July 21-23 At Sea

So, after Andy left, we had three days at sea on our way to Russia.  We were monitoring closely all the fun things happening around Russia, worried that there might be travel advisories, but thankfully we were still planning to go.

The three days were hectic with work and activities.   The highlight around day one was the talent show in the evening.  The students/faculty/staff performed  for the first half and various members of the crew performed for the second half.  They were hilarious.  It was great to see the men and women that normally function in the dining room or as cabin stewards (did I mention someone makes your bed everyday?) on stage having fun.    The crew come from the Philippines, India, Jamaica, Croatia,  Greece, England, Russia, just to name a few countries.  A hidden part of this experience is the interaction with the crew and getting to know their backgrounds and stories.  They are amazing and extremely hard working.  Earlier in the day we got to enjoy a beautiful sail in the straits between Denmark and Sweden.  They were so close on either side of the ship, saw a beautiful castle too.

The second day at sea was a non-class day.  The day was filled by the shipboard Sea Olympics.  The students living areas are divided into seas instead of floors in a residence hall, overseen by Resident Directors.  So, in the Olympics each student sea competed against each other.  Other teams were the faculty/staff/dependents and the Life  Long Learners, not sure if I mentioned that the Life Long Learners is a program on the ship for anyone that wants to sail, audit classes and live with the students.  They are typically retired folks, but can and are many ages.

The Olympics got off to a great start with the opening ceremony.  Liam got to help carry in the Olympic flag and Shannon was the torch bearer.  The kids were totally into the Olympics,  Shannnon and I competed in the team cheer, lip sync and yes, the synchronized swimming categories.  Liam participated and almost won the Ship, Captain, Wave (Rock, Paper, scissors) competition.  Alice came in third in Sudoku.  The absolute favorite moment for me was when the two kids competed together in the stand-up comedy competition.  They were fantastic and won first place over all the students and adults competing.  You will have to ask them to do it for you.  See photos below of some of the activities, and link for more:
See olympics      By the way, the faculty/staff/dependents (families) came in second overall!

Shannon and I are in this team cheer-

Sychronized swimming to "Dayo"

Shannon and Liam watching the frozen t-shirt contest (team of two has to be creative and thaw a frozen tshirt ball enough to get it on one of them:


Day three we spent doing work to get ready for the pre-port for Russia.  Lots of cultural and logistical information to get together for this particular port.  Scared everyone silly, then was pleasantly surprised when we hit St. Petersburg.

Norway July 16th-20th

So, Norway is just frickin' beautiful.  Mountains, lakes, rivers, waterfall, fjords, ya can't go wrong anywhere you look.  The only downside, is how expensive it is,  we were in one restaurant in a hurry, kids would only eat hamburgers, we paid $30 for EACH hamburger.  We now compare everything to that meal, "Well at least it's not as expensive as the hamburgers."

The ship first docked in Bergen, which is a smaller city for a day and a half.  It was a bit rainy, but fun to walk around, see the shops, the fishing market and ride the funicular up a mountain and hike around for a while.  Liam liked finding all the wooden trolls around town.  This was Andy's last port before he had to head home, so we made the most of it.

The ship left Bergen to then make it's way to Oslo.  We could choose to ride the ship or travel throughout the country and meet the ship in Oslo.  We did one of Semester at Sea's overnight trips.  It was really a great trip.  We took off from the ship in the evening, stopped by a gorgeous waterfall you could walk behind and started driving through some amazing mountain scenery.  We stayed the first night in a hotel on a gorgeous lake, and had a great Norwegian dinner (provided as part of the trip), lots of  wibderful salmon.

The next day was a combination of culture museums, fjord ferry cruise, cider farm (not apple juice, with alcohol) visit and a stay at another great hotel.  The last day on our way back to Oslo, did a two hour spectacular ferry ride to a town called Flam, had lunch and then through two trains and a bus made it to Oslo, incredible scenery throughout.

For the last day in Norway, we were now back on the ship but in Oslo.  We spent the day in the city getting it all in: Viking museum, which Liam loved; a cultural museum that has recreated old buildings with sod roofs, character reenactments etc; and a visit to the new opera house.  We then returned to the ship where we had to say goodbye to Andy, sad day for him and for us.

Ireland July 10-July 13

Well, we had one day on the ship between Scotland and Ireland, it makes for one heck of a crazy day for everyone, students and faculty running their classes, us getting ready for preport and other admin business.  And to top it off, for some reason Ireland blocks the satellite signal, so no internet for five days.  I have to say, I did a great preport, used a powerpoint presentation with a family feud game (thanks Jenn).  We had one of our theatre instructors play the game show host and he rocked.  It was a much more interesting way to give out the safety and health tips for the port.

We hit Ireland and again rented a car.   Andy drove, this time he had a stick, and not only are you driving on the left side, but your stick is on the left side.  He handled it like a pro, but again we went from the Scotland video game of Frogger to Ireland, I would yell-sheep, bike, person, roundabout, wide right, hedge, stone wall, giant tour bus, etc.  And of course the roads all change names about ten times making following a map pretty challenging.  Before we left, Grandma Alice arrived at the ship, we barely gave her ten minutes before we dragged her off on the adventure.

We spent two nights in a rental home near Gallway where there were 15 of us together- 3 families and 1 couple.   It was great, people came and went their own directions.  We followed some folks into the countryside where we went to a beautiful mountain castle/abbey (see photo).  Of course, the kids favorite thing in Ireland was the little park we took them to that was near the house, it had a decent park sized zipline.  That will be their memory of Ireland after all the effort to get them to the castle.  we played games one night, and went to a great pub with live music the other.

