Intrigue
A12
Thursday, January 23, 2014
ThePlainsman.com
Intrigue
Students travel the world in months with Semester at Sea Kailey Miller
Intrigue Reporter
CONTRIBUTED BY AMANDA PAULSON
Captain Jeremy Kingston and his staff dress up as King Neptune and his army to celebrate Neptune Day, when a person officially crosses over the equator in the sea.
CONTRIBUTED BY AMANDA PAULSON
Hassan Khan, Rose Dimal, Amee Covarrubias and Amanda Paulson pose with a Chinese “soldier” on the Great Wall of China.
Traveling around the world in one semester may seem intangible, but, through the University of Virginia, it is a possibility. Auburn University offers study abroad programs of its own, but it also works with other schools so that students can benefit from outside programs as well. The University of Virginia organizes Semester at Sea, and allows students from other schools to apply to its program. The students live on a boat for an entire semester, or summer, and travel the world while taking classes on the ship. “There are a few similar programs, (but) Semester at Sea is by far the most popular one,” said Korbin Dimmick, Auburn Abroad Coordinator. Amanda Paulson, junior in political science and history, and Nathaniel Walden, senior in history, are two Auburn students who went on Semester at Sea for their study abroad experience. Paulson went on the voyage in Spring 2013. They went all over the world, starting in San Diego and traveling to Mexico, Japan, China, Vietnam, Myanmar, Singapore, India, South Africa, Ghana, Morocco, Casablanca, Spain, and Hawaii, to name a few. “My favorite place to go was Myanmar, or Burma, because everybody was excited to see us,” Paulson said. “It was a brand new country that Americans had been allowed to go to.” Paulson said that she had the best experience in Ghana. Walden said he enjoyed Ireland and South Africa the most during his fall 2012 trip. Walden said a typical day on the ship wasn’t too different from a day at Auburn. “It was just like a regular college day,” According to Paulson, the students’ classes were a hour and a half each, and they could take up to five classes. All of the classes were taken on the boat and ranged from a class size for 10-80 people per class. There were different forms of entertainment on the ship
for students, including a basketball court, insanity workouts, orientations about the countries they would see, a full-size library, and movies. “I actually almost enjoyed the boat part . . . as much as being in countries,” Paulson said. “You’re cut off from the world. We had no Internet [and] no phones. You really sat down and talked to people.” Paulson said she got closer to the people on the ship in two months than a lot of the people she has known in Auburn for two years. Paulson said the living situation was great, but Walden had reservations about the food served to the students. “The food was terrible on the ship,” Walden said. During Walden’s time on the boat, the group had a scuba-diving accident during the last week that resulted in the death of one of the students. Walden said he doesn’t blame anyone for the tragedy, which he called a freak accident. “You know, when you’re traveling to some of these foreign countries, they don’t have the same safety regulations,” Walden said. “It’s just a risk you have to take.” Walden said other than the bad accident and bad food, his only other complaint about the trip was how long the ship took to get from country to country. Students could only take classes on the ship, so they had to go slowly between ports. “We’d be at sea sometimes for nine or 10 days straight without seeing any land,” Walden said. “You kind of. . . get sick of that.” Walden said the trip was $25,000, not counting the expenses in the countries or ports. Walden said he didn’t know any other students on the trip, but he wanted to do something different then everyone else. “Instead of just one country for three months, you get to go to 15 or 16,” Walden said. Paulson said students had the freedom to explore different countries on their own. As long as they submitted a form saying where they would be in case something happened, they truly could go wherever the sea took them.
