We Are Here

The library is home to the most popular computer on the ship. The "You Are Here" computer sits on the edge of the library desk. It is hooked up to a tiny GPS unit that sits in the window of the library and shows our location as we travel across the ocean. It had a hardware failure right as we were leaving Hawaii and was much missed. Now that we have it up and running again, it is once more a very popular feature. The picture below is of some of the Unreasonable Institute participants taking a photo of the YAH screen after we got it running again.

With one more day and night of sailing until we reach Yokohama, Japan tomorrow, we are all pretty ready to get into port. The seas continue to be very rough today, with salt spray splashing the library windows (we are on the 6th deck). The higher you go on the ship, the more you feel the motion. Down on decks 2 and 3, it feels a lot calmer.

I'll fit in one more library work study profile before we reach port tomorrow. Meet Elizabeth!

Elizabeth is from Colorado and attends the University of Michigan. She is majoring in industrial and operations engineering, with an international minor. Back at Michigan, she has taken a class in engineering across cultures, and is pleased that the non-western cultures classes she is taking during Semester at Sea will count toward her minor.

Her favorite thing about Semester at Sea so far is that she is constantly meeting new people. She really likes that it is an expected thing to sit down with new people and introduce yourself. She also likes the 25 hour days we've been having.

Her least favorite part of the voyage so far has been trying to read without falling asleep. Like many people, the effects of the rolling seas on her only result in sleepiness, not queasiness. Lucky Elizabeth!

Elizabeth is keeping a blog at http://elizabetholinblog.wordpress.com/ which she updates by emailing posts to her sister back in the US, who then posts to the blog. It is possible to email posts directly to the blog (that's how I've been doing it), but Elizabeth gets the added bonus of another set of eyes correcting spelling and punctuation first.

Dramatic Weather

The seas were much calmer most of today, but we are heading back into some interesting weather. We are about 2/3 of the way to Japan, and have been skirting the heaviest seas all day, but things look a little different at the moment. Here are some pictures taken from the faculty lounge, where I have been working for a bit and enjoying some quiet. The ship can be an on-all-the-time kind of place, with voyagers in every available nook and cranny meeting, hanging out, and studying. The only problem with the faculty lounge is that it is at the top, forward-most part of the ship, so you feel the most motion up here. 

The navy blue seas to the starboard (?) are dramatically different than the gray seas to port,  and the storm straight ahead reaching down into the water is quite something to behold.

It was a good day in the library today, with a couple of lingering technology issues finally resolved. With a combined effort of the head IT officer, our colleague Kelly back in VA, and myself, we were able to get our locational computer (aka the You Are Here computer) back up and running for the first time since leaving Hawaii. Thank goodness Kelly had the foresight to keep an extra GPS unit under the desk in the library, since the problem turned out to be the communication between the new unit and the computer. Our library desk computer is also back up and running at normal speed after a brief stay in the technology infirmary. 

Work Study Student Profile: Abe

We crossed the International Date Line a couple of days ago, and jumped from Sunday right to Tuesday. The seas are a good bit rougher as of last night into today, and despite feeling no ill effect earlier, today seems different for some reason. 

Our work study student profile today is about Abe!

Abe is from Lexington, Virginia, and is one of two UVA students we have working in the shipboard library. He is a 3rd year (that's a junior for the non-Hoos), majoring in history and foreign affairs.

His favorite thing about Semester at Sea so far is sitting on deck watching the ocean.

Her least favorite thing so far has been the food and internet access (or lack thereof). He started to day he was also frustrated at the lack of news, but then we sat down together and looked at Factiva's news service available through UVA with no internet charges, and he was much happier, and has been sharing how to access Factiva with library patrons.

What Abe likes most about working in the library is being surrounded by books, so he can read all the interesting ones he finds. He's not kidding about that, either. The picture below was taken before classes even started, and Abe was already well into his course readings.

Thanks, Abe, for being willing to be profiled.

Work Study Student Profile

The days at sea are already beginning to run together, and we still have 7 days before we reach Japan. I thought you all might like to "meet" the great students who are working in the library with us over the next few days. So here goes the first profile:

Meet Janet! She is from Oregon, and goes to University of Oregon. She is a sophomore there (that's 2nd year for the Wahoos reading), and has not yet declared her major.

Her favorite thing about Semester at Sea so far is the excitement about ports yet to come.

Her least favorite thing so far has been the rocking and seasickness. I don't think she looks green in her photo, though!

