A Baer Abroad

Wednesday, January 24 Arrive in Kobe, Visit to Osaka As I went to bed late the night before, I caught a glimmer of lights on the horizon that let me know we were approaching land and Japan.  After seeing nothing but sea in all directions it was pretty exciting… I woke early to see that we were coming in to the port of Kobe about an hour before expected.  I knew it was cold outside so I grabbed my winter coat, gloves and hat.  I was still not prepared for the wind that cut right through the layers.  It was so exciting to watch the land come closer as we entered the port.  There was a Ferris wheel on one of the piers and many amazing sculptures and structures in the distance.  We arrived at the terminal which is also a hotel and saw people waving to as we entered.  It was a grand entry.  I hear later there was a band that played for us too. Getting through immigration was our first task.  Once again, the RDs helped staff di...

Bryce   Dr. Dana, as the ship’s  physician is called, has her 10 year old son with her.  He is one of those amazing kids that grown ups love.  His smile goes ear to ear, he is incredibly bright, and has a wicked sense of humor and appears undaunted by his somewhat celebrity status on the ship. At the Student Activities fair on the second night he created his own sign up for a Dungeons and Dragons group and has most respectfully been working with the RDs to organize meeting times, reserve rooms, and recruit and corral the 20-something students who signed up for the club.  As I may have mentioned, there is a mandatory Preport Meeting prior to each of our ports where we are given essential safety information (all on 1 sheet of paper known as the green sheet) and there is the requisite awareness, safety warnings, and information about the immigration process to make the following day go smoother.  At the first meeting, Dr. Dana (who h...

January 21-22, 2018 In an effort to get to know the students on my sea, I’ve been holding Cabin Meetings for the last several days.  It’s be delightful to get to sit down with students 2 at a time and hear more about their families, schooling, and how they learned about Semester at Sea.  At the same time, it’s been pretty intense to fit all the meetings in with other standing meetings.  Not much time to just hang out and enjoy the journey.  I am particularly enjoying meeting students who are on a “gap year” after completing their World College experiences, which is apparently related to the International Baccalaureate Program.  Many of these students had a full ride to go to another country to study at the World College for their high school education.  They were taking classes where close to 40% of the class is international – such deep learning about other cultures from people who are part of those cultures.  Understandably some of...

What will you be doing on the ship? was a question I encountered before I left home.  Although I may have provided an answer, it wasn’t really clear to me either.  I think the succinct answer is, “a lot.”  Daily we meet as a Student Life staff for 1-1/2 hours to bring attention to any “Students of Concern.”  At the moment this typically involves students who are homesick and want to head home at the next port, roommate conflicts, or academic concerns.  The meeting often entails a list of “other duties as assigned” like checking in with international and gap students who may be living on our decks or planning a Martin Luther King celebration for 2 days hence or shipboard concerns that need addressing.  Every evening there is a session by a faculty member at 7pm.  Student Life does a 8 pm session.  At 9 pm there is often “beverage service” that 2 RDs are required to be a presence at each time(nope, we don’t get to drink).  Studen...

Laundry    Today is my first day to use laundry service so it’s prompted me to give some more details about the cabin. I’ve been pretty successful washing things out as I go.  I brought my Ikea octopus of hooks along so I can hang many individual socks to dry.  There is laundry service at $6 per bag.  Interesting how motivated you can get to wad clothes into small balls to fit them in a bag.  I was  quite proud of my accomplishment until I went to complete the request slip that goes with the bag and saw I had to indicate how many items of each type I was including.  Since I hadn’t counted as I packed things up, I had to dump it out and start again There are 3 small closets in my cabin so I have designated one for warmer clothes another for shirts and pants and the last one as laundry.  We made a run to Target after we boarded but before the students arrived so I was able to pick up a couple of bins to keep clothes s...

I woke while it was still dark outside to see the coastline of Hawaii. By the time I got on deck it was swarming with students with phones to their ears or talking excitedly on FaceTime. The shoreline was beautiful to see.  It’s been just a week since the students boarded and everyone was excited to be on solid ground for the day.  Even more so, I think they were delighted to have access to mobile service and connect with home.  A few tears emerged as people connected with loved ones. As RDs we assist with the immigration process if needed.  Everyone’s passports were taken as we boarded the ship, so there was a very efficient process of calling “seas” (floors) one at a time to pick up passports at one end of the large lecture room, presenting it to the Immigration officials who had boarded the ship and were sitting at the front of the room, and then surrendering it at the other end of the room.  Each passport had a number on it that correspo...

No time for a blog post yet, but just a heads up that Martha docked in Hawaii yesterday morning about 7:30 am local time.  She spent the morning doing some work to help the students get off the boat, and spent the afternoon on a catamaran and snorkeling. While the initial hustle and bustle of the trip and getting students situated has kept her busy thus far, she did have time to send over a few photos of her room and a Hawaiian rainbow:

Hi All, We left San Diego last night about 11pm.  It was beautiful to see all the city lights from the ship.  When I woke this morning, a bit tired I must admit, I was brought to life by seeing the shoreline as we were coming into port in Mexico. By now we have successfully embarked the students. The last two days has been as non-stop as I had imagined with training and preparation since we boarded. Lots of people to meet, but even more lots of information to take in and integrate. The Student Life staff seems to be functioning well together which bodes well for the trip.  Tonight is our first “sea meeting” with the students then an all-day orientation for them tomorrow. I still anticipate that this journey will be fun and exhausting and amazing.  I hope that I will be able to do an adequate job of catching it all in writing to share.   It may take a few days until there is time for capturing more detail.  More later from seamai...

San Diego – December 31, 2017 – January 2, 2018 Welcomed in the New Year in San Diego with a recommended meal at La Puerto in the Gaslamp Quarter of San Diego.   Yummy happy hour “Bark at the Moon” margaritas (2 since they were half price) and Surf and turf tacos.   Met a nice young couple from New York who were sightseeing here – he works on setting up ropes courses, she is consultant in the financial industry and we geeked out over Gallup Strengths stuff.   My first experience with Uber – loved sharing rides and meeting people and drivers along the way! Full day of sightseeing in San Diego on the Old Town Trolley, a narrated tour with hop on, hop off service. The morning fog burned off in time for a stroll through Coronado, a lovely town across the bay.   It boasts one of the nicest beaches in the US with white sand.    Got to put my toes in the Pacific. Did a comparison sampling of a margarita while enjoying the beau...