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.