Thursday, May 22, 2014

ON THE ROAD AGAIN!

I'm going on the road again!

Well, actually on the sea!



In late August I'll set sail on my third Semester at Sea voyage--a university on a ship. We leave from Southampton, England & return to Fort Lauderdale, Florida in December. This voyage will be an entire semester, & its theme is "Atlantic Exploration."

I'll teach 3 courses: 2 sections of Travel Writing, & 1 section of Creative Writing: Fiction. The courses are supplemented by field trips & experiences at the ports where we dock along the way, usually for 3-4 days.

Here's our itinerary, in order of ports:

Southampton, England (depart August 23rd)
St. Petersburg, Russia
Gdansk, Poland
Rostok, Germany
Antwerp, Belgium
Le Havre, France
Dublin, Ireland
Lisbon, Portugal
Cadiz, Spain
Casablanca, Morocco
Dakar, Senegal
Ghana: Takoradi & Tema
Brazil: Rio & Salvador
Bridgetown, Barbados
Havana, Cuba
Fort Lauderdale, Florida (arrive December 8th)

As you can imagine, I'm very excited about this voyage. We'll travel places I've never been & have longed to see-- like St. Petersburg, Salvador, & Havana! And life at sea is an amazing experience of its own, with its own rhythm.



Nothing quite matches teaching a class on the deck of a ship during sunset ... or trying to teach during a typhoon while books fly & waves hit the windows ... or watching the sunrise from the top deck.

I'm wearing the Captain's cap, but don't worry, I am not steering the ship. However, I'll keep a travel blog right here, posting news, observations, photos, updates all through the voyage.
I hope you'll follow my blog & travel with me so we can share the voyage.

And if you have any suggestions about places to go or things to see, please comment & let me know!

Meanwhile this spring/summer I'll continue posting observations about writing & life, updates on my novel, & guest posts from fellow creative artists.  And reflections on what the writer & artist can learn about craft & art from travel. So come with me!

2 comments:

Unknown said...

That sounds absolutely awesome, Ruth! No recommendations on places to go, but I'm sure it'll be amazing no matter what you do. :)

Ruth said...

Thank you, Katie! I'm starting to get excited!