Where did the week go?

Petty Officer PT

So am I the only one feeling like this week flew by? It has been a week full of stuff and its hard to keep track. The week has been limited on homework but replaced with studying with the long feared first tests from my Earth Science and General Biology classes; not really the way I would like to end the week, but hey, it's college. This Tuesday we had an interesting leadership meeting with a guest speaker, a world renowned author and motivator on the subject of leadership, Steve Sullivan. For about 2 hours he told us about his stories of his leadership in the military and business and giving us good advise how we should act and what to do to be good leaders. It was a great presentation and we all even got a free copy of his book in the end. It was a $10,000 presentation you only get at MMA for free. Thursday Petty Officer PT great as usual and I even got to lead the platoon in a cadence. I arrived ready to do a running cadence, but unfortunately, was asked to do a marching cadence instead so I was caught off guard; I managed to pull it off in in the end though. Now its Friday and weekend is here, and this weekend I have quite the adventure in store. Tonight, some of my friends and I are packing up the car and heading up to New Hampshire to climb the famous Mount Washington. It should be another awesome adventure, given a very cold one. Wish us luck and talk to you all Monday.  

Trucking Through the Weeks

This week isn't exactly our of the ordinary, but looking back I feel like I have come farther than I had originally thought. I was convinced that just a few short days ago I had just started the semester. Well I sure was wrong about that. I'm already deep into my classes, my application for Regimental Commander is due very soon, and April is just a few short days away. Not too long ago I blogged about the upcoming leadership conference at Framingham State University and now it is happening tomorrow.

I am very anxious to go to this conference. I am very privileged to go because I was chosen out of six people to go to the conference. The conference is will involve two workshop sessions in the morning and a keynote speaker in the afternoon. I'm sure it will prove to be a very rewarding conference that will broaden my leadership skills. This is very important if I am to take on a role as a senior officer in the regiment. I'll be sure to blog about my time at the leadership conference.

On Tuesday this week we had a guest speaker for our weekly leadership meetings. Our guest was a Steve Sullivan. Mr. Sullivan has written the book Leading at Mach 2 which he provided all of with a copy. He spoke about different types of leaders and how we can develop the people that we are leading. I took a great deal away from his lecture. I can certainly see myself implementing a lot of what I learned from him into my own leadership style.

Today in Shiphandling 1 we took the T/V Ranger on a navigational training voyage to Woods Hole and back. It was very exciting to use all of our coastal navigation skills to get us there. The only thing that could be better is the weather. At least this week wasn't foggy.

Phone-A-Thon

As a Squad Leader it is my responsibility to supervise the youngies during Inspections, Study Hours and Cleaning Stations among other duties. This week it is my duty to run cleaning stations. I have not done cleaning stations so far this semester, because our Squad Leaders run morning and night cleaning stations for an entire week, and this is my week. The past few mornings I have had to wake up at 0540 and I almost forgot how terrible it is to wake up early. Over the winter, I had to be at work by 0500 most of the time so sleeping in until 0630 spoiled me. I am the DCA Squad Leader which means that the DC Locker (Supply Closet) is my responsibility to be clean and well stocked for supplies. That means that I have to go to bed early tonight because I am a grump in the morning.

After classes today I went to work at the Phone-a-thon our MMA Foundation is putting together. The cadets involved have a stack of callers to get in touch with and make sure they are aware of our MMA events and that their information is correct and in file. On top of the verification and let them know if the happenings at MMA we give them information on the Foundation and ask if they would make a donation to help better financially support the students. We are trying to get a donor for all 1,200 students and I am optimistic we will be able to make it. I made my first phone calls today and many people did not answer, probably due to caller ID, however those that did were so nice and willing to talk to me about their time at the Academy. We even had a few alumni make gifts to help our cause! I love talking to people and I think I am really going to love it.

3C's : Concert, Containerization, & Circus

This past week we were fortunate enough to be invited to a music concert that was being held by the school for the students. James Ryan roommate, Hengol, was able to secure ten tickets for the International Maritime Business students so we did not have to pay 200 Yuan ($31.68 US Dollars). The concert was such a great experience although it was in Chinese and we could not understand - that did not stop any of the International cadets from having a great time since we all danced and tried to sing along to the music.

The concert had many different acts and was promoting a radio station called iBox since many times throughout the introduction or during intermission that name was thrown around a lot. Our Chinese roommates informed us that iBox was the advertisement that allowed for the concert to happen and therefore had to be mentioned multiple times. As you can see Marc an International Business student from Germany and our very own Doug Courtot were having a great time and even picked up a Chinese traditional pose from the roommate of Erin Eastman.






Aside from the concert the next day we had our first examination in Captain Belle's Containerization class. The test was made up of fifty multiple questions and he informed us all the test were different and should not be that hard if we had been paying attention in class. As we all predicted everything that he had covered in class was in the test and everyone in the class passed the exam with flying colors. We will be having another Exam from Captain Belle pretty soon and then our final the first week of April because he will be going back to Massachusetts Maritime Academy.

