PrePort Meeting

Last night we had our first cultural PrePort meeting, which revolved around St. Petersburg. The cultural preports occur two days before we arrive in port, and the logistics meetings occur the night before. Last night, Professor Dmitry Strovsky ran the meeting to tell us more about his country (a person from our next destination gets on our ship the port before to tell us about their country).

Professor Strovsky was very well informing as well as entertaining. For some, his accent was very tough, but it was pretty good! He exhibited that traditional Russians have a very strong voice, and they are not afraid to talk. This helped us learn a lot more about their culture. In addition to his general actions, he showed us a PowerPoint on his history and points of interest for Russia.

Throughout his presentation, he made a lot of jokes:
"Everybody should be cut off" rather than every "beard" should be cut off, as ordered by Peter.
"This is a very big BUTTTTT" in reference to something of great importance.
He kept calling on a SAS professor to explain architecture, so he would remind him, "okay Michael, it is your turn now!" While Michael was explaining, Professor Strovsky said, "Michael, you look like a czar, get out of the picture!"
He concluded his presentation by saying, "I don't know how wise we are, but at least we are not boring!"

All in all, it was an excellent cultural PrePort meeting. I recommend to go to yours because they really show you not only the history and aspects of the country, but also how the natives interact.