What Janet likes most about working in the library is the "chill atmosphere."  I think credit for the cool library vibe might be due to Olivia, as she and Janet work together in the afternoons. 

Thanks, Janet, for being willing to be profiled.

HI Bye

We finally left the harbor in Honolulu at noon today. The departure was not announced, so there was a lot of scrambling by folks wanting to get in one last cell phone call before we hit international waters again. We enjoyed the nice weather and beautiful views for an extra half day while reading emails from home of school closings and snow dustings. The first picture below is the view from the library window as we passed Diamond Head and the tip of Oahu. We also saw several whales out the library window right after getting out of the harbor.

The afternoon brought us back to regular at-sea kinds of activities. The dependent children had an afternoon enrichment session with Ed, one of the professors, on building gravity-powered cars from cardboard, straws, and plastic wheels. Jr really got into it and built one of the cars that went the farthest. They will have another session or two to continue "rapid prototyping" (just like the entrepreneurs in the onboard Unreasonable Institute programs) of cars with other materials and propulsion sources.

There are a bunch of student-run clubs that are starting to meet, including one that makes balloon shapes!?! Jr and Sr happened upon the meeting and sent me back to the room with their creations. 

I went to a seminar tonight featuring the Presidential Scholars, who are students doing special research projects as part of a scholarship program. They are a diverse group doing everything from a crowd-based art installation in ports and on ship, to researching strategies for disease prevention in Sub-Saharan Africa. I am sure we will see some of them in the library in coming days or weeks as their projects take shape.

We gain another hour tonight, which is great since we all have a cold and can use some extra sleep. There is so much going on with the library, the ship, the students, and my own family that an extra hour every few days is very welcome. I wonder if I can import that idea to C'ville when I get back!

Fabulous Views, Exciting Places

What is that fantastic view out our cabin window, you ask? It seems to be Access Bay number 34, in the port of Honolulu. It will continue to be our view until sometime tomorrow afternoon when we finally leave Honolulu. We stopped here at noon today after leaving Hilo, to take on fuel. Because of a big storm in the Pacific, the captain decided we will stay here tonight instead of sailing on to Japan just yet. What is harder than multiple days at sea? Multiple days docked in a cool port where you cannot leave the ship. Yep, we are stopped here but not disembarking, probably because they aren't sure when the weather will clear. So we are still "hanging loose" at, but not in, Honolulu.

In Port: Hilo, Hawaii

We spent two days in Hawaii. We had arranged to rent a car before arriving, so we picked up a very bare-bones Jeep Wrangler and then headed off for some supplies at the Walmart in Hilo. After getting our chocolate, snacks, beverages, and some lunch supplies, we drove up the Hawaii Volcanoes National Park, about 25 miles from Hilo. It was pouring rain most of the time we were in the park, but we saw some interesting lava formations, including a lava tube we were able to walk through. Jr had the smart idea of bringing Grandpa's flashlight into the tube. One of the pictures below is looking out of the tube. 

On the second day in port, we went up to Akaka Falls. The other picture below is of me in front of the falls, which were beautiful, wild, and tropical but a very short hike from the parking lot. I am holding some Birds of Paradise (my mom's favorite flowers) which I bought in the Hilo Farmer's Market that morning.

When we got back on the ship last night, it was a little hard to transition back into shipboard, academic life. I almost forgot to give the films to the crew member who puts them on the AV loop until Grandpa said he needed to go to his cabin to watch a film for one of his classes. I spent a little time in the library getting books and answering locational questions for a bit after that. By this morning, we were back to normal classes (it is day A3) and activities.

Jr did a great job this afternoon at a travel writing session for the dependent children. He wrote about the terrible Jeep, climbing the lava, and the cheese doodles he ate in the car on the way to the waterfall. We will send his writing to his classmates back in Charlottesville as part of the "Vicarious Voyage" program. Hopefully they will write back.

Right now we are docked in Honolulu to refuel for a few hours, but we cannot get off the ship. Sometimes they have stopped for fuel for a few hours before getting into Hilo, which is much worse than having already been to Hilo and stopping here. We are all enjoying good cell phone service and data uploads for the next few hours. When we leave for Japan this afternoon, we will be at sea for the next nine days until we land in Yokohama (near Tokyo) on January 27. Or maybe it is eight days, since January 21 is a "lost" day when we cross the International Date Line. I'm not sure how that will work, I'll post about it when it happens!

