Student Life Staff MayMester 11

pictures

The shipboard community

There has been a lot of people I connected with on board the MV Explorer. Here are just some pics of them -

Panama Pics Part II

Panama

May 29-30, 2011

Panama! I didn’t get to go to my trip in Panama (seeing the Embera Indians) but I eventually was able to leave the ship and along with Janna and Tom, got to drive up to Panama City where I had a great time. Panama City is remarkable. Like many major cities, it has diverse pockets of neighborhoods that show its socioeconomic differences. Luis and Annette took us on a tour all over the city and showed us the old and historic portion of the city, the new highways, the beautiful skyline with new architecture, and of course the canal zone. We ate at a lovely restaurant that was frequented by locals overlooking the water. As we ate our dinner, we could see the ships waiting in line to enter the canal. The food, particularly the seafood, was exquisite. I had fried whole Corvina ( a local fish that is sometimes exported) with arroz (rice) and this really good local hot sauce. The next day, the three of us went around the old part of Panama City and just walked around and explored. We hired a guide who gave us the history of the city and even shared with us the gentrification happening throughout that part. There are various “stars” now living in that part of the city as well as various offices including the nation’s president’s. At moments, I was lost in thought about the various colonial legacies left to Panama by Spain, France, and the United States. Amongst of all these colonial legacies, you can see the indigenous community dressed in colorful clothes, short, dark, some with their children carried over their shoulders. The indigenous community we kept seeing were the women and children of the Kuna. They were working in the streets selling tourists bracelets, hand sewn blankets, bags, and quilts, necklaces, and other items. I couldn’t help but imagine as I looked into their eyes their anger and resistance against a society that took away the world that was theirs. It became a sharp reminder to me of the history of conquest and of the racial mixtures in the Caribbean.

My favorite thing that I did in Panama was simply to walk around and observe the people. I briefly chatted with an elderly man who played his guitar on the street and sang for us. He was fantastic and quite striking. If I successfully attach his picture, you can see that he has a proud look to him, his face lined with experience and knowledge that can only be obtained by being out in the streets and seeing great disruptions, transitions, and joy.

More Sea Life

May 27, 2011

Sea life is quite wonderful. There is nothing like begin lulled to sleep by the gentle rocking of the waves. At times though, I have to laugh when we get a little bit of “rough” (ok, it’s not really rough, just a tad shaky) seas and then people are walking side to side to the rhythm of the ship as it rocks left and right. We all look like we are dancing ackwardly as we walk towards one another. We have the busy days of programming as we have our sea socials for the students, the faculty, staff, and LLLs socials, and the SAS Friending and also Dance. The students are wonderful and really quite responsible and engaged with the voyage and what we are all trying to accomplish. I think that as we continue to go to the other countries and the students get deeper into their studies and projects, we can really have positive contributions towards the Millenium Development Goals set by the United Nations.

May 25, 2011

May 25, 2011

Today was a day when we got out of the port city – great time going to Trini Mall. It looked like a U.S. mall but worked like a Trinidadian one. There were no times listed when things opened and closed! It was really fun getting to know our interport lecturer and his wife – Luis and Annette Ferreira from Panama. We had a great time and Brian was the big winner with regards to all of the goods he bought. I haven’t really been mentally ready to go shopping at all in the countries we have visited. I am really trying to soak up and learn from the cultural concept of slowing down and not having to move so fast. I think that this is going to be the one of the most important and toughest things for me to learn on this voyage!

Shipboard Life

the ship in nassau, bahamas

Day 1 in Trinidad

May 24, 2011

We are at our first port – Port of Spain, Trinidad and after a whole day’s worth of work, I finally got to get out of the ship at 1700. Once we (Ros, Kaya, me) got out of the port area, we went left and then saw that we had to cross a very major street with five lanes during high traffic time. I forgot to say that we didn’t have any lights in front of us to help us cross or remind cars to stop. After some nervous laughter and what seemed like a lifetime of waiting out cars speeding at minimum 45 mph or just completely stopped waiting to go, we were able to cross with me in the front waving my hands up and down like a bird. We walked through the city and saw numerous historical buildings – Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception, the Old Fire Station Tower, the very cool and modern national library, Cathedral of the Holy Trinity, the Red House which is under construction or rather repair, the Old Public Library, the Cabildo, the Treasury Building, and the Old Police Headquarters. What was my favorite buiding was the last one on the list – the Old Police Headquarters had some of the same arches and look of what can be found in the Alhambra in Spain. It is described as Gothic and while I am not an architecture expert, I can’t help but think of something that was made by the Arabs or Moors in Spain. this building was built in 1876 from limestone and was the site of the old West India regiment barracks.

