Faculty Profile: Alex Nalbach, Global Studies

Keeping a class of more than 800 students, faculty, staff and lifelong learners awake, captivated and interested about the history of the Mediterranean is no easy feat. However, Alex Nalbach, Semester at Sea’s Global Studies professor, seems to have mastered it. Using a combination of energetic speaking, creative PowerPoint presentations (complete with moving graphics and sound effects) and an expertise of the subject matter, Nalbach has managed to make learning about the Mediterranean--from B.C. to present day--fun.

Nalbach is an independent scholar currently writing a book about the history of the world. For 10 years, he taught history seminars at the university level. This summer, he is teaching a 75-minute class every day Semester at Sea is sailing—23 lectures in all. He spent more than six months preparing the material and quite a while researching how to give engaging interactive lectures.

Most students and lifelong learners rank Nalbach as one of the best instructors on the voyage. Watch the accompanying Q & A video with Nalbach to hear his thoughts on the importance of Global Studies to the Semester at Sea experience. And look for more faculty profiles in upcoming
blogs.

Storm Trackers

Can the ocean really help predict if a hurricane is forming?



Students in Prof. Dan Horn’s Physical Oceanography class are figuring it out. The Semester at Sea class focuses on an ocean’s various aspects, including some biological components and its waves, currents, climate and erosion. One important factor is tracking water temperature to determine hurricane development.

“Water surface temperature controls global weather and this time of year it controls hurricane development,” Horn explains.

Horn and his students have been deploying buoys into the Atlantic Ocean that they will track via the Internet to check the likelihood of hurricanes forming. Click on the video to watch the latest buoy deployment. To follow the progress of the buoys, click on the following link: http://www.aoml.noaa.gov/phod/dac/gdp_track.html and enter "WMO #62938" to see how the buoys are tracking water temperatures so far.

Bunkering in Gibraltar

Everyone aboard the MV Explorer got a glimpse of Gibraltar during an early morning pit stop to fuel the ship before it took off for Italy and the rest of the Mediterranean voyage. The ship passed through the Strait of Gibraltar and into the Mediterranean Sea before bunkering in Gibraltar for much of the day. The area was sprinkled with oil tankers and a couple of other cruise ships, stopping for fuel before a long voyage. The MV Explorer sailed off from Gibraltar around 4 p.m. today. It is scheduled to reach Civitavecchia, Italy on Wednesday, July 1.

Spain in Review

This blog post and the one below will give you a glimpse of Spain as many Semester at Sea participants experienced it. Be sure to check out the slideshow on Spain on the Semester at Sea website: www.semesteratsea.org

Dispatches from Spain

Amazing architecture, interesting foods, a laid-back atmosphere, and friendly, helpful people are the lasting impressions many Semester at Sea students take from their four days in Spain.

A Spanish sunrise greeted students upon the MV Explorer’s arrival in Cadiz, Spain on June 24. Students were hustling to get off the ship after just over a week at sea. During the four days in Spain, they traveled extensively throughout Spain’s Andalucia region. Many fanned out across the city of Cadiz. Others toured the white town region around Ronda. Many headed north to Sevilla to visit that city’s famous cathedral and Alcazar palace. They tried out their Spanish (or sign language), discovered new foods (bull’s cheek) and, through their explorations, absorbed Spain’s beauty, history, architecture, people and its culture.

Here are some dispatches from the students’ experiences and travels.


Rudy Shaffer, Portland State University, OR
I really liked this trip to Spain. The “White Town Route” tour to Ronda was really amazing. The buildings were gorgeous and sit atop this winding hill that we walked up to reach the town. The village [of Ronda] was so small. I was just so fascinated by it and wondered what it would be like to grow up in a town with one little market, one church.
I also did a hike at Grazalema Natural Park. We hiked for two hours to reach the top and the view was so amazing that we were able to see France, not clearly, but it was there in the distance. It was so beautiful to see Spain from this perspective.
I found that with each trip and tour I took I felt like the world just gets bigger and bigger. The more you go out and explore, the more you realize how much you don’t know about the world. That forces you to be adaptable, I think. And that just makes me want to learn more.
We also went to a really good tapas place in Sevilla and I tried octopus. I couldn’t believe I did that. We shelled the shrimp with its eyes and just tried different things. I feel like that was the whole point of being here, to try new things.



