Classes Begin at SMU

We started classes this week. It is still very cold out and it has rained almost everyday since we got here. I think it was about 0 degrees Celsius today and the wind was really blowing to top it off. Our first class today was Container Port Terminal Development. The professor seems very intelligent and his English is clear enough for us to understand. The class should be very interesting and we will have so many resources to use for this class. The professor gave us a tour of the transportation lab and that proved to be unbelievable. There are four scale displays of different ports and the detail is amazing. These glass displays are complete with lights and moving cranes. There is also a movie theater in the lab and we watched a short video on container terminals. I think everyone was equally impressed and I took a lot of pictures.

We had lunch at a nice restaurant in one of the shopping centers and it was a hot pot style meal. This was the first time that any of us have ever eaten a meal like this. We sat around a table and in the center is a cooking pot that is built into the table. I couldn't honestly tell what we were eating but it was pretty good. The food is slowing dumped into this cooking pot in similar fashion to a stew and everyone just serves themselves from the pot. It is meant to be a social meal and is mostly done on family occasions or for the new years. The lunch lasted about two hours and we headed back out to do more shopping.

The IMB cadets had a logistics and supply chain class in the afternoon while the two MT cadets had classes at the Merchant Marine College. I think everyone is enjoying class and the Professors are very accommodating. The classes will all be very challenging but we definitely have the resources to learn. This school really feels like a research institution along with an academic learning environment. The professors all have amazing credentials and they really seem to have a passion for what they are doing.

Adam Silvis is a 2/C cadet and Student Trustee at Massachusetts Maritime Academy