At the end of this week, we will be attending the Shanghai Circus World since the Shanghai Maritime University set up the event for all the International students to attend a Chinese traditional dinner and then arrive at the event. We cannot wait for the Shanghai Circus World since a couple of us almost went on our own last week but due to time conflicts we could not attend, luckily the school has set up this event and now we can share even more memories with everyone.


- 2/c Eddy Ramos

Week Four

On Wednesday our SMU classmates told us that the teachers from the major wanted to challenge us to a tournament of ping pong.  All of the hours that we have spent playing ping pong so far did not properly prepare us for the destruction we witnessed.  It was to be a 5v5 tournament where best 2 out of 3 wins with matches to 11 points.  

Right off the bat we put our best three guys up against them and even they weren't much of a challenge for the teachers.  When it was my turn I had to face off against our Oceanography professor, Xing Xiaoli.  I felt fairly confident in my ping pong game, but I knew she was going to be a lot more skilled than me.  We started off fairly even until she unleashed a massive forehand that I couldn't even see.  It was just a blur of white bouncing off the table.  I was conflicted because I wanted to be the gentleman and let her win, but our SMU classmates were cheering for me to beat her.  I decided that I would try and beat her but in the end, she beat me pretty easily.  I did manage to make it close but I never was able to take the lead.  It was a clean sweep for the professors and we do want a shot at redemption because everyone had fun playing.  After the tournament was over, they handed each of us a certificate with a different accolade and gave us a 50 year calendar keychain.  

Last night the school took the foreign exchange students out to dinner and then took us to see a acrobatics show.  It was called ERA Intersection of Time.  The dinner was very delicious, the servers brought out so many plates of food.  I think it must've been at least 10-12 different dishes.  The show was phenomenal.  It had many different parts to it, each one was more exciting than the next.  We were excited to start taking pictures but then the ushers told us that we weren't allowed to take photographs.  These performers were amazing, they had us clapping pretty much throughout the entire show.  My favorite part was a bunch of guys that set up two sides like the West Side Story and they jumped through hoops of various heights to compete.  The hoops at the end were very close to 10 feet high and they did flips through them all.  My other favorite part was of a couple coming out on a white horse dancing with hanging ribbons and flying through the air.  At the end of the show they had a big sphere that had motorcycles circling around it.  After a few tricks, they kept adding more and more motorcycles into the sphere.  By the end of their routine, they had 8 motorcycles in the sphere doing circles around it.  Absolutely amazing!  

IT'S FRIDAY!

IT'S FRIDAY EVERYONE!!!!! YAYYYY! It has been another eventful week and it is time for a break. The homework has been piling up and along with extra curricular it can be a killer. This week, the Petty Officer Program started up its weekly leadership meetings for us all to attend to get us ready for our hopeful positions as squad leaders next semester. They are informational and inspiring, and Lieutenant Commander Page knows how to keep you on your toes during these meetings . Along with leadership meetings, every Thursday, all Sophomores going for a leadership position get up at 0600 to do physical training on the football field with the Regimental Commander. Nothing better then some pushups, situps, and a run to wake you up in the morning. Good thing I've been doing the Coast Guard Club PT in the morning or I would never be ready after my time on the ship. All in all though, with the load of work and many things to do, it's the only way things should be done; no fun sitting down in your room all day. One must always be active in my mind, and Maritime keeps you going. Time for this cadet to head home for the weekend and see the family and girlfriend for a great active weekend and get ready for the next week of adventures here at good old MMA.

Thank God Tomorrow is Friday!

Okay, so it is not your typical TGIF title, but I can honestly say that this week has been the craziest I have had so far at the Academy. Between crazy classes, meetings, conferences, dinners galore I haven’t had much time to enjoy this beautiful weather we are having. This morning Mr. Gomes, the Regimental Commander, and Mr. Dineen, our Regimental Training and Retention Officer, hosted a meeting with all of the juniors applying for senior leadership positions next year. With less than 20 days to go before we have to hand in our application the pressure is on to make sure they are perfect and complete. After the meeting I had my classes and met with Dr. Ritschel, the play director, about Ireland. For our Patriot’s Day break I will be heading to Ireland with my best friend from high school for 6 nights. Dr. Ritschel, being from Ireland has been able to tell me all about what to see and hints to get the best bang for my euro while I am there. I never really had a good relationship with my professors in high school, not that I did not like them, but I never really got to know them and they never got to know me. I really value how different MMA in that our professors really do get to know us in and out of the classroom. After class I went to work in the ABS Information Commons participating in the Phone-a-than which is going to be such a great asset for the school to have. Essentially about 20 cadets are calling to speak with alumni and tell them all about the great renovations or events MMA and speak with them about The Foundation. After the meeting at 1800, I went to the USTS Kennedy rate dinner, hosted by the Board of Trustee’s, and spent a wonderful dinner eating steaks and tiramisu. With tomorrow being the Board of Trustee meeting I am looking with hearing from all of the different departments and seeing the Trustees again. It has been such an honor being a part of the Board of Trustees this year and with the school year coming to an end much quicker than I thought it would be I am valuing every meeting and committee day we have more and more. So, thank God tomorrow is Friday because after the conference, meetings, work, dinner, Squad Leader duties and Trustee meeting I am in need of a nap!