 

Uh Oh

We had a good two days in Hawaii, pictures later. But first, this is what we saw coming back to the ship this afternoon. They don't tie the books down very often, when they do, it means rough seas are expected. Going to tidy my cabin now!

Hawaii and earlier

Orientation in the Union on the first day the students were aboard. The first of many hours in this space.

My view from the fitness center on the 7th deck. Those old cycling shoes are coming in handy, though I won't try to walk on deck in them.

We are in Hawaii today! The ship arrived in Hilo at 8am, it took a couple of hours to get us all through immigration after that. We have rented a car and are driving up to Hawaii Volcanoes National Park. Since we have US cell service, I'll catch you up on a few older pictures, too.

Here's a picture of the first time we were in the Union (the ship's auditorium) on the day the students all boarded. We got to know it well through many hours of orientation.

Click and Breathe

"Click and breathe" is an expression we've been saying in the library, and it is making its way around the ship. We model it by clicking a link to an inter- or intra-net connected resource, then taking the opportunity for a few deep breaths while waiting for the information to load on the computer screen. It is helpful to remember that we are in the middle of the ocean, with thousands of miles of nothing but water around, and to be amazed that we have internet at all, rather than frustrated at the slow speed of what we do have. Olivia and I have done 7 in-class presentations on library resources specific to class assignments, and learned after the first couple that it is far more effective to show screen captures of how to access the online databases rather than try to connect to the internet during class.

Our family also learned another helpful coping signal from an alumni voyager we met on the reunion voyage. When you or others are tired of how funny the desalinated water tastes, bored with another day of too-familiar food, or frustrated that the internet is out again, put both arms over your head and make a circle, like you are making a giant letter O. Then say, "You're going around the world, get over it." It usually causes laughs and a reset of perspective.

Some things at sea do pose unique challenges. For example, I decided to shave my legs in the shower this morning since the seas were calmer than they had been for several days. Can't say that is a factor I've ever had to consider before! Another example is the netting over top of the ball court where Jr played kickball and soccer with the dependent children this afternoon on the 7th deck. "Ball overboard" is not a maneuver the captain considers critical, thus the netting. 

It is definitely getting warmer as we get toward Hawaii, so Sr and I sat on the deck and watched the kids play. The students have been great about volunteering to work with the dependent children, too--the tall young man leaning over to help the littlest kid came to play ball with the kids today, and Jr got some homeschool-time writing help from a student interested in an education career this morning.

One and a half more days until we reach Hawaii.

A1 is in the books

Yesterday was Day A1. No, we didn't eat a bunch of steak sauce. A1 means it was the first day of classes, and was an "A" day. Classes on the MV Explorer are held every day we are at sea, alternating between "A" and "B" days. Today is B1. Grandpa has some classes that meet on A days and some that meet on B days. Sr has classes just on B days in the afternoon, so he is at his first classes right now.

My scheduled library hours are in the mornings to early afternoon, then I have some free time while Olivia staffs the library. We had all 9 of our work study students start yesterday in 1- or 2-hour shifts, so Olivia and I worked the evening hours as well to get the students oriented. As the students get more comfortable in the library, the evening hours will be staffed just by students, though we will check in on a regular basis with them. Since the library is pretty much the center of the busiest area of the ship, it isn't hard to pass by and check in as we go to evening seminars, eat dinner, etc. The students are doing a terrific job of learning library duties and asking good questions.

Right now I am sitting in the main dining room while Diedre, one of the Unreasonable Institute mentors, who works for Microsoft Studios/Xbox, is speaking to the dependent kids enrichment program about what it is like to work in the video game business. The children are very engaged in asking Diedre questions. She brought an Xbox on board but the power supply is bad, so they are going to get it fixed in Hawaii. It is easy to forget that we are in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, a couple of thousand miles from land, and things like a bad power supply, or a broken copier in the Registrar's office, etc, have to wait until the next port to get fixed. Internet bandwidth has been harder to come by since all 630-some students boarded, but it was completely out for several hours this morning, the shipboard intranet, on which the library catalog runs, was also very slow. We checked out books by hand, and found the people we needed to talk to in person instead of email ;-)

Seas have continued to be less than smooth, though last night was better than the night before, and most of us have found our sea legs. In two more days, we reach Hawaii. I promise some pictures then.

