Update

Sorry I don't seem to have a lot to say in this blog these days. So, I'm working in Nagoya and I like my job. I don't like Nagoya as much as Yokohama or Kawasaki, but it's okay.

I've caught up with a few people but mostly hanging out by myself on the weekend. I've done a bit of sightseeing in the area. I had a long weekend two weeks ago, and went over to Osaka, Kobe and Nara.

The leaves are just starting to change, and it's getting cool.

Here are four pictures: my classroom, Nagoya castle, Nagoya station area, and Atsuta shrine (the most famous shrine in Nagoya).

First day of work

First day of work today.

In summary:

The university's in a beautiful spot. Right next to a forest - a rarity in Japanese cities, actual nature! - and the university itself is quite bright and modern. It's much smaller than the other universities around, but I like it.

My students are all super lovely. Though I must admit, I had trouble remembering their names and telling them apart. To people who say 'Japanese people all look alike', I've always protested 'no, they don't!' I suppose it is easier when you have a variety of ages, genders, jobs and styles. However, having 35 Japanese girls of the same age, most with very similar hairstyles... it might take me a few days to distinguish them properly. But then, I've always been bad with faces...

The working day is long, and I felt like I worked hard. It was also strange teaching, essentially, the same lesson 7 times in a row. But for a short period, I think it's okay.

I also complained about the commute before. Now that I've done it, it's really not so bad. Two of the three train lines are not very busy, and I could get seats on both of them, both going and returning (this would *never* be possible working in Kawasaki at peak hour) Part of what makes it take so long is the walking to and from stations, but then all the teachers have that same situation. Yesterday I bought a pedometer at a 100yen shop. Today I wore it all day; I did nothing special, just walked to and from work, around the classroom, etc. I walked about 15,000 steps, or about 11km. I shall be very surprised if I gain weight working in this job.

Anyway, apart from the day feeling so long - I teach 8 lessons every day - I am pretty happy with everything right now. ^_^

In Kawasaki

I was going to say that this blog shouldn't really be called 'In Kawasaki' any longer, because it's become more of an 'in (random city around the world)' blog. However, as it happens, I am actually right now in Kawasaki.

So, to update you on my week, I am living in Nagoya now. I was met at the airport and took the shinkansen into Nagoya, and the day after arriving was a day off. Then we sorted out a few requirements like alien registration, and took the shinkansen back to Tokyo. I am not actually starting work until Tuesday, so I took advantage of the free shinkansen ticket to delay my return a little and stay in Kawasaki for the night. I'm gonna meet a few friends, from Kawasaki and then from the ship, tomorrow. Yay!

My neighbourhood is very, very quiet and residential. I thought I lived in a quiet suburb in Yokohama, but I now realise that wasn't so. I think it's at least a 10 minute walk to even get to a restaurant or conveience store. In my neighbourhood in Yokohama, I had two convenience stores, three supermarkets and at least 20 restaurants within a five-minute walk.

I did a bit of an explore of Nagoya. You know before I was complaining that my commute was long. Well, I still think it is - it's longer than that any other teacher in the city - but there are two perks. One is that I'm in the same apartment building as several other new teachers, and they are lovely. The other is that my commute - and therefore the commuter's pass my company provides me with - covers quite a bit of the city, meaning I can travel to lots of places for free. Every day I'll be travelling through the city centre and hub of activity, so that will be nice.

My apartment is quite good. It's probably slightly smaller than my previous one in Yokohama (those who have been there will hardly think it possible) but the use of space is better so it feels more spacious.

I don't think much of Nagoya at the moment, to be honest, but I expect it'll grow on me.

I was gonna post more about Nagoya, but this keyboard is not very good. The keys keep sticking, so I'll leave it at that.

More updates...

I guess this will be my last blog update from the boat, as we've only about four days to go.

Since Venezuela, we visited Panama, Guatemala (two days) and Mexico (Manzanillo and Ensenada).

Panama was fun - a bunch of us hired a van and driver for the day and went under the Gatun locks, saw the jungle, went to Porto Bello. Probably not one of the most exciting ports, but it was okay. The day after, we went down the Panama Canal. One of the passengers said it well: "it's first time in my life I've gotten up at 5:30am to spend 2 and a half hours watching some gates open".

It's the third 'bridge day' we've had. That is, a day when the topmost deck is open for passengers to see scenery. The other days were the Suez Canal and the fjords.

Guatemala was one of my favourite countries. It's so beautiful!! And the people were lovely. I'd really like to go back some day.

The first day, we went to Antigua, which is a lovely, picturesque town with cobbledstoned streets, heaps of cafes, and every house painted different colours. I travelled with my roomie and a few Japanese girls.

The second day, some of us went to a volcano. This was the volcano that erupted only a few days earlier. The lava was still smoking as we walked over it!!

I loved the Central American food too. Tacos and nachos and tostadas and guacamole, yum yum. ^_^

Manzanillo and Ensenada were quite different as Mexican ports went. Manzanillo felt like more of a 'real' town. We met a local guy who knew everyone and showed us around. He took us to the docks and some fishermen had just brought in a sailfish, which they were cleaning.

Ensenada, though it looked more like my image of Mexico, had a nasty, insubstantial feel to it, like it was just an inflated tourist town. Everything we passed was for tourists; it didn't feel like a real place. Since this was our last port, lots of us grouped together and had a beach barbecue. A most excellent way to say goodbye to our final port.

Anyway, since I am finally updating again from my own computer, here are some snippets from my real diary, but I haven't had much time to update lately.


June 28

The last couple of days I've been feeling again that I'm a bit tired, that I want a break from being on the ship and with everyone all the time.

I want to spend a whole day by myself doing nothing, without any feeling that it is somehow wrong for me to do so. Not that anyone would really say that, but sometimes I do feel a bit weary.

Anyway, the second day of Venezuela was even better than the first. In the morning I went around La Guaira by myself. In the afternoon I went to the beach with a few young Japanese people.

The beach was a small beach with local people. A lady was surprised that we had found it. How did you know about this beach? she asked. Well, I said, we heard there was a famous beach nearby, and we took the bus here, and the bus driver gestured in this direction as to where the beach was.

As it turned out, we were a little way from the 'main' beach, but the one we were on was safer. She said most of the people here were neighbours who had known each other a long time. In fact, she added, it was the neighbours who had recovered this beach. A few years earlier, it had been buried by a bad mudslide. Even now, some of the five-star hotels around the beach were out of service

She also warned us - as our taxi driver had - to hide our cameras when we left the beach. We didn't need this warning. The Japanese guy with us who was taking the most photos, said that he had taken lots of photos in Caracas. He didn't have any problems, but he encountered lots of well-meaning people advising him to hide his camera. No doubt the danger is real and significant, but it is nice he encountered lots of friendly people concerned about him, and no people who were trying to harm him.

It seems most passengers had a good time in Venezuela and were able to have meaningful exchanges. A couple of people did have incidents, though. A girl had a necklace ripped off her neck, for example.

We met lots of nice people. A lot of local people were interested in the Japanese people.

And it was a nice beach, too! It was kind of a surf beach, so the waves were a bit strong, but it was fun. And the skimpy bikini-clad girls were such a contrast to the last beach I went to - in Aqaba, Jordan.

The food was good too. I had carne mechado(?) and arepas and street stall hot dogs. I tell you, most of the street food is greasy and substantial. It's no wonder most of the people are larger. I noticed it especially after so long with Japanese people - most Venezuelan ladies are a little overweight, and many of them wear tanktops showing cleavage. It sounds like a weird observation on my behalf, but this is so unusual on this boat that it really stood out to me.*

*(Oh, I just remembered a funny moment from the Irish exchange tour. One of the Irish buddies - a middle-aged woman, slightly plump - took off her cardigan, revealing a tanktop and some slightly sagging middle-aged flesh and a bit of cleavage. Nothing bad, nothing dramatic, but the reaction of her elderly Japanese buddies was hilarious: 'aaggh! Put it back on! This is not Japanese style!' It was pretty funny.)

I'm feeling a bit seedy today, like I'm coming down with a cold. I have been very healthy all trip, apart from the first week or two, so I think I've done pretty well.


July 1

How good is this trip!! I'm still feeling a bit like I want to withdraw from people and not be too sociable. But I've had so many good times on this voyage.

Two days ago I went to Jamaica. I went with two teachers and two translators. We spent most of the day at the beach, snorkelling, swimming, lounging around and drinking cocktails. I had a hamburger lunch.

My experience of Jamaica reminded me a little of Vietnam. I enjoyed it, but I felt like I didn't really experience the country, didn't really meet any new people or learn anything. The places we went to were mostly quite touristy. Lots of people calling out to us to try to sell us things. (Since I was with all Japanese people, they called out a lot of "konnichiwa"s. Later, when I mentioned this to one of the girls, she hadn't even realised they were speaking Japanese; their intonation was so unfamiliar.)


July 3

As I type this I'm sitting on the lounge deck. Out the windows the jungles of the Panama Canal are passing by. Yesterday we went to Colon (Cristobal) in Panama, and today we are traversing the Panama Canal.

This morning I got up at 5:30; that is when we were arriving at the Gatun locks, at the mouth of the Panama Canal. Because it is necessary to go uphill into the canal - it is above sea level - we had to enter via a series of gates.

It was a slow process; when we began, it was still dark. There was a ship in front of us, too, so we could see that ship complete the process that we would follow. They opened up the bridge's top deck so we could get a better view.

Basically, as a ship entered one lock, the gates would close, and the water would be poured in, causing the water level to rise - surprisingly quickly, for so much water - raising the ship up to the level of the next lock's water level. It happened so smoothly that you could hardly feel yourself rising. I couldn't see the water pour in, so perhaps it came in from underneath.

