Day 54 – Logistical Pre-port

Oct 21st

Malay Dinner
After a day of classes, reading and planning for Penang, we enjoyed our first traditional Malay meal. We tasted everything, including gado gado salad (bean sprouts + spinach), chicken rending (chicken simmered in coconut + chili), cucur udang (shrimp fritters), freid noodles and vegetables and nasi minyak (pilaf rice). The spicy okra kheema was a little scary because weird white bubbles popped out. Desert was sticky white rice toasted in coconut and coated in honey. It was a wonderful change from the “use.” Brit said it best, “If this is good on the ship, imagine how amazing it will be off the boat!”

Logistical Pre-port
Bob filled us in on the ins and outs of tomorrows departure. The Explorer will not be docking at the pier, but rather we will be “tendering” or taking boat shuttles to land. They go back every half hour, but don’t run after 1AM, so most students are getting hostels for the night. The medical staff explained that there is no malaria or serious HIV problems in Malaysia, but that the biggest threat is heat exhaustion. We need to be extra careful that we pee every four hours. To finish the program, we found out tomorrow is the first ever Founder’s Day since SAS first set sail in NY harbor in 1947. We learned the touching alma mater, which actually gave me the chills.

Soc Midterm
Since Professor Scott likes to do everything out of the norm, we had a performance midterm to share what we learned in class with other students on the ship. It was held right after cultural pre-port, so that a bunch of people just stayed to watch. Scott’s three classes, two on Race and Ethnicity and one on Global Social Movements, collaborated on 10 different skits that covered themes of racism to globalization. I played a white, German woman from Namibia in a dating game show. Despite my suggestive answers that included “eating raw oysters” and “sneaking out into the dunes to go stargazing,” Charlie “the bachelor” chose all of us. Some of my favorite skits, included a white, male 17th century class on colonization and an Asian girl calling herself “yellow” on Sesame Street. Once again we got to hear Tien sing, which made my night. Of course, Professor Scott announced we all did a fabulous job and got “As” on the midterm.

Highs and Lows
My “high” was hearing Tien sing a rendition of Marvin Gay’s “I Heard it Through the Grapevine.” My “low” was trying to plan Malaysia without free internet.