For some, two wheels are better than none Adam Wolnski Intrigue Writer
Bicycles are everywhere on campus, and whether you love them or hate them, they’re here to stay. Zach Wise, senior in communications, said, “I live about half a mile away, over behind Mike and Ed’s, and I can leave my house and be in my sesat in the Haley Center in four minutes.” Wise contacted The Plainsman the day after his interview to share that he had beaten his record by a minute. The main reason many people have so much disdain for bikers is the collisions and near collisions they have to deal with while walking on the Concourse. Luckily, Wise hasn’t ever run into anyone, but he has had some other problems. “This why I don’t walk places,” Wise said, “I was walking on the concourse, hit one of these little rivets with my shoe and I forgot how fast gravity works ‘cause I was sprawled out on the ground and people were laughing at me.” Wise, the physical training instructor for Marine ROTC, said he wasn’t deterred for long by the fall, but it confirmed for him that walking is something he tries to avoid. For Wise and others that choose to commute via bicycle, the University has stations in different locations around campus where bikers can hang their bike up and tune it with the tools and pump provided. Carson Legg, senior in architecture, talked about how he doesn’t use the stations.. “They suck,” Legg said. “They’re left out in the elements: rain, snow, fire, wind. They’re not taken care of, so they just get jacked up. One of the pumps ruined my valve.” Legg isn’t the only one who ignores the bike maintenance stations. Amelie Thomas, junior in early childhood education, said she hasn’t even given them a chance. “I don’t ever use them,” Thomas said. “I don’t really think they work, and I don’t really want to find out.” Thomas, an Auburn Outdoors employee, said
Emily Enfinger / Staff Photographer
Domestic Obsessions by Amy Stevens, visual artist, in Biggin Gallery is a collection of photography and sculpture.
JON HARRISON / Staff Photographer
A student walks his bicycle down the concourse after class on Tuesday, Jan. 21.
Auburn Outdoors has provided a solution. “We have a bike shop in the bottom of the [Recreation and Wellness] center,” Thomas said. “In the rental area, there’s a place where you can take your bike and work on it. And we have a bike person that can help you.” The shop has thousands of dollars worth of tools and pumps that won’t harm your bike. While things are looking up for bikers’ maintenance, not everything is smooth sailing. Over Thanksgiving break, Wise said someone stole approximately $8000 of property from him, including his bicycle. Weeks after the robbery, Wise saw what was undoubtedly his green bike ride shamelessly past his house, ridden by a man who later identified himself as Jay Walker. “There’s no doubt that that’s my bike,” Wise said. “So I throw my long board to the side, run up, grab the handlebars and body check this guy off of my bike. He goes flyin’ and lands on the ground and then I kinda look over and I’m like, ‘I want my bike back.’ That’s really what I said to him.” None of his other stolen property was ever found, but Wise is back to happily riding his bike to and from class in three minutes.
For an Auburn artist, domesticity is excess Becky Sheehan Intrigue Reporter
Domestic Obsessions, an art exhibition by Amy Stevens presented by Auburn University’s Department of Art, will be free and open to the public in the gallery at Biggin Hall until Feb. 21. The exhibit features Stevens’ photo series, “Confections”. The idea for “Confections” began on Stevens’ 13th birthday. Stevens said she attempted to bake and decorate 30 cakes using guides from Martha Stewart and online videos. “When I realized that it wasn’t going to be quite as perfect as the cakes I was looking at, I decided to take a turn and just make them kind of crazy and ridiculous and funny,” Stevens said.
For eight years, Stevens has baked and photographed over 100 cakes against cheery fabric backgrounds, which are on a slideshow in the gallery. The process of creating “Confections” allowed Stevens to examine female domestic roles and the impossible search for perfection. “It became more about issues surrounding perfection and being a woman in this doit-yourself and domestic popular culture,” Stevens said. In the middle of the gallery is a tower of 25 bright patterned pillows. “I Just Need One More…” is Stevens’ interpretation of domesticity as what she calls obsessive accumulating. Inspired after buying her first house, Stevens said the freestanding structure would
ideally be complete with more stacks of pillows around it. “It’s funny because I actually need more than just one more,” Stevens said. Using leftover fabric from “Confections”, Stevens crafted other 3-D installations, which are on display in Biggin. These include scattered groups of fabric yo-yos collectively titled “Accumulations,” the unwieldy ceilingto-floor “176 Coasters” and “Gathering,” a fabric wall hanging. Throughout the gallery, Stevens’ signature color pallet prevails: girlish pinks, vibrant citrus and cool greens. Florals, polka dots and paisley patterns cover the
» See Domesticity A14