convocation

so, first this morning, remember the Archbishop said very nice things about the library at breakfast? Then, tonight there was Convocation to honor the students aboard who are graduating seniors and the shipboard community at large. I processed in with the faculty, which was nice -- I have to say I’ve felt totally part of the faculty and that has worked really well -- and there’s something a bit ego-boosting about standing there with all the students applauding for you. And then the Archbishop spoke and went through a list of things he wondered how we will ever live without: the noontime bridge report (as mentioned by Marvel the other day, how will we ever get our bearings?), Mizraim singing the dining hall, Bob and his ubiquitous guitar … and … excellent library service. “I ask for a book and, at the next port, there is the book I asked for!,” he said with his tell-tale giggle. And then Dean Larry thanked us also during his remarks (he thanked all the staff offices individually) and Sherri & I got a very warm applause. This was a very cool gig.

gmt-8: california time

we’re all packed, everything has been taken down to deck 2 for holding for tomorrow morning. Both personal bags and 7 boxes of textbooks going off for donation. The library is clean, everything is shelved, in perfect order, and looking beautiful. I have the clean database backed up for UVA plus a video list plus a book list. And Destiny documentation left for the crew IT folks and for Jean. Several crew have stopped me to tell me how happy they are that textbooks are being donated. It must have distressed them in the past also to see them thrown away. This afternoon, I need to work on my end-of-voyage report and then I’m DONE! We’re having a party at 4:00 in the faculty/staff lounge, convocation is tonight, and then I’m sure something celebratory will happen after that. We’re told that tomorrow is nuts and that you don’t get to see anybody you want to see in the chaos and that you should say goodbye to everybody today. That’ll make me nuts. I can only do the goodbye-thing once and I need it to be at the end. But I fear that people will just vanish into the whirlpool of luggage grabbing & UPS shipping & happy families greeting the ship.

I decided to get a hotel room for tomorrow night. Staying on the ship was going to be overly complicated. They won’t let us take luggage off tomorrow if we’re staying tomorrow night. There is no secure location in the warehouse to store our stuff (although this seems hard to believe). Customs won’t let us back on the ship with our stuff once we’ve cleared. So we have to wait until Tuesday morning. When UPS will no longer be there to greet us. Mailing was going to be a headache, disembarkation was going to be a headache, customs was going to be a headache. There’s a big reception onboard tomorrow night for alums -- 1100 people -- and that seemed crazy. I was already having a hard time thinking about watching everybody leave tomorrow morning without me and then the idea of 1100 people I don’t know wandering around *my* ship after all my friends have gone … yuck ... So, I booked a hotel room and I’ll be getting off the ship with everyone else.

Last night we dropped “instruments” into the ocean. There have been a couple different folks from an oceanography institute at UCSD with us for various legs of this voyage. They’ve been dropping things into the ocean along the way to do science. I honestly hadn’t been paying much attention. But, last night, the faculty/staff all signed the last instrument that was being dropped and we stood on deck 4 aft and watched them throw it overboard. It was quite something to watch. I should have paid attention earlier. We actually threw two things overboard. The first was lighter (called a drifter) and it was thrown by hand. The second was heavy and it was strapped to the ship by cables. First it was lowered slowly and then released. Standing in the dark watching these things get sucked in by the wake was really impressive to watch. Swirling and swirling and swirling and swirling before finally sinking into the foam. The plan was for us all to yell something that we wished to throw out into the universe that would help us continue this voyage. These instruments will live in the ocean for a good 10 years or so and we were supposed to send our words and thoughts with it. But there wasn’t a whole lot of yelling. Mostly there were tears and hugging. 'Though Toni did finally yell at the top of her lungs: FACULTY & STAFF, I LOVE YOU! And then more tears and hugging …

I had breakfast today with the Archbishop and Leah. He told me I have a very nice library and that I "did good". Have I mentioned that I am totally in love with the Archbishop??? And we had a Mother’s Day (or Parent’s Day) lunch for Mary and Michael with ice-cream cake and all. It was our last family gathering and we’ve all promised to reunite at Mary & Michael’s cabin in Wisconsin sometime soon.

