All posts by June Cotte

I am a Professor of Marketing at Ivey Business School, Western University, in London, ON, Canada.
June's Posts

Morocco post

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Now to actually write about Morocco.

I am sure the kids will blog about our trips here, so I will focus on a bit of a travelogue. The first day in Casablanca I had my last (of four) field labs, which are academic experiential learning days with my students. The day went well, and Dan and the kids did a tour of the city while I was away.

The following day we did a very long day trip to Marrakesh. Although I had already decided that these SAS trips would be my first and last experience with “tour bus” travel, this trip, and the overnight one we took to Fez the following two days, solidified that decision. We just do not enjoy travelling in a pack. In both Marrakesh and Fez we were in groups of about 25, and shepherded through souks/medinas/markets like we were on some sort of military manoeuvres. Although we saw more than we would have alone, we never got to spend quality time anywhere. We felt over-scheduled, over-crowded, and just sort of over-everything. We are very much looking forward to the next phase of our travel, where we scale back to a family of four. Of course, then we have to make all our plans ourselves…

Morocco is a gorgeous country, and some of these Arabic and Islamic sites are simply outstandingly beautiful. But honestly, it was more difficult to travel here than it was in India. The old city section of Fez, for example, has over 9500 small winding streets, with many dead ends. Some are so narrow it becomes dark. And although it is (thankfully) the largest car-free area in the world, the donkeys have free reign. Being a little more reflective on the experience, I think our difficulties mainly came from the tour aspect. I would have loved to just find a lovely place in Marrakesh and stay there a few days, as some of our friends did. We would have seen far less, but enjoyed far more. At any rate, here are some final images of this complex place.

June's Posts

Random things

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Some things we did not expect to see in Morocco, but should have:

1) Fantastic beaches (one in Casablanca pictured here), and

2) Roman ruins. Here are just a few of the pictures of the restored site of Volubilus, which was once the southwest extreme end of the Roman empire (in about 700 BC I think).

I am also including a funny picture of Jack doing part of the Logistical Pre-port lecture before we arrived in Morocco. Why is he doing this, you may ask? Well, it’s a funny story… Each voyage there is a ship-wide auction held to raise money for future Semester at Sea scholarships (this isn’t a cheap voyage). Things that get auctioned off range from the mundane but surprisingly valuable (a jar of Nutella went for $65) to the exotic (5 nights in a hotel in Madagascar) to the unique to SAS (first to leave the ship in England, which went for $1200 I think). One of the SAS items was the chance to be the “Voice” of the ship for a day. Let me explain: each day, three times per day (at least) there are ship wide announcements. These cover things such as the sea depth and temperature, distance travelled since the last port, nearest land, as well as announcement of the day’s activities. Usually completed by Kevin Sternsberg, Assistant Executive Dean (shown in the picture with Jack) this was something Jack really wanted to do. The bidding was fierce, but we won that item, and Jack did the announcements for a day. He loved it, and everyone thought he was pretty funny. (When I get better internet, I will post a short video). Kevin very nicely followed up with a chance for Jack to do the opening of the logistical announcements necessary before we arrived in Morocco (we’ve got that on video as well). Jack improv’d pretty well, and it was funny.

So, here are some pictures of the beach, the ruins, and Jack speaking in front of about 500 students.

June's Posts

Family Pictures

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Hello from our last stop before England – Morocco!

I will blog soon about the trip itself, but I thought I’d share some cute family photos taken over the last few days before we head out this evening for our last stretch at sea. There is even one with me in it.

June's Posts

A little bit stir crazy…

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As I write this we are stopped for 8 hours in the Spanish Canary Islands to refuel. We are looking at a very pretty island, but we are not allowed to disembark. After about 10 days at sea already, with two more to go to Morocco, this is making everyone a tad bit crazy. The kids are bored and restless, which rubs off on the adults. The routine is becoming, well, routine. Alas, we will miss it as soon as it’s over, which is sooner than I would like.

As I mentioned, two days until Morocco. The academics on board are at a fever pitch. The students are all completing projects and preparing for finals, and the faculty are frantically trying to grade all these assignments that seemed like a good idea to assign back last fall… Personally, how I thought I could grade 31 final papers, and 91 final exams in the (very few) days between Morocco and England I will never understand… students are not the only ones losing sleep.

All in all, as this voyage draws to a close and we prepare for our family time in Europe, I am wistful. This was an incredible experience, and honestly, I can’t wait to do it again. Perhaps when one of the kids is a college student on board?

As we haven’t left the ship in awhile, I thought I’d post some crazy pictures from the Sea Olympics. Here are Jack and I in our star turns during the lip synch contest. Jack is grooving to “I like to move it, move it” and I am channeling Iggy Azalea with “Fancy”. It was a blast! The Faculty and Staff team won that contest, so we did something right!

June's Posts

Namibia’s Skeleton Coast

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We travelled this week up and down the western coast of Namibia. It’s a odd place, and one of the few in the world where the desert (here, the Namib) actually reaches straight to the ocean. There isn’t a border of mountains, or forest, between desert and ocean. As a result, it’s bleak, but also beautiful.

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From our port town of Walvis Bay (where there is a beautiful flamingo colony you can see here) we took a trip into the massive sand dunes that lay right behind the town. The picture here is of Joe and the rest of our friends climbing Dune 7, which is popular to hike (and then run down screaming) but isn’t even the largest one around.

