SEMESTER AT SEA - FROM MIAMI TO CUBA

 

Email #1 - January 29, 2002

 

            This is the first in a series of reports about my experiences teaching in Semester at Sea, on a semester-long voyage around the world.   I am emailing by satellite from the ship as we go around the top of South America on our way from Cuba to Brazil. This report summarizes my experiences in Miami Beach, boarding the ship, the Bahamas, Cuba, my classes, and shipboard life.

 

MIAMI BEACH

            My wife, son, and I flew from Los Angeles to Miami on January 15.  We had six large suitcases in addition to our carryon bags, since I had to bring teaching materials in addition to clothing and medicines.  So we rented a minivan instead of our usual car and drove to south Miami Beach where we stayed in an inexpensive International Hostel.

            The next morning the deadbolt wouldn't retract so we were trapped in our room. Fortunately, I had a "Swiss" army knife that I had bought in China which had a Phillips screwdriver so I was able to take apart the lock and open the door.

             We drove an hour north to see Fort Lauderdale and walked along the beach where thousands of college students usually party during spring break.  But in January the beach was almost deserted, except for a young woman walking in the surf in a bikini talking on a cell phone.

            We found a Borders bookstore where my wife bought some more Harry Potter books and I got more guidebooks, and then found a Walgreen's which had collapsible deck chairs, AA batteries, and other last minute things on our shopping list.  We drove back to Miami and found the port where the ship would be, then had dinner at a great deli on 8th and Washington in Miami Beach.

            While my wife and son went to bed, I explored Miami Beach and found an internet cafe and a disco called Club Deep.  The streets and disco had fewer people than I expected but I had a great time anyway. 

 

BOARDING THE SHIP

            We boarded the ship the next day (January 17) and met the other faculty, staff, their dependents, and the Work Study students who were helping to convert the ship from a holiday cruise ship to an onboard campus (setting up the bookstore, library, computer center, etc.).  For four days we had Orientation meetings to discuss various aspects of the program, and how best to incorporate into our classes the fieldtrips we had arranged in the 10 ports we would be visiting.  I was very impressed with the other faculty -- all interesting people with international experience.  I was also impressed with the staff.  I quickly became friends with many of the others on board.

            The ship stayed in Miami for a couple of days, so on Friday night a group of us went to Miami Beach and found a street festival with artists' stands, bars, and live music in the street.  Saturday night we walked to a shopping complex called Bayside, and then returned in time to celebrate as the ship left the dock.  It was like New Years with everyone cheering and waving at strangers on the shore.

 

THE BAHAMAS

            The next morning (January 20) we were in Nassau.  Several of us walked around the town up to Fort Fincastle on the hill.  There was a striking contrast between the former colonial homes and the poverty of the descendents of former slaves.  Since it was Sunday, downtown was virtually deserted.  Across the Bay, however, there were many people at the Atlantis luxury hotel and casino, where we went in the evening to explore and have a drink.  The walls of the sunken restaurant were huge aquariums.  I wondered which of the young people in the casino would be my students on the voyage.

            Earlier that evening there had been a reception for students' parents so they could see the ship and be reassured by the Captain that safety was his primary concern.   The next morning the students boarded the ship.  As they checked in, I handed out a questionnaire as part of my cross-cultural research on attitudes about gender roles, which gave me a chance to see most of the students.

            Also boarding the ship was a professor from the University of Havana who would travel with us to Cuba and lecture to us about her country.  She was a psychologist interested in gender roles, and we quickly became friends.  She plans to translate my gender roles questionnaire into Spanish and distribute it to her students.  Accompanying her were two students and two graduates in international relations who came aboard to be resource persons and process our visas.  I spent a lot of time with them on the ship and later in Cuba.

            Our shipboard community had now grown to include 30 faculty, 36 staff, 44 dependents, 614 college students, 26 senior adults, and 197 crew (cabin and dining stewards, engine staff, etc), plus our 5 Cuban guests who would sail only to Havana.

