Between Ports

In Shanghai, about 260 students and faculty chose to travel to Hong Kong off the ship, either through Semester at Sea trips or by independent travel.  Most of the travelers had plans to go to Beijing to visit the Great Wall or see Tian'anmen Square.   Independent travelers did have the increased traffic of China New Year to contend with, and that made train travel dicey.  I know that some independent travelers got a notice that their train reservations did not go through, so they had to make more pricey last minute flight plans.  The difficult part of the planning was that the Chinese government required that anyone not traveling on the ship must declare their intentions in advance, and they could not be changed if something came up.

Nancy and I had no travel arrangements in advance, so we opted to travel on the ship.  That meant that, along with most of our shipmates, we would be missing out on 2 days of adventure in China, but that was fine since most of that time in China would just be spent on trains anyway.

There are some definite advantages to traveling on the ship that I had not realized. Dinners both night are sit down dinners where we order from a menu and have courses served to us with white linen and what looks like 17 pieces of silverware.  For those who have been on cruises, this was "cruise food" and service. Tonight's dinner was Marinated Artichokes & Asparagus, soup, salad and Potato Crusted Salmon and Coffee Eclair for dessert.  I managed to use all 4 knives, 4 forks and 3 spoons.

What did everyone do for those two days?  The faculty graded papers and worked on lectures.  The grades for the global studies were announced last week, so the students on board were busy studying and working on papers. The mean score on the global studies exam was 81 (a low B), so there is definitely room for improvement.  I heard many people saying that they were getting their pictures organized.  This can be a chore if you take as many pictures as we have, and if you wait, you forget where something was taken.  I got to get some library projects done without much interruption.  There are about 20 kids on board, and many of them got caught up with home-schooling or projects. Movie showings in the Union provided a nice diversion.

Without a schedule, everything is more relaxed.  Everyone takes more time over breakfast, lunch and dinner, and gets to know eating companions better.  We've enjoyed meals with people we've never eaten with previously, and we've uncovered more interests in common.  An interesting difference in the faculty  is that since there are so few people in their discipline, they are getting to know other faculty that often does not happen in big universities or even small colleges.  This mornings breakfast included good-hearted banter between historians and sociologists where they were defending their disciplines--while respecting the other.   This really is a big family.

The students seemed to have settled into social groups early in the voyage, but with some of their friends off the ship, they are discovering other interesting people and extending their friendships. Some of the previous groups will probably morph when all the students are back on board.

The other great thing was seeing the Hong Kong port as we arrived by ship.  The sad part is that we are saying goodbye to some great crew members as they rotate off the ship.