Latest Nationalities booked on ORA Summer School 2017

One of the most fascinating things about the annual gear-up to ORA’s Summer School, is the variety of nationalities we see creeping into our booking system from April through until early June.
Every year, we welcome new students from nationalities we have never had before, which never fails to send us to Google for some daydreaming over location shots. So we are going to show off a few of our favourites over the next few Fridays.

This week: The Seychelles and The Maldives

These two archipelago nations are a comparative stone’s throw away from each other, on opposite sides of the Indian Ocean. The Seychelles sits north-east of Madagascar, and the Maldives slightly south-west of the southern most tip of India.

The Republic of Seychelles is a 115 island archipelago, which is part of the African Union. Believed to be uninhabited up until the early 17th century, the nation has seen both British and French rule, before gaining independence in the 1970s. The islands are a melting pot of cultures, thanks to their previous use as a trade stop-off by ships from all over the world.  Beautiful beaches, blue seas, coral reefs, and turtles await to greet you on this tropical island paradise.
Fun Fact: Pirates Cove on the island of Mahe is believed to be the location of an undiscovered treasure worth $160,000 US, which is about £125,000 GBP!

The Republic of the Maldives is a chain of 26 atolls  covering 298 square kilometres, making it the most dispersed single nation on the planet. With it’s feet firmly planted in Indian, African, Arab and Malay heritage, the Maldives sit on top of the world’s largest underwater mountain range, and provides beautiful reefs, sleek white beaches and some of the deepest blue seas on earth. Whilst the more lush and rocky Seychelles make you feel as though you could be in a Pirates of the Caribbean movie, the comparatively stark Maldives makes you feel as though you’re abandoned on an alien planet totally covered with ocean.

Fun Fact: In October 2009, the Maldivian President Mohammed Nasheed moved the cabinet meeting to the bottom of the ocean! He and 13 other government officials strapped on scuba gear and descended to desks sunk to the bottom of the ocean, in an effort to highlight the concern about rising sea levels to the lowest-lying country in the world.

We are excited to welcome our latest students from The Seychelles and The Maldives, and hope to learn more about their fascinating countries while they are here. Why not book now, and join them?
Images: seychelles; underwater cabinet; maldives;  maldivian flag; seychelles flag;