And, as for the rest of the day … ugh … so many more tears and hugging. This has got to stop …

Wishing happy Mother’s Day to all you mothers out there, particularly mine.

burma

keep meaning to blog about Burma. We were supposed to go to Burma. Burma is also called Myanmar, the name given to it by the military regime that controls the country and terrorizes its people. The U.S. refuses to acknowledge the military dictatorship and so continues to call the country by its previous name, Burma. We didn’t go to Burma because the Archbishop refused to sail with us if we did. ISE changed the itinerary to get the Archbishop. Nobel Peace Laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, who leads the democracy movement there, has been imprisoned for her passionate views and she has requested that tourism dollars not be spent in Burma because that money only benefits the military government. She argues that the government has created a façade for tourists that is far from the reality of the people. The Archbishop, in support of Aung San Suu Kyi -- and with a legacy of advocating for divestment in South Africa -- agrees with her strategy of withholding tourism dollars. There are arguments on the other side as well. Previous voyagers who went to Burma talk about how that port really moved them and how going to Burma brings attention and knowledge to the situation there which is not discussed in the U.S. It’s also been noted that egregious human rights violations happen in many of the other counties we visit on this itinerary as well and we have not boycotted those countries. Burma is back on the SAS itinerary for next fall and spring. The students on this voyage have taken it upon themselves in the last few weeks to educate themselves about Burma and they’ve spoken with the Archbishop extensively and they had a teach-in the other night that the Archbishop attended. A group of them is trying to organize a boycott of the Alumni Association Fund Drive to try to get ISE to change the itinerary for those upcoming voyages, they’ve had a petition going around, and they have drafted a very eloquent letter to ISE and to UVA. That letter went out last night with (obviously) support from the Archbishop. Many faculty/staff and life-long-learners have also signed a letter of support and also the petition. Yesterday, we learned that ISE administration will address the community on Monday morning when we arrive in San Diego. I imagine the Archbishop will be in the front row. And it sounds like he also may be prepared to speak. We’ve been talking to students for 3 ½ months about how they are going to go home and change the world. Here they go …

somewhere between hawaii and california

ugh, not feeling good today. There is definitely stuff going ‘round this ship. My immune system has held up pretty well … until today, but ugh … I slept all morning. Had a little lunch and then Dawn asked me if I’d help proctor an exam. The classroom layout isn’t great on the ship and there are so many students aboard. Many of the rooms are very oddly-shaped and many only have little round bar-tables. With the record number of 702 students, there are 35 students in most classes and that makes the classroom space really really tight. There is no space for folks to spread out. Half of Dawn’s econ class wanted to go to the dining hall where there are big tables and more room. So, I hung out in the classroom with the other half. I was feeling better and proctoring doesn’t require a whole lot of energy, so that was fine. I brought my laptop. I did, though, have to be conscious of typing very quietly. As my staff will tell you, I type very loudly. Annette tells me that’s how she knows whether or not I’m in my office, she can hear me typing. Typing softly was a challenge!

And then I worked the rest of the afternoon. We have a ton of donated textbooks. Thanks much to Barbie at UVA, Jill at ISE, and Ron on the ship, we’ve figured out a way to ship textbooks to Better World Books who will then distribute them to various literacy organizations. In the past, they’ve mostly been incinerated with the ship’s other trash. But, we’ve got mailing labels and we’ve got a way to get them off the ship and taken to UPS. The only remaining challenge is boxes. I put a big box in the Union that overfilled immediately. There are two other boxes in the library. Books are currently stacked on the floor in the Union and tomorrow I need to figure out what to do about that. Today was the final due date for all library books. Many came in, but not anywhere close to all. We’d said we’d bill tomorrow for any unreturned books, so we’ll see how that goes. Billing for all things needs to be closed by midnight tomorrow night. All the reserves are out of the computer. Tomorrow, we’ll peel off labels and reshelve. The students who were working tonight were supposed to shelf-read their areas. Hopefully, they listened … We had volunteers shelving today, so we’re caught up there until tomorrow’s returns and reserve shelving. So, I’m feeling in pretty good shape. Sherri and I will be in the library most of the day tomorrow, likely, but we’re not opening normal hours. There are parties and other events starting at 4:00 and I feel pretty confident we can be more or less done by then. Sunday, I have a handful of things to do, like backing up the cataloging records to bring back to UVA, generating updated video lists and such, deleting patron records. Nothing that should take any real time. Just final things to cross off the to-do list.

