Reflections at sea...

Dakar, Africa – Fuel Stop
February 8th

This picture has nothing to do with this post but I wanted to share it anyway since I can add a picture for every post.

I wanted to share some of my reflections from class today but now I’m distracted by another event happening right now. We are currently at this moment docked to get fuel in Dakar, Senegal, which is located right below Mauritania, Africa. From what I see from the port, it’s a small commercial city. Right now there are African men sitting on the dock and one of them has set up his own little shop on the side of the deck trying to sell things to us onboard the ship. We aren’t allowed to get off the ship to purchase things but he is trying to tell us that he will throw a rope to us and tie the objects to the rope for us to pull up and then send the money back down. It’s rather amusing. And I was just expecting to layout in the sun and write on my reflections from class.

It’s really hot out here now, I’m not sure of the temperature but we are down the middle coast of Africa and the season here is summer so based on our location and this climate its probably in the 80’s –yay Global Studies class!

Actually, its really hot here because we’re about to cross the equator tomorrow. Tomorrow there are no classes because it’s a holiday on the seas I guess you could say. Crossing the equator is significant and its called Neptune day. I’m not sure I remember the history of it, we were told once and we’ll probably learn more about it tomorrow so I will share that with you in a later post. But what I do know, is it’s a celebration of initiation of sailors. Ones who have already crossed are called the “sons of Neptune”. It is tradition for those who have are making their first crossing of the equator that they be initiated into the Kingdom of Neptune. There’s initiation rites to go through, I know back in the day it used to be very brutal to be initiated in, you can Google it. Obviously what we’re doing isn’t severe. But traditions of Neptune day and semester at sea include. Getting your head shaved and getting fish guts dumped on you. I am not shaving my head! Haha, but there are a lot of guys and girls who plan to do it tomorrow. It should be a fun day!

I can’t believe how hot it is outside right now, and I can’t believe I’m complaining about it haha. I’m just not used to it right now coming from Iowa and the negative degree weather. But I sure don’t miss the cold! I hate it haha and I love the sun! ☺

But anyways back to the initial reason I wanted to make a post. I just wanted to say how great I think this program is. I know I’ve always said that and did so even before I went on it because I knew how great it really was going to be. But its just the simple things that happen that you really see how interconnected everything is here with education. The professors are so passionate not only about what they are teaching you from books and class but about the ship and the globe around us. My art class that I have is my favorite and my professor is really the best at adapting everything so it relates to what we are doing at that very moment, to help us understand better and expand our minds and our way of thinking and how we look at things. Like I said today we are fueling in Dakar. In class today we were studying a painting by Edward Hopper called Office in a Small City. Its basically a painting of a man staring out of an office window at a very boring looking city. The view this man had was not exciting at all but just the top roof of another dull brick building. There isn’t much color or excitement to this painting at all but the message is much more deeper than that. The artist used a numerous amount of lines and sharp angles in this painting to reflect the harshness of the atmosphere and repetitiveness. Also in the painting are many rectangles resembling restrictiveness, confinement; that this man lives in a box..

Just as we were discussing this in class was when the ship was pulling into the dock and our professor Fred Levine, asked us to open up the curtains because this was an important event that we should see. Pulling into port doesn’t seem too exciting but it really is. Finally we see land again and can now add a new country to the ones we visited. Like I said we weren’t able to get off the ship because all we were doing was fueling for a few hours and leaving. However as we looked outside at this new country an excitement arose and a strong desire in everyone wanting to just get off.

This feeling was very similar to the painting. Just like the man at the moment in his box, we too were stuck on a box wanting to get out but unable to get off.
You can’t see the expression on his face, which allows us the viewer to be able to be that man, to share our expression of a desire to leave to get out of this cubicle and explore what else is out there.

It was really neat that things happened the way they did, we had no idea we’d be getting there at that time and our professor didn’t plan to make such connections like that that helped us learn not just about the painting by looking at it but he found a way that we could go even further in our analyzing and the way we thought about it, to develop our thinking and grow more as individuals.
He really tries to push us to think harder and from all perspectives. He wants to hear our thoughts on things and for us to reflect on everything not just that we’re going somewhere and have all these trips but to really notice the little things and the natural beauty around us. That’s our I think personally and how I strive to be and it feels so good to be in a class and in a setting where the professors aren’t so uptight about deadlines and correct answers and busy-work. That’s not what makes one grow I don’t think. I love this class that I’m in and wish I could take more classes like it and be more encouraged to do such things, even simple ones that mean so much.


More later,
Em