It’s a Small Small World…Literally (Hamburg 1 of 2)

The immigration officers in Germany jumped onto the ship (literally...they pulled along side and hopped on) while heading through the Kiel Canal the day before we made it to Hamburg. This meant on the first day, right at 900, everyone could get off the ship.

My group decided to wander around and, as a priority, find a place for lunch. We chose to find a place recommended by one of the German interport students (a student who comes on board and stays with the ship for 1-2 weeks, while doing discussions, lectures, etc. regarding their home country). Gröninger Braukeller was exactly what you’d expect from a meal at a German brewing cellar: meat, more meat, potatoes, sauerkraut, and beer from Hamburg. This is my kind of meal…don’t leave room for dessert…just eat the main course till you’re full. I also reminded everyone of the advice a German friend, Ronnie, gave to my cousin and I. Ronnie explained in Germany parents often tell their children something to the effect of, “you have to eat everything on your plate, or else it is going to rain.” This is extrinsic motivation for the kids to finish their vegetables (though I have to assume kids figure out quickly that clearing their plate has no correlation with what the weather will be like…I digress). Luckily everyone at our table finished their meal (with a little help from myself and another guy), so no need to worry about the weather (which was perfect until the day we were leaving)!

We spent the afternoon walking the city and sightseeing. We saw St. Peter’s Church, St. James’ Church, The Rathaus (City Hall), followed by St. Nicholas’ Church and Memorial. St. Nicholas’ Church was erected in 1195 (what? Yeah…it’s old), but was destroyed in the Great Fire of Hamburg in 1842. After rebuilding it, the 483-foot church steeple was the highest in the world. The church once again burned down, during WWII in the Allies bombing mission, Operation Gomorrah, and now it serves as a memorial. We went up the tower (via elevator) to a viewing platform, but it didn’t offer very good views/pictures, due to scaffolding and grates on the windows. We finished our afternoon with a stop at the #1 tourist attraction in Hamburg: Miniatur Wunderland!

Miniature Wunderland is a scale model of various cities, sights, and attractions from all over the world: Switzerland, Scandinavia, Italy, USA, France, etc. In addition, they have their own airport, Knuffingen, where planes are constantly landing, taxiing, boarding, and taking off! Here are some of the current details of the exhibit (though sections are constantly expanding):

Theme Worlds: 8

            Trains: 930 (world’s largest model railroad – goes through the entire exhibit)

            Track Length: 13,000 meters

            Signals: 1,270

            Switches: 3,050

            Lights: 335,000 (approximately)

            Figurines: 215,000

            Trees: 228,000

            Construction Time: 580,000 hours

It really is so much more fun than any description of it could be. I wasn’t sure what to expect or if I’d even like it, and I ended up spending 2.5 hours there (and could have stayed longer)! Each scene has so much going on and the details of it are incredible. There were also over 150 “Action Buttons” spread throughout the exhibit, which would start activating animated scenes and effects. Finally, throughout the entire exhibit, lights would be going on/off simulating daytime and night time, which would trigger different actions. Here’s just a few pictures:

 Concert with 20,000+ figurines/fans (Daytime/Night time)

Bavaria & the Neuschwanstein Castle

Hamburg's Imtech Arena: Soccer Stadium (2000 hours to construct)

Matterhorn with/chairlifts (gondola not shown), skiers, and slopes

Las Vegas, USA

 Knuffingen Airport (I don't have any pictures on the runway, 

but took some videos, which I can't upload here)

…and many more scenes!

I had to leave Miniatur Wunderland because I was leading the SAS Field Program: Hamburg by Night, which was a 3-hour bus tour seeing the city illuminated, with a stop at a park (where we’d get a free glass of champagne) to see a Water Fountain and Light show (think Disney World/Disney Land/Bellagio Fountains). 

Two major things from this excursion:

1) The tour was at night, so everything was dark…including the majority of what we were trying to see. The tour guide gave good information, but I lost count of the times he said, “well the lights aren’t on, but if they were, you’d see __(sight)__.”