The effect is to allow us passage from the Atlantic Ocean (Caribbean Sea) to the Pacific.

This canal used to be operated by the US. Recently it was taken over by the Panamanians. At first, people predicted failure, but they proved more than able at operating it. It costs quite a lot for a ship to pass through this canal, so it is a huge source of revenue for the country.

Actually, the canal has two 'lanes', so to speak, so we have passed various other, huge ships. I think we are the only passenger ship in the vicinity. All the others seem to have 'dangerous goods' written on them in large print...

After several hours, we passed another series of locks. It's interesting passing through the locks; the ship is attached by cables to these cars that run along tracks alongside the canal. I guess theses cars control how fast our ship should go. There is so little space between our ship and the sides of the canal; you look over the edge and all you can see is wall; it's amazing we don't scrape the sides. But once you leave the locks, it's much more spacious, and you can see the Panamanian rainforest and jungle on both sides of the ship.

Today we keep getting announcements to let us know what we're passing. They say that soon we might be able to see crocodiles... what do you think? I don't know... [Note: I didn't see any crocodiles.]

Right at the moment, we are arriving at a third set of locks.

***

We have a lot of guest speakers on this ship. They give lectures and presentations and workshops. As teachers, we often don't have time to attend these. Also, since Japanese is the default language, and we often have to listen to translations through headsets, it's easy to feel that you're only getting a summary of what's being said, and missing the meat of it.

As a result, the international coordinator often organises for us to have 'English-only sessions' with various guest educators. Then we can hear lectures directly, or hear about their lives, or do a Q&A session with them. It's great, because there are some really interesting people on board.

One English session we just had was with a hibakusha (atomic bomb survivor) who experienced the Hiroshima bombing as a 13-year-old.

This is the story she told us, in my words:
"It was August 6, 1945, in Hiroshima. I was 13 years old. At that time, near the end of the war, many school children had been mobilised to help build firebreaks to protect the city. So at that time, there were many children out in the streets, working.

I looked at the sky and saw a plane. I pointed to it; something white came from it. At that moment, I felt a great pressure and was thrown backwards. I was unconscious.

When I woke up, I had lost my senses; I couldn't hear anything, couldn't feel anything, and everything looked dark. I gradually saw people walking, very slowly. It was a horrible sight; I can't even describe it. Their clothes were torn, and they were burned, bleeding badly.

I didn't realise it at the time, because I was so out of it, but I was also badly burnt. 1/4 of my body was burnt.

People were trying to go to the river, a source of water. So I also headed that way. There was a baby crying, which suddenly brought back my hearing. I could hear the baby screaming. The baby, and its mother, were badly damaged. The mother was trying to feed her baby, but she was so hurt, and the baby was covered with burns. Even now, when I close my eyes and remember the sight of that baby, it makes me want to cry.

Everyone wanted to cross the river, thinking that to escape the city would be safer. At that point, I passed out. Someone took me to a school auditorium. I was there for five days, without food, without water. It took all my energy to speak, but I managed to say my name, and address, and asked for water, again and again.

Someone heard me, and they managed to contact my family. Miraculously, my family came. The city was burning, but I couldn't really understand it. I was half-dead, and slipping in and out of consciousness.

When my mother finally came, she was calling my name, 'Where are you? Where are you?' I could only answer in a tiny, weak voice, 'I'm here'. Eventually she found me.

For a long time, my mother wouldn't tell me how I looked when she found me. But I wanted to know. After many years, she finally told me. She said my head was round, like a basketball; swollen. It was black and rough, like toast that has been burnt. Underneath the skin, there was yellow pus, from five days of infection incubating in the hot August summer. So my parents tried to take off the black skin, and rubbed my skin with cooking oil to try to clean it.

For days I was between life and death, and my parents didn't really expect me to live. I had a mosquito net to protect me. The city was full of flies and maggots, thriving on the dead and dying; the whole city smelled terrible. Rescue workers coming in had to cover their faces to breathe.

While I was in the house, others came, with terrible stories. Like my mother's friend, who came crying. Her daughter had been trapped, half-buried, under their collapsed house. The mother couldn't get her free, and then the fire came. She was forced to eave her daughter, who was still alive, to be burned alive. Others made her leave, because she had two other children to care for. This kind of horrible situation was common.

As you know, even many of those who initially survived the bombing, would later suffer from radiation illnesses. My mother and sister both died from radiation poisoning. Since I survived, I feel that I have a mission. I urge you to use your youth, your courage, your energy, and your love, to do something."


July 4

Another first today - having a Japanese lesson in a jacuzzi.


July 7

Feeling a bit more and more like I want to get off the boat...

However, Guatemala was great. I feel really lucky. Seems that every port, I have a great time, and get to do just what I want to do. Considering that this requires hooking up with the right people (the people who are doing the same thing you want to do, at the same time, in the same style, and who are available at the time you want to leave), it's no mean feat.

Speaking of ports, I tried to think of some of the coolest things I did on this trip:

Xiamen, China - seeing 6-year-old Chinese kids breakdancing
Da Nang, Vietnam - riding around the streets of Hoi An on the back of Glen's bike, getting clothes hand-made for me
Singapore - eating a terrific vegetarian meal in Little India, throwing peanuts in Raffles Hotel
Safaga, Egypt - running into the desert sunset
Aqaba, Jordan - going so near the Saudi Arabian border, meeting a huge family of kids, seeing the desert dawn
Port Said, Egypt - making a human pyramid in front of the pyramids
Piraeus, Greece - eating all my fave Greek foods with a view of the Acropolis
Naples, Italy - getting a random personal guide around the Herculaneum
A Coruna, Spain - tapas and red wine
Le Havre, France - finding a random little market in the funky streets around our hostel
Copenhagen, Denmark - eating hot dogs from a street vendor in the rain; finding ourselves in the 'best bakery in Copenhagen', finding snails and ladybugs in the lush greenery
Gdansk, Poland - stumbling across the Corpus Christi festivities and breaking off a tree branch
St Petersburg, Russia - getting off on my own for half an hour to order a cappuccino in a local cafe in RUSSIA!!!
Helsinki, Finland - sitting in a beautiful green park watching some ducklings diving for snacks
Bergen, Norway - seeing the 11pm sunset over the water, setting off through the fjords, second-hand bookstores and an awesome reindeer hot dog!
Dublin, Ireland - finding Oscar Wilde reclining in the park... hearing about the solstice at New Grange... scones at an Irish cafe... the long library at Trinity, and all the intriguing stories on display...
La Guaira, Venezuela - flying around the mountain roads in an open jeep, with views appearing around every bend, and ships flying in the sky
Montego Bay, Jamaica - pina coladas on the white sand beach!!
Cristobal, Panama - imagining a haunt of pirates in an sea-side fortress, the vultures flying around...
Puerto Quetzal, Guatemala - sitting at the foot of the cross... walking on smoking magma from a recent volcano eruption... running along cobblestoned streets in the pouring rain...


July 9

(Manzanillo)

In the afternoon I went with some others, and we met this guy who offered to show us around a bit. He knew everyone in the town - he said the settled population of Manzanillo is not very large - and was calling out greetings to everyone walking past. He took us to the fishing docks. There were brown pelicans flying; ?herons fishing. A fisherman had just landed a big sailfish, and we got to watch them cleaning it. Our self-appointed guide cut off a small piece of the meat and offered it to us. The freshest sashimi I've ever had. ^_^

Then we went to a local bar; we passed heaps of people from our ship sitting at the restaurants along the way, but the bar had only local people. The bar owner - also a friend of our guide - brought us tostadas (fried tortillas) with ceviche, frijoles, guacamole and other things. One of the dishes was lizard tongue???!! With lime juice, it tasted okay.

We had beer - the glasses were rimmed with salt and had a little lemon juice in them. It was zesty and refreshing. ^_^ A rather cute young guy who plays guitar in bars came and played and sung lots of songs for us. He was really good. ^_^

***

There is going to be some kind of singing contest where people try to mimic famous singers. I saw an ad for the applications in the ship paper, but I didn't go. I wasn't very interested in it. But at the teacher's meeting they wanted to have one male and one female teacher participate, and one of the guys was already doing it.

Since I have become known as 'the one who sings', I was the choice.

I decided to do Britney's 'Hit me baby one more time'. Vocally, it's not too difficult, and I can kind of do her voice. I think I can borrow a schoolgirl skirt. I have the other necessary items, if I can get someone to help me braid my hair. (I don't think I can source a blonde wig...)

The problem is I'm not relaxed enough... still not looking forward to the 'being theatrical' bit... I didn't really want to participate in this, and I'm a bit nervous about it, like dancing.

(In some small way, though, I am looking forward to singing on stage a little bit. There is something about being on stage that I do like. When I do get on the stage, I feel like 'oh, these are those familiar faces' - the audience on this ship is not too scary. And this is probably a good step toward more confidence, right? First I sang at acoustic night, just sitting on the floor with other people nearby; not really directed at an audience. Next I sang at the grand finale of the Okinawa festival, with lots of drummers and dancers, but in that case we had a backing band, a co-singer, and it wasn't a competition; all I had to do was just sing.

Now it's actual performance. I guess it will be good for me, right?)


July 12

I feel very good today.

Last night I participated in the talent show. I'm not going to say I was very good, or that I was even one of the better acts. I wasn't. But once I got up on the stage, I felt like a different person. I didn't feel nervous and I enjoyed strutting around.

The best part was afterwards, we went to the fiesta party to say goodbye to the Guatemalan students who are on board. The last few days, we've had some Guatemalan university students on the ship; they've been learning about nuclear abolition (one of the themes of our ship this voyage) and doing some presentations of their own. We have had a number of guests on this ship, but these guys are my favourite guests so far, because they're so friendly and nice, and they all speak English, some of them very fluently.