Saint Pats!

The Saint Patrick's day parade in Boston was a ton of fun. This year we made it on TV as well! The Honor Guard got to spread out and make some otherwise unhappy little kids along the parade route smile by giving them high fives and saying hi. It was a great day for everyone. It took us about 3 hours to make it to the end. After everyone was loaded onto the bus I had to figure out away to get back to the starting point to hitch a ride with a friend back home. Turns out on Saint Patrick's day even cabbies will say no if it means to much traffic. Myself and a shipmate had to hoof it back. So even with the dehydration, sunburn and incredibly sore back we all still managed to end with a smile of accomplishment.

I also this week decided to drop a class and add another. I just added Detective Literature, we are reading the Sherlock Holmes series. Its something different then the monotonous same old classes.

Connecticut Maritime Association Conference

I had the privilege of attending the annual CMA Conference this past Tuesday in Stamford, Connecticut with a large majority of seniors and a few juniors. We got to the conference after a 3 hour drive and I could not have been more excited to be there. We got our name badges, went upstairs and I quickly spread out to speak to companies. I have never seen such a large conference or so many maritime companies in a local area. The first company I went to was Trade Winds and told them all about how our class reads their paper almost daily and then went on to other companies. I spoke to companies that aid ships in navigation for pirates, those that do emergency response for disasters, registry companies, different training companies and the list goes on.

I was so happy to learn about different companies and I could not believe how many Mass. Maritime graduates were among the managers there. I made sure to speak with them for a while and talked to them about internships. I thought that the MMA grads were more apt to help fellow maritimers and I got well over 30 business cards. I have learned that when going into these conferences you have to go in with the right mindset. There were so many companies there interested in getting fresh new faces, and with maritime industry experience they wanted to speak about internships. I have only been able to email a few companies, because I have been so busy, but this weekend I am going to sit down and go through the business cards and thank them for speaking with me, and then talk to them a bit more about a potential internship. Since being at MMA I have started a business card collection and typically write a little about where I met them and if they were a grad or not on the back of the business card or something that we spoke about to help them distinguish myself or jog a memory. I am constantly learning about common practices in the workforce and because of the new age of technology, face to face contact means a lot to many of the Vice Presidents and managers of the companies rather than a email. I hope to get an internship somewhere outside of the United States! Overall this was such a great conference and I can not wait to go again next year too!

A Weekend of Blue and Green

7th Company in the St. Patrick's Day Parade South Boston

Director of the USAF Band of Liberty

It was another great weekend here at MMA. Back in November, I talked about making your own fun here on the weekends, and this weekend was a prime example. Friday was kicked off with a group of guys and myself traveling to Plymouth to go see the United States Air Force Band of Liberty jazz concert. It was a great show full of some great hits from composers such as Count Basie, Glenn Miller, and Mark Schultz. The whole house was hopping and there even was a WWII USAF veteran who was one of the original members of Glenn Millers band; it was a great time. It was followed by a guys dinner at the Outback Steakhouse, nothing ends a Friday night like a great steak. Saturday was another adventure day for us as the same group jumped in the car and went to the famous Gillettes Stadium. It was fun day walking around Patriot's Place; and being St. Patrick's Day, there was Irish music playing the whole time allowing one to get in the spirit. Sunday was the true celebration as the band and honor guard traveled to South Boston for the annual St. Patrick's Day Parade. It's our most wild parade of the year with thousands of people lining the streets, all cheering and screaming; it really gets you in the mood. The longest parade of the year, it took us about three hours to step off and three hours to march the entire thing; talk about a death march. It was a great time though and a great experience as always. The family and girlfriend even made it up to see the parade, making it even more special. Now that's a weekend worth living here at Maritime.

Welcome to the Weekend

Another week done at good old Maritime. It was a productive week of numerous practices and some tough homework assignments; but hey that's college right? Finished my Friday classes with two quizzes now I'm ready for the weekend. I planning for a nice relaxed time here doing some schoolwork, going to the movies, and hanging out with the weekend crew. Tonight me and some pals will be heading to a U.S. Air Force Jazz concert over in Plymouth; another one of those activities that start the weekend right. Then come Sunday, the Regimental Band and Honor Guard will be making its way up to Boston to march in their St. Patrick's Day Parade. Its going to be a grand old time, this parade seems to always be the most energetic. If you're not doing anything this weekend, take a trip to Boston and see 7th Company in action. Here's to the weekend folks!

Queue the World Cup!

Now that we have gotten used to our classes a lot of us have started to work out regularly at the gym and do the workout program called Insanity.  It also has finally started to warm up and the sun broke through the clouds for a few days.  When it did, we took full advantage of it.  

One of our classmates from the Environmental Engineering major invited us to play soccer against some of the teachers Wednesday afternoon.  I have been waiting for the nice weather to go outside and play soccer, I could play basketball with other students but I am not very good.  There were 5 of us and together we teamed with our classmate from SMU and some of his friends.  

