It pays to listen...

Today started off kind of late. I slept in till just before 11am. After some serious roommate bonding that kept us up till 3am, I still wanted 8 hours of sleep. (My roommate, Elijah, is also interested in photography and quite talented.) Today was much more relaxed while at sea. In class we spoke about “contextual listening” and good techniques for becoming/being a genuinely good listener, such as body language. Listening seems to be a significant attribute to humanitarian engineering that people can simply neglect. We also did an activity called ‘The Great Game of Power’ involving a table, water bottle, and six (stackable) chairs, and we had to “create a scene” with these objects and the class had to figure out which chair was intended by the sculptor to hold the greatest amount of power. The interpretations of the “sculpted scenes” demonstrated the variety of perspectives a group of individuals can possess. I attended a seminar presentation about the Panama Canal Expansion Project Program by our interport lecturer from Panama, who works for the project. I need to take my malaria pill tonight and then it will be Friday tomorrow! One week on Semester at Sea and it’s been simply spectacular!!

Next time you talk to someone…truly listen and ask a follow up question, or try to genuinely answer a (follow-up) question, when you’re asked.

¡Hasta pronto!
Matt