2) We got off the bus at the park and speed walked to get the free glass of champagne and still make the 30-minute fountain show in time. In doing so, we lost one of our lifelong learners, who wandered off to find a bathroom, while we were picking up the champagne. After the 30-minute show, I was doing a head count to make sure everyone was there to head back to the bus, only to realize we were one short. I kept counting until the friend of the missing woman finally spoke up and explained Barbara never came back from the bathroom. Mind you…this woman had been holding two glasses of champagne the entire time (approximately 40 minutes), but didn’t feel it necessary to let someone know Barbara didn’t make it to the show. I spent the next 15 minutes wandering around the park like Hansel and Gretel calling “Bar-bar-a” every 20 seconds. Luckily, Barbara was paying attention before we got off the bus and met us at the bus meeting area, after watching the water/light show from a different location. Whew…losing a person during my first time as Trip Liaison would not have been good.

Besides the show, this tour was a total bust…so much so that almost everyone on it got off (when the bus made a wrong turn and took us near the MV Explorer) with 30 minutes left in the tour. Luckily the Field Program Coordinator was also on the bus, and thus saw how awful it was. This led to every participant getting a full refund from SAS (which will now probably just go to my shipboard bar tab)! 

"Drizzt had always suspected it, but now it was confirmed, that "welcome" was his favorite word in the common tongue, and a word, he understood with no equivalent in the language of the drow." 

Deciphering the ЦИТУ

"City"

 I started exploring Mother Russia with an SAS Field Program: Tour of St. Petersburg. SAS offers this type of program for most cities in order to be able to orient students to the different location (via walking tour, segway, bike, or bus). In addition, SAS has numerous Field Programs in each city, which any student/faculty/staff can sign up for. I’m planning on doing probably 1 SAS Field Program in each country (on average). This one was great, as I was able to see where a lot of the major sites of the city were in relation to where the MV Explorer was docked…especially since Russians use Cyrillic script, which is nearly impossible to decipher. Here’s the alphabet:

А Б В Г Д Е Ж S Z З И I К Л М Н О П G Р С Т ᴕ Oy Φ Χ Ц Ч Ш Щ Ъ Ы Ь Э Ю Ѧ Ѫ Ѩ Ѭ Ѯ Ѱ Ө Ѵ

The tour took us along the Neva River, around the city, with our final destination being the Winter Palace and the Hermitage Museum. The Winter Palace was the official palace of the Russian Monarchs from 1732-1917 (yeah…the Romanov’s lived there…including Anastasia). The Hermitage Museum is one of the largest and oldest museums in the world and was founded in 1764 by Catherine the Great. It now has taken over the Palace Embankment, six buildings, including the Winter Palace. 

 The Winter Palace/The Hermitage Museum

The museum had a ton of items, but unfortunately, being on a tour, we flew through things much faster than I typically would (though I couldn’t read any of the notes about the pieces anyways, since it was in Cyrillic). There were also a few more issues that arose:

1) Before starting the tour, one of the participants got his card stuck in the ATM. After seeing this, I decided I didn’t need Russian Rubbles too badly and would wait for another location.

2) Our tour had headsets for everyone in our group. We tuned in to channel 3 to listen to Katia (our tour guide) as she led us around The Hermitage. She was great and extremely knowledgeable; however, there were a ton of other tours happening at the same time and apparently numerous groups were on channel 3 as well. I know this because in each room of the Hermitage, my headset would be about 30% Katia and 70% other tour guides (in various languages).

3) About 1 hour into the museum, we lost a student. I noticed her lagging behind in most rooms, taking pictures, and trying to read the information (to no avail), until finally I didn’t see her. I kept retracing our steps and was just about to give up when Lauren came around the corner and caught up with the group. She actually made some good decision when she was lost, which included trying to listen on her headset to Katia’s voice, which ultimately worked and led her back to the group (as the headset would work better the closer she came to us).

After the Hermitage, we stopped at the Church of the Savior on Spilled Blood (place where Tsar Alexander II was assassinated) and had lunch in the park right next to it. After finishing the meal, we went and explored the Kazan Cathedral, followed by an extremely expensive gift shop. Who would have guessed that a small piece of amber jewelry would cost over €100? Our tour completed, a bunch of the staff of SAS decided to get an authentic Russian meal at The Romanov’s (can’t get much more authentic than that). We even had live music, as the restaurant had an accordion player jamming out! After my meal, potato casserole with duck, which included taking one (and only one) Russian vodka shot, we headed out to a few pubs to cap off the night.

Accordion Player at The Romanov's

Side story…one of the things about St. Petersburg we kept reiterating to the students was that at 1:30am, all the bridges in the city go up. This allows all the water traffic to travel through the Neva River. The bridges are not lowered again until 5:30am. Thus, we explained to students, if you don’t want to stay up all night (or sleep on the street), make sure to get back across the bridges by 1:30am. 