There were three teams; us, the teachers (one of them is our professors for class), and another group of students from SMU.  Since there was an odd number the first team that scored a goal would stay on the field and play the team that was sitting on the sidelines.  It was our team against the teachers at first, we played and battled for the ball for 10 minutes or so.  I mainly played the sweeper position, which is the last line of defense, because it was the position I had played in high school and felt most comfortable with.  I am by no means an all-star but I held my own for not having played in 5 months and not having any cleats.  Anyway, after playing for another five minutes our team finally managed to score.  

The next team was also very good, they were slightly better skilled than the teachers and obviously younger. We had to pick up our game if we wanted to win.  When we played against these guys from SMU it felt like we had played another 20 minutes before we were able to score again.  Once, the teachers took the field again they could tell we were tired and pressed harder.  They got some lucky bounces too and were finally able to score on us.  However, the other team of SMU students were one and done and had started taking off their cleats.  At the end of the day we played from 1400 to 1700.  It was a great time.

There are also other international students and the guys we met from the Ivory Coast had told us that they play soccer too.  They invited us to play with them on Friday afternoon once everyone was done with classes.  I didn't really want to play because I was still very sore from Wednesday and then lifting weights Thursday afternoon.  However after taking a nap I felt refreshed enough to play, plus I figured once I start running around I will feel better and not as sore.  

This time we teamed up with the guys from the Ivory Coast.  I was the only one that played Wednesday, the others were off doing other things or getting ready to head into the downtown area for the weekend.  Our opponent were also kids from SMU, but they were from Northern China almost near Russia.  The teams were pretty well balanced, although the SMU guys had better foot skills than us but we were able to shoulder them off the ball at times.  Again, we were the only guys without cleats and we kept on slipping on the turf.  We played a full game and after two hours of playing it ended in a draw 2-2.  It was great to get outside and meet new people playing soccer.  We can't wait to play again sometime next week.

Hit the Ground Running

Coming back to school was anything but a slow transition. It felt like as soon as I got back the work load was piled on. Maybe this was true, or maybe I was just wasn't used to taking classes for the last 3 months. What I do know for sure is that this is going to be one of the toughest semesters yet. The courses alone are very tough. For example, Applied Shiphandling 1 combines everything that we have learned over the last 2 years and puts into application. For this class we use our T/V Ranger and the brand new Ship Simulator in the ABS Information Commons. One of my other tough classes is Stability and Trim. In this class we discuss all the different forces that act on the vessel. It is a thorough application of physics as well as critical thinking. Some of my other classes include, Automatic Radar Plotting Aids, American Government, Tugs 2, and Composing in Electronic Media.

With the spring semester comes the spring crew season. I have decided to row in the spring for the first time here at MMA. I am really excited for the upcoming season. We have a lot of potential to do well and prove to be one of best boats in the league. With the cold weather looming still through march, it will prove to be an uphill battle until the warm weather comes.

Also in the spring is when the juniors apply for senior leadership positions. Some of these positions include the rate positions on the ship, positions within the majors, and positions on the company staff. However I will be applying for a position in a more important role. I am applying to be the next Regimental Commander. The Regimental Commander is the highest ranking cadet in the Regiment and is part of the Regimental Staff. I am looking forward to applying for this position and going through the selection process.

Also in a few weeks I will be attending a leadership conference at Framingham State with five other cadets. This will be a great opportunity to enhance my leadership skills.

Good to be Back

HELLO FOLKS! Sorry it took so long to post, it has been a long few weeks getting back in the swing of things here at old MMA. I had myself a very eventful winter on the T.S. Kennedy on sea term. It was my first time at sea and I have to tell you all, that I loved every bit of it. "You bet I'm going back to sea". It was a great experience going through the Panama Canal, Shellbacking across the Equator, and visiting the great ports in Costa Rica, Ecuador, Panama, and St. Thomas. From zip lining and hiking in the rainforest, to the good food, to the beaches; it was just an amazing experience. Well, Sea Term was about a month ago already and we are well on our way into the semester. I am taking a heaping 5 classes this semester along with participating in the Petty Officer Program in my hopes to becoming a squad leader this for next year. It's gonna be a busy time here at MMA, but that's how it should be. BRING IT ON! Talk to you all soon, more adventures to come.

A project on all fronts!

Just for starters I have a project/paper/presentation due in every class.

For Toxicology we had to choose anything that effected the body in a negative way. I choose to research Neuro toxins. Specifically Ricin which comes from caster beans. Ricin is poisonous if inhaled, injected or ingested and acts as a toxin by the inhibition of protein synthesis. Just the ingestion of 5-20 of these beans can prove fatal resulting in nausea, tachycardia and hypotension as well as seizures.

In Business Continuity we have been assigned an industry (mine is Nuclear power) and we are to write a 5-10 page paper on the back ground, impact on US economy, disasters, and how they went about insuring business continuity. We also need to give a 20-30 minute presentation on the subject and need to be fully prepared for a bombardment of questions afterwards.

Intel and National Security. We have been assigned a term paper that we can pick anything that pertains to Intel & Nat Security, I think im going to do a report on the Patriot Act and how it dramatically changed the way we collect information. Also the outcry it created amongst some US citizens.

Crisis Communications we were assigned an event that took place where communications were lacking and if it were handled differently then maybe a different outcome would have occurred. My group was assigned the Exxon Valdez tanker spill.

