Dan vs. the Man

Date: July 6, 2008
Location: The Baltic Sea
Lat: 57° 47.7N Long: 019° 43.88E

For an uneventful day, a lot sure happened. Of course class happened. I got a quiz back in my Russian Economic class; turns out I pulled down a 16/20 on a quiz. Our professor is an Aussie who grades in the Australian style so 16/20 is good enough for an A. I guess having an international faculty has some benefits.

I also took a tour of the M/V Explorer’s bridge. This was pretty neat, but nothing I haven’t seen before. I was surprised that they don’t have an actual wheel, just a sort of lever type thing. However, the navigation equipment and radar was really slick. I would’ve been impressed, but I actually helmed the USS Belleau Wood (LHA-3) in my younger days. However, it seems like the ship is ably handled and all is well.

Another fun thing was we had a Hall of Fame Clown on ship with us. Mr. Barry Lubin, who’s clown persona is a grandma, entertained the whole ship. His act was absolutely hilarious. A professor, who is a close friend of Barry, teaches a class on the circus on the ship. The nature of the act was that the professor was giving a lecture on the nature of the circus and Barry was clowning around behind him. This was pretty funny as the clown also got the audience involved too, like he had some water and would pose like a fountain and spit it out. He invited one of the life-long learners up on the stage to follow along with him which was really funny. Also he invited some of the students to use a hula hoop with him. After all the fun was over, Barry took turns answering the audience’s questions. Clowning is more or less stand-up comedy in makeup and ridiculous clothes so we got a lot of funny answers. Perhaps my favorite exchange was what his kids thought of his profession. He first replied that he too was embarrassed he was a clown, poking fun at himself. Then he said that his kids thought their dad being a clown was excellent until fourth grade or so. Once they got to high school, he would threaten that he would come into school and do his act; that usually got his kids to straighten up.

I also found time to lay out on the deck for an hour and a half today. There’s nothing wrong with taking advantage of a little time to catch some rays. I also managed to watch The Motorcycle Diaries. This film was about Che Guevara’s wanderings through South America with a friend. I thought it deified Che a bit too much. Che wasn’t the second coming of Jesus, he killed many to achieve his objectives, yet this is glossed over fully. All the same, it was an interesting perspective and worth seeing.

I guess the good stuff’s out of the way, time for the bad. The man’s getting me down. The way the ship makes sure everyone is on time is by when one swipes on board before the ship leaves. If one swipes in after on-ship time then they will be punished. In Russia, the system was different because our passports were distributed to us. Therefore, on-ship time was determined by a combination of both when your passport is turned in and when your id is swiped on board. The punishment for tardiness is being given dock time. This means that after the ship has cleared customs and everyone is allowed off, those with dock time are required to stay on the ship until their penance is up.

This is usually a good system and is necessary to make sure the itinerary is followed. However, good systems break down. I have been erroneously charged three hours of dock time. After my last class I found a sealed letter from the student life office on my door. I opened it up and it said that I was five minutes late to return my passport to the Purser’s Desk. My “punishment” is three hours of on ship time. I would be fine with this if it was a just punishment, however, it’s not.

On July 5, I went on the Siege of Leningrad field trip. We got back to the ship around noon. I decided to walk down to check out a market to spend some Rubles. After that, I went back to the ship and shortly returned my passport around 1300. I calmly handed my passport to the guy that was working behind the desk and asked if everything was in order and he said yes. I left thinking everything was fine. However, apparently things are not fine.

After I received the letter on my door I immediately went up to Student Life to correct this injustice. I left a note for the Assistant Director of Student Life about why my dock time is incorrect. I figure I’ll meet with him tomorrow. I don’t really mind being stuck on the ship for three hours, I’d just take a nap, however it’s the principal of the thing. I am extremely frustrated by the fact that someone else’s mistake is going to lessen my experience in Denmark. I’m sure this will get fixed, but it shouldn’t have to be. I also would be real angry if I’m labeled a troublemaker when I’ve done nothing wrong. I am going to make sure this is fixed.