Old Man and the Sea

Today I saw land for the first time in five days! Early this morning we passed the Azores Islands. Here's an interesting fact from my international marketing professor: the Azores Islands are inhabited by Portuguese fishermen, and the ancestors of many Rhode Islanders came from here. Who knew?

In my entrepreneurship class I'm learning all about creativity and the practice of acute observation. There's so much that can be learned about the world we live in by simply opening up our eyes, taking a leisurely walk, or having a conversation with a stranger. In order to illustrate this point, Dr. Litz told us a really cool story about his first SAS voyage in Fall 2001.

The ship was docked in Cuba and it was one of his last days there. An older gentleman walked up to him, handed him a folded piece of paper and said, "If you're looking for something fun to take your daughters to, you should go here." After the man walked away, he unfolded the paper to reveal a name, an address, and one sentence: "Here lives the old man from Hemingway's Old Man and the Sea." So the next day my professor, his wife, and two daughters drove to the address and had a 15 minute conversation with the old man, who said he knew Ernest Hemingway personally. About a month after Dr. Litz returned from the voyage, he discovered a news article that said the old man that inspired the literary classic had passed away. He was 102 years old.

I wish I could include pictures with these posts, but I am sending them by email and the pictures would have to be about the size of a postage stamp to be under the data limit. I might be able to add a few when I'm in port, but no promises. Send me an email to lhrichardson@semesteratsea.net-- I am able to check this everyday and I would love to hear from you! It's been refreshing but weird going an entire week without Google, email from TCU, news headlines, phone calls, text messages, and facebook. Only four more days until we dock in Barcelona!