But the crown jewel is going to be the Co-Op project that we all need to complete after completing a Co-op. It will consist of a paper and power point presentation of what my job was and how I executed over the 6 weeks as well as a multitude of other questions.

Guess I should start those sooner rather then later huh?

The Mexican Panda

This past weekend Matthew Silvia, Erin Eastman, Doug Courtot, Mark Holmes, Adam Rabesa, Jullian (German), Marc (German), Sandra (German), and a couple of our roommates decided to travel into the old side of Shanghai. During our stay we wanted to feel experience the entire atmosphere and soak in the Chinese culture as much as we could. So we decided to stay at a nearby International Hostel that was close to the Yuyuan Garden and the City God Temple which are located next to each other. Friday like I mentioned the whole business department decided it would be nice to take part in some volunteer work and decided to visit a retirement home to try and give back to the community. From there we traveled into downtown and decided to have a nice dinner where we could see different sites.

Saturday morning we all woke up bright and early and walked around various parts of the old Shanghai and did some shopping. After shopping or at least attempting to shop and try to bargain with various owners I must say we walked away with great deals. Through my shopping I was able to create what everyone describes as "The Mexican Panda". It was pretty fun because many locals would come up to me and want to take a picture with me, however both Matthew and Mark joined in by buying a traditional Chinese shirt as well. The best part was while we were walking a group of three local kids with jackets took them off and yelled in laughter because they were also wearing the same shirt!

On Sunday we decided to visit the Yuyuan Garden and the City God Temple which were both mind blowing. The Yuyuan Garden was first conceived in 1559 during the Ming Dynasty by Pan Yunduan as a sense of comfort for his elderly father the minister Pan En. The garden was so amazing and enormous there were so many different entrances and it felt as if it would never end. The bridges the connect the garden are designed with square corners because it is believed that bad spirits can only travel through straight lines, which was pretty interesting. As far as the City God Temple that was amazing as well, different types of people around the world as well as locals travel to this destination to make sure they pray. At the temple one can purchase incense to pray for money,wealth, or both. Upon praying one must bow three times in each direction, and with the square shape of the temple one must bow in all four directions and then throw the lit incense in the fire.

This weekend was amazing, and we are planning to visit many more temples during our stay in Shanghai and cannot wait to continue sharing our experiences during our stay.

-2/c Eduardo Ramos

My Winter Aboard M/V Maersk Wyoming

I was able to post one blog entry early in my voyage on the Maersk Wyoming. Unfortunately my ship came under internet restriction. Due to the fact that the ship is only allowed 20 GB of internet usage a month we were asked to limit the amount of time we spent on the internet. This meant that the blogging had to fall by the way side. Now that I am back from the Commercial Shipping Term I would love to tell everyone all about it.

On December 18th I reported to the Maersk Wyoming. The Wyoming is a 950 ft. container ship. We departed that same evening bound for Dubai, U.A.E. The trip across the Atlantic Ocean was easy and slow going. We didn't see too many ships or hit any significant seas. On Christmas Day the Captain and I passed out gifts from the Seafarers Center in Charleston, SC. On the same day we passed through the Straits of Gibraltar. The Straits of Gibraltar were very exciting. The volume of ship traffic that passed through there at one time was incredible.

From Gibraltar we made our way over across the Mediterranean Sea over to the Suez Canal. At this point we made anchor before entering the canal. The canal was one of the most exciting points of the entire trip. The volume of ship traffic that passes through there on a daily basis is absolutely staggering. As soon as we go through the canal and let the pilot go, the Captain turned to me and said "Junior, you better look at the chart mighty quick. I'm giving you the con in 30 seconds." Now for those of you who don't know, the con is the control of the vessel. This means that all maneuvers, navigation, and radio communication were my call. It was my ship. I was scared at first but I was able to settle into my surroundings. I felt a lot better when I got the ship of the channel and into the open waters of the Red Sea. I took the con quite a few times during our voyage.

Our first port was Dubai. I spent nearly 21 days on the ship before getting off in Duabi. Unfortunately we did not get too far from the ship that night because we were restricted from leaving the port after 0000. Instead we went to the Seamans club and relaxed. After Dubai we went to Pakistan. We didn't get off here because again we arrived in the late afternoon and were leaving early in the morning. Our next stop in Mumbai (Bombay), India was a long one (20 hours). We were able to go ashore into the city and get some lunch. The restaurant was excellent service and quality. In India I saw a lot of poverty. I am very thankful for all that I have in such a great country. After India we started heading West to Salalah, Oman. Oman is very a beautiful country. Sand and mountains as far as the eye can see, but there was something about it that made it look exceptional. In Oman we went to the Oasis Club and enjoyed a nice meal before heading back to work.

After Oman we made our way back to the states. On our way back through the Mediterranean I passed the ship my girlfriend was on at less than two miles in the middle of the night. We talked on the VHF radio for about an hour. One of the coolest parts of the trip.

