Tragedy in Japan:  As you know, due to the horribly tsunami and earthquake in Japan, we will not be porting in Kobe or Yokohama on our voyage.  The US Department of State has declared Japan an unsafe travel destination due to radiation and aftermath of the 8.9 point earthquake.  In Japan, there is a series of six nuclear reactors.  One was automatically shut down, but the other five are active and releasing radiation.  To get an idea of the risk in Japan right now…. I will have you know that on Tuesday, reactor number 3 released more radiation than an average area can be safely exposed to in a lifetime.

Announced at a community-wide speech made by Dean Dan last night, we will be traveling to Taiwan!  If you have any cool ideas for things to do in Taiwan, please email me! hmnoel@semesteratsea.net.

I hope everyone is enjoying Wisconsin (or wherever you are reading this from) right now! It’s gotta be starting to get warmer! For college students, it’s probably around Spring Break time, so many of you traveled to somewhere tropic!  I’m thinking Spring for all of you! You deserve it, after what I have been told was a long winter. LOVE YOU ALL!

Good Things,
Hannah