After Gallway, we went back to Dublin where we had a day in town before the ship headed out. We rode the hop-on/hop-off double decker bus.  We went through a medieval museum, ate fish and chips, Liam had his first beer :)  , see photo, and went to the National Leprechaun museum which had fascinating story telling.

After the ship sailed we had a couple of days at sea and are now docked in Bergen, Norway waiting for the ship to clear at 18:00.

 

Scotland, July 5-7

Scotland was pretty amazing since the kids and Andy met me at the ship and we got to go off for four days and explore together.  The ship docked on July 5th and the kids arrived at the ship around 1030.  It was awesome to see them.  I showed everyone their cabins, toured them around the ship and then we ate lunch before heading toward Edinburgh.  My kids who were at first nervous about being on a ship, didn't want to leave it.

Andy was our driver, he did a fantastic job driving on the left side of the road.  My job was to remind him to take wide rights and short lefts.  It's like a video game, I shout sheep, bike, car, big bus,  wide turn etc.

We spent two nights in Edinburgh where there is a large castle to explore.  We also went on a ghost tour within the city, we got to go underground by candlelight.  The kids liked it, though Shannon seemed a bit nervous when Daddy was used as part of the story of torture in the stockade.  Don't worry, it was all good fun.

From Edinburgh we drove to Stirling.  Stirling also has a beautiful castle, it had a lot of kids activities and a kids tour.  The photo of Andy and the kids is in the courtyard of the castle.  The knight with Liam is from inside it.  

On the last day on the way back to the ship, we of course had to stop by a battlefield.  The site where the Scottish actually defeated the English.  There was this very cool electronic reenactment/game we got to participate in.

Once back on the ship, we got to reconnect with friends, hear about everyone else's adventures and get the kids into their cabin for the first night.  Before the ship set sail, which the kids found fascinating, on the pier there was a full-on bagpipe band to serenade us as we pulled out, very cool!

From Spain to Scotland (July 1-July 4)

Hello from the middle of the Atlantic.  We have spent a couple of days at sea chugging our way to Scotland.  The weather has been chilly, in the 60's and seas are starting to swell.  I'm still hanging in there. We are in the longest sea stretch of the voyage, with four days (though one day we spent at anchor outside Spain).  Its nice to get into a bit of a routine even though no two days are alike on board the ship, here's a bit of what I do:  

• 8:00-Start the morning with a meeting with the ships officers-Captain, Hotel Director, Staff Captain, Chief Engineer and Purser.  We go over business related to the exchange between the program and the crew.  Sometimes serious such as student issues, sometimes fun like planning a reception, or supplying popcorn for the broadcast of the USA world cup soccer game.
• 9:00-I meet with the administrative team - Exec Dean, Academic Dean, Registrar, Field Office Coordinator, Dean of Student Life and and Assistant Dean of Student Life.  We review from my 8:00 meeting plus a wide variety of other topics
• Remainder of morning-run around helping people with whatever they need (My office is grand central station)
• 12:05 I get to broadcast the noon announcements to the entire ship, I'm working on my radio voice.
• Sneak in some lunch-the menu varies little, some version of pasta, meat and salad.  
• 1300-1800 (Ship time)-there are usually a variety of projects, including the Deans Memo (daily announcement newsletter)and on the night before arrival to port, I have to get a logistical preport presentation ready.  The other day I had to fill in as hearing officer on a case.  So, you never know what you're going to get. 
•  1805-I do the evening announcements, I usually through in some music-ie-Safety Dance last night, Jaws theme tonight.  Make sure they're paying attention.  
• 1830-Eat dinner or go to a reception-you are hungry all the time on the ship.  We figure its because its like we're on a big exercise ball all day with the rocking. 
• 1900/2000-there are usually some amazing World Cafe or insight lectures presented by faculty or staff.  I don't have time during the day to sit in on any classes, so it's fun to go to these.  Tonight we had a presentation on sharks (the kinds under the ship) by a renowned oceanographer that is teaching some classes.  He showed all of his pictures swimming with the sharks.  It was followed by a presentation on Irish poetry.  
• 2000-night before port-we do a cultural and logistical preport.  It's mandatory for everyone.  The Academic Dean leads a presentation  with an overview of the country culture, food etc.  I then follow up with the logistics-where's the gangway, how is immigration going to work, safety tips etc.  I have a gig right now going-my perfect game of golf is not about the score but not losing my golf ball before the end of the game, so I told everyone this and held up a golf ball, I said the ball was going to represent their passports and that I didn't want anyone to lose any.  So from port to port I hold up the ball if we still have all the passports.  So far we've made it three hole (ports).  
• 2100-?  Time in the Glaser lounge connecting.  The Glaser lounge is for faculty, staff and the Life Long Learners.  It's an awesome opportunity to spend time reviewing the day, reviewing the countries visited, getting to know people.  (And drink wine).  

Saturday, Shannon, Liam and Andy get to join in, so my days will be altered a bit, can't wait to include them.  I've included a photo of the ship at dock in Spin.  To get an idea of my cabin, see this website for deck 4 cabins:  http://www.semesteratsea.org/our-ship/cabins/  I will post some actual pics of my cabin and office later.  Happy Independence Day!