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We also visited Swokpmund, which is a town built by German colonists and Namibia slaves in the early 1900’s. We learned on the ship about the genocide of the Hereo people here, which many historians consider almost the model for the concentration camps and the Holocaust of World War 2. Germans set up camps here, and slave labor, and about 65% of the local population was killed. It’s a history most of us don’t learn, and it’s a major issue here, with local people divided over issues such as reparations. And yet, if you didn’t know this history, you wouldn’t realize it in the town, which is now a cute tourist beach town…

Most of our time here was spent in Skeleton Coast National Park. It’s a very desolate landscape, with lots of wrecks in the sand. But it’s not only shipwrecks, although there are plenty of those. There are also wrecks of failed human attempts to do something in this barren place, such as abandoned diamond mines, and abandoned oil rigs, just rusting into the desert. Quite eerie.

The area is also home to the seal colony at Cape Cross. How to describe the smell of somewhere between 100,000 and 500,000 Cape Fur Seals in a colony? Astringent, harsh, awful… impossible I think. Even with the smell, this was really a highlight for all of us. We were here during the time when the new babies are still drinking milk from mum, and the experience of seeing them up close was just incredible. In Joe’s words: maximum cuteness! Unfortunately, our lodge (the only dwelling for miles around) was a kilometer away. Why unfortunately, you may ask? Well, the smell doesn’t travel that long, but the dead baby seals do. Sometime has gone wrong with the plankton this year, and more of the babies are dying out. They wash up on the beach, and at times there were 10-20 in view of our balcony. Well, they are there until the jackals and hyenas and gulls come to eat them. I realize nature keeps everything in balance, but it was a little difficult to watch…

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We are now at sea for 12 long days. The mood on the ship is a little down, because there is a lot of work for the students, but also because it’s clear now the voyage is ending soon, with only Morocco and a final stop in England coming up. For our family, that simply means transitioning into our “Europe” phase, but we will also really miss the community here. We’ve all made new friends, as a total living immersion will do, and we will miss them!

Jack's Posts

Jack’s take on South Africa

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The first day in Cape Town set us up for a great time (which was fulfilled). We went on a city orientation tour with Semester at Sea. It was amazing; we had a terrific guide and company. The first thing we did was go to Table Mountain. We took the cable car up to the top. It is the best cable car in the world. It spins around so everyone gets a 360 degree view. The top was just the most amazing view of a city anywhere in the world.
Then we went to a military museum. It had a lot of old relics from the 17th century. After that we went to the ship and ate dinner and slept. The next day we got up earlier than usual to go to on a multi-day trip. Botlierskop, our first stop, was my favorite place in South Africa. When we first got there they gave use this big lunch of wonderful food. Then we went to our “tents”. They were big and better than any hotel room I have every stayed in. (That could be because no one’s realized my blackjack potential.)
Then we went on an awesome game drive. We saw Black Impala, Elephants, Rhinos, Springbok, Waterbok, and Zebra. Then we got Wi-Fi time and ate the best dinner in a long time. Warthog is the tastiest animal to walk this earth. Then we went to bed. Next we went on another game drive with lots of mud. It was amazing we saw Lions and Baby Rhinos and Baby Giraffes. Then we ate a wonderful breakfast and started another long drive to Plettenberg Bay. We ate a packed lunch and went to an Elephant sanctuary to play with elephants. We held hands and walked with the elephants. Then we rode them for a minute because it was muddy and I don’t think they had insurance. Then we drove to Tsitsikamma Lodge. Our cabin, for just Joe and I, was even bigger than our tent. Not as nice, but good TV. Also, I mean big, as in two stories big. The next day we went zip lining. It was such an amazing view and zip line. Then we had a light lunch of sandwiches and fries.
After lunch we drove to Storms River Mouth to play on the beach and look at baby dassies. Dassies are little mammals that look like a cross between a groundhog and a chipmunk. Oh and the amazing view, that too. Then to Port Elizabeth for a regular hotel with dinner and rest. The next day we went to Addo National park for a game drive. We saw lots of elephants. We also saw the red heart beast. After Addo we went to Port Elizabeth for our flight back to Cape Town. When we got on the ship we had burgers and pizza (it pays to be late for the buffet). The next day was just as fun. We went to boulder beach with our private driver. Boulder beach is covered with penguins. They are the coolest animal in South Africa. Then we had a yummy lunch of burgers and seafood. Then we cleared immigration and left with the ship. Now we are on our way to Namibia.

Joe's Posts

Joe’s take on South Africa

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We were in South Africa. First we went on a city orientation tour. We went to the top of Table Mountain (it’s kind of like a table). We saw a dassie; it’s a brown, small, cute, little, fluffy thing. It’s so cute that Jack started repeating the saying, “sniff, scurry, flinch.” Then we went to a castle with a torture chamber and learned how they hurt people so they would plead guilty.

The next day we went on a long road trip to Botlierskop. When we got there we had a really good lunch. We then went to our tents. Now it is not what you think of as a tent; it has sliding doors, a mini bar, cool beds and an outside shower.

We then went on a game drive where we saw elephants, giraffes, rhinos and springbok (a deer looking antelope). After that we went to a zip-lining place. It was awesome. The first lines are for beginners. Then they got longer and longer, the bigger the better. On some of the lines you did not have to hold on. After we went back to the ship we met our driver and went to Boulder Beach (a place with penguins). 25 years ago there were only two pairs of penguins at Boulder Beach and today there are over 3000.