fort charlotte

the students arrived today and the faculty ran ran far far from the ship! Sherri & I worked in the library for a few hours and then called it a day. I did a faculty developed practicum (FDP) to Fort Charlotte. The fort was built in 1787 but never saw any conflict. It was built by Lord Dunmore who was the former Governor of Virginia (and New York) and so he named his fort after the Queen that also bequeathed her name to Charlottesville.

Then we had a fried-sea-food-filled lunch at a place on the water. Some photos as we walked back:

Our ship, the MV Explorer!



That is Robin & Dawn. I’ll write about both of them in a future post. I'm trying hard to keep these posts to a manageable reading length.

Lovely day all in all. All the faculty/staff had this feeling this afternoon of "who are all these people on OUR ship!?!" when we came back & saw all the students running around. I've been saying that I actually think library-life will calm down for us now that the students have boarded. The students aren’t going to be as interested in the library their first week of school nearly as much as the faculty are. We’re getting a better handle on reserves now and the faculty are going to be otherwise occupied. Most of the faculty laptops are now all set up & those wanting access to the UVA databases are all (most all) successfully connected. The faculty are amazed & delighted by the UVA Library service. It’s fun to watch & it makes me proud of the work we do at UVA. I also got a book request from the Archbishop this morning as soon I introduced myself to him. I’ve emailed UVA so that we can amaze & delight him as well.

I actually spent quality-time today with the Archbishop while we were at the endlessly-long life boat drill. It was very very hot. We had to wear warm clothes for the drill – hats, long sleeves, long pants, closed toed shoes. I wasn’t sure if my crocs qualified as closed toed, so I put on sneakers. There were two missing students & so we stood there a very long time. After they checked our names off (I’m at the same muster station with the Archbishop & most of the faculty) and it was clear we weren't getting dismissed anytime soon, I sat down on a stairwell. The Archbishop came and joined me and the two of us sat there for a good 10 minutes until they came through for inspections and told us we needed to stand. He’s warm & funny & crazily accessible. They made us stand women & children first, but frankly it seems to me that Nobel Prize winners deserve to be first. Not to jinx anything, but I figure if I've got to get on a lifeboat, Desmond Tutu is the guy to be with.

And then we sailed away. Parents & ISE staff waved us off. It was really quite overwhelming. I’m going away for 100 days ... Here are a few photos as we left Nassau. I’ve also added some more to the map above.

and away we go ...