Bridge Going Up Across the Neva River

Returning to my story…at about 12:45am, our group decides it’s about time to start heading back to the ship (don’t want to be caught on the wrong side of the bridge). Along the way (after getting a little lost and back on track), a few of us stop to purchase some wine (faculty/staff are allowed to bring on two 1-liter bottles of alcohol from each port). I grabbed two bottles of red wine and waited outside the store for the others to finish their purchases. However, out of our original 10, only 6 had waited. The others didn’t want to cut it close and kept heading towards the bridge. We continued and our smaller group was still a ways away from the bridge at about 1:15am (why not make it dramatic, right?), so half of the group start running with about 1 mile to go. Myself and two others keep our normal walking pace as we still (supposedly) had plenty of time to cross the bridge. As we neared the bridge and started walking along the river, we noticed lots of people on both sides of the river just waiting for a photo opportunity when the bridges go up. We reached the bridge at 1:21am and walked around two security guards who were just about to put a barricade on the street and sidewalk. As we passed over the breaking point in the bridge, we realized we made it and would be sleeping in our beds on the ship…Roman Victor! No joke…at 1:23am…20 seconds after we crossed and a full 7 minutes early, the bridge started going up. We were legitimately the last ones over the bridge that night…but we made it! 

 Catherine, Lauren, Alison, and Megan celebrating getting over the bridge in time!

The next day was used to explore St. Petersburg without the help of an SAS Field Program. Carla, Nathan, and I started at the Temple of Assumption, a cathedral which was right next to where our ship was docked. Next we walked the river and saw the Peter the Great statue. Peter the Great earned his name in Russia, as he had many successful wars, which expanded the empire and made Russia a major European power. In addition, he led a cultural revolution, one that replaced traditionalist systems with modern, European-oriented systems. He traveled extensively across Europe and you can see the ideas he brought back (especially regarding architecture) across the entire city.

  

The Bronze Horsemen - Monument to Peter the Grea

We decided to return to the Church of the Savior on Spilled Blood and actually go inside. It was a beautiful interior, with mosaics covering every area of the inside of the church, depicting different scenes from the bible. We wandered over to the Peter & Paul Fortress, which was constructed under Peter the Great’s reign, and served as a garrison as well as a prison for many years. We hung around outside the Peter and Paul Cathedral and met up with Carlos (another RD) and Megan (Outreach Coordinator) before getting dinner. Nathan was on duty and Carlos and Megan headed to an evening program, so Carla and I finished our night at a quaint little café drinking tea, eating cheesecake, and trying to decipher the Cyrillic language. It appears as though being in a Greek Life organization would have helped me in Russia, as many letters in Cyrillic come from the Greek alphabet. Figuring things out was difficult…here’s some examples: “H” = “N”, И = I, Γ = G, Π = P, Ρ = R, Ж = Z, etc.

 The Church of the Savior on Spilled Blood

Day 3 (August 31st) took me on an SAS Field Program to the Fountains and Garden of Peterhof’s Grand Palace (1 of 5 palace get-aways). We started the program with a trip through the Palace (which I didn’t expect). Though, if you’ve ever been in any palace before, they all kind of look the same. The only major difference was that the G20 Summit was happening in St. Petersburg on September 6th and they were using the Grand Palace for much of it. We passed a number of rooms where tables and microphones had been set up and there appeared to be a number of helicopters (security?) flying around the grounds while we were there. The Fountains and Gardens of this palace are often compared with Versailles as they sit on 1500 acres. With a view of the city of St. Petersburg across the Baltic Sea, this was quite the summer home.

Peterhof's Grand Palace

Upon returning to the dock, I jumped on with a group going out to a fancy Russian restaurant. Eating out in St. Petersburg (and possibly abroad all over) is an experience. The meals last 3+ hours and no one appears to be in a rush to get anyone out. The group of 10 probably spent 13000 rubles (equivalent to $300 USD)…unfortunately, the restaurant only took cash, so we had to scramble to make sure we had enough. After going to two places for drinks, everyone decided to call it a night at about 2am (this time on the correct side of the bridge…figured that out after night one!). As it was my last night in St. Petersburg, I wanted to walk the city at night (in a safe and responsible manner of course), so I decided to walk up and down the river, hoping to get some nice pictures:

 

St. Isaac's Cathedral

Old Saint Petersburg Stock Exchange (Peter took this style from...the Greeks?)

