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. ^_^
Tuesday, September 28, 2010
Saturday, September 25, 2010
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.
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.
Thursday, July 22, 2010
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. ^_^
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. ^_^
Tuesday, July 6, 2010
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!
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!
Saturday, June 26, 2010
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!
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!
Tuesday, June 15, 2010
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!
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!
Sunday, June 6, 2010
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.
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)...
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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.
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