Today was B-finals day. Everyone is ecstatic to be done. Faculty are franticly grading. Grades are due tomorrow at 5:00. As for personal packing, I have one bag packed and two boxes packed. We have to have luggage outside our doors by Sunday at 10 a.m. Things are a little confusing for me because I’m staying on the ship Monday night with the administrative team. I was given luggage tags for the faculty/staff group, but I think I need ones for the administrative group. We’re hoping that the administrative team’s luggage will be off-loaded on Monday, we’ll go through Customs with everyone else (yes, it turns out we have to go through Customs again -- the Customs officials made a mistake in Hawaii), and then our luggage will be held somewhere secure until Tuesday. But, that hasn’t been confirmed yet. I’m hoping that for 2 reasons: 1) I don’t want to have to transport my own luggage! and 2) I want to mail my boxes when UPS greets the ship on Monday. But, it may mean that I don’t get to disembark with the faculty/staff in the morning (they are the 2^nd group to disembark after the sea that won the Sea Olympics). The admin team will go last after everyone else gets off. They expect the first students to get off at 11 am and the last students to get off at 4 pm. I’d like to have the afternoon in San Diego, but I’m guessing that won’t happen. Dawn invited me to bum around San Diego with her and her son Joel, which would be nice, but I don’t know whether I’ll be able to catch up with them later in the day or not. My flight home leaves 11-ish on Tuesday morning.

Tonight, we had a mandatory disembarkation meeting. And they did a logistical pre-port event in imitation of the others we have done along the way: kinds of food you should be sure to eat in America, useful phrases in “American”, things you need to know about the culture in America, how their toilets work, etc. It was cute. And then there was a segment on news. Some of the things we’ve missed in the last 3 ½ months. Something about Paris Hilton going to jail, people trying to get Al Gore to reconsider running, the Republican debate last week, and the fact that Boris Yeltsin died. Somehow, we totally missed that. For a group of students and faculty traveling around the world to learn about the world, we are woefully uninformed about current news. Frightening, frankly. And then Marvel, one of the mental health folks on board, talked about re-entry and how to talk about the enormity of this trip when everyone at home really only wants sound-bites and how to stay connected to the experience. She was really good. She has done this trip many times and so she knows wherefrom she speaks.

We lose an hour tonight and another hour tomorrow night and then we’re on California time. Today at the noontime bridge report we learned we were half-way between Hawaii and California. One of the things Marvel said tonight was, without the noontime bridge report, how will I ever know where I am? Or where I am going? Indeed.

to my blog readership

I’ve been getting a number of very nice emails these past few days from folks telling me that they have enjoyed this blog. I have really loved doing it. I wasn’t sure at the start what I would think of providing running commentary on my life, but it’s been a blast. I’ve never journaled before. I find that I spend a lot of my day thinking about what I’m going to tell you all. You people out there in cyberspace. It has made me take much more notice of where I stand in relation to what’s going on around me. And to pay attention to what I’m thinking about. I’ve enjoyed this opportunity that you have all given me.

Thank you for reading. I don’t know how many of you are out there in total, but I do know that you people in the blogosphere are friends and family and colleagues. Knowing you have been there reading has been really wonderful. I also know that there is a group of you that I don’t know at all. I’ve been told that this blog’s been out there on the MSN message board and I know that Semester at Sea parents are reading (I know that RD Erika’s mom is out there somewhere, hi Erika’s mom! …) and I know that bits and pieces have been picked up by others at UVA and at the Institute for Shipboard Education. I hope I’ve given you all a taste of what this experience was like. And I ask that you remember that this same voyage is very different for each one of us. I’ve linked to the other blogs at left so that you can read some of the same experiences from other perspectives. I’m looking forward to actually going back after this voyage and reading those other blogs more closely.

At the very beginning of this voyage, Gloria gave me some journaling tips. She journals on all her field research trips to Panama and she sends them in emails back home to a list of about 70 people -- friends, colleagues. I had mentioned that I was having a hard time with having such a disperse audience (this was before it even occurred to me that people who I didn’t even know would be reading this). Gloria said she writes for the people dearest to her heart and then she reads it over VERY carefully once more before she hits "send" … to make sure it’s really ok for everybody else! So, this is what I’ve done. I hope I’ve made a connection with the people who know me best and I imagine those who don’t have found something interesting in my experience to have kept on reading.