 

Peter & Paul Fortress (with the Cathedral towering over everything) 

On every embarkation day, the RDs need to be back on the ship 3 hours prior to “ship time,” so I needed to be back on the ship by 1500. Thus, I spent the late morning and early afternoon walking around a section of St. Petersburg, close to the ship, I hadn’t gone before. I purchased a few souvenirs, grabbed a bite to eat at an open market, bought a few snacks for the ship, and just enjoyed the views from the Neva River. Embarkation went smoothly as all 575 students were back on the ship with 8 minutes to spare!

However, I must add the Russian people were just not friendly and seemed to be in a constant state of depression. I will say that saying “Spasibo” (thank you) and “imeyut khoroshiy den” (have a nice day) went a long way with many of them. Overall I really enjoyed my time in St. Petersburg (though Moscow would have been neat to see as well). There is so much history in this city/country and I had plenty to do to fill up my 4 days. In addition, the city felt smaller (and I’m assuming this will be how the entire voyage is) because I kept running into people (students, faculty, staff) that I knew from the ship all over the city.

With everyone aboard, the MV Explorer said “Dobry Den” (good day) to Russia and was off to Hamburg, Germany!


"Change is not always growth, but growth is often rooted in change. "

Embarkation!

"Embarkation" is the act of passengers and crew getting aboard a ship, boarding...or in this case 575 students!

After a quick breakfast and readiness meeting, the students started arriving to the ship. Throughout the day, I just walked around the ship, greeted students as they boarded, and tried to meet as many of the 74 students on my “Sea”. The ship is broken up into 8 “Seas” (one for each Resident Director) with my sea being the Baltic Sea (see pic below), which is on the 3^rd deck, port, aft (using those seafaring terms).

Here are some stats regarding the participants on the voyage:

575 Total Students

-74% women

-245 Universities

-35 International Students

-60+ Majors

-9 from Ohio

-0 from OSU (2 from OU though)

-53 = largest representation by any school- University of San Diego

40 Faculty Members

36 Family Members

32 Partial Voyagers

31 Staff Members (including me)

23 Lifelong Learners (ie: individuals just traveling)

The day flew by and before we knew it, On-Ship time was here (which is the time everyone MUST be on board). Following a mandatory lifeboat drill (which the RDs served as coordinators), it was time to depart the port of Southampton. Everyone on board grabbed their camera, went outside, and waved goodbye to land. The next time we would physically be on land (St. Petersburg) would be in approximately 120 hours.

Group on the back of the ship as we are leaving Southampton, UK

Luckily, the first section of our voyage had relatively calm waters and thus absolutely no issue (at least for me) with seasickness. Captain Jeremy rated the waves as a 1.5 out of 10, so clearly it is going to get worse. Though I must add, even the rating of 1.5 caused all aboard (myself included) to lose our balance from time to time just walking down hallways. I can only imagine what it will be like when we get some major waves coming our way. In addition, we saw a large number of ships throughout this initial voyage to Russia. I definitely wasn’t expecting to see as many as we did, but I’d say we could always see about 3-4 other ships somewhere around us/in the distance. I have to imagine when we start traveling the Atlantic Ocean, this won’t be the case. 

Partway through our first voyage, the MV Explorer entered the Baltic Sea (my “sea”), so we had to take a picture.

 Only 1/2 of my Baltic Sea students made it to our picture with the Baltic Sea 

In addition, the ship passed under the Oresund Bridge, which connects Denmark to Sweden. I distinctly remember Molly and I standing in DragØr, Denmark (4+ years ago) looking at the bridge and Sweden on the far side. Unfortunately, I still have not made it to Sweden (as we just passed underneath the bridge), but I’m getting closer!

Oresund Bridge (connecting Denmark to Sweden)

I woke up early on Thursday, as we were entering the port of St. Petersburg at 600 because I wanted to see the view. I mean…how many times does someone come into a city be ship? Unfortunately, the view wasn’t the greatest as the majority of it took place going through a shipyard. However, I heard some other ports (including Cape Town and Rio de Janiero) are not to be missed, so this will definitely be a tradition I continue throughout the voyage.

 

Woke up early to watch us come into our first port city!

 

 Port #1: St. Petersburg, Russia

After docking, passing out student passports (as everyone needed them to get in/out of the country…each time they left/came back to the ship) and getting cleared, we were off to explore St. Petersburg and Mother Russia! 