The U.S coastwise trip was rough. By rough I mean that it was physically strenuous. We would get up early in the morning before the sun rose to take the ship in to port and would leave that same night. Generally these ports would be almost a 24 hour day. Out of the three different ports we went to in the U.S., Charleston, S.C. was certainly my favorite. This was because we were able to get off, get a cheeseburger and truly relax. Also it was over 70 degrees out that day and it was February 2nd! On the 5th of February we left Newark, NJ again and started our trip across the pond with the intention of going to Dubai.

As I mentioned above, we had the intention of going straight to Dubai. When were about a days travel from Newark we had a small fire in the main engine. The fire was in one of the scavenge spaces below one of the pistons. The engineers were able to put the fire out quick and shut the engine down before the situation got worse. We floated for a couple of hours. This happened twice more and we had to drift dead in the water for over a day. In the end we had to take two pistons offline and limp to Spain for repairs. I got off in Algeciras, Spain and returned home on the 16th of February. Spain was an amazing sight, by far the most beautiful country that I visited on my travels this winter. On my way to the airport I was able to see the sun rise over the Mediterranean and hit the mountains in southern Spain. I wish words could capture that sight, but the fact is that somethings need to be seen in person.

All in all my winter aboard the Maersk Wyoming was very rewarding. I learned a lot, certainly more than I thought I would. I look forward to shipping on my license as a career one day very soon.

Pictures:
-View from the bridge.
-Myself in front of our Charlies Angels cut-out (Pirate Deterrent).

-Myself and the Engine Cadet Eric Shea at the cook out in the Red Sea.

-Stern view of the mighty Maersk Wyoming.

(The green bottles in the above picture is non-alcoholic beer at our cook-out.

Captain's Inspection

This weekend was quite interesting. My company has Captain's Inspection tomorrow morning and being the only DCA Squad Leader in my company, it is my job to make sure that our company is spotless. Our youngies came back this weekend at 1630 and cleaned the company. Because they came back to school early and were all accounted for, I granted them permission to listen to music while they cleaned. It's amazing how magically they all clean so much more thoroughly once they have a little bit of music to play. This next semester our youngies will be granted more and more privileges provided that they prove to the company staff that t hey earn it. Whether it is closed doors study hours or even having permission to listen to music is something that they have to earn. My job as a Squad Leader isn't to yell or be mean, as I am sure that they sure feel like we do from time to time, but it is to teach them. My Organizational Management teacher, General Flanagan, told a story the other day in class that when he was in Vietnam he was attacked and had to contact back to base in the pitch dark. Because of his training at the Air Force Academy he didn't even need to see where he was, but knew exactly where everything was in his room; same is true for MMA. If you were to ask a youngie where his hard hat is, or where he keeps his baseball cap he'd be able to tell you without question.

Everything freshman year is to drill in your head how important it is to pay attention to detail, because one day those could be the difference between life and death. Most of our graduates don't joined the armed services like General Flanagan but same holds true to shipping out. If you are on the ship and there is a problem, you need to know where everything is without hesitation. My freshman year I used to think how much they stressed pushing in chairs is important and I didn't understand why we do it until I went on Sea Term. In the little lounges on Sea Term the chairs are tied to the deck and if you don't push them in and the ship rocks or rolls it can fall right out into the hall and someone could get hurt. So Captain's Cleaning is over and if you are a parent reading this make sure you ask your child to send you a picture of how perfect their room is. We were scrubbing the baseboards, the walls, pulling out our wall lockers and making sure there was no dust and even shining the pipe underneath the sinks. Up on deck it has turned into a competition to see who can have shiner shoes, tighter racks or dust free rooms. Check out these happy youngies!

Shanghai Exploring

On Friday afternoon a group of us took the bus to downtown Shanghai to continue exploring.  We walked around some shopping centers located throughout the downtown area, it is very interesting how the malls are built up rather than out.  Each escalator took us to a different store, but each store was somehow connected.  The night scenery of downtown Shanghai is great, a lot of the buildings are all lit up and there are lights on the trees.  While walking we passed a flashmob, well I think it was one, a lot of people dancing in unison on a corner of the street.  

 

As we continued to walk around the area some more we realized it was getting late and decided to find a hotel to spend the weekend in.  After a few unsuccessful attempts, the hotels we found were really expensive, we found an affordable one that was right near the metro.  Once we got settled we figured out our plan of attack on downtown Shanghai.  

The next morning we woke up and grabbed a quick breakfast and headed off to the Shanghai Ocean Aquarium.  I had hoped we would get there early enough to see the feeding sessions of the various species that the aquarium has to offer.  Shanghai Aquarium was unlike any other I have been to, it featured some really long tunnels in which you were underneath the tank and got to see the fish, sharks, turtles, and eels swim all around you.  

After the aquarium we took the metro to the People's Park.  Once there, it was our first time experiencing a small garden and some small ponds.  It was still somewhat cold, but when the weather starts to get warmer it should be a beautiful place with flowers in full bloom, fish in the ponds, etc.  It still didn't stop us from taking pictures of those ponds and the people performing traditional Chinese music.  

