Adventures Around the World - Semester at Sea Spring 2007: March 2007

Saturday, March 31, 2007

Class Day "A14" at sea

Today is class meeting day "A14."

On the agenda for me is the following:

Teach "Mass Media Systems Around the World" (Time: 0800 - 0915)
Sit in on the Global Studies core course that the entire ship "shuts down for" daily - it is held in the Student Union area of the ship with the lecture being broadcast on the closed-circuit TV system of the ship to the various satellite classrooms on the ship for those students who can't fit in the Union (Time: 0920 - 1040)
Teach "Intercultural Communication" (Time: 1045 - 1200)
Cultural Pre-Port Briefing for Malaysia (Time: 2000 - 2100)

We will advance our clocks by one hour tonight which will make us 11 hours ahead of Eastern Standard Time in the U.S.

Friday, March 30, 2007

No classes today

There are no classes scheduled for today.

Post-Port Open Mic Night for people to share experiences they had in India (Time: 1900 - 2000)
Faculty/Staff Party (Time: 2000)

Update:

I thought I would use this post to relate some of the "incidents" that I've heard about happening amongst students over the course of the voyage so far...some of them are disturbing, some of them are just plain idiotic.

In Brazil:

Some students were held up at knifepoint. Apparently some kids tried to take their stuff but they wouldn't give it to them and that's when the kids pulled out the knives.

In South Africa:

One girl almost went into an alcohol-related coma on the first night in Cape Town. Apparently at one of the bars in Cape Town, they serve "fishbowls" of liquor (essentially a communal drinking bowl that contains about 17 kinds of alcohol and is very sweet). At around 7:30 pm, she was dragged back to the ship by two of her friends who were going to simply secret her to her room, but luckily someone saw this girl coming onto the ship and intervened. The doctor was summoned and according to him, this was the worst case he had ever seen. He said there is a scale that doctor's use where 11 is the best and 3 is where you need machines to breathe for you. This girl apparently was at a 4. She was taken to a local hospital. Emily (the nurse) was having her 30th birthday that day so she basically had to go spend her birthday with this girl in the hospital. I've heard from some other people that this girl won't be sent home because she is a good student and she genuinely didn't realize how much alcohol she was consuming because the "fishbowl" mix was so sweet.
One guy apparently went out late one night and made friends with some locals. He went with them to some place at 4 in the morning and they tried to steal his cell phone. He wouldn't give it up and he apparently was dragged by them when they got a hold of him when they were in a car - his feet got really badly hurt from being dragged and he had to be in a wheelchair on the ship for two weeks because he couldn't walk one step on his own. This kid is apparently a complete idiot because when he was told by the medical staff that he wouldn't be allowed to go on his safari that was leaving the next day, he gave them a hard time because he felt he should be allowed to go. According to Emily, this kid was really snotty to her and told her it was just stupid that he couldn't go because going on a safari was just sitting in a car and didn't involve walking. She told him that he would have to walk from the ship to the bus, from the bus to the hotel, from the hotel to the safari vehicle, etc, and that the medical team would not change their decision. Apparently this kid's mother is now giving the Semester at Sea administration a hard time because they want the money for the safari refunded to them. Never mind that this incident was basically this kid's fault (ie. making friends and going off with complete strangers in the middle of the night and then not giving up his cell phone when they tried to take it in the first place)...this kid feels he was the one who was wronged and that he was entirely not at fault.

In Mauritius:

A girl was apparently raped while in Mauritius - she was staying in a villa in the Flic-en-Flac beach area with friends and they apparently invited some local people back to party with them. One of those people raped her.
Students apparently vandalized property at the villas in Mauritius and there were a lot of incidents of drunkenness.

Other:

One girl apparently bought a teddy bear and cut it open so she could hide alcohol inside to try to smuggle it back onto the ship.
We learned in the last Logistical Pre-Port that out of 702 students on the ship, 93 have faced disciplinary action of some kind for something (ie. alcohol-related, getting dock time for being late coming back to the ship on the night of the departure or on one of the field trips, etc.)
In the airport in South Africa, I remember asking our guide if we would need our passports to go through security. One kid on the trip spoke up and said "no, you don't need your passport, we didn't need them in Brazil" - I just looked at him like he was a moron and said "Well, we aren't in Brazil." The assumption that things would run exactly the same as they did in Brazil astounded me. This kid likely had a lot of cross-cultural miscommunication because he was making assumptions that things in one place would be exactly the same as they would be in another!

