about the ship
According to the Voyager's Handbook (spring, 2007):
Archbishop Tutu was here for the reunion voyage (last week), flew to India to accept the Ghandi Peace Prize, and will return to Nassau tomorrow for a fundraising dinner for ISE. He will then sail with our voyage for all 100 days. We confirmed today that the proper form of address is "Archbishop."
Another full day in libraryland. The Computer Lab Coordinator and I did an IT presentation for the faculty which was immediately followed up by much configuring of laptops for the course reserve folders & for the UVA proxy server. The good news is that all the configuration went incredibly well. All of the faculty who came to us are now connecting to the UVA databases. The computer lab set up walk-in hours for configurations and Sherri & I wondered if maybe the library should have done that too, but the faculty are clearly feeling comfortable walking up whenever. It's been pretty chaotic in both locations, so I'm not sure the formality of the walk-in hours serves much better purpose! I was a little concerned about stepping on Matt's toes (the computer lab guy, who is great!), but he seems very grateful for the help. The library & the computer lab are on opposites sides of a central area so there's a lot of collaboration which is working really well.
As always, there is much password confusion ... one, two, three passwords ... one for the Internet, one for the course reserves folders, one for the UVA proxy server. You'd really think there'd be a better way ... faculty are having a very hard time understanding what's what & why the passwords have to be different.
I was hoping to get out this afternoon/early evening, but too much laptop configuration. And Sherri & I had a 7:30 meeting tonight to meet our workstudy students. We have 5 students who all seem very nice & friendly & excited to be aboard. They are working a full day (9-5) tomorrow. Sherri & I are a little panicked about finding something for 5 workstudy students to do for 8 hours each when we still don't have a good handle on any kind of routine for ourselves. Some shelf-reading, some reserve processing, some scanning for course reserves for materials that faculty have brought with them, we'll show them how to help configure laptops. It's not that there is not enough to do, it's that we haven't had time to breathe to come up with a coherent plan for getting things done. Or training. I gotta say that I am SOOO glad I boarded with the Admin Team. If I had boarded with faculty/staff, I would have been sunk.
We "puttered around" in the ocean today. We had to pull out of port to let some cruise ships come in (they seem to be more important than we are) and I have a few photos but I'm too fried to go down to my cabin to get my camera. I'll put them up tomorrow. Just middle of sea photos. We're puttering again tomorrow. Puttering seems to be an official nautical term. I thought we were "anchoring" but we never did, we were moving the whole time. The weather was windy but pretty humid. So far, the motion doesn't bother me at all. I honestly didn't notice we were back in port until well after it turned out we had arrived.
I'm tired & working hard & sleeping hard. The excitement level here is insane. I can't imagine what it's going to be like when 700 students arrive on Sunday!
The MV Explorer was built in Germany as the world's fastest cruise ship and completed in 2001. She has a gross tonnage of 24,318, a length of 590 feet, breadth of 84 feet, draft of 24 feet, and a cruising speed of up to 32 knots. There are 418 cabins (256 outside and 122 inside) and six participant decks for a total of 918 berths.The earliest incarnation of Semester at Sea started in 1963 with the creation of the University of the Seven Seas. Under the administration of Chapman College, it was renamed World Campus Afloat. The Institute for Shipboard Education was incorporated in 1976 and the program was renamed Semester at Sea. The University of Colorado-Boulder was then the academic sponser and the University of Pittsburgh took it on in 1981 for 25 years before its new home at UVA. In 1979, SAS students met Anwar Sadat, in 1981 students met Indira Ghandi, in 1988 Mikhail Gorbechev and Corazon Aquino, in 1982 Desmond Tutu sailed for the first time, in 1994 they met Nelson Mandela and in 2000, Fidel Castro. In 1994, SAS was the first ship of U.S. passengers to visit Vietnam after the U.S. embargo was lifted. This spring (yes, my voyage), Desmond Tutu will be sailing with us all 100 days.
Archbishop Tutu was here for the reunion voyage (last week), flew to India to accept the Ghandi Peace Prize, and will return to Nassau tomorrow for a fundraising dinner for ISE. He will then sail with our voyage for all 100 days. We confirmed today that the proper form of address is "Archbishop."
Another full day in libraryland. The Computer Lab Coordinator and I did an IT presentation for the faculty which was immediately followed up by much configuring of laptops for the course reserve folders & for the UVA proxy server. The good news is that all the configuration went incredibly well. All of the faculty who came to us are now connecting to the UVA databases. The computer lab set up walk-in hours for configurations and Sherri & I wondered if maybe the library should have done that too, but the faculty are clearly feeling comfortable walking up whenever. It's been pretty chaotic in both locations, so I'm not sure the formality of the walk-in hours serves much better purpose! I was a little concerned about stepping on Matt's toes (the computer lab guy, who is great!), but he seems very grateful for the help. The library & the computer lab are on opposites sides of a central area so there's a lot of collaboration which is working really well.
As always, there is much password confusion ... one, two, three passwords ... one for the Internet, one for the course reserves folders, one for the UVA proxy server. You'd really think there'd be a better way ... faculty are having a very hard time understanding what's what & why the passwords have to be different.
I was hoping to get out this afternoon/early evening, but too much laptop configuration. And Sherri & I had a 7:30 meeting tonight to meet our workstudy students. We have 5 students who all seem very nice & friendly & excited to be aboard. They are working a full day (9-5) tomorrow. Sherri & I are a little panicked about finding something for 5 workstudy students to do for 8 hours each when we still don't have a good handle on any kind of routine for ourselves. Some shelf-reading, some reserve processing, some scanning for course reserves for materials that faculty have brought with them, we'll show them how to help configure laptops. It's not that there is not enough to do, it's that we haven't had time to breathe to come up with a coherent plan for getting things done. Or training. I gotta say that I am SOOO glad I boarded with the Admin Team. If I had boarded with faculty/staff, I would have been sunk.
We "puttered around" in the ocean today. We had to pull out of port to let some cruise ships come in (they seem to be more important than we are) and I have a few photos but I'm too fried to go down to my cabin to get my camera. I'll put them up tomorrow. Just middle of sea photos. We're puttering again tomorrow. Puttering seems to be an official nautical term. I thought we were "anchoring" but we never did, we were moving the whole time. The weather was windy but pretty humid. So far, the motion doesn't bother me at all. I honestly didn't notice we were back in port until well after it turned out we had arrived.
I'm tired & working hard & sleeping hard. The excitement level here is insane. I can't imagine what it's going to be like when 700 students arrive on Sunday!