Embarkation Day and Orientation Day

Wow, yesterday was a busy day! The students arrived on busses from San Diego starting around 10am. We actually got a few things done in the library before they arrived, such as adding reserve books requested by professors and adding titles to the film loop list that shows on cabin TVs. We have had a steady stream of faculty with questions about their reserves and film loop requests, and that continued in the morning.

When the students arrived, we switched into information desk mode. We didn't know all the answers but we found them out as we went along.

Once all the students and lifelong learners were aboard (including Grandpa!), we had a short meeting with all 9 of our library work study students. I hope to post profiles of them, one at a time, over coming blog posts. They are a terrific bunch from diverse backgrounds.

After dinner, there was a big welcome session in the Union, where all faculty were introduced to the students. Well, almost all faculty. Poor Olivia did not get her seasickness medication in early enough, and was feeling the effects of the seas, and her absence in the Union was explained that way by Deans Sharon and Tom. This morning she is fine, but having to answer everyone's questions about how she is feeling!

Today we are in student orientation most of the day. Olivia and just finished our library introduction to the whole student body about 15 minutes ago, it went very well.

What is the rest of the family doing? Yesterday, Grandpa arrived. It was an amazing moment to see my dad walk into the SAS library. He went through the arrival process, attended the lifelong learner orientation in the afternoon, and got himself settled in his room with Jr. There was some negotiation about where the Legos needed to move, and Jr swapped beds to give Grandpa the spot nearer the outlet for his computer. Fortunately, Jr's clothes are small and he doesn't have many, so Grandpa has lots of space for his things.

Sr and Jr made one last run into Ensenada yesterday while the students were boarding. Sr braved a haircut in Ensenada. Too bad he didn't learn the Spanish for "short on the sides, long on top" before sitting in the chair. He still looks like himself though, we'll post some pictures later. 

Classes start tomorrow, and that will be the beginning of our more regular routine. The library will be open 8am-11pm (that's 0800 to 2300) on class days, staffed by Olivia, me, and the students. Until we get to Hilo, Hawaii on January 15, Olivia and I will spend a lot of time in the library supporting and training students. Both Sr and Grandpa are excited about the classes they will be auditing. Jr is less excited about starting his homeschool activities with Sr in the morning, but he was very excited with all the students boarding yesterday. I think he shares all of our feeling that this is finally the real deal!

Faculty Orientation Day

I spent all day today in faculty orientation sessions. My brain is pretty full. The students board starting at 8:30am tomorrow, including 9 library work study students. Grandpa and the other lifelong learners will board with the first groups, too. Jr, Sr, and a dependent child Jr's age from one of the other faculty families went back to the beach for a few hours. I'm going to bed so I can be bright eyed and bushy-tailed for the hub-bub tomorrow.

Teresa Sullivan in SAS Library

Yes, that is the president of the University of Virginia standing next to me in the Semester at Sea library. Olivia took this picture during the reception for parents of students this evening. I have met and talked to many of the faculty who boarded today. Questions about reserve readings, video looping, in class library orientations, and more have come Olivia's and my way already.

Faculty Boarding Day

We are back in San Diego this morning. The library is all ready! I was hoping to make it to the faculty orientation session at a nearby hotel, but we had to wait to get off the ship, so I will see everyone when we all board in an hour or two. We are strolling the harbor for a bit while we wait for the ship to be cleared for spring voyager boarding. All of the reunion voyage participants are on their way home now, including Mary and Kelly. We will miss them, but Mary has provided me with the very best training and advice. It is up to Olivia (the assistant librarian) and me now!

Here is Jr looking at the naval ships in San Diego Bay near where we docked.

End of Reunion Voyage

We are back at sea today, heading toward San Diego to drop off the reunion voyage passengers and pick up the faculty for the spring voyage tomorrow morning. The library is in wonderful shape, and lectures and children's programs continue today. I may work on our film looping schedule for a bit this afternoon.

Not much other news, so here is a virtual tour of the ship for your enjoyment. I don't have the internet speed here to view it, but you all can!

http://www.semesteratsea.org/our-ship/deck-plans/

Also, a note for those of you reading these links by Facebook: I'm not really on there much and won't see your comments, these are autoposting. So if you want to leave me comments, I'd love to see them on the blog.

