Dear Student,

Come on this trip! I was torn between this program and the London Study program. I had an older sibling and many friends who went on the London Study program and they are all jealous of what I got to do. They regret not doing the Cal Poly at Sea program because seeing the South Pacific from a ship and stopping in exotic places is much harder to do than a trip to Europe. The whole Europe thing can happen easily after I graduate while a trip to Fiji, New Caledonia, Australia, and Hawaii is a once in a lifetime deal. It’s definitely a no-brainer decision.

You may be pushed away from this program because you have heard of rigid rules and uniforms that exist on the ship. Yes, there are rules but they are not that bad. All you have to do is make your bed by 11 am and wear your blue polo uniform shirt to dinner. Those are the two toughest rules on the ship. I think there are actually less rules on the ship than there are in the dorms. I was scared because I read a rule forbidding overnight stays in the rooms of the opposite sex. However, people joke about that rule and it is not enforced. Just let your division leader know whose bed you’ll be warming so they know where you are when they check everyone before the ship can depart from a port.

You’d think that there is not much to do on this ship, but there was rarely a moment when I was bored. Classes and school work take up a lot of the time and the classes weren’t that hard. They were only hard when I would slack off and procrastinate because I was having too much fun doing other things. There is a fully equipped gym on the ship and I used it six times a week. I am not going to lie - that gym is responsible for putting at least ten pounds of muscle on me. this trip stimulated both my brain and body. Booya!

I am a big fisherman and this was the chance of a lifetime for me. I trolled fishing lures across the entire Pacific, literally. You can fish from the stern of the ship while the ship is under say. I made some great friends from the CMA while fishing from the stern and will never forget how much fun we had on the fantail (back of the boat). We caught tons of fish back there including a couple of 50+ lb. wahoo. Booya! If you are a fisherman, this definitely is the trip for you. Just bring some hand lines and some tuna feathers, and you are set.

There is so much to do on this ship. I would participate in this program even if we did not get to stop in the ports which, by the way, were AMAZING! It was so wonderful not to have the internet, IM, or my cell phone. It was so wonderful to get out of SLO and see nothing but ocean. Go on the Golden Bear, it will change your life.