Several blocks from this building, I saw the education ministry’s building. Compared to the rather noble and majestic looking Police Headquarters building, the Education Ministry’s building looked worn, non-descript, and frankly, may be called a “dump.” It makes one think of how society may value one type of “service” over another. What I enjoyed the most besides walking and getting to know my colleagues (we ended up picking up another faculty member – Dean), was talking with the police officer outside of the headquarters. He was so friendly and was fascinated with the multi-racial make-up of our group. He was shocked that I was considered American by my colleagues because according to him, I was not. We all assumed that he thought it was because I was Asian. We had a fun conversation telling him about the diversity in the United States even though he may not see that in the tv and movies he watches from the west.

We ended the evening after walking through the city at the Hyatt overlooking the water, the ship, and the lovely sunset. So peaceful, so calm with gentle breezes, a perfect way to end a very busy day.

Day 1 of the Voyage!

Hello from the Caribbean! We left the Bahamas on May 20^th and are now on our way to Trinidad (By the way did you all know that Trinidad and Tobago is one country?). It’s the first sea day for all of us as a community of learners and despite the relatively calm seas, we are experiencing some sea sickness that has resulted in some missed classes. Yesterday’s orientation went well – imagine doing student orientation in 7 hours and getting students to learn everything they need to know about their living learning environment in that time.
I gave my first speech to the community during the orientation and started off with quotes from “Oh the Places you will go” by Dr. Seuss.

Some of you have asked for my daily schedule at sea (in port / land, it changes since I take various trips/independent travel).

Here it is:

0530 – wake up

0545 – work out

0645 – cabin, prep for day

0800 – breakfast and get to know students, faculty, staff, lifelong learners

0900 – meeting with the administrative dean (that is the 4 deans)

1000 – meeting with the Staff Captain (2^nd in command of the entire ship)

1100 – phone meeting with ISE

1200 – meeting and lunch with Living Learning Team (aka student affairs division)

1330 – break unless there is another meeting with students, etc.

1500 – office hours/desk time

1730 – dinner

1900 – Events (student life, explore seminars, film series)

2100 – Events (student life, faculty / staff gatherings)

2400 – downtime / sleep

Bahamas Here We Come!

We had quite a day and evening. I came on the ship after traveling from New Orleans with about 1 hour worth of sleep. I met our fabulous Living Learning Team and am so excited to work with them and the faculty, staff, crew, and officers of the MV Explorer. We have been going through our training and more to come tomorrow. This is such a wonderful opportunity and I feel so lucky to be able to experience another "voyage of a lifetime."

Semester at Sea MayMester 2011

In a couple of days, I will be off to my third semester at sea voyage - this time t0 7 countries in 26 days (well with training and a couple of days off at the bahamas, a total of 30 days). Our voyage itinerary can be found at

http://www.semesteratsea.org/current-voyage/overview/itinerary-calendar.php.

I hope to be able to blog a bit or at least put up some pictures of our voyage. This one is unlike any other (what SAS voyage is anyway?) but we hope to do some really good work in all of the countries that we visit. Our goal is to be engaged, to work with the locals identifying and solving critical issues that will enable them to have better lives, and like other voyages to learn how to be better members of our global society. I'll miss all of my family and friends "on land" and of course August and our Rafa! Feel free to email or to write notes on the blog -

Graduation Weekend

At Casa 425 i Claremont Enjoying the beautiful sunshine, fantastic weather, and busy with graduation activities. More info and pics to come as I celebrate and then pack up for the next adventure - Semester at Sea Summer Short Term Voyage 2011 that starts in less than 5 days!