At Sea to India

March 5 to March 10 March 5, 2008

Ship life is back and very familiar to me and the rest of the community. Last night we pulled out of port 45 minutes early, which is always a plus. There were a bunch of incidents that occurred while we stayed in Mauritius and we are trying to put the pieces of the puzzle together and to work with all of these students. When I say crisis management, this experience is crisis management!! Laundry day was for my deck again…. Lots of students very tired today and luggish, which is usual for the first day back on the ship. We call this post-port depression. Looking back on the fun we had, how much we learned, how much we got to see, how much we got to experience in only 4 days, it is amazing. It is also interesting to see how much the world is actual a classroom to all of us coming from different places in the states. Each country teaches us more and more about ourselves, the actual country, the people and the culture. What better way to explore and learn more about others than actually being in their home for a few days and having fun at the same time. Nothing major going on today for me. I have just been trying to stay on top of my administrative work as it can really hit you hard for dropping it for a few days while in a country. Image us trying not to fall behind on our work, but the students who have classes while at sea and then BANG.. no class for like 4 or 5 days having fun in a country. It is tough on the students who do this. It really does take a very independent and self-motivated student to survive this experience academically and socially. March is going to be tough on them as we visit 4 countries in matter of four weeks, being at sea for short periods of time and being in 4 countries right after each other. This should be interesting. Tonight I had a program for my residents. I took about 15 of them to the special dinner the ship serves. For $25, we get a 5 course meal with all of the elegant service and fun!! The students really enjoyed the meal and had a chance to get out of the ship cafeteria food and have some fine dining. The fun part was watching them learn how to eat with 12 different place settings sitting right in front of them. So throughout dinner I taught them about the proper way to use their place sittings and to manage their courses for dinner. We all had amazing food and were so stuff after eating this dinner that we needed to walk around afterwards to just try to digest. I can't wait to do this again.

March 6, 2008

Follow-ups, follow-ups, that is what today is. We have learned of many incidents, not just behavioral, that we need to follow up on. This port seemed to have a lot of drama occur, from students getting hit by buses, to some medial trauma occurring to other accidents that just happen in everyday life. Nothing different than then normal student on a land campus getting injured, but when you are dealing with international hospitals and doctors, it is best that we get notified of the students getting medical attention so we can help them out with insurance situations, and to see if the hospital or medical facility is actually one that can assist. We did have to sign some of the students out of hospitals this past weekend due to the facilities just not being up to par, even though the doctors did not want us, the deans and doctors thought it was the best decision to do so, which I agree and understand solely as well. Tonight we had our last sea captains challenge to prepare for our big event here at sea, the Sea Olympics. My sea (also known as my floor community) had to write a 5 minute story about their experiences at sea and in the countries to date. The competition started and we were off our way. My community did a fantastic job on this challenge and came in THIRD place, which is awesome. The community decided to tell their story in a madlips format, which was great. They reenacted many of their trips and experiences and had a great time with the story. We are ready for the big sea Olympic activities this weekend and cannot wait for it to be over actually. It has been a lot of preparations, energy and work to get things going with all of the students who all have so many different schedules for classes and trips in ports. Tonight, we lose another hour of sleep!! Aren't we so happy!! I guess that is part of the experience as we continue to travel WEST and to India and the rest of the Asia Countries.