One of the translators asked me if I'd do the Britney song again for the Guatemalan party, because most of the Guatemalan students had missed the show, since they were upstairs watching a movie about the atomic bombings.

So I did. This time, it was a smaller group and a friendlier atmosphere, and and once I was there I let rip. Actually I like being on stage. ^_^


July 15

Otsukaresama desu! Today was my last day of teaching!

I tried to make it a nice last day - for the last part of class, we had snacks, and chatted, and wrote final messages in the class diary.

We went to Ensenada a few days ago! It was our final stop. We had a great time. Actually, I didn't like Ensenada itself very much. It was so touristy it made me feel rather nauseated. Although we have been to places with a tourist industry - Jamaica was full of tourist shops, and so was Hoi An, in Vietnam - this was the first place where I felt like 'there's nothing to this town *except* tourist shops'.

Of course we only went to the main streets near the port, so it may be that Ensenada at large is a wonderful town, full of culture and vibrancy.

I did enjoy some coffee, quesadillas and a fish taco (the local specialty), though. ^_^

Anyway, we got out of the town and bought loads of groceries at a supermarket, and betook ourselves to the beach. Some of the guys had, unbelievably, bought portable barbecues in Norway(!). By portable barbecue, I mean tinfoil packages with coals inside and grills on the top that could be set on rocks, lit, and afterwards filled with sand to extinguish them.

We set up on the beach and had a marvellous barbecue, and really relaxed. There were about 12 of us.


July 21

Aaahhh... the teaching program is finished at last. The last few days were supposed to be the grand finale. Unfortunately I got rather sick again - seems my last week on the boat is mirroring my first week on the boat - and couldn't fully enjoy them. So I am really glad that today is a free day to relax.

Yesterday I spent the whole day in the showroom. Sorry, that was a lame joke. Actually, I did. Yesterday was only one hour.

See, as we've been travelling west, we've had many 'jisas'. 'Jisa' means 'time difference'. Usually it means putting the clock back an hour, though a couple of times we had half-hour jisas, and we also had some jisas where we lost an hour's sleep.

After losing so many hours - the time difference between the ship and Japan growing all the time - we finally hit July 20, which was designated a one-hour day, when we would cross the dateline and essentially regain all our lost hours. So when the clock hit midnight on July 19, it became July 20 for an hour, after which the clocks were turned back an hour, and it became midnight of July 21st.

On July 20th they had an event in Broadway which was 'one day in one hour'. It was really funny. They took us through a fast version of a typical day on the ship. if you are interested, such a day consists of:
-guy in a bandana shouting at the sunrise
-radio stretching exercises
-morning prayer chanting
-introduction of famous historical figures
-open English/Spanish class
-lunch
-self-planned event scheduling
-events
-taiko drumming
-port orientation
-etc etc

***

Anyway, that's enough diary from me. Next time I write I'll be in Japan again. Looking forward to seeing you again soon. ^_^

Hello again

A quick 'hi' from Guatemala! This is the best internet cafe I've ever been to. Actually, it's not an internet cafe - it's a waterside restaurant with free wifi, not far from the ship. We're sitting outside next to some palm trees, looking over a pier - straw-thatched buildings, yachts, the Caribbean, and a beautiful sunset.

Today we went to Pacaya volcano - which erupted only a couple of weeks ago - and walked over the smoking black lava. It wasn't hot to the feet, but smoke was steaming over it, so desolate it felt like being in Mordor.

Yesterday we went to the beautiful town of Antigua.

Next stop is Mexico - two ports - and finally, back to Japan!

Buenos dias!

Buenos dias! I am now writing to you from hot and sunny Venezuela. We crossed the Atlantic without incident.

Well, what to say?

-I had a great time in Europe. In Ireland I saw New Grange, Tara Hill, Trinity College and the Book of Kells, Oscar Wilde´s house, as well as various city attractions.

-It got hotter and hotter as we left Europe. Europe was sunny and warm, but never hot. Now it´s reaaally warm and humid again. Tank top and icy drink weather.

-I think my favourite European stop was Bergen. We unexpectedly arrived there the night before, so we could go into the town at night. I went around by myself - I like to do that sometimes - and the weather was gorgeous, and the town so picturesque.

It already seems so far away from here. Bergen´s was a beauty of colourfully painted, wooden houses, a port full of yachts, people sitting outside with beers and coffees, little rambling streets. Here, it´s a beauty of tropical butterflies and frangipani... but this town itself is not very beautiful, it´s rather ramshackle and dirty. There is a lot of Latin music driving past, though. Every bus is like a nightclub. As I sit here I can hear many snatches of fun songs.

-Yesterday a big group of us went up a mountain in a couple of jeeps. Our ship is currently docked in La Guaira, Venezuela. From the ship you can see masses of green mountains. It´s all very tropical, and as you go up, you can see more rainforest. I saw a hummingbird. From the top of the mountain, we took a cable car down into Caracas. We didn´t stay in Caracas so very long, but it was interesting to see. We enjoyed a beer, sitting outside and looking at the mountains.

Venezuela is said to be very unsafe - everyone is continually warning us to be careful - and to be sure, Caracas didn´t give the impression of being a very nice place. There were lots of slums, and the taxi driver said that in traffic jams, you should concel electronics and valuables because people may be in the tunnels etc looking into the cars.

Everyone is quite World Cup mad, including several teachers on our boat, so they are very happy now, finding places to sit and watch the soccer in.

Our ship has been to Venezuela before and has quite a good relationship with this country, so last night there was a big open-air cultural exchange festival. It was rather nice. Some Venezuelan people and Japanese people did performances and dances, and some Japanese people set up booths, writing local people´s names in calligraphy, teaching the children origami, and helping them try on kimono. There was a nice vibe.

This morning I´m just wandering around the port area on my own - that´s where I am now. I just had a carne mechada, yum yum yum. Soon I´m gonna meet some friends and we´ll go to the beach. It´s very nice beach weather.

-The ship gives lots of opportunities to slip in and out of different roles. This last week I become a singer, a librarian, and an Olympic team captain. I did my own little event where people brought books to borrow or lend. We had our ´language Olympics´ on the ship, and my team won. :) And I sang a duet (in Japanese) for the grand finale of an Okinawan event they were having on the ship. I´ve sung in front of an audience a few times on this trip, actually. I really enjoy it. :)

Anyway, that will do from me now. This web connection is not very good so I can´t do anything too ambitious on here. Hope you are all well!

Quick update

Just a quick wee update to say I'm currently in Dublin. Beautiful weather. Nice food. Europe has been great. I've just been to Trinity College to see the Book of Kells.

One weird thing about travelling around the world on boat like this is that world news suddenly becomes more relevant. Flooding in Poland - oh, we're going to Poland shortly. Riots in Greece - oh, I hope things are calm when we arrive there... Oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico... will it spread to where we are soon to travel?

Anyway, too much to say, not much time. Busy busy. ^_^

Take care!

Latest updates

May 30

So what happens when we arrive at a port?

Basically, we have a scheduled arrival time and departure time for each port. So far we have been pretty good at arriving and leaving at approximately those times. Despite travelling several days between places, we generally do arrive roughly when estimated, with two exceptions. In Port Said, at the end of the Suez Canal, we arrived several hours earlier than anticipated, and in Xiamen, a few hours later than anticipated (due to the fog, we couldn't dock).

A little while after docking, announcements will start coming thick and fast. Some of these are for people joining tours, to meet at certain places on the boat. We all wait for our announcement that all passengers can leave the ship, today the gangway will be on level __.

The gangway moves all the time and I'm often surprised to see how many parts of the ship are capable of suddenly becoming a gangway. I guess each port is at a different height. Usually we come off the ship onto the ground, but sometimes onto a second or third floor of a dock.

Since you don't know exactly when the announcement will come, everyone tends to get up and get ready very early. If you leave late, you tend to end up on your own. If you want to hang out with other people, you have to be ready as soon as the announcement comes. So if the estimated arrival time is 7am, it's likely we won't get off the ship until 8, but people tend to be up by 6:30 or earlier. Sometimes the ship arrives early, or it takes very little time to be allowed to go on land.

When we get on or off the boat, our ship ID card is scanned, to keep track of our movements and to register what time we get back. We all have something called 'kisen limit' (in Japanese 'kisen' means 'return to the boat', aka boarding deadline). This is a very serious business and we have had the fear of missing kisen firmly ingrained into us. ^_^

(This ship ID card is a very important item on the boat. We also use it to pay for all purchases on the boat. Then at the end of the month we get a bill or our credit card is deducted, etc.)

Once we get into the port, we who are travelling around freely usually just wander on out of the port. Sometimes this is a very short stroll, sometimes a long one. Sometimes the port terminal is a fancy place with shops, glass buildings, other cruise ships; sometimes it's a long stretch of dirty ground and you walk past shipping crates and whatnot to get out.

Then, some ports have customs, with 'declare' and 'nothing to declare' lanes, or immigration people checking your passport or ID card, or a luggage scanner to put your bags on. Others have nothing and you can pretty much just walk straight off the ship into the town.

Different ports also differ in their proximity to things. In Xiamen, the ship terminal was some way from the city centre - there was nothing at all near the terminal - and everyone had to take taxis. In Naples and A Coruna, you could see the town right next to the ship; in both of those cities, I ate at restaurants and then took a 10-minute stroll back to the boat. In Le Havre, Piraeus and Aqaba, you had to walk a little into town, but the towns themselves were not the highlights; we all took buses and trains and taxis from those places to their more famous spots.

In Port Said, some people had set up a miniature souvenir market immediately around the boat's gangway; you had to walk the market to get out of the port. In Singapore, they had the most official-looking port and facilities, and the terminal itself was a hub of shopping and eating, and connected to the MRT metro.

