Today is class meeting day "A4."

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 Brazil (Time: 2000 - 2100)
• Dean's Welcome Reception for Faculty/Staff (Time: 2100 - 2230)

The entire ship will attend what is called the "Cultural Pre-Port Briefing" tonight. As with the Global Studies course, most students will fit in the Union, but the rest of the people will watch the briefing on television screens in the rest of the classrooms on the ship. Some of the faculty (whose fields relate to culture) got together a few days ago to discuss who would talk about what, in what order and for how long. The entire briefing lasts one hour so there isn't much time for one person to speak. The event will begin with the interport lecturer, Lucio, giving a basic lesson in some handy Portuguese phrases. I will then speak for two or three minutes regarding intercultural communication in Brazil (gestures to avoid, proxemics, eye contact, etc.) The art, history and music professors will speak a bit longer. That's the big event tonight and tomorrow night they hold a "Logistical Pre-Port" for the entire ship that basically addresses safety issues, what will occur when we go through the customs process, etc. The "Cultural Pre-Port" presentation is always two nights before we arrive in a port and the "Logistical Pre-Port" presentation is always the night immediately before arriving in a port. I imagine I'll be recruited to do my little spiel prior to each port.

Update:

I got done my little talk at the Cultural Pre-Port lecture and had my audience of about 800 people. I guess that's probably the biggest audience I've ever spoken to. I found out later at the party that was held in the faculty/staff lounge that one of the art history professors was apparently really nervous about giving her part of the presentation. It just kind of seemed funny to me that someone who makes her living speaking to groups of students would be nervous about speaking to a bigger group of students. Luckily, I am not phased by it. In my mind, speaking to 800 people is no different than speaking to 20 people and since I’m so used to talking to small groups, I don’t even think twice about having to speak to a larger group. I guess that’s a lucky skill to have given that the number one fear that most people have is public speaking.

At this Cultural Pre-Port presentation, we had the option of either using the podium microphone or a hand-held mike so I just used the hand-held mike so I wasn't stuck behind the podium. I think it is a little more "friendly" using the hand-held mike anyway. Prior to the presentation, I got to the Union a little early so I could run my notes past Lucio (the interport lecturer from Brazil) because I wanted to make sure the info. I got out of my intercultural books was actually relevant. Lucio informed me he had never heard of some of the points I ran past him so I crossed those off the list before giving my talk. Essentially, I presented the following information:

• In Brazil, you should avoid making what Americans know as the "ok" gesture - it is vulgar in Brazil and is basically a gesture you would use if you want to call someone an asshole. When in Brazil, stick with the "thumbs up" gesture to indicate "A-OK" or agreement.
• The figa symbol (putting the thumb between the index and middle finger with your hand in a fist) is a symbol that indicates good luck. Lucio said that you don't really see people doing this much though.
• Tugging on your earlobe is a signal that you like something (particularly relating to food).
• If you are an unmarried person, it is customary to give someone three alternating kisses on the cheek. A married person would give two kisses. This apparently varies by region though.
• I also mentioned that interpersonal space is much closer in Brazil than it is in the U.S. People stand closer together when having a casual conversation than Americans are used to and eye contact lasts longer and is more direct in Brazil.
• I mentioned the importance of the family in Brazil (as is the case in many Latin American countries in general) and that people may inquire about your family when in Brazil so it would be appropriate to have photos to show of one's family.
• I ended my two-three minute talk by saying that Brazilians don't really follow a punctual schedule as Americans do. It is not uncommon for a Brazilian to come to a business meeting an hour or so late with that being perfectly acceptable.

Essentially, I just left them with the advice that when in doubt, watch locals and see what they are doing. I then used that as a segue to turn the mike over to Lucio who tried to teach some basic Portuguese to everyone (which was difficult because we didn't have the words in front of us). There is a handout given prior to each port to everyone on the ship that we got a few days ago regarding Brazil and Lucio said that a lot of the terms on the sheet reflected Portuguese as spoken in Portugal, not Brazilian Portuguese so it was kind of amusing that we had these wrong phrases (or phrases he said no one ever uses) on the Semester at Sea handout sheet. Other people presented information about the Candomblé religion, art in some of the churches in Salvador and some types of Brazilian music.

Immediately after the "Cultural Pre-Port" presentation, there was the party up in the faculty/staff lounge on Deck 7 so I went to that and they had cheese, crackers and wine that was served. I talked to a bunch of people there. There are still people I haven't gotten a chance to meet yet out of all of the faculty and staff (and some of their spouses, children, etc) even though we've been on board for a while now. I got a chance to talk to a few more people who I hadn't really talked to before so I think after tonight I have pretty much talked to everyone in some way, shape or form. There is one guy on the ship named Mark who I talked to tonight who is actually half-German and half-American, but he grew up in Africa and Asia because his dad worked for the United Nations.

At any rate, after telling Mark I minored in German in college, he then asked me a question in German (essentially asking me if I still spoke German) so I got to use a bit of my German with him but he said to me (again in German) that he is fluent, but his written German is horrible. At any rate, given his background (he is currently based in Mozambique and mentioned he lived in Pakistan for 8 years growing up...not sure what other countries he's lived in, but he's apparently been all over the world), I asked him if he would like to come talk to my Mass Media Systems Around the World class about global media in the places he has lived and he said that he would be happy to. He is actually onboard because he is one of the co-founders of the Global Nomads Group organization that sets up video conferences with high school students in the U.S. and their counterparts in different parts of the world. In addition to this guy Mark, there are two other people onboard who are with that group and they have partnered with Semester at Sea and are essentially working and doing three video conferences in each port. It seems like a neat organization in general (although I'm still not sure how they make a profit, but they've been in business for about 10 years) and all the people working on with Global Nomads Group on this trip around my age - I think the guy I was talking to is 34, another guy is 29 or 30 and the woman working with them actually just graduated from Temple University last year so she is probably around 23. There are actually a handful of people (15 or so) on this trip who are in their 20s and 30s so I've gotten a chance to talk to most everyone from my age-range. I checked the closed-circuit television after the party to see our location now and the ship apparently just passed the town of Recifé in Brazil. I went out on deck to see if I could see the coast and, indeed, I did see some lights so we are very, very close to the coastline of Brazil right now and will follow the coastline south until we get to Salvador on Saturday.

Upon leaving my room to go on the deck, I noticed someone had written a message on my board – apparently a student of mine – who said “Just wanted to let you know – you are awesome!” She signed her first name and said in parentheses she is in my 8 am class. The skeptic/cynic in me thinks that she is probably especially adept at sucking up…or maybe she was drunk…or maybe both. Whatever the case, I’m giving her an A. :)

We were told to retard our clocks by one hour tonight. (Yes, they actually used the word “retard” in the announcement that went out over the P.A. system throughout the ship – a very odd word choice I thought. Who says that?). This is really bizarre to me because we were told a few days ago to advance our clocks ahead by one hour yet again (even though it didn’t make sense to me that we were doing this because doing so would put us one hour ahead of the time in Salvador). I think someone screwed up because there was absolutely no reason for us to go forward only to go back again – even if we might have gone into the next time zone for a brief instance). At any rate, after tonight, we will be on “Salvador time” which is two hours ahead of the time on the East Coast of the U.S.