Ensenada, Mexico

Ok, so it wasn't on my short list of places to visit, but we had a nice day in Ensenada, Mexico. Sr and Jr took a surfing lesson at a beach a few miles from the ship, on trip sponsored by Semester at Sea. No pictures because they were busy surfing, but they had fun and even were able to catch quite a few waves by the end. Mary and her husband, Kelly, let me tag along to lunch in town while the boys surfed. Here we are in front of the ship with happy tummies full of fish tacos from a great place Kelly found. The ship sails back to San Diego tomorrow morning for the end of the reunion voyage. By the end of the day tomorrow, we should have the library all ready to go. Most of the people on board will get off in San Diego, then the faculty for the spring academic voyage (the reason we've been doing all this setup) will board. We will sail with the faculty back to Ensenada, where the students for the spring voyage (all 632 of them) will board. It is funny to come to this port twice, but most people will do only the reunion voyage or the spring voyage, not both, so there are only a few of us who will have deja vu.

Sailing to Mexico

Today was our first full day at sea. Things that happened:

I woke up at 6am since I am still pretty much on East Coast time. The upside to that is I made it to a yoga class. It was pretty funny to try to do some of the balance poses with the ship moving, but there was also a point during the meditation at the end when I felt like I was flying. I only had tea before yoga, I promise. Yoga at sea was a bucket list item for me, but one I hope to I get to check off a couple of times.

Since we are on the reunion voyage, there is a children's program. Jr went to an art class where they made Day of the Dead decorations. He met some children who will also be sailing with us on the spring voyage, and has hung out with them for pretty much the rest of the day. They got a special children's tour of the bridge! I'm jealous he got to see where they control the ship from before I did! There are a few more activities on Sunday, too.

Sr went to two lectures while Jr was doing children's program things. He liked the lecture on travel writing by Prof. Kluge, a former SAS professor, and also a session by some SAS alumni who are now film makers.

Things in the library went a little slower today, in part because we had no internet for several hours in the middle of the day, and in part because Mary had to teach me some things that I do not do in the Health Sciences Library back home. We got all of the 135 videos the faculty have requested into the catalog and onto the shelves, and shelved several boxes of other books bought for the collection. There are just two boxes left, plus some other setup. We got enough done today, though, to spend some time in port tomorrow. Sr and Jr are taking a surfing lesson, which was my Christmas present to them. 

Off to Mexico

The ship just departed for Mexico! Mary and I just delivered yearbooks to classrooms around the ship for reunion receptions for 60s through 2000s. It was a weird experience to be walking toward the stern as we were sailing forward, kind of like walking in place. The light is fading, but here is a view from our cabin of San Diego passing by.

End of First Day On Board

We boarded the ship around 2pm today. Except for one item, all of our belongings cleared security. The item that did not make it was a pedal wrench Sr had brought to swap out pedals on whatever bikes we find along the way with the SPD (clip less) ones we tossed in the luggage at the last moment, along with some old bike shoes. We did find that the spin bikes in the fitness center take the kind of shoes we brought, so that will make riding them nicer.

After finding Mary in the library (see previous post), we settled in our cabins for a bit, then sent up to dinner. Dinner was a small buffet of salad, fish, and a pork stir fry. Quite tasty, and Sr was a fan of the pecan pie offered for dessert. Jr ate his usual raw carrots, celery, a few bites of fish, and a roll, then wanted to head back to the cabin to continue working on a Lego project he had started while we were unpacking. He spent all his Christmas money on kits at Legoland earlier in the week, and had been true to his promise to save them for building once we were on the ship. So of course that was the first thing he wanted to unpack.

After dinner we did more unpacking. We are pretty well moved in now. Sr and I have a nice cabin with a little sitting area and porthole. Jr's cabin is across the hall. He will share it with Grandpa when he boards in about a week with the rest of the lifelong Learners and students when the main Spring voyage starts. Tomorrow the 4 day reunion voyage starts, with alumni of past voyages sailing for a few days with their family and friends to Mexico and back.

We took a little self guided tour of the ship this evening, exploring all the decks and common areas. There are beautiful views of San Diego in 3 directions, since the ship is docked right downtown. There is a barely perceptible rocking motion so far, every once in a while you find yourself taking an extra step or leaning. It will get much more noticeable once we start sailing. We are docked here until about 11pm tomorrow, when we set sail for Ensenada, Mexico.

Tomorrow, we start unpacking those 19 boxes of library books and supplies. They arrived safely and are awaiting Mary and my organizational efforts.

Embarkation Day!

Today is the day! We boarded the MV Explorer after lunch today, and are getting settled in and organized. Mary was there to meet us in the library and introduced me to some of the staff and crew with whom I will be working. I should be unpacking, but had to post some pictures and news first.