William Moore, Marquette University, WI
I stayed in Cadiz for this trip and walked around the city. I discovered the local churches and had a chance to go inside and really take time to look around them. I took suggestions from the locals here for restaurants and places to see. That’s what I came here for, to see the local surroundings. …I like walking around a city by myself. I didn’t want to go to tourist spots. By walking around I think it’s a better way to experience the city, especially since I want to relate it to my classes. I think my experience in the cities will definitely help me with my classes more because I have something to relate them to now. …In Cadiz, I felt really at home walking through the streets. I was comfortable asking people for the time and the good places to eat and things to see and do. I saw lots of similarities with America with how the people are with their children and who they choose as their icons. It was nice just to see that we may be 10,000 miles away but we have similar thought processes about some things.



Devika “Dev” Ghai, Whittier College, CA
This was my first time to Spain. It’s just been amazing. I can’t believe it’s gone by so quickly. I stayed in Cadiz for much of it. Cadiz is just beautiful and so picturesque. There’s a real sense of nostalgia when you look at the older buildings and the narrow, cobblestone streets; you just want to soak it all up. The city really has its own atmosphere, which was nice.
The thing that most surprised me about Spain was the food. I expected it to be spicier, but the flavors were much more subtle. I think I was comparing it to the Mexican food I normally have in L.A. I thought since Spain had an influence on Mexico the foods would be very similar, but that’s not the case. It’s simple food, but really good. I loved the seafood and the bread, olives, and cheese. Each day I came to appreciate it more. And I learned that my perception of Spain being more Latin was not true; Spain is much more European than I thought.
I also visited Algeciras and Porto de Santa Maria for the tour of the Rafael Alberti museum. It was fun to learn about Alberti, how he was exiled from the country after the civil war and just looking at his paintings and poems and then walking around the town that was his inspiration. My time in Algeciras was also wonderful. I saw a Spanish bullring from the first time. Then, I walked into a restaurant in that town. It was pretty quiet in the restaurant and the, all of a sudden, the waiters started dancing in these synchronized movements and told us to join them, so we did. We were all dancing in the restaurant, in the middle of the afternoon, in Algeciras, for about 20 minutes. That was definitely one of the highlights of my trip.
Now, I’m looking forward to seeing if my preconceptions of Italy will match the reality there.



Nhesthy Ong, Kainan University in Taiwan
I went to Barcelona with a group of about 10 people. I wanted to go there because it’s the second most visited destination in Europe; it’s second to Paris, according to websites. So, I kind of wanted to know why. And it was incredible; it’s a fun city. I’ve been to Paris before and Barcelona is equal to Paris. The architecture was great. Seeing all the architecture and art of Antoni Gaudi and seeing the park. Sometimes, it didn’t feel like I was in Spain because so many people spoke English, but the experience was good. I liked seeing a big city and then coming back to Cadiz and seeing the other side of Spain, more relaxed and laid back. Barcelona was too globalized, like every big city. Personally, I prefered Cadiz and the smaller, more authentic, laid back side of Spain.


Jennifer Paige, Winston-Salem State University, NC
I visited Cadiz, Algeciras, and Sevilla and I saw Flamenco dancing and the wonderful architecture and older buildings. When we got here I was ready to get off the ship and eat some food, especially after hearing the lecture from David Gies. I was also really curious to see how Spanish people would look and dress. Maybe because of the traditional pictures I’ve seen, I had in my mind that they would dress a certain way, but they dressed just as normal and you and me.
I also loved seeing the sense of community here. It was nice to watch how parents interacted with their children and see people taking their time. In America everyone is rushing around saying “I gotta go. I gotta go.” In Spain, it was laid back, calm and relaxed. I liked that. And the architecture was beautiful. It was Spain to me, just as I imagined it might be: Old buildings with so much history there. It was really wonderful. …And the sunflowers, fields of sunflowers on the train ride to Sevilla. Just yellow, as far as the eye could see. Just gorgeous.
I also met so many nice, patient people here who were so willing to help you when they knew you were making and effort to try to speak their language. Even if all I could speak was high school Spanish, it was something. In Sevilla, I chatted for a while with a man using a little bit of my Spanish, a little bit of his English and lots of trading our dictionaries back and forth, but we learned a bit about each other. And I tried bull cheek and shark. The bull cheek was a little tangy, but I liked it. …The whole point is to try new things.