So each port is different, but generally the process is much quicker and more painless than arriving in an airport. That's because the boat keeps our passports and mostly does the immigration procedures for everyone, en masse, before we get off.

***

Tonight Aida and I ate in our rooms. She had leftover sausage and baguette, while I had two-minute noodles. The reason for this was tonight's menu:
Appetisers: cold tofu, grated yam
Soup: pickled plum soup
Main: beef tongue in miso sauce, rice with buckwheat

It sounded like a bit of a low...

Anyway, ports are coming so thick and fast now that I don't even need to attend every meal on the boat. I have been gutsing myself in every European port so far. I remember each port in terms of its food. The moussaka in Greece, the pizza in Napoli, the tapas in Spain, the pain au chocolat in France... and everywhere, the fresh, delicious bread, and cappuccinos. ^_^

I have to say, we have done well, food-wise, in every port we've visited. I love Vietnamese food, Middle Eastern food, European... It makes me think how nice most countries' cuisine is, especially when compared with Japan...

Yesterday we came back from our two-day port in France. We have four or five two-day ports on this ship. This is the first one I did without being in a big group, and the first I did in a country that's easy to make your way around using public transport. As a result, it's the first time I really felt like I got off the boat, and into proper 'travel mode'.

With Vanessa, I took the train into Paris. We found a youth hostel in the Latin quarter, and ate lots of things, and walked around the Ile de la Cite, and saw the Eiffel Tower at night. The next day we split up for a few hours and I went to the Louvre and Montmartre, and ate lots of things. ^_^

I had two pain au chocolat. and a crepe with chocolate and coconut, and a chocolate brownie. A good port for chocolate. ^_^ I also had cider, and cappuccinos, and espresso in a little cafe late at night, and salmon steak, and beautiful fresh baguettes, and a kebab. ^_^


May 31

Today was a teaching day, and I also did a self-planned event. This is one of the things you can do on this ship, which is one of the things that makes the ship so interesting.

(I already mentioned some of the events we see in the paper. Today's paper has a few beauties as well.

"Let's sing the Constitution together". This event run by some of the cool young things who every day shout at the sunrise or sunset.

Now we have rival 'shouting at the sun' events. The sunrise event says, 'Shout your dreams and hopes to the rising sun. Sunrise is better than sunset.' The sunset event says 'Shout your dreams and hopes to the setting sun. Sunset is better than sunrise.'

***

Just coming back to my diary writing. I've just been up to the deck for a wee bit of a dance and drink. We are currently in the North Sea, not far from Copenhagen, Denmark. The days are getting longer and longer. Sunset was around 10pm, but we just counted down to midnight - happy new month! - and there was still the faint remnant of sunset on the horizon even then. I guess for the next couple of weeks we will not see true darkness even late at night. It's almost the longest day of the year, after all, and we are near the Arctic Circle. Although we will not see a true midnight sun, we'll get a pretty close effect.

It was lovely. Actually, there were several other cruise ships dotting the horizon, and faint twinkling lights in the distance.

Now it is June 1.

Anyway, what was I saying? Oh yeah, I did my own self-planned event today. Somehow in the newspaper it got bumped up to the status of 'official ship event', and I had an audience of over 100; the room was quite full. I had an interpreter to translate every sentence. You might think this would be difficult, but actually it makes presenting much more cruisy. I've never done a real presentation in my life, but with the translation, I talked for almost an hour and felt most relaxed, sitting down with my notes on my lap. When you are being interpreted, it doesn't matter if you often consult your notes or even if you read some parts verbatim.

Since we are in Europe now and lots of people are going to art galleries in various ports, I talked about religious art, using examples from galleries we are actually visiting. Basically I talked about different events from the life of Jesus - this is the nativity story, this is the baptism, this is his first miracle, etc - and told them the story of each event. Like I used Da Vinci's 'Last Supper' on the screen while I talked about the events of the Last Supper. It seemed to work quite well, and I was pleased so many people came. Like, more than 1/9 of the entire ship attended, I think. We have about 900 passengers at the moment.

One of the things this boat does is have 'guest educators' onboard. We call them 'mizuan', which literally is a nickname for 'navigator'. Some are Japanese, some from other countries, like Korea, India, America, Germany. This is one of the main duties of the interpreters on board.

Most mizuan have credentials in global issues, peace, etc. A few have particular skills. We had a Korean lady who was a professional bellydancer; she came on and gave performances and also taught bellydancing classes. We've had experts on the Palestinian refugee situation and Middle Eastern conflicts, American imperialism, sustainability and World Heritage sites, atomic bombs and nuclear issues, and so on.

Tonight we had an American lady, a songwriter who also works in peaceful conflict resolution, give a concert, while also talking a little about her work. It was very chilled and cool, and since it was in the bar, we could order drinks while we listened to the show, without even leaving our seats. ^_^

The nice thing about having an English-speaking mizuan is that I feel like I get all the songs and jokes and comments first-hand, rather than through a translator.

Speaking of the interpreters, we have a team of them on the ship. They're fluent in English and Japanese - a couple can speak Spanish too. With us teachers, we are the 'international division'. So we teachers share rooms with the translators. Currently I room with a Spanish teacher, a Japanese-English interpreter, and soon, a Japanese-English-Spanish interpreter who will be joining our boat - and our room - from Dublin.

Anyway, it's past midnight and we arrive at Copenhagen early tomorrow - about 7am. So I really ought to get to bed. Goodnight! ^_^


June 1

Today was Copenhagen. I had a very nice time, though the weather was cold and rainy. I went with three of the interpreters. Nice people.

If Copenhagen is famous for anything, it is famous for the statue of the Little Mermaid, as Hans Christian Anderson was Danish. This statue is said to be one of the 'three most disappointing sights of the world'. Hahaha.

Our ship docked near the mermaid. However, she wasn't in town. That's because she had been airlifted out of the harbour and taken to Shanghai to be put in an exhibition there. In her place, they put up a screen showing where she was in Shanghai. That is, they had a video link to the exhibition in Shanghai and you could see all the Chinese people walking past looking at her.

I am not making this up.

So we got our pictures taken in front of a screen where the mermaid would have been.

It was pretty funny. I thought it was probably much more interesting than the real thing. On the way back, it was obviously night in Shanghai, and she was looking pretty lonely. The only person we saw was the cleaner who was doing the floors... ha ha ha...

Apart from the mermaid, I hadn't heard of any of Copenhagen's attractions before this trip, nor had I done any research. So we just walked and walked around the city; later, I saw postcards and matched places to names - 'oh, that was the royal palace... oh, that fountain was a famous fountain...' We saw the outside of Tivoli, and walked the Strogat, and climbed a tall church tower for a view over the city, in the wind and rain.

It was a really lovely city though. Not only did it have the pretty buildings, like France and Spain and Italy did, but it had lush greenery; willows, reeds, grassy riverbanks, and lots of flowers. The city had lots of canals. Although it was rainy, it was really lovely. We enjoyed it very much.

One of the nicest things was the smells. There were so many flowers... freshly mown lawns... the smell of grass wet with the rain... being on a boat, you really appreciate greenery when you see it. In Greece it was also really nice to see all the trees and flowers, after being in the Middle East, and before that two weeks at sea. It was about three weeks between Singapore and Greece, so three weeks without seeing much nature, except ocean and desert.

In Denmark, I forgot my credit card. Luckily I had some Aussie dollars stashed in my bag for just such an emergency, and I could change it. When you change Aussie dollars into kroner, it doesn't get you very far. Fortunately, all four of us were on a bit of a budget, so nobody was wanting to go to fancy restaurants or even into fee-charging museums.

Denmark is expensive, as you can imagine. However, it wasn't as bad as I expected. It's not actually much worse than Adelaide; Adelaide isn't cheap, you know. But compared to the other countries we'd visited, it felt pricy.

I still managed to eat some good local specialities. ^_^ This time I had a hot dog from one of the many stands in the city streets ('a quintessentially Danish experience', said our guidebook), a strawberry tart and foccacia from what a local told us was 'the best bakery in all of Copenhagen', a chocolate danish (a Danish danish ^_^) and some nougat icecream. Yummm. What a bad eater I am. ^_^

I also had a cappuccino in a cafe that had been raided by armed police over 4000 times in the last 6 years. It claimed to be the safest cafe in the world. No need for hired security; the police were so constantly nearby. That's because this cafe was in Christiania, an 'alternative' community in Copenhagen, and it was full of people smoking reefers.

So, Christiania was originally settled by squatters, but it grew into a proper town, populated by hippies and artists and anarchists... the idea is that it would be a real community. It's interesting to see, full of public artwork and dilapidated but picturesque houses, strange and funny signs, car-free streets, their own postal system, cannabis freely for sale and being very publicly smoked despite being technically illegal in Denmark, a 'no photos in the town centre' policy (due to all the people smoking illegal drugs).

Despite the supposed communal, hippie-ness of the area, we thought it didn't have a very friendly vibe. I wouldn't have felt very comfortable there on my own. It was definitely the most interesting place we visited though; very green, with a river running through the area, and quite funky to look around.

One reason I enjoyed Denmark is because I didn't have any preconceptions, or particularly high expectations. I just went there and looked around and it was nice. We saw Hans Christian Anderson Boulevard, and saw ladybirds on the grass, and smelled amazing pastries baking. There were lots of public statues and fountains.

Although it is the largest city in Scandinavia, it felt pretty quiet. Apart from the size of the main shopping street, it could have been Adelaide, people-wise. And the shops even closed at 5, 5:30.