            It was bittersweet as we left Nassau, with students feeling both excited and apprehensive about the voyage around the world, and parents running alongside the ship on the shore until they came to the end of the dock and we sailed away.

 

CUBA

            We spent the entire next day from 8 AM to 10 PM listening to lectures about the history, politics, economics, and music of Cuba to prepare us for our visit.  When I woke up at 7 AM the next morning we were docking in Havana!

            We loaded into air conditioned tour buses and went to the University of Havana for a welcome reception.  After several speeches, we had an opportunity to meet with Cuban professors, and so I met for an hour with two economics professors.  Many of the students used the reception as an opportunity to meet Cuban students, with whom they would hang out, tour the city, and go to nightclubs during the rest of the stay.

            There were various fieldtrips and tours for which some of us had signed up. My wife and I went on a tour of the city which included the Capital building, a book market, and other sights.  We ended up at a hotel where Hemingway had stayed, and had his favorite drink in a bar on the roof (rum, mint, lime, sugar, and soda).

            That night there was a free concert for us, University of Havana students, and local high school students.  It was in an outdoor amphitheater in a park not far from the ship.  Before the live concert began, Cubans were dancing in the aisles to recorded music and of course I joined them. We sat down when several live bands played, including a recent winner of the Latin Grammy awards. But eventually many of us stood up and danced again!

            After the concert two of my Cuban friends took me and three students to a nightclub called Casa de la Musica, where we heard two more live bands perform.  Meanwhile my son went with some American and Cuban students to a disco and didn't get back until 5 AM! 

            The next day, my wife and I went on a fieldtrip with a religion professor to a Santeria church and museum. Santeria is a fusion of Catholicism with the religion of the Yoruba who had been brought from Africa as slaves.  To convert the slaves, they were told that their African gods corresponded to Catholic saints.  This brought them into the church, but also allowed them to continue to worship their own gods by calling them Catholic names. That evening everyone went to a game of baseball, which is extremely popular in Cuba.

            The following day my wife and I went on a fieldtrip about the educational system in Cuba.  We rode a bus out to the suburbs to a model elementary school.  We talked with the teachers and then the students performed dances for us.  We then went to an elite high school which was a boarding school for teenagers from all over the province.  There is one in each province. They have to pass exams at high levels to enter, and then 95% of them are admitted to the university where their education is free.

            When we returned to the ship everyone boarded buses and had a police escort to a meeting with Fidel Castro, which had been arranged by the former US ambassador to Cuba who was on the voyage with us.  Fidel gave a short speech, and then answered questions but spoke more than an hour answering each question, for a total of 4 hours!  This is the fifth semester that Semester at Sea has gone to Cuba, and the third time that Fidel has spoken to the group. Afterward there was a reception with a buffet dinner and a live band for dancing.

            On our final day in Cuba, my wife and I went on a fieldtrip to the Bay of Pigs, where CIA-trained Cuban exiles from Miami had invaded Cuba in 1961 in an effort to topple Castro.  They were defeated, and Castro turned to the USSR for support and subsequently declared that Cuba was a Communist country.  Near the bay was a marsh where we took a boat ride and stopped to see some crocodiles.  That afternoon we went to a farewell reception sponsored by Fidel where we listened to great live music and said goodbye to our Cuban friends.

            As we sailed away from Cuba that evening, many of us were sad to leave our new friends.  I consoled some students by telling them that (1) we can keep in touch with our Cuban friends by email, (2) we have new people to meet in 9 more ports, and (3) we have Semester at Sea friends continuing with us on the ship.

 

MY CLASSES

            The next morning we all met in the CORE course for a debriefing on Cuba. CORE is a world geography course that everyone on the ship attends, which provides background on each of the ports we visit.  Two professors lead it, but various faculty members on the voyage contribute lectures, and there are also Inter-port Lecturers who come on board one port ahead and just sail to their home port, as did the psychologist from the University of Havana.