March 7, 2008

Well, off to global studies and right away you know it you are going to hear bad news from the states when the Dean comes up to the UNION and says, well here we go with the news, not so good, yet again. Today we learned about the bombings in Times Square, the UNC school shooting and death and of the big stock market crash. It is very interesting to be out here in the middle of the Indian Ocean, in a POD with 1000 other people, not having a dam clue about what is happening at our home, in the states, something we are so used to knowing. But now, here we are, traveling around the world, visiting countries that most of us would have never thought about stepping foot on and we don't know how to react to any of this news. Should be concerned, do we contact people from home… or do we stay in our pod here exploring the world, the countries and continue on with this experience. I do have to say, it is very difficult for someone to be on this experience knowing that there is something big happening at home. You CANNOT have one foot in the USA and the other one here at sea and half way around the world, it is just not possible, or you will lose the entire experience and what the world has to offer. In early February, I did it.. I cut off the states, hate to say it, but unless I hear from someone, or hear about the big news, I don't really know what the hell is going on back at home, and it is kind of strange, but I do have to say, I am having more of the time of my life continuing to see more things in my that I have not seen before and to also be with students exploring these new ideas, new awareness's they are finding in them as well. India is right around the corner and the atmosphere of the students and the ship is changing. We have been getting prepped for the big culture shock we are about to experience, which is going to be very different from the other countries we have been too. No more amenities right at our hands, no more first world items and culture to see and be around…. It is time to be in the third world country and be a part of that experience. Only time will tell to see how I and the rest of the population handles the welcoming to yet another new country… India!! The Indian professor that spoke today was great on helping us get ready for the experience. Something did hit me today during his speech, more now than ever in my years of working with students and my staffs. Looking back at my style, I do have to say, I am like what the professor would say is a big Indian culture… if you care so much about someone and love them and what is best for them, then that person gets to be the most successful person you get to work with as they also get the hardest love and time from you. WHY… why wouldn't we want our friends, the ones we see great potential in to be successful… and if we can't be successful just doing the basics, then why not have someone be so HARD on you to ensure that you are going for the best. Also, if you do well, then you will get so much respect and love back and if you don't do so well, then watch out, because you will need to be ready to explain and won't get so much love back. Oh well, so many things going through my mind today on what to think about, as we are hitting our half way point of this voyage and continue to be half way around the world. Life on a ship has it down times as well and we are dealing with two major issues this week. A water plant aboard the ship has broken, which means that we all need to conserve water or the captain will shut off our water and only allow us to use it when he says we can. For those of you who don't know, we make our own water while at sea and that is what we use for showers, toilets, cooking, drinking, etc. When a plant like this is down, we cannot get the water we need. Since the very beginning of our voyage, the captain has notified us that we have been using way too much water anyways, but now he really means it. While we are in port, we can only leave behind so much of the bad water (also known as gray water) in each country, as we pay for that disposal. Usually when we are in port we can't make water because we are in harbors that are just not clean enough for us to filter. So this situation is going to be interesting!! I know many of us do not want to come back from trips in India without showering!! So this is going to be ongoing to see what happens. Our next big situation is paper for the computer labs. We do not get paper orders like a land campus and we have ordered enough to get through the voyage, but the students are using the paper like crazy. So if they don't decide to cut back, we will not supply paper for them, it is their choice. We already print on both sides and have taken paper away throughout the night, so this is yet another interesting issue that is going to have some nice implications on how we sail. Stay tuned for more updates about these two items. See, we are dealing with many of the same issues you would on your normal campus, but here, limited resources, limited ideas and when working with a very strict hierarchy of ship crew staff, decisions are made without dialoguing and without others input… things just need to be taken care of!! Flexibility is our motto here and we have been using that for sure. Remember, I don't have to agree with decisions, I need to understand them and be ready to help execute them. My new motto for my style of supervison!! Tomorrow is a no class day.. which is GREAT, but tons of activities going on due to the Sea Olympics, so it will be a fun, busy day tomorrow for all. Stay tuned to see the results… can my sea pull out a first, second or third place victory, or are we just going to go with the flow. Go Baltic SEA… time to show our pride!!