In the port orientation they pointed out that Scandinavian countries are known for their good design and efficient systems. We saw lots of great products, furniture, homewares, and design shops. We saw a pond that had a little ramp built into the side - so that ducks could easily get in and out! They also had a little duck house on the pond itself! We saw a building with flowers and plants growing out of the walls - like, the wall itself was a garden.

On the street some people had bicycles with big carts in the front, where a child could ride, or you could transport goods. The city had a system of free bikes - just put in a deposit - that you can ride within the city limits. Copenhagen is a very bike-friendly city, with decent bike lanes. My friend saw someone charging their electric car.

My other impression of Denmark was that the people were the most genuinely friendly of any port so far. Or perhaps it was because almost everyone could speak English very fluently, so we could communicate more freely. But people smiled more; they felt more relaxed. Several people helped us, they made chitchat.

You know, every time we come back from a port and we all ask the 'what did you do?'s, there's a tiny undercurrent of one-up-manship. Or rather, you want to find out if other people seemed to have had a better time than you. Did you have the best possible time you could have had?

Generally what happens is I'm very happy with each port (except Italy), but there's usually like one thing I feel envious about or wish I had been able to do.

Like in France I wished I could have found the most interesting part of Montmartre, like my other friends did. I went to Montmartre but wandered around the lower part, not able to find my way to the more arty part of it.

In Jordan I very nearly had a perfect time, but I felt my friends had a slightly better camping experience (we were in tents; they were out under the stars, and with probably a slightly clearer view of the stars than us).

In Denmark, I kind of wish I had gotten a free coat from the free clothes 'shop' in Christiania. It was like a communal dumping ground for old clothes. But none of the interpreters I was with wanted to consider taking any of the clothes, so I didn't either. But later I found out that three of my teacher friends did it. And now they have 'new' coats, which fit them quite well and kept them warm all day (I was pretty cold).

And if someone finds a good deal and buys some cute top or cheap shoes, I think 'I could have used that, if only I'd noticed that... I wish I could have bought something too'.

Anyway, it's petty to think like this, and all things considered, I have probably had as good an experience as it's possible to have. ^_^

In each country I have tried to at least say 'hello' and 'thank you' in the local language. It's pretty easy in Danish, as 'hello' is 'hi', and 'thank you' is 'tak' (I don't know about the spelling). We were also amused to see signs for the 'Pissoir'. This became our favourite word throughout the day.

I walked heaps and heaps and heaps, as with every port.

From now we shall soon enter the Baltic Sea. Next stop, Gdansk, Poland.


June 3

Today Poland dawned cold and grey and gloomy. A second Denmark, we thought, and prepared accordingly. In Copenhagen my umbrella got a lot of use, and I lamented my lack of warm coat and gloves. In Poland I brought them all. My roomie joked about bringing the sunscreen.

It turned into an idyllic, sunny day, and I am now sunburnt!!

The weather was so wonderful, and it made a beautiful city even more beautiful.

We arrived in Gdansk and took a bus to the Old Town. This is small and easily walkable, and the whole place looks like a work of art. I have taken innumerable photos of buildings in various European cities, and Gdansk was certainly no exception.

Part of the joy of the day was that again, I had almost no expectations at all. I had done no research; knew nothing about the place; had never even seen a picture. If I had thought about it at all, my mental image of Poland would have probably consisted of gloomy skies, dark Soviet-style architecture, and rather dour, unfriendly people. I'd never been to Eastern Europe before, but that would have been my idea.

All wrong. The sky was blue and one of the nicest days we've had on the whole voyage. All the houses and buildings were painted different colours; the place was full of churches and beautiful buildings; the main street was lined with busy cafes; and every Polish person we met, from the bus driver to the shopkeepers, was genuinely friendly and helpful, with lovely smiles and functional English.

We were lucky to be there. ^_^

I went around with my roomie Aida again, and she is good company. A nice day for pottering around. We got an audio guide of the city so we could stop at key points and listen to info about it. It was Corpus Christi Day, a religious event and public holiday, so we couldn't do much shopping, but some lovely bakeries and restaurants were open, and we also saw the day being celebrated at local churches. People broke off ?birch branches to take home and put in their home for a blessing. I brought one back to my cabin and it's filling our cabin with a fresh leafy smell.

Our time in Poland was shorter than most ports - we arrived just after 6am, and had to be back on the boat by 4:30. For the first time I decided I didn't care about getting outside the second the gangway opened - I did not want to get up at 5:30am - so I didn't leave until just after 8. It was okay though, since it was a small town.

Two days until Russia. Alas, we are now heading east, which means that tonight the time difference works against us, and we have to turn our clocks an hour forward, rather than back. Oh well, we'll soon be westward-bound again. ^_^

The travel is lovely but it does get rather tiring, particularly when you have work between ports. I will sleep very well tonight. ^_^


June 4

Today - or tomorrow - is exactly the halfway point of this voyage.

We set our clock forward again tonight. I believe tomorrow night, the sunset will be around 11pm, and the sunrise around 2am. Cool!

Oh, we have a nice custom. You know how each teacher has one or two ports to speak about and prepare and orientation for? Well, whoever did the port orientation buys a couple of snacks in that country. Then they bring them to the next meeting. In this way, we all get to try lots of different snacks from all around the world.

I haven't written much about my classes or my students. I like all of them and I often see them out and about on the boat and in ports. I feel happy to see them and wave but I don't generally hang out with them much. Actually I usually hang out with other teachers or translators; people I can speak with fluently.

I've been basically designing a curriculum and all my lesson materials from scratch. Because I have two different levels, the lesson content is usually quite different for each class.

So I've been teaching some practical travel-style English this term. Today my beginners did a review lesson which included asking about buses and trains, ordering at a restaurant, asking for directions and going shopping.

Most of the time I am not that inspiring, but I have done a few cool things, some of which wouldn't be possible in a normal classroom. For example:

-Another teacher and I swapped classes for ten minutes one day. He had given his students some questions to interview me with; I had gotten my students to prepare some questions to ask him about his culture.

-With five other teachers and a few other people, we organised a kind of 'directions scavenger hunt'. Basically we all pretended to be different buildings and went in different parts of the ship. I was the post office and waited in the ship's store. We put our students into small groups - so they were with people from different classes - and they had to go through a list of places, asking directions to the next place. I directed people to the Tower, which was upstairs outside. ^_^

-For my other class, when we did 'directions', I prepared a little list of instructions I had written. They had to take turns to read the directions, listen and follow them. Then they must write the answers to questions. (For example, 'turn right and go straight. Go past the toilets and up one floor. Turn left and left again. Look on the wall. What number is written there?')

-When we did our lesson on restaurants, I used examples from real ship life. Because most of the crew on the ship speak far more English than Japanese, it's a good opportunity for them to practise. So how can you ask them for hot water from the bar, or for today's extra at dinner time? Then for homework they had to order in English at the restaurant or bar, and ideally at a port also. ^_^

-We did a section on 'understanding the English-language announcements on the ship'. I recorded a real announcement, and a couple of teachers doing pretend announcements, and we looked at some of the language in them. ^_^

-For the oldies, we did a lot of practise of 'how was __?' and 'what did you do?' and so on. This could naturally be reviewed every class after a port, as we talked about what we did.

It is the first time I have ever had classes consistently with the same members. In Japan, students could freely change class times, and I often had different people. In Australia, I had my classes once or twice a week, but shared those classes with other teachers. This is my first time to be only with the same group of students. It's made it possible for me to build in more review and a few class routines.

For example, each class has a class diary. Every class, they give it to the next person, who takes it home to write their entry. In my oldies class, they like to read the previous person's entry aloud before passing it on. In my ladies' class, they just pass it on.

Another example is the vocabulary. In the first term I did a 'vocabulary box', where students would write new words and every few lessons I would quiz them on some words, or have them quiz each other. This term I am having them choose the 6 most useful words they learned that lesson, to write down and then every two lessons we do a kind of quiz. I like that.



June 5

Today we went to St Petersburg.

Now, due to visa requirements, all of us who went there had to join a tour. Because it would be unbearable for us to join a Japanese tour, they organised a special tour for the KSB (kokusai-bu, 'international division'). This was a free tour, but it didn't include very much.

So they took us by bus to the Church of the Saviour on Spilled Blood, and we got out and took some photos, and they took us on foot to a place called Art Square, where there was a statue of Pushkin.

On the way we passed the Grand Hotel Europe, a very fancy hotel that many famous people, including former Russian presidents, had stayed in. We saw the price list... 36,000 rubles for the cheapest room (I think US $1200?), 600,000 for the Presidential Suite ($20,000)...


---

Okay, I haven't written any more diary and I'm using free wifi in Finland. I have to go soon so I can go back to the boat, so I'd better not write any more. I had a good time in St Petersburg and a great time here in Helsinki. The weather is brilliant and it's a Sunday so everyone is relaxing and having fun.

jordan and middle east

May 14

What a port! I've just fallen in love with Jordan.

We went to Egypt the day before, in a big group, and lots of long minibus rides and big tourist spots. Not much interaction with anyone, not much time to linger and stroll the streets. Egypt was pretty cool, but Jordan...

It started when we - my roomie and I - somehow got off the boat a bit later than everyone else. I had intended to join four or five others - including a couple of guys - but we missed them. You hear many things about the Middle East (although Jordan is less strict than most Middle Eastern countries), and in our port orientations we were told several times, 'try to stay in a group; girls, it's better if you can travel with a guy', etc.

So it was with a little trepidation that the two of us set off alone from the port at Aqaba. It turned out to be a blessing. I felt like I enjoyed it much more than Egypt. We didn't rush, and we met lots of people. Travelling in a big group is good for safety, I guess, but it's all too easy to not interact properly with the country you're in; it becomes hard to make decisions; it's easy to just kind of sit back and let other people make the decisions about where you're going to go next, what you're going to do.

