessons during my study abroad were best learned, if not only learned, through travel. We have all seen documentary films on the destruction of the Amazon rainforest, read books detailing US involvement in the Vietnam War, or heard stories from other travelers about how different India is from home. These portrayals of people and places, however vivid, do not fully convey the emotions and forces behind them. Experiencing foreign cultures and places first-hand gave me an understanding and a perspective that I could not have gotten otherwise. No substitute exists for your own experience of a foreign culture. There were sights I saw that cannot be photographed, sounds I heard that cannot be tape recorded, and scenes I witnessed that cannot be captured on video. Fellow students who haven't studied abroad may find this hard to believe. I know that I wouldn't have believed it the day I first boarded the ship. But now I know it's true, and I believe the only way you can really know it, too, is by travelling. If you have the opportunity to study abroad, I implore you to seize that opportunity.

In telling stories about what I did and saw while overseas, I attempt to relay to others the impact specific experiences abroad have had on me. I always fall short. In spite of this, I share here a brief account of my visit to India's Taj Mahal which underscores the importance I put on first-hand experience through study abroad travel.

I was at the Taj Mahal in Agra with other Semester at Sea students. This immense mausoleum, reaching towering heights and imparting upon any observer a powerful sense of mass, is constructed entirely of exquisitely carved marble and flawless inlaid gems. Standing at a distance, one of my friends commented that for some strange reason, the Taj Mahal looked fake and appeared as if it were a backdrop against the sky. I took another look and had to agree. We talked about this for a few minutes, trying to understand why. Finally we decided that it's because the Taj Mahal is perfect. The marble construction, symmetry, and nuances of form work together to render it unreal. You must see for yourself to understand. I encourage you to study abroad and find your own unreal experience as I did with the Taj Mahal. I like to end this story with a quotation: "India's Taj Mahal must be seen to remind us that the world is real, that the sound is truer than the echo, the original more forceful than its image in a mirror." -Salman Rushdie