            In the afternoon there was an open house in which students could meet professors to talk about adding their courses.  Forty-five students wanted to add my psychology courses! The classes had been closed at 35, but I ended up letting about 10 more in each class to accommodate graduating seniors and to increase the diversity of those in my classes.

            I am teaching three courses: Social Psychology, Diverse Identities, and Gender & Close Relationships.  For each class I am having students write up a one-page report on their observations in each port.  The first class meeting we reviewed the course syllabus and spent the rest of the period discussing our observations of Cuba.  The second class meeting I began lecturing on the course material.  My goal is to provide conceptual frameworks to help students understand and interpret what they experience in the ports.

            Students take three courses in addition to the CORE course.  Each class period lasts 75 minutes.  Classes meet any day of the week that we are at sea.  When we are in port we can go on fieldtrips or travel on our own.

 

SHIPBOARD LIFE

            The ship has 8 decks.  The faculty, staff, and senior adults are on the top three decks.  The students are on the third through eighth decks.  My wife and I are on the third deck in a room about 12 feet by 14 feet which has a king-size bed, two night stands, a sofa, an end table, a small coffee table, a double dresser, two small closets, and a private bath room with toilette, sink, and tub with shower. Cabin stewards make the bed and change the towels every day.  There is a square window about 2 feet x 2 feet. My son, who is a college student, is in a room with other college students.

            On the fourth deck is the Union, which has chairs in a circle for several hundred people surrounding a circular dance floor.  It is used for the CORE course, community college, dances, and other events.  Community college is a series of non-credit lectures.  The first one was on Safer Sex presented by an Inter-port Lecturer who does research on prostitutes in the Caribbean.  After her lecture I conducted a drawing for ten Semester at Sea t-shirts using tickets I had handed out when students returned my Gender Roles Questionnaire.

            Beyond the Union is the Harbor Grill which serves meals and which opens up to the outdoor deck area surrounding the swimming pool.  The day after we left Cuba, students began swimming and sunbathing there.  Behind the Union at the front of the ship are the library, computer center, and Internet cafe.  On the fifth deck is another dining room.  Part of that dining room is walled off to make two classrooms.  There are six additional classrooms on various decks around the ship.

            The daily schedule is as follows: 

7:00-8:30 breakfast     8:00-9:15 period 1

9:20-10:40 CORE       10:45-11:30 period 2

12:00-1:30 lunch         11:35-12:50 period 3

        12:55-2:10 period 4        

        2:15-3:30 period 5

        3:45-4:50 period 6

6:00-7:30 dinner

8:00-9:00 community college

9:00- 11:00 meetings, programs, dances, etc.

            In addition, there is a happy hour in the Union from 5:00-6:00 PM during which students can buy beer or wine.  The Harbor Grill sells beer and wine to students from 9:00-11:00 PM.  Students are not allowed to bring alcohol onto the ship or have alcohol in their cabins.  There is a full bar in the Observation Lounge on the top deck which is open only to faculty, staff, and senior adults.  The first night that alcohol was available, after we left Cuba, it was very crowded, but since then only a few students have been drinking since they all have homework now. Students have to have higher than average GPAs to participate in the program, so they are generally very good students.  [Later in the voyage I conducted an alcohol survey, and learned that students consumed no more alcohol during the voyage (on the ship plus in port) than they had at their campus the semester before.]

            The great thing about living on a ship is that it is very easy to meet people and interact with them often, especially at meals. And the ship is full of interesting faculty, staff, and students. Some students have told me that they never see their professors outside of class back home.

        However, those who wish solitude have a difficult time finding it, and after students form couples and then break up it will be difficult for them to avoid seeing each other!  The "eleventh" culture, besides the cultures of the 10 ports, that we will be discussing in my classes is the ship!  Each voyage develops its own culture which is different from life on campuses back home. There usually are about twice as many women as men on Semester at Sea voyages, but on this voyage 73% of the students are women.  That sex ratio should make for some interesting dynamics.

            Needless to say, I am enjoying the voyage very much.  Cheers!  Chuck