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.
Wednesday, May 26, 2010
more updates
im in spain right now with a keyboard that doesnt allow me to use any punctuation
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.
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.
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.
Sunday, May 9, 2010
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.
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:
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.
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