Bienvenidos a Espana

When the MV Explorer docks in Cadiz, Spain tomorrow morning, every passenger who attended any of the Explorer Seminars by Interport Lecturer David Gies will be more than prepared.

"It was like attending a history lesson on Spain with additional information on food," said Joe Coleman, a lifelong learner, who attended each of Gies' three seminars.

Over the course of three evenings, Gies quickly dispelled the misconceptions of Spain as solely about siestas, vino, bullfights, Flamenco dancing, strict religion, spicy food and the Francisco Franco dictatorship. Instead, he explained that country’s complex and rich history, dating back to 1100 B.C., through its nearly four decades of dictatorship, to its present day democracy.

“Spain is a layer-cake of history, beginning with the ancient indigenous peoples, and building upon centuries of influence and conquest by numerous populations,” Gies told a standing-room only audience during the first of his three seminars.

Woven throughout Gies’ historical timeline were descriptions, and discussions, of Spain’s art, architecture, culture and, of course, its food and nightlife.

Dustin Farivar, a senior at the University of Colorado at Boulder, got a greater sense of the sites he could see on his trip to Sevilla. Gies' talks "made me realize some of the hidden wonders of Sevilla," Farivar said.

Gies is a professor of Spanish literature at University of Virginia and was the university’s first academic dean for Semester at Sea. He will take on that role again for the Fall 2010 voyage.

By the end of Gies’ three seminars, people had a good sense of how to navigate their way through Spain and had much to look forward to.

"I've not been to Spain before and this has me completely fascinated about what I will see in my trip to Sevilla, Granada and Cordoba," said Coleman, a retired judge from Seattle. "It was a wonderful lesson for me."

Gaining New Perspectives

Visiting the United States had not been high on Fernanda Lima Sento Se’s priority list. That was before she set sail with Semester at Sea as its Interport Spanish student.

After two weeks of living with more than 700 U.S. college students—and making a number of friends—Fernanda returns to her home in Spain tomorrow with a much greater interest in the U.S.

“I’ve really enjoyed meeting so many different people and I’m looking forward to going to visit the different cities where they are from,” said Fernanda, who lives on the Spanish island of Mallorca and attends university in Barcelona.

In return, Fernanda hopes the stories she’s told about life among Spanish college-age students will inspire her U.S. peers to discover the different personalities of her countries many cities and provinces.

“People thought Spain was much less cosmopolitan than it really is,” she said. “They asked me a lot of questions about bull fights and partying and there is much more to Spain that that.”

In a recent Explorer Seminar (one of 16 information classes open to students), Fernanda spoke to curious students about life in Barcelona, the museums, and what makes each of the different provinces special. “Every little town has its own personality; they are all so distinct with their own customs and traditions,” said Fernanda, 22.

Fernanda admits that she is not the typical Spanish student. She was born to Brazilian immigrants who who settled in Mallorca after retiring from a professional traveling dance company. She studied in a British-run primary/secondary school where she took French and German. She speaks Portugese with her family, Spanish, English, French, German and two Spanish dialects—Catalan (in Barcelona) and Mallorquin (on Mallorca).

However, if there is a new face of Spanish youth, Fernanda may be part it. Most of her friends span the spectrum of Spain—German immigrants in Mallorca, northern African and South American immigrants and students in Barcelona, young adults with a long family history in Spain.

“People in Spain come from so many different places now and the country is changing in so many ways,” she said.

Fernanda hopes to show some of her new U.S. friends her Spain if they have a chance to meet while Semester at Sea is in the country.