We managed to do the budget tour of Jordan. We took a bus to Petra, then at Petra we met a Spanish couple who took us to Wadi Rum and invited us to join their desert camping site. The next day, the same couple took us back to Aqaba, where we chilled for the afternoon.

We met lots of lovely people in Jordan. Our first impression was not great, with lots of guys trying to convince us to get in their taxis, but once we got past them, there was the shopkeeper who gave us directions and free map, the old newspaper seller who took us to the right bus for Petra, the minivan driver who gave us advice about going around Petra... Pretty well everyone in the shops and restaurants, everyone working, was a man. The first lady we met was a Jordanian nurse on the bus.

We were both conservatively dressed and wearing headscarves/bandanas. Some guys did stare a bit, but it wasn't really intense; I never felt uncomfortable about it. My roomie got into a habit of calling out 'salam alekum' (peace be with you) to almost everyone we passed, which prompted many people to wish us peace (alekum es salam) in return. Lots of people asked us where were were from, what our names were. Many people said, not 'welcome', but 'you're welcome'. I liked that. I felt welcome.

Apparently my name was difficult to remember, so I have the new Arabic name of Baraka (this is what someone mispronounced my name as).

The ladies in Jordan all wore headscarves of some kind; some wore jeans and shirts, or long coats, while a few wore the full black burqa, entirely covered but for their eyes. Many men wore Western clothes, others Arabic dress (I don't know what they're called), and quite a few of them also wore head coverings. It's good against the hot, bright sun. I got a lot of vitamin D in the Middle East. ^_^

Our impression was that Jordan was pretty chilled. People ambled around the streets; nobody seemed in a hurry. Families and friends sat in the shady park and chatted or napped. In the evening, lots of people sat around at the beach, drinking cups of tea from the chai sellers, or smoking sheesha, the children and men playing in the water.

People who tried to sell us things weren't persistent and didn't follow us; they'd offer once or twice and then leave us alone. It was pretty hot, and the town wasn't really built-up - lots of small shops, no skyscrapers - so it didn't lend itself to a fast-paced lifestyle.

Compared to Egypt, I felt like people were more relaxed and friendly. Most people had lighter skin, and some had light eyes. There were posters of the king of Jordan everywhere. The scenic main highway was called 'The Kings Way', and all the main roads and parks in Aqaba were named after princes and princesses.

The sightseeing was great. It took over two hours to drive from Aqaba to Petra, so we could see a lot of countryside.

Jordan is very dry; so much desert and great rock formations; the whole countryside varying shades of red and brown and yellow. However, it didn't seem as inhospitable and barren as the desert around Safaga, Egypt. There were hardy desert grasses, the odd eucalyptus tree, some patches of green, birds. Like Egypt, though, I found it remarkable that people could live there. You'd see some guy, in the middle of the desert, near nothing at all, driving a small herd of goats... or our bus would stop in the middle of nowhere and let someone out, when there was nothing but bare desert for miles around.

The ancient town of Petra was quite an amazing sight to see. I knew very little about it, but I now know that some of the rock formations were in the movie 'Mission to Mars' (or was it 'Mars Attacks'? I forget) and the ancient treasury featured in Indiana Jones (it was where the Holy Grail was). Hahaha... okay, I did learn more than just that. ^_^ But I can't say anything very interesting about Petra; a picture will do more than any words.

Wadi Rum is a desert, kind of between Aqaba and Petra, popular for 4WD drives, camping with Bedouin tribes, camel treks, etc. Again, the landscape is pretty amazing. We stayed at a campsite. These campsites are marketed as Bedouin camps, with Bedouin guides and hospitality, but they are set up for tourists; you're not actually staying with Bedouin families (though this is also possible). You have a little camp set up in the middle of nowhere, with three or four guys looking after things. There were also some pet cats eager to greet us.

Dinner was awesome - a kind of barbecue with shish kebabs and sausages and hommous and tzatziki and salads and pita bread and many delicious things. Actually, everything we ate in Egypt and Jordan was brilliant. ^_^ They turned the generator and the lights off for a while, so we all sat around in silence and looked at the stars in the silence. We saw a shooting star, and lots of satellites.

After that we sat around a campfire and drank Bedouin tea with rosemary, and smoked a narghile (sheesha, or water pipe), and everything was great.

There were eight of us at the camp; four pairs of people. We got up just after 5 to see the sunrise. Since the sun rose behind some great rock formations, it took a while, but we saw the light increasingly creeping across the valley. Breakfast included pita bread baked over the campfire, with fresh yoghurt.

The friendly couple who drove us around took us back to Aqaba but first they stopped off at their hotel. Aqaba is on the coast of the Red Sea, so it has lots of beaches and palm trees. It's a popular spot for diving. From their hotel we could stand on the dock and see lots of fish.

We spent several hours doing Aqaba on the cheap. We spent ages just sitting in parks. Several kids came up to talk to us. At one point, about nine kids gathered around and convinced us to come up and say hi to their parents. None of them spoke any English (beyond 'What's your name?' and a couple of other words), and our Arabic was mostly limited to greetings and 'shukran' (thank you), but we were able to communicate a little. They managed to explain that they were two families, and tried to point out the relationships - sister, mother, brothers. The ladies asked if we were married (actually, several of the ladies we met asked us this). No, we said. 'Enshallah' (God willing), they said. Hahaha.

I drew pictures for them and showed them some pictures on my camera. They all wrote their names in English for me. The oldest ones did fine, but one of the younger girls couldn't remember beyond 'S' (her mother rolled her eyes). Then one of the boys remembered that he could say 'I love you', so we got a big round of 'I love yous' and pictures of love hearts in my notebook. They departed with lots of smiles and handshakes and 'see yous'. ^_^

Aqaba was an interesting place. On one side, all desert; on the other, all palm trees and beach sands. In the beaches and the parks were almost only local people, but the streets in between were full of tourist shops selling souvenirs, and that's where we saw other Westerners.

Anyway, I have been writing for a long time - sitting in the free space part of the ship, drinking tea - and now I am sitting on the outside deck, since the weather is so lovely. A few minutes ago I saw three dolphins, jumping alongside the ship.

I still need to write about Egypt, but I will leave that until another time. ^_^


Egypt

We stopped in Safaga, Egypt, for one and a half days, and we packed a lot into that time. Too much, I now feel. Because Luxor is considered a 'must-see' place, we felt we must see it, but if I had my time again, I'd probably just go to Hurghada and chill out in a hotel, walk around the town, etc.

The trouble was, we had heard that it would take about 3 1/2 hours by car from Safaga to Luxor, but in reality it took about 5. We travelled in a big group - about 18 of us at first, later pared down to 13 or so.

This was our Egyptian itinerary:
-get a minibus to Luxor
-look briefly at Karnak and the Valley of the Kings
-take the minibus back to Hurghada, where we stayed in a hotel
-go snorkelling/scuba diving in the Red Sea
-go back to Safaga and our ship

So, we got a minibus, but he had to stop at a checkpoint for over an hour while they sorted out our papers. It transpired that he was not licensed to carry more than 14 passengers, and we had 18, so every time we passed a checkpoint we had to close the curtains. Although they got passport copies for 14 of us, nobody ever actually checked to see how many people were in the van.

Actually we were supposed to be 14, but somehow several random Japanese people had attached themselves to our group - probably nervous to make their way around by themselves with their non-existant English - and so the van was very cramped. Some people had to sit on the floor, another on someone's lap. And we were in that van for 5 hours! After we got to Karnak, some of us went elsewhere which eased the squeeze.

As seen from a car, Egypt is a land of satellite dishes, unfinished houses, and sand. Lots of sand.

Anyway I'm so tired I can't be bothered finishing my posts about Egypt. So I'll finish. I did have a few splendid moments, like seeing the sunset (before we were interrupted by a truck full of soldiers) and seeing all the stars come out, while listening to my music...



May 17

I've just come back from our day trip to the pyramids.

Yesterday we went up the Suez Canal, which took far less time than anticipated; originally our arrival time was predicted for 11pm, but we arrived at 5pm. During the day they opened up the topmost part of the bridge to passengers, so we could get a good view. They were selling shaved ice and snacks there. We also had some Egyptians come on board and set up a kind of mini market in the free space, where they were happily fleecing the innocent Japanese passengers. ^_^

Since we arrived early, we could go off the ship for dinner. I tell you, it's pretty weird to leave your room and go for a stroll in Egypt before going back home to bed...

We are at Port Said, which is at the northern end of the Suez Canal. It's a bit of a grotty town, with lots of stray cats, garbage, rather dirty shops, many without lighting inside. My roomie and I tried to copy the local habit of linking arms as we walked around - it's common among friends of the same gender - but had to give it up as we negotiated the narrow laneways, uneven pavings and constant weaving around curbs and gutters.

Customs consisted of walking through a hut past some utterly uninterested officers, then out the gate. Some locals set up a kind of souvenir market in the area directly outside the ship's gangway.

We found a place for dinner - I have eaten SO many yiros-type items now, I think I've had pita bread for about eight meals in the last week.

As mentioned, I went with my roommate, my companion of Jordan. As in Jordan, she was wearing her headscarf, and she greeted passersby cheerily in Arabic, but the responses were mixed; most people didn't really answer at all. I had the impression that the people in Egypt were a bit harder, somehow.

***

Today it was off to the pyramids, yay! It was my first time to be on one of the organised tours, and it was rather nice for a change. At a couple of ports I've felt a little wearied, trudging out into the hot weather to walk the haggle with taxi drivers, while all the Japanese passengers climb into the air-conditioned comfort of the waiting tour buses. Last port in Egypt, particularly - when they got taken straight to the tourist spots while we spent over an hour at a checkpoint getting approval to use the road.

