College student's 'semester at sea' takes her around the world

p class="News">It was the trip of a lifetime for Benedictine University student Katherine Zagone of Mount Prospect.

Imagine traveling a good portion of the world on board a cruise ship, spending five days in every country on the itinerary and taking college courses while traveling on a ship outfitted as a floating college campus. That is what Zagone did.

The list of countries she and 700 other college students from around the country visited reads like an atlas -- Japan, China, Vietnam, Thailand, India, Egypt, Turkey, Croatia and Spain -- and Zagone's personal tale of amazing adventures reads like a novel.

Her around-the-world trip began Aug. 27 when the cruise ship left port from Ensenada, Mexico. The 15-week tour ended Dec. 7 in Ft. Lauderdale, Fla. Costs for the semester begin at around $19,000.

Zagone's favorite memories include blowing bubbles to children in India who giggled and tried to capture them and singing with a large group of Indian women one day as she and her friends made their way back to the ship.

"They would sing an Indian song to us and then we would sing an American song to them and sometimes we would even do a little dance. It was awesome and totally unplanned," said Zagone, who is in her junior year at Benedictine.

But Zagone's most delightful story was of meeting a young Egyptian girl from a Muslim family. They became friends and were invited to the family home for the girl's young brother's birthday. The father, a bank manager, also gave them a personal tour of Alexandria. And when they left to return to the ship for the next leg of their journey, the family presented them with a copy of the Koran to protect them.

"The whole journey was enlightening for me. I discovered that everyone I met in all those countries wants the same thing -- to be safe and happy and they want those things for their friends and families, too," she added.

"We ran into occasional dislike of Americans, in general, but everyone was very friendly to us as individuals," Zagone continued. "Several people told us that it was nice to meet aware, intelligent young Americans and that we were good ambassadors for our country."

Since Zagone hopes to study naturopathic medicine after graduation, she spent much of her time during the Asian leg of the trip delving into Eastern healing methods and medicine.

In China, for instance, she learned about Chinese acupuncture, reflexology and the uses of snake oil and bear bile powder. She also took a Qigong class in which exercises are used to detoxify the body and revitalize various organs.

In Vietnam she took an acupuncture seminar and learned the differences between the Chinese and Vietnamese versions of the medical art.

In India she enrolled in a three-day retreat in which they concentrated on breathing, meditation and yoga. They practiced the Kriya breathing technique which involves a sequence of breaths taken while in various poses. This technique is often prescribed for patients recovering from open heart surgery and it has been shown to dramatically reduce healing time, Zagone said.

While in Chennai, India, she and a friend also visited an ayurvedic doctor in a shopping mall.

"This is the Indian equivalent of Chinese medicine," Zagone explained. "They work to balance the elements in someone's body by giving patients various supplements. The doctor gave each of us consultations that ended up being very accurate about intimate details of our health. It was fascinating."

They spent 10 days crossing the Atlantic and taking their final exams.

Zagone said her experiences will be useful to her in the future.

"And if I have patients in the future who are from some of these countries, it will help me to know the medicinal tradition they are coming from," Zagone added.

Some favorite moments

• Climbing the Great Wall in China and traveling the length of six towers up and down very uneven steps.

• Seeing Tiananmen Square where the students stood up to government tanks in 1989.

• Dancing to Chinese rap music.

• Taking sam pan (large wooden canoes) rides in Vietnam.

• Riding elephants in Thailand. The elephants once earned their keep by working the rice fields but today they tote tourists.

• Watching the sun rise over the pyramids in Egypt while on horseback.

• Taking a belly dancing lesson in Turkey.

• Visiting a private family home in the mountains of Croatia where they dressed in traditional Croatian dress and danced and played Croatian music for us. "It was fun to 'be' Croatian for a few hours," Zagone said.

• Touring the famous cathedral in Sevilla, Spain.