The next thing we went to see was Jing'an Temple.  It is a temple that is in the middle of downtown Shanghai, it is almost out of place being next to modern day skyscrapers.  Only myself and another cadet went in to the temple, the others hung back for their own reasons.  Once we walked through the gate we saw a fire pit for burning incense and saw monks performing a small ceremony.  The architecture was amazing and the golden rooftop glistened in fading sunlight.  I didn't want to take many pictures of the people because I felt that it wasn't courteous, but just walking through it was an amazing experience.

Once we finished with the temple we decided to head back to our hotel as our legs were getting sore from walking around all day.  There are still so many different gardens, temples, and places we want to go but we are slowly making our way through.  

 

Thanks for posting this Zheng, if you could just attach the photos where I have written about them that would be great.  I am going to attach one more photo of me at the Jing'an Temple.

Elders' Day

Earlier in the week our roommates informed us about a Chinese holiday where the young adolescents reach out and help the elderly. So it was only right that us as cadets are able to reach out to the community and experience more of the Chinese culture. My roommate who is the monitor for the whole exchange program was able to set up an opportunity for all the International Maritime Business cadets as well as the three Germans in our program to visit a retirement home to try and help out. I have never been to a retirement home since most of my family at least that I know of is back in Mexico. The ride to the retirement home was not bad it took about fifteen minutes on bus and we were there. All of us were pretty excited especially our roommates from Shanghai Maritime University since this is a huge deal for them. Although they all have plans for the weekend they made sure that they came since it is a tradition that has been going on for many years during this time of the year.

Although it was hard to communicate with the elders our roommates helped translating for us which was nice. Even though there was a language barrier the smiles on the faces of the people we went to visit let us know that they were very happy to see us. We visited people in their rooms that could not physically get up and took pictures with them and they even gave us a thumbs up. We then went into a movie room where at least fifteen elders came to greet us and we put on a show for them. We all sang americans songs, we even sang the Barney sone "I Love You" because that was one of the songs everyone could remember the words to. The three German students (Marc, Jullian, and Sandra) also sang a German song. Everyone in the room sang the Chinese national anthem together or we at least tried to not mess it up as much. The elders also sang at least three songs to us which we did not expect which was a nice gesture.

Overall the experience was wonderful, everyone came out very happy and were very pleased about coming. I heard a saying when I was little and it was "always remember to do one good deed a day, because it can bring a smile to someones face". Hopefully us being there and showing up allowed the elderly to be happy for the moment, we plan on going back in the following weeks so we can perform a full song and maybe a dance to go with it.

-Eduardo Ramos

A Day & Night in Shanghai

With the first week of classes completely done, it is now time to travel into downtown Shanghai to experience the culture outside of SMU. The school planned a trip for all the International Students to visit several tourist attractions in downtown. We started of with the Shanghai World Financial Center which is one of the tallest buildings in the world, and holds the Guinness World Record for the Worlds Highest Observatory Deck in 2009. We were overlooking all of Shanghai while we stood on the 100th deck of the building and the only bad thing is that I am actually scared of heights. However the experience was incredible just seeing how small everyone and everything looked from so high up. From there we went and checked out a couple museums that were very interesting. We also walked around downtown just to take pictures of everything we saw and I believe I might of took over 100 photos.

Before we left the Shanghai World Financial Center a couple of us decided to take a professional picture where we pose for a picture and can choose the background. So Erin Eastman, Matthew Silvia, Mark Holmes, one of the Korean cadet's named Woody, and myself - it actually came out pretty good and was a little bit funny. Once the touring was over a bunch of cadets from MMA as well as a couple of cadets from SMU decided to stay in town for the night. Our SMU friends wanted to take us out and show us a night in China and experience the culture compared to the United States. It was a great time just hanging out with everyone since it felt like we have known each other for a long time however it has only been a week.

-2/c Eduardo Ramos

Maintenance!

As many of you already know as a cadet at Mass Maritime you are required to complete 12 hours of maintenance a semester aboard the ship. Marine Trans., Business, EM and MSEP all do what is called deck maintenance which consists of doing cosmetic and structural changes everywhere on the ship except the engine room. The engine room receives its maintenance from the Marine Engine and Facilities Engineering cadets. Since they have specialize classes in boiler and AUX machinery maintenance they are much more qualified and familiar with this type of work then other cadets.

While on maintenance yesterday I was paired with one of the deck crewmen and a sophomore. The sophomore and I were helping with the assembly of a cage in a training space. The cage was made from raw materials such as angle iron and steel cage. The crew member was welding some of the angle iron together and we helped by grinding some of the edges and cutting new lengths of angle iron. I'll post a few pictures.

Classes, Climate and Conferences

Growing up in New Jersey which isn't ridiculously far away from New England, I thought that the change in climate and location wouldn't be too drastic and this morning reminded me of how very wrong I was. This morning was about 20 degrees when we had morning formation and when I came back inside and put on the news it said to feel like 6 degrees! I can't wait for Spring to get here already because New England is absolutely gorgeous in the Fall and Spring!

So today I had most of my major classes such as Vessel Chartering and Brokerage, Organizational Management and Accounting 2. General Flanagan in my OM class discussed with us today about different Principles of Management including Planning, Organizing, Directing, Controlling for a common Objective. Being an Air Force General he certainly knows all about leading and how to inspire people which makes me fascinating to listen to. He has so many war stories of Vietnam that I can't help but take a ton of notes. In high school I will admit that I never really knew how to study or take notes and one of the most valuable lessons I learned freshman year during study hours was just that. I learned how I learned which is different from person to person.