Second Update:

I felt a little better today, but still pretty crappy. I went to try to eat something at breakfast since I didn't eat anything yesterday - but around 1:00 pm or so though I felt sick again and had to go back to my room to throw up...so not much of what I ate this morning stayed in my stomach.

At dinner (I just had tea and toast today in addition to drinking water and getting some Gatorade), I saw my friend Emily (the nurse) and I told her my story and how I took my prescription antibiotic Zithromax yesterday but I was still sick today. She told me that Zithromax was no good and that I should take Cipro (which is in stock in the clinic) and that I could come get her later tonight or to page her whenever I wanted if I needed it. I told her I would wait until tomorrow to see how I felt, but then I decided I should probably just take it tonight since I have to teach tomorrow. I left Emily a note on her door and she offered to bring the Cipro up to my room - 6 pills that I will take over the course of 3 days, 2 pills a day. It only cost 50 cents per pill.

We will advance our clocks by a half an hour tonight which will make us 10 hours ahead of Eastern Standard Time in the U.S.

Thursday, March 29, 2007

Day 5 in India

Click here for current times in Chennai, India, and the East Coast of the U.S.
Click here for current times in Agra, India, and the East Coast of the U.S.

Click here for weather in Chennai, India
Click here for weather in Agra, India

(note: this is one of my pre-scheduled posts set to appear at 5:00am EST each morning I am in a port city. I will post follow-up information about each trip once I am able to get back on the computer.)

This is the trip I will be going on today...

Making Movie Art (Time: 1230 - 1830)
(This is one of the "faculty directed practica" that I am leading so the cost of this trip is free for me.)

Description:
India has one of the largest film production industries in the world, and Chennai is India's second largest film-making center (after Mumbai's "Bollywood"). Here, movies are made in several languages. At one of the major film studios of Chennai, we shall tour the studio lots and, depending on the studio's schedule, visit various departments, including sound dubbing facilities, mixing rooms and editing facilities. If a film is being shot on the studio sets at the time of our visit, there is a possibility of observing some of the actors. (PRICE: $20.00)

Some links relating to today's trip...

Kollywood

Update:

I will post more on my 4-day trip later, but for now, here are the salient points...I have been taking Pepto Bismol with each meal and trying to avoid dodgy things - I made sure I even used bottled water to brush my teeth. Unfortunately, my body wasn't having it. The second day of the trip, I developed a minor cough - which I knew would be developing into a cold in another day or so. That night I made sure I slept as much as I could from 6:30 pm until 3:30 am when we had our wake up call. I had shivers that night but when I woke up the next morning, I felt better than I thought I would. I wouldn't attribute my sickness to anything but a cold at that point - I wasn't having any diarrhea, I was just feeling run down. Our last day was a really long day though and I made it through - on the flight back though, I felt weird. The plane was hot, I felt like I could throw up, but I kept it together. Upon getting off the plane, I knew I needed to get out one of the ziploc bags that I had my toiletries in, so I stopped and quickly emptied it so I could have something to throw up in and no sooner did I have it ready to go did I throw up. Not fun. Got some on my shirt - very liquidy. It was gross. I felt better after having done that though and hoped that would be the end of it. No such luck. Upon getting back to my room on the ship, I went to sleep but woke up again a few times with diarrhea and to throw up. I took Imodium at two different times, but it didn't seem to help so I broke out the prescription antibiotic that I had brought with me. I used one of the two doses I got and I guess that has helped a bit. I still feel crappy though. I also just got my period today so I think this sickness is a confluence of that, having a weak immune system from the cold/sore throat I had and probably something I ate. I'm just trying to keep drinking water to combat dehydration at this point, but I haven't eaten anything all day.

Needless to say, I wasn't able to go on the "Making Movie Art" trip that I was scheduled to go on today. Luckily, I wasn't the only faculty member assigned to be the trip leader - one of the English professors who was on the 4-day trip with me was doing the trip as an FDP so I made sure I left him a note this morning to tell him I wouldn't be going.