The tour was pretty simple. Cairo is about three hours from Port Said, so we started super early - it was still dark - and went straight to the pyramids. We went to a couple of different vantage points, and the Sphinx, with just enough time to take a quick stroll and some pictures. For lunch we got taken to a restaurant on a boat on the Nile. Then we had a couple of hours free in Cairo, near the Egyptian museum. Most people went in there, but I went off by myself for a bit.

Cairo is full of irritating people. I was walking around muttering imprecations at everyone I passed. I don't mind the kind of merchant that shouts 'look! look! one dollar!' or 'come in! come in!' because I can keep walking. In Cairo they all had their own little strategies.

Like giving you something as a 'present' and then asking for a tip. No. If you want to try to sell it to me, fine, but don't leave me with a bad taste in my mouth, thinking I had experienced an act of kindness only to find it wasn't.

Or helping you cross the street (a daring feat in that part of the city), then striking up a conversation (where are you from? Oh, Australia? I have an uncle in Sydney. How many Egyptians have an uncle living in Sydney?!), which leads to 'let me give you my business card'. I don't mind getting their business card, but they wanted to take me into their shop to give it to me. Go away. I'm not going to buy anything.

Speaking of crossing the road, in theory there are a few pedestrian crossings, but most streets, even the huge ones, didn't have any. People just step out into traffic. By the end of an hour, I was quite adept at stepping out into six lanes of oncoming cars, buses and motorcycles.

Also, it was 42 degrees in Cairo today, so not altogether pleasant.

Our meeting point was a Hilton, and it was quite a contrast between outside - masses of locals waiting for buses, while people sold pita bread and grilled corn; lots of hole-in-the-wall supermarkets and sprawling vegetable stalls - and the inside.

I enjoyed seeing the pyramids, though we didn't have a very long time there. When I was 11, I remember going to see the pyramids, and feeling disappointed that they weren't as large as I'd expected. I don't know what I was expecting as a child, because as an adult, I was pretty impressed. Almost all the teachers are obsessive photo-takers - I am not alone - so most of our time at the pyramids was spent in a variety of poses. 'Holding' the pyramids, kissing the Sphinx, walking like an Egyptian, and making a human pyramid in front of the real deals.


May 18

Only a day after departing Egypt and the Middle East, and bam, the weather's turned cool. After a month of scorchers, I can say it's the first time I've been able to wear a jacket since we left Yokohama. The ocean - now we are in the Mediterranean - has been a wee bit rougher than we've been used to, and the ship has been rocking all day. A few people are sick, either from seasickness or from tummy upsets.

more updates

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May 19

We just got back from our port at Greece. We docked at Piraeus and took the train into Athens, and to the Acropolis, Parthenon, etc.

Jordan was the best experience, but Greece was the happiest, for me. It was relaxing. No overnight stay, no traversing half the country by bus, no schedules or time constraints - just an easy metro trip into the city and plenty of time to chill. We were lucky to be in the city on 'International Museums Day', which meant entrance to the Acropolis was free. ^_^

I spent some of the day with other people but mostly by myself. Actually it's one nice thing about going around the world with a huge group of people. Any famous places you visit, you usually run into lots of people you know. So there's lots of 'hello!'s and 'konnichiwa!'s throughout the day. It's kind of strange to be walking, say, around the ruins of Petra, and suddenly there's a student from your pre-int class. Or you're at the pyramids and run into the guy you see in the bar every day.

The best part of the day was walking up the slopes of the Acropolis hill, and passing ruins of theatres and temples, with pine trees and olive trees and the old rocks, and hills, and an amazing view over the city. And I had bought a baguette in Piraeus, and it was so good to sit on a rocky wall overlooking Athens, eating my sandwich. It sounds funny, but after a month of ship food, you'd appreciate fresh bread too. ^_^

It was also lovely just sitting with a coffee on the way to Syntagma, watching people go by. The nice thing about Athens was that it has one big attraction - the Acropolis - and once you've seen that, you don't feel like you have to dash about looking at other sites. And it's very easy to walk from the Acropolis down into the city streets.

I am so happy about the Greek food too. Actually I didn't end up having yiros or souvlaki, but that's okay. I had the Middle Eastern equivalent six or seven times in Jordan and Egypt. But for dinner we went to a restaurant in the Plaka with a view of the Acropolis, and had moussakas, and soutzoukaki (cumin-flavoured meatballs), and kebabs, and Greek salad, and garlic bread, and Greek red wine. Ohhhh. I don't even usually like Greek salad, or feta, or tomato, but this was so fresh and good, I loved it.

I felt it was nice to be in Europe. No bargaining or trying to negotiate taxis or whatever.


May 19

Every day we have a newspaper with the day's events. The translators say it's sometimes difficult to translate events that don't make sense even in Japanese.

Let me give you some example events from today. Some are normal, some are less so.

Let's Play Harmonica.

65 years of combating radioactivity (lecture)

Aloha Hula. Wanna Hula Dance with us? Please bring skirt or a big scarf.

Anyone who can't get over your ex! Come!

Time Lag. Celebrate the time difference with God who gained 2kg.

How to Propose: Third Session. Those who are addicted to falling love, come and watch!

Lovers of Surprises Get Together! Wanna surprise someone secretly? Let's plan out!

Ping Pong. Open to all passengers!

Calligraphy lesson. Please bring practice paper. We will hand out the example.

Walk the Talk. Young dreamers get together in the morning!

Delusional Woodwork Class Beginners.

I find this last one the most intriguing.

May 20

I wrote May 21, but my computer clock is still on Japan time. It's 2:02am tomorrow in Japan, but on the ship now it's 7:02pm. We're living in the past.

Today we went through the Messina Strait, which is between Sicily and the Italian mainland. We could see both Italy and Sicily clearly at the same time, on different sides of the boat. Just recently we've been going past Stromboli. Actually we've been going past it for a long time; I think we're doing circles to kill time. I think the scheduling on this boat was made allowing for a lot of delays, because actually we usually seem to arrive places early and then have to wait or do circles in order to move on.

I didn't talk much about the Suez Canal, but it was pretty cool. It was a day with no real scheduled events. The bridge kept sending out announcements like 'we are now entering the biggest lake of the Canal', 'we're reaching the middle point and passing the biggest city on the Canal', etc.

Today classes started again. It really felt like the first day of work after the holidays. But it was okay. I did another 'open' class, with about forty or fifty students.

On the pool deck the 'orizuru' (paper crane folding) project was making a giant paper crane - one that required about twenty people to hold it up. Then everyone wrote peace messages on it.

I did some more lesson prep, chatted to my students a bit, had a cappuccino in the bar, had a Japanese lesson.

For me, the best thing that happened today was that it rained. It smelled so good! I haven't seen rain since Singapore, and then only a few minutes.

Soon I am going to dinner. Someone I know incidentally has invited me to his table for dinner - it is his birthday - which is rather nice. ^_^

Tomorrow we'll arrive in Naples. Lots of stuff is happening in Europe. Various students are going on overland tours; new passengers are coming on board; new guest speakers are coming; exchange students are coming.

I'm feeling a bit tired at the moment.


May 23

Days after ports are usually free days, which means a bit of lesson planning, a bit of chilling out... I don't know where the day went, really. I got up late, sure... then what? I washed some clothes, went to lunch, sat around in the sun for a bit, went to a presentation one of the other teachers was doing, had afternoon tea, did lesson prep, went to the teacher's meeting, looked at my photos from Naples, did a bit more lesson-related stuff, and... I'm done.

Oh yeah, yesterday was Naples. I went to Sorrento and Ercolano (Herculaneum), and around Naples itself. Sorrento wasn't a bit like I remembered it. I went there in winter, and remembered it being a pretty, rather quiet seaside town, full of lemon trees and orange trees. This time there was hardly any fruit on the trees, and the place was packed with tourists, tourists everywhere.

When we got back to the ship we had a bit of a party on the back deck. Often departures happen really late at night, but this one was at 10, so the departure song played and we saw the port of Naples sliding away behind us. Some seagulls flew after our boat, and continued swooping and circling behind us in the darkness for at least 40 minutes after we left.

Updates from the Red Sea

May 4 (Tue)

Yesterday was Constitution Memorial Day in Japan, so we had a lot of events related to Article 9 of the Japanese constitution. (This is the article that says Japan is pacifist and will not bear arms, will not fight in wars, etc. Apparently, Japan and Costa Rica are the only countries in the world to have such clauses in their constitutions.)

Right now everyone is in Sports Festival fervour. Everywhere you go, you can see people wearing ribbons the colour of their team. Some people are wearing costumes, holding up posters, etc. I can't read them... The teams are sorted according to month, and I am in the Blue team.

Our team name is 'Earth'. I find this very amusing, because Japanese people can't pronounce the 'ur' (they say 'ar') or 'th' (they say 's') sounds in 'Earth'. These sounds are not present in Japanese. This means that our team name sounds very much like the word 'arse'. I am in Team Arse. Go team, go.

Sports Day is in two days. I am participating in the 'tsunahiki' (tug-o-war). I think it is going to be scarily enthusiastic. You have not seen passion until you have seen Japanese team spirit. Hahaha.

I was having my daily coffee today - I always to go the bar on the 8th floor, where they play Norah Jones every day - and got invited to join the blue team for lunch downstairs. So there were lots of us having lunch downstairs. ^_^

Today I took videos of my two classes. The idea is that I will video them now, early in the course, and then near the end of the voyage, will play back their video, so they can see how they have improved. Hopefully they will have actually improved. Hahaha...


May 8 (Sat)

I'm writing this from the Red Sea. Days of the week are virtually meaningless on the boat. We follow our own time and space.

