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!
Saturday, June 26, 2010
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)...
---
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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