As for the 4-day trip, it was a bust. The main reason people signed up for this trip is for the elephant ride and we found out on the trip that there would be no elephant ride - that there was some festival going on (that was known about way in advance) and somehow that prevented it from happening. I also am sick of really obnoxious students who are loud and rude and the very stereotype of an ugly American. One kid wasn't able to get himself out of bed the first morning we were in the hotel because he was stone-cold drunk. He was so drunk that he couldn't walk without help. The nurse who was the trip leader had to go get him and slap him and throw water on his face and walk him down. It made me furious. This kid was so stupid that he honestly thought he would only get dock time in the next port because he was 15 minutes late - not for the fact that he was severely intoxicated. I was so angry with him I told him he was so stupid because they had even really really stressed this in Logistical Pre-Port prior to getting to India - that the consequences for this type of behavior would be severe. He just said he didn't attend Logistical Pre-Port (it is mandatory for everyone to attend it). I just said "well, you are an idiot then and I have no sympathy for you whatsoever" - he just retorted with "well, I don't care if you don't have any sympathy for me - how do you like that?" I doubt he knew I was a professor. Even if he did know, I'm sure he would be just as rude. The students on this trip also were extremely loud in the hallways of the hotels. Some of these kids just have a blank look in their eyes, even when they aren't drunk. It really, really makes me not want to do anymore Semester at Sea overnight trips - I just can't stand these idiotic students. Yes, of course, there are some students who are really great and responsible and mature - but it's the handful that aren't that ruin the trip for everyone else. I will report back more on the specifics of the trip when I have more time to write.

Second Update:
I ran into the other professor who went on the "Making Movie Art" trip and he and his wife told me I didn't miss much. Apparently the trip got back two hours early and one of the guides disappeared at one point. They were really disappointed and will be complaining to the Field Office to implore them to never run this trip again with this studio. I guess that made me feel a bit better because I had to miss it due to my sickness.

It's almost 5:00 am on Friday as I write this now and I'm still feeling a bit wonky, but better than I did yesterday. I am able to stray further away from my toilet today than I was yesterday at least. I still have a cough, but I don't have a sore throat or any congestion per se, so that's also good. Also, all of my India photos are now up.

The ship is scheduled to depart at 2100 from Chennai, India.
NEXT DESTINATION: Penang, Malaysia, on Monday, April 2, 2007, at 0800.

Click here for current times in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, and the East Coast of the U.S.

Click here for weather in Penang, Malaysia

Wednesday, March 28, 2007

Day 4 in India

see description from previous post for today's activities

me on the train from Jaipur, India to New Delhi, India

on the train from Jaipur, India to New Delhi, India

some longer video I took in New Delhi, India

(click here for a bigger version of the video)

me at the Gandhi Museum in New Delhi, India

at the Gandhi Museum in New Delhi, India

at the Gandhi Museum in New Delhi, India - the pavilion is the site of Gandhi's assassination

at the Gandhi Museum in New Delhi, India - site of Gandhi's assassination

New Delhi, India

B'ahai House of Worship in New Delhi, India

me at the B'ahai House of Worship in New Delhi, India

at the airport in New Delhi, India awaiting our flight back to the ship to Chennai, India (left to right: nurse Brenda, resident director Stephanie Sue on the floor, English professor David and his wife Phoebe)

Tuesday, March 27, 2007

Day 3 in India

see description from previous post for today's activities

the Hawa Mahal in Jaipur, India

street view near the Hawa Mahal in Jaipur, India

some video I took at Amber Fort in Amber, India

(click here for a bigger version of the video)

Amber Fort in Amber, India

inside Amber Fort in Amber, India

me inside Amber Fort in Amber, India

inside Amber Fort in Amber, India

me at Amber Fort in Amber, India

me and two students at Amber Fort in Amber, India

view from Amber Fort in Amber, India

stop at a rug factory in Jaipur, India

Monday, March 26, 2007

Day 2 in India

Click here for weather in Chennai, India
Click here for weather in Agra, India

Click here for current times in Chennai, India, and the East Coast of the U.S.
Click here for current times in Agra, India, and the East Coast of the U.S.

(note: this is one of my pre-scheduled posts set to appear at 5:00am EST each morning I am in a port city. I will post follow-up information about each trip once I am able to get back on the computer.)