"Follow your heart, minute by minute and day by day. Let the course of the river run as it will, instead of tying yourself up in fears that you may never realize."

 

Nautical Terms, Dude

Just some friendly seafaring terms for you to be aware of:

Port = Left

Starboard = Right

Aft = Toward or in the rear (stern) of the ship

Bow = Toward or in the front (fore) of the ship

Berth: Dock, Pier

“Cabin”, not “Room”

“Ship”, not “Boat” (as seen in The West Wing)

“Deck”, not “Floor”

“Voyage”, not “Cruise”

“Cabin Mate”, not “Roommate”

Ship runs on Military Time: 1pm = 1300; 2pm = 1400, etc.

Exploring the Ship

Upon arriving in Southampton, UK, I exited the bus and immediately met another Resident Director (“RD” - my position on the ship; 8 RD positions total), Carlos, who just happened to be sitting at the far end of my bus. We walked to the hotel, grabbed a quick lunch, and got ready for a social to meet other members of the Faculty/Staff (and their families) for the Fall 2013 voyage! After trying to learn as many names as possible, the 10-person Student Life Team on the ship went out to dinner together. We went to a British Pub whose bathrooms had old newspaper articles regarding the Titanic. For those of you who aren’t aware, the Titanic’s last port was Southampton…clearly this was a good sign before boarding the MV Explorer the following day.

The Faculty/Staff Orientation began the next morning, and by 13:00 we were heading to the ship! It really felt like Christmas morning for me. I can’t remember the last time I’ve had that feeling of intense anticipation. When we saw the ship in port, I felt pure excitement (similar to my feeling when opening the Nerf Bow & Arrow at age 7) and couldn’t wait to board. Walking up the gangway was exhilarating, as I started realizing this will be my “home” for the next 4 months.

 The MV Explorer

After some necessary paperwork (including a slip with credit card information…this is necessary because we only use our staff ID when purchasing anything on the ship. This includes items from the bookstore, drinks from the Faculty/Staff Lounge, etc. This is dangerous, as all we’ll get is a bill every month showing what we owe. It’s just so easy to swipe our card and not worry about the bill till later, but I know to not think of it as “fake money”…most of the time), we were given some time to unpack in our cabin…and it was fantastic to know I don’t need to haul huge bags around until our final port in Fort Lauderdale, FL!

The next day and a half flew by with various orientation sessions, continuing to meet faculty/staff, and becoming familiar with the ship. The night before Embarkation, a Parent/Family Reception was held on the ship. This was for any family members in Southampton who wanted to check out the ship (though no students were allowed on board). I quickly learned my way around and volunteered to serve as a tour guide for the event. I found many parents had been alumni of Semester at Sea (SAS) and thus convinced their son or daughter to do it as well (as if much convincing was needed). I also realized many of the families here are wealthy, as a lot of the parents/families were going to fly somewhere along our voyage to meet up with the ship. Many people explained they will be flying to Cape Town, South Africa for another Parent Reception. One set of parents even nonchalantly explained they bought first class tickets after seeing they were only $14,000. Hmm…right. But seriously, the parents were great and they were all really excited for their student to experience this voyage. 

It only took about 30 minutes for me to get a good handle on where everything was on the ship and the most efficient way to get there. Here’s a short tour around the ship via my own pictures. More detailed tours/pictures can be found on the SAS website here.

 My Cabin - Facing The Door

 

 My Cabin - Facing the Window

 Standard Photo Collage (usually placed in my office...many people are in this. Try to find yourself!)

The Union - Largest Classroom/Space on the Ship (holds 400 people)

Glazer Faculty & Staff Lounge 

7th deck forward...awesome location and the bartender Mandy is fantastic!

The students are definitely jealous of this lounge...and probably the happy hours/drinks too.

Garden Lounge Outdoor Seating Area

6th Deck Aft

Best Place to Eat on the Ship (or just sit and watch the wake)

Pool & Bar

7th Deck Aft

The students are always hanging out up here...especially on Beverage Service nights.

 Main Dining Hall 

5th Deck Aft

Piano Lounge (& 24-hour snack bar)

Hallway of the Baltic Sea (my "Sea" with 74 students)

The staff all went to bed early knowing the student’s arrival & Embarkation (as well as the days that followed) would be long days.

"One of the most common truths in life is that we all take for granted things that simply are. Whether a spouse, a friend, a family, or a home, after enough time has passed that person, place, or situation becomes accepted norms of our lives."