March 8, 2008

SEA OLYMPICS!! They are here.. and they are done. Today we started with our opening ceremony, and then headed right into a daylong of activities for everyone to partake in. We had activities such as tug of war, dodge ball, soccer, basketball, toilet paper fashion show, mashed potato sculpting contest, flip cup, global studies challenge, board game challenges, lip synch, a synchronized swimming event, a photo contest, a scavenger hunt, a Simon says contest, and more!! It was a very exhausting but yet fun day… but the most interesting piece of this is that we are able to do all of this while sailing in the middle of the ocean, on a ship, with the most limited resources in the world for offices and staff members. So the next time a staff member comes to me and says that they can't do a program because of time or resources, they are not getting off the hook, knowing how we have been able to do the most basic but yet the most impressive programming that I have seen and been involved it. The day was just filled with very much excitement, and I was proud of the energy, team spirit and motivation my sea of residents had for the event. One by one, the sea started to win different events and placing in the top three, which gets us points. By the afternoon, we started not to win and other residents started to ignore us and not competing against us which was a bad mistake…. You see, all afternoon, we started winning more and more first place points and started to continue winning more and more.. which caused us to move into the top three positions by late in the afternoon. Let me tell you, by the time rumor hit the ship that my sea was moving into the top three, the games were on and we had to keep ourselves motivated to keep winning and to take home the gold victory. The last event of the evening was the big lip sync contest and it would not have been until that was over that the final winners would be announced. We performed first, which was fine and had a great lip sync. The other 9 floors went and it was nerve racking watching each of them as they kept on performing such great acts!! Well the time was here, the final results of the lip sync and then the final results of the overall Olympics. Third place was announced, not us, second place was announced, not us… then first place for lip sync announced and not us… oh well, we didn't win the lip sync… but that put us in a very unique position to think that we were still in the top three winning spots. As the Dean got the message of the final 10 results, it was time to hear them. He started with last place and worked his way up the ladder. We defiantly knew were falling within the top five, but we were just unaware of the final placing until now. After fifth place was announced and it was not us, we got excited, then fourth place was announced and the room got extremely nervous and anxious.. and not our sea.. oh my god… did we fall in the top three… third place announced.. not us… here we go… first and second place spots ready to be called and we were still in the running… Second place goes to Caribbean sea…and the winners of the sea Olympics are the Baltic SEA.. my residents and my community.. OH my GOD… you have no idea how excited they were.. we ran into the middle of the student union, chanting our cheer and screaming like maniacs. They were so excited… you see, my group of residents are very quiet, laid back and just keep themselves off the radar… so to actually see us win this amazing event for Semester at Sea was truly a sign of pure accomplishment. I am so proud of the residents on their victory, participation and the fun they had. My two sea captains, Derek and Sara, did a great job on organizing a lot of the events and took us from a last place standing for the first challenge to an overall first place Olympic victory. This is something that all of my residents will remember for their lifetime being on semester at sea. As they look at their pictures, see the video of us winning and looking back on these memories, they will always know that they were part of history to win the sea Olympics. So what do we win, you might ask… well, extreme bragging rights around the ship and forever. But most importantly, we are the first group of residents off the ship in Miami, in May. No waiting for the other groups, nothing.. we are the first group out of the ship, waving back to everyone on the ship as they will have to wait for an order to be called. Tonight at 10:08 p.m., we crossed the equator!! We are now officially back in the Northern Hemisphere!! We will no longer be back in the southern hemisphere for the remaining of the voyage. It was nice to see the Southern cross of starts and learn about the new constellations in the south, but now it is all back to the north as we continue to move across Asia in the next few weeks. Asia… who knew I would ever get here or to any of the other places I just visited.

March 9, 2008 and March 10, 2008

Tonight, we had a Mr. Semester at Sea completion. Just like a beauty pageant, we had 10 males compete for the crown of Mr. SAS. From raising money for charities, to talent shows, to crew wear, the 10 male students did a fantastic job on working the show and showing their pride. After sitting through the Olympics yesterday and this event tonight, it is amazing to see how many talented students we have on-board a ship of 750 students. It is just awesome to see them go at it in so many ways to have fun and to raise money for our charities. For those of you who don't know, Semester at Sea is heavily involved in donating money to charities, that is why we are doing what we are doing here at sea. Last voyage raised $40,000 to go to charities, so for this voyage, we are working hard to come up with ideas and fun auctions and gifts to donate for our charities. The past two days have been very busy in trying to prepare everyone for the arrival in India. As we know the experience is going to be pretty heavy in what they are going to see (from cremation on the streets, to dead bodies floating in the rivers, the poor and hungry children on the streets begging for food and money, to countless sights that are going to be with us for many years) we have a lot of diplomatic items that are really important for us as RDs to get ready for and to ensure our students follow these rules. This is the first country we are arriving in that we MUST carry our real passports with us, which is a big change from other countries. On top of carrying the passports, all of us are required to carry at all times 3 customs forms that allows us to exit and enter the port at all times. Customs will be on the ship all day and all night for the next 5 days as well. If we lose any of these documents, then we will need to figure out how to contact the local consulate office and get new copies made. And there is no guarantee that we will get these copies as India has the right to detain us if that happens, which means they will tell us when we can leave, which can mean missing the ship and flying to a future port. So a lot of things are at state for India. This is going to be a very interesting country to visit, which I am excited about. I am not doing a major trip to the Taj, but that is okay. I will see India and be in India and see the port country which is just as important. I do have some local univierty trips planed, a visit to Mother Theresa's orphanage planned and some other day trips that I am looking for. Today, we are also passing Sri Lanka. It is pretty interesting to be in the same ocean and the same place as the Tsunami hit a few years ago. Kind of freaky as well! I can tell you this much, there is a lot of water out here, and now I can understand on how much flooding did occur a few years ago. As we get our updates on our location, we always here the depth of the water at our current point and we are talking about 4,000+meters!! I know that translates into a lot of miles and feet, and it is a massive ocean!! We can see pieces of Sri Lanka out to our left as we look very closely and get ready to pull finally into India. Well, India, here we come. Stay tuned for the experience and the updates from the students.