I've swum in several seas and oceans so far. The pool water on our ship comes from the ocean, so I've swum in the South China Sea, Indian Ocean, Arabian Sea and Gulf of Aden. The recent waters have been very salty.

The weather's getting less stifling. Even though we are in the Middle East and it's very hot, it's a drier heat. More like Adelaide on a summer's day. The worst stretch, I think, was between Vietnam and Singapore. Maybe the first few days after Singapore too, when we were passing under India and Sri Lanka. Someone said we were getting the pre-monsoonal weather.

It seems to have been pleasant weather ever since we left Yokohama; although it has rained a couple of times, never when I've been outside.

I feel like I have a lot to update but not much time. We have come safely through the Strait of Malacca and the Gulf of Aden (as I mentioned, those areas are famous for pirates). But no problem.


May 9 (Sun)

Today is Sunday. There is actually a 'Bible reading' event on Sundays, in different languages, but I have had to teach both Sundays, so I haven't been able to attend.

Anyway: three things: 1) Undokai, 2) Fashion show, 3) Meeting my students.

1) Undo kai

The 'undou kai', or 'sports festival', is an important part of Japanese culture, especially in school days. From what I've heard, the format of our ship's undokai was a standard one, with most undokai following the same order of events. But I've never done a real Japanese-style sports festival before, so it was a great experience.

I've done Japanese-y things before, but it's always interesting to me to see how many cultural things are embedded in this country. Like there were a bunch of young people doing Japanese-style taiko (drumming), and pausing for dramatic effect with specific poses and shouts, wearing happi coats and hachimaki, taking turns, to the accompaniment of Japanese music... If we had a bunch of Australians doing drumming, we would just choreograph it randomly, without years of history to indicate how it could be done, but they were following all these traditional conventions.

The ship was divided into four teams, based on birth month. I was in the blue team, 'Earth' ('Arse', as I mentioned before ^_^). The four teams - blue, white, red and yellow - came wearing their team colours, and the very first 'event' was to count the number of participants. Our team came last, which I felt was a rather poor beginning.

The danchou (team captains) were four young, gung-ho guys who strongly resembled anime characters. What I mean to say is, you see anime characters and you think 'hahaha, that's so exaggerated'. But these people do exist in real life (or at least, when you put them up in front of an audience, they transform into caricatures ^_^). Our danchou had straggly blue and white hair; the red danchou had a kind of red punk-y pompadour.

They were really funny, leading their team cheers with bellowing voices. Each had dyed their hair the colour of their team. Apparently this cost them 30,000 yen each (!!!!!). It shows the lengths they will go to for their team...

The order of events was something like this:

Opening ceremony (included a dance, some taiko drumming, the intro of the danchou, Radio Taisou, and general announcements)

First events (kids events, a funny relay race, etc)

Lunch (this was a special VICTORY LUNCH - katsu and curry. Katsu is breaded pork; it's really yummy. In Japanese 'katsu', which means 'pork cutlet', sounds the same as 'katsu', which means 'win. So it's common to eat katsu before an exam, a sports festival, etc. Katsu curry, for the win! ^_^

Danchou competition, team cheers and 'Water Boys' (synchronised swimming)

Main events

Final results and closing ceremony

Compared with an Australian sports day, the emphasis was really on team sports, and there was a good mixture of old and young competing in each event.

Radio Taisou is a Japanese custom I had never heard of before. From the days before television, they would play music over the radio and people would do simple stretches and exercises to the music. We were all led in these stretches before the proper events happened. Then we all did a bit of a dance. ^_^

The funny relay was great. Basically, a person from each team would run around the pool deck, and have to complete a few challenges (like pulling a piece of candy out of a bowl of flour using their teeth, putting on a mask, etc) and run to a box which had papers in them. On the paper would be something like 'Someone named Suzuki' or 'An interpreter' or 'Someone with a red handbag'. The person would have to race to find someone in the audience meeting that criteria, and take them with them to the finish line. It was really funny, even though I couldn't read the papers. ^^;;

Some other events included group jump rope - about ten people had to jump at the same time, and only one team managed to get more than 1 jump, because there was always some older person jumping at the wrong time. ^^; But it was all fun. There was a three-legged race relay - had a couple of people come a cropper - and a centipede race, where several people, standing in a line, have their legs tied together and must move in unison. There was a game where people had to throw beanbags into a box (when I say that, I mean a big mass of people all throwing at the same time), and our team won. ^_^ I participated in the final event of all, the tug-of-war, which was like the grand finale and worth the highest number of points.

They sold kakigori (shaved ice; a common Japanese summer treat), and one of the events had the danchou (team captains) compete to eat bowls of kakigori, in their team colours, as quickly as they could. Terrible! They were all clutching their heads in pain... but our danchou won! Yay Blue. ^_^

It was a great day, under the blue Arabian sky. Kind of funny to be having such an intensely Japanese experience at the entrance to the Red Sea... I loved every minute. Lots of fun Japanese music played, and everyone was super genki.

Each team had also choreographed a team cheer, which was also for points. I think the Red team's was the best - so so super cute - while ours looked rather like they had come up with it in in about two minutes. However, Yellow won this section, probably because Yellow came last by a long way, so they wanted to give them some points. ^^;

White and Red dominated for most of the day, and for most of the day, Blue was coming third. When we came to the tug-of-war, we beat Red, while White beat Yellow. Then it was us verses White for the Big Finale. Chanting 'A-su, A-su' (Earth, Earth) and pulling on the 'su' sound, we got them over the line and won the tug-of-war! The high fives were many.

When the final points were tallied, and our danchou's ice-eating success, and our tug-of-war win were added, Team Earth came from behind to win the sports festival!!

It was very exciting. ^_^ We got to go to a 'winner's drinks' session afterwards, and there was a big party until early morning. (There are many, many late-night parties on this ship, most of which I don't attend, having early morning classes...)

2) Fashion show

You know that Japanese people like to shop, right? Well, so far we have been to China, Vietnam and Singapore. This means that quite a few ladies on the ship have bought aodai (Vietnamese traditional dresses), Singaporean batik dresses (like the Singapore Airlines uniform), Chinese dresses and sari. In addition, a number of people have kimono and yukata (Japanese summer kimono).

Therefore, they organised an Asian Fashion Show so that all the lovely ladies - and a few gentlemen - could show off their new purchases. We teachers were encouraged to participate, and I borrowed a yukata to wear (and found a random kind soul to put it on me ^_^).

There were four categories of clothing: Japanese, aodai, sari, and 'other' (Chinese dresses, Korean, etc). There was some cute choreography too, such as a young couple - who are going to get married on the ship - coming out in aodai together, and him carrying her off the stage. I was one of the first to go onto the catwalk and strike my poses, so I got to watch most of it.

3) My students

I mentioned that I have one class of all elderly people - the oldest is 88. So I have to take it slow for that class, but it's a really lovely class and I enjoy teaching it. Anyway, one of the students invited the class to try tea ceremony in his room (he has a balcony room - lucky ^_^). He had met a tea ceremony teacher during one of the ship tours, and she was there, wearing kimono, to teach us the procedure.

Although the other students are all over 60, several of them hadn't learned tea ceremony before. I couldn't understand very much but I enjoyed it. We couldn't sit on tatami mats, but otherwise we tried to follow the same procedure, each person taking a turn.

In tea ceremony, your movements and words are quite deliberate. Before taking the cup, you apologise to the next person for going before them (osaki ni); they reply 'go ahead' (douzo). You pick it up and hold it in one hand, carefully turning it with the other hand so that the picture on the cup faces you. The cups have seasonal pictures; for May, a kind of lily is suitable. Then you drink, trying to drain the dregs. Then you put it down carefully, gently lifting it to admire the picture on it. And you generally eat sweets before and after the tea, as the Japanese matcha (powdered tea) is rather bitter. I like it though.

Later that day I also met that same class for a drink in the on-board izakaya. I learned some new things about my students, for example, one of my septuagenarian students was a surgeon, and another was a 'hibakusha' (atomic bomb survivor) who helped remove bodies from Hiroshima after the bombing. It was difficult for us to communicate, but I wished I could understand more of their stories.

Sometimes it is easy with people, especially when they are beginners at English, to think of them purely in terms of students - 'oh, he can't understand very much', 'she can't speak very well', 'he gets confused'. You can forget that a person may be highly educated and articulate in their own language, since you hear them speaking in broken and basic English. It was a good reminder for me that my students are not only students.

...

There are so many events on this ship - and in such a short time - that we always have a lot to do, but mostly it's fun stuff. So for example, May 6 was Sports Day (no classes), then May 7 was the Fashion Show, then May 8 was 'All English and Spanish Day' (where students had to try to talk to as many people in English or Spanish as possible) and there was an auction with proceeds to support refugees, and there was a book sale, with books going to a refugee camp.

Tonight - May 9 - we are having 'Arabian Night', and tomorrow we will be in Egypt. We teachers are planning to go into Luxor for the first day, and then go snorkelling in the Red Sea for the second. I think we will be very tired, but it's gonna be great. ^_^

We've been at sea for about 13 days with no land, but it hasn't been a problem. I haven't even really thought about it. The boat becomes your world. ^_^

Today was a quiet day. It was the last day of our first 'term' of teaching, so we have quite a few days off. The next week will consist of ports: Safaga, Safaga (Egypt), Aqaba, Aqaba (Jordan), up the Suez Canal, and then Egypt again (Port Said). So no classes for a little while.

Today I spent some time up at the pool, and I just went to our port orientation. Before each port, or each series of ports, we have a boatwide orientation session - translated into English over the little handheld radios (simultaneous broadcast devices) - where we hear about the ocean route we've just travelled, where we're about to travel, and some important cultural information about the countries coming up.