Today was quite busy after school. I applied to almost 20 internship applications for internships overseas (in Europe), made updates to my resume and registered to go to this year's Cape Cod Leadership Forum for next week. I am excited to meet with so many prestigious people in our area and represent MMA. There is never too many leadership seminars, conferences or meetings someone can attend. For me, leadership is an ever-evolving characteristic that is only advanced through practice and wisdom. Squad Leader and Student Trustee have been my biggest "leadership simulator" as you will often hear the Admiral refer to it.

Fried Dumplings

A day after arriving at Shanghai Maritime University the school decided to hold their annual welcome dinner for all the International Students who will be studying in China for the Spring semester. There are students from six countries which are the United States of America (Massachusetts Maritime Academy), Germany, Russia, Poland, South Korea, and Mexico. Yes Mexico, at first when I arrived they told me there would be Mexican Exchange students on campus which I found interesting because my family background is Mexican. Until I realized that I was the only Mexican exchange student, which was funny because all the cadets were wondering who was the Mexican student. I am glad that they decided to represent my family heritage since I know it means so much to my family, so I thought that was pretty cool. It was also nice that Dr. Ghosh the International Maritime Business department head as well as Captain Belle from Massachusetts Maritime Academy were able to be present for the dinner. The dinner was wonderful with great presentations by SMU students, as well as the food which we all enjoy. The biggest concern for us cadets upon arriving was how we would respond to the food, but we all love the food so far especially the fried dumplings. 

As far as classes go they are very interesting and we all seem to enjoy every single one of them. Monday and Wednesday we have two classes but each class is three hours long so we go to class from 0820 until 1600 but we get an hour of lunch break. Tuesday we have only one class in the morning, and Thursday and Friday we also have only one class. To our surprise the language barrier while in class is not difficult all the teachers can get their points across to us no problem and it is very interesting to learn new teaching styles. The easiest class to understand is with Captain Belle because he is American which is no surprise. It was also nice to meet Captain Belle he has so much experience in the Maritime Industry so I can say that I have learned so much from him in such a short period of time. With only week one behind us it already the rest of the cadets and myself cannot believe we are in China it is as if we were in a dream. It has been such a wonderful experience so far, and we are all anxious to continue on and see the amount of valuable things we will learn. 

- 2/c Eduardo Ramos

Last Day Internship

Last day at the internship, each one of us had to make presentation for our project. Our supervisor thought that it would be a good idea for us to complete a presentation on our own. It wasn’t too bad; we had a week to put the presentation together.

Friday 24^th, the presentation was about to begin. We received some news; it could be good news or bad news depending on how you look at it. The CEO was coming for the presentation. No pressure. So we expected five to six people coming to watch our presentation. We practiced and making sure our presentations were long enough for fifteen minutes.

Ten minutes later we were expecting six people to come, instead about fifty to sixty people walked into the meeting room. It was a little unexpected. Just a little bit. It was ten times more than what we expected. Included all the Mass Maritime graduated who came to La Speiza for the annual sales meeting.

Our presentation went well, Mr. Giampiero Soncini, the CEO gave us some suggestionswhen giving a presentation. Then the office broke out seven bottles of champagnes for us. I didn’t know if they were celebrating that our internship was over or it was to congratulate us for how much we had learned. I prefer the second one.

Downtown Shanghai

This past weekend we were taken to downtown Shanghai.  The bus ride was long but it was well worth the trip.  We left at 0830 with other foreign exchange students as well some students from Shanghai Maritime. 

Our first stop was the World Financial Center Observatory.  Coming here reminded me a lot of my trip to New York City’s Empire State Building, however there were no long lines.  The elevator ride was really interesting; there were a lot of lights flashing that made it look like you were being warped to the top.  Unfortunately for us, the weather outside didn’t cooperate and it was cloudy and raining.  Although we were lucky enough to get a few breaks in the clouds and snapped some pictures. 

We walked a rotary with a walking bridge over the road to get some more pictures of another building that is similar to the Space Needle in Seattle.  From here we could see the Shanghai Aquarium, saw our first McDonalds, Apple store, and Adidas shops.  It was like we were in America walking past all of these shops. 

After a quick stop to the Old campus of SMU we went to another place about the history of Shanghai.  We were given a tour to help explain everything and show us around the building.  This was also amazing because this has a model of the entire city of downtown Shanghai.  It also had some great models of how Shanghai was built up and how future technology will help with pollution in Shanghai.

The next thing we saw was another museum that was filled with the history of Chinese culture.  Inside were jade sculptures, pottery, coins, furniture, calligraphy, and other artifacts.  I was really amazed at all of this and unfortunately we were only spending 45 minutes in it so I had to move quickly from one place to the next.  I would post more pictures of the things that I saw but there isn’t enough space. 

Our last stop was right on the other side of The Bund.  It was just a quick stop but we took pictures of all of the buildings.  We can’t wait for it to be warmer and nicer out so we can come back and see it all lit up at night.