It seems funny now, being surrounded by angry monkeys on a poorly marked trail in Thailand.

Molly Sullivan, her friend and their tour guide came upon one monkey on the trail. Her friend took a photo, and the flash startled it, making it aggressive. The monkey's antics looked funny, so the friend took another photo - with the flash.

Sullivan, a University of Mary junior, found herself surrounded by angry monkeys on her way up a trail to a waterfall, that is a natural slide. The friend and tour guide were able to jump across the stream to escape the monkeys, but Sullivan had to try to jump over the monkeys to get away.

This run-in with the local wildlife was worth the reward: a slide down a waterfall in a national park in Thailand. Sullivan found herself in Thailand on a journey around the world through the University of Virginia's Semester at Sea program. She shared this story, and the rest of her experiences, at the University of Mary's Heskett Hall on Thursday.

National parks in Thailand are different than in the United States. Tourist shops and ample lodging are scarce. There's also a dearth of people who speak English.

"The bus dropped us off in the middle of nowhere," she said. "There was the bus stop and some convenience store-like shops."

Sullivan and her friend happened upon a woman who spoke English and also rented out a tree house in the summer.

Thailand was one of several ports of call the Semester at Sea program made in Asia. They visited Japan, China, Vietnam and India, as well. In the Middle East, they visited Egypt, and in Europe, they visited Turkey, Croatia and Spain. Between ports, they took academic classes on alternate days.

"You can suntan while reading a book," she said. "Who cares if it's an economics book?"

The group also had guest lecturers from universities around the world and lectures in port. When they were in a country, they could take excursions, visit colleges and meet up with past host families if they had visited there on a previous foreign exchange. Sullivan had been to Japan on an exchange for six weeks, so she met up with her host family while she was there.

One of her favorite countries to visit was Vietnam. She saw poverty in the Mekong Delta. People lived in shacks. The material of the shacks signaled the wealth of the family, with metal equating higher wealth. She also visited the American Vietnam War Museum while she was there and was moved by what she saw.

She saw poverty in other countries. It disturbed her in India. The wealthy wall themselves in and the poor beg and dig through trash, she said. She saw children selling trinkets, who would give their money to their masters. Their masters are people to whom their parents are indebted.

When she gave a woman five bottles of water, she was given the woman's baby in exchange. Without insulting the woman, she had to tell her that she couldn't take the baby.

In Turkey she saw people passionate about their feelings for Americans. A group of men were campaigning for Hillary Clinton and a shop keeper stopped conducting business with her when he found out she was from the United States. He only resumed the transaction after she went back into the store and repeated a phrase she was told to say in such situations: "Bush is an idiot."She felt awful, but was told to try it when faced with people who were anti-American, she said.

She learned in Spain that her Spanish skills couldn't help her with the pronunciation she encountered in Barcelona. It sounded more like Barthelona because the "C" is pronounced like "th."

Then her last stop was unscheduled. She and some friends went to Paris. The program doesn't want program participants to go outside the borders of the countries on the itinerary for liability reasons. She decided to go anyway, and had a great time, at bargain prices. She spent three nights in Paris for $33.

For more information about the Semester at Sea program, visit http://semesteratsea.org.

(Reach reporter Sara Kincaid at 250-8251 or sara.kincaid@bismarcktribune.com.)