David teaches writing and he’s been telling me this whole voyage that I should go back and re-read the blog from the start. I haven’t done that yet, but I imagine I will do so when I get home. To remember where I was in my head back over 100 days ago. And to see if these musings really did capture what this experience was like for me. These three months have felt like a lifetime and no time at all. Thanks to you all in cyberspace for traveling with me around the world. You’ve been great company.

happy birthday to me

last night at open mike, one of the students, Ryan, told a story about Hawaii that I had also experienced. Everywhere else we’ve been, when you get off the ship and you run into a group of American students, they belong to us. Likely half of them are wearing Semester at Sea attire, but even without that, they are highly recognizable as being one of us. As we were walking around Hawaii and I’d see clusters of students, I kept thinking them to be from SAS until it struck me as odd that I didn’t really recognize a single one of them. And then I remembered/realized there are many other groups of American students here! They are not all us …

After open mike, the deans threw an end-of-voyage-party. I told Miriam that she was the life-long-learner I was going to miss most. And she got all teary, I nearly made her cry! I’m not sure that I’ve blogged about Miriam. I like her a lot. She has biting humor. She is very sarcastic and she makes me laugh. She’s another one who always says exactly what everyone else is thinking. During our first conversation, we were on a small boat back to the ship from Itaparica Island in Brazil and I asked her about her family. She said very calmly and sweetly that she had four children and a myriad of grandchildren and that, after this voyage, she would be having a birthday-of-note and that they had better all show up, goddamnit. She says everything so conversationally all in the same tone of voice, so you don’t see it coming. I enjoy Miriam.

This morning was crazy in the library. Yesterday was study-day A and, although I was there to open at 8:00, I don’t think there was a single user until about 11:00. Everyone slept in. Judyie said that she felt like she kept saying hello to the same six people over and over, that only 6 people must be awake on this whole ship. But, today (exam-day A), the dining hall was packed at 7:45, there was business looking for me at breakfast at 7:59 and it never stopped. Faculty in last minute panic about printing out exams, students grumbling over the fact our stapler is broken *again*, our printer was out of toner and then replaced but still not working, and lots of books being returned and lots of books still being checked out. And things coming off reserve. And I’m trying to get rid of those last videos that still need attention ... and still working on documentation … We got a few volunteers in the library this afternoon, since we’ve cut back on workstudy hours so that the students can study. The students are mostly working evenings. Kate and Shannon helped us shelve and (un)process reserves and that was very helpful. When I told Erika that we had volunteers, her response was "but how will they know what to do?" ... it made me smile that the workstudy students have clearly taken responsibility for the library!

And then tonight our extended family had a pizza party. I took some family photos:

Victor, Katie, Mary:

Erika, Ryan:

Andrea, Amanda:

Jennifer, in her beautiful midnight blue saree, which she modeled for me:

My whole family, back row: Jennifer, Victor, Ryan, Michael, Mary, Andrea; front row: Erika, Katie, Amanda.

At the end, we played Apples to Apples, which thanks to Rich & Laura has traveled all the way around the world. And then there was a birthday cake! Before I became part of Mary & Michael's extended family, they had scheduled everybody’s birthdays and “invented” birthdays for the students whose real birthdays didn’t occur during the voyage. I missed the original scheduling and my birthday is in November, so it would have had to have been invented anyway, but tonight after the party a cake arrived! And Mary gave me a little bag she made. Andrea made me a card -- Aunt Erin. It was very sweet and I was very surprised. And it made me teary and almost made me cry. Everybody is pretty much on the verge of tears around here. At the party tonight, Katie said that she’s never felt such conflicting strong emotions before: so sad to be leaving the ship and, simultaneously, very happy to be going home. We’re all in that space right now. 4 days left.

ice cream & thank-you’s

Ron, our Assistant Dean, hosted an ice-cream party this evening for all the workstudy students on the voyage. It was also barbecue night, it was one of those nights where I’ve eaten so much I feel like I will never need to eat again … I’ve been polling my workstudy students the last couple of days on a few different questions:

Ericka

• Notable fact: She throws all spelling-assumptions to the wind. No, I didn't misspell her name, it has both a "c" and a "k" -- Ericka.
  
• What will you miss most? Friends.
• What are you looking most forward to about going home? My other friends. [Actually, the other day, she told me it was Taco Bell, but when I asked her formally, she said this instead ...]
• When we were sitting in the piano bar at the beginning of the voyage -- workstudy students getting assignments and meeting their supervisors -- and you learned that you would be working in the library, what was the first thing that crossed your mind? That’s the job I wanted.
• What was the best part of working about the library? Getting to meet people.
• Would you recommend Semester at Sea? Definitely!
  

Lindsay

• Notable fact: Lindsay shaved her head for Neptune Day but didn’t tell any of her friends or family until her parents came to Vietnam for the Parent Trip. They found out when they watched her come off the gangway. Lindsay had a long post on her blog after Neptune Day talking about all the people who shaved their heads, but neglected to mention that she had done so also. Before Neptune Day, she had long-long blond hair all the way down her back.
• What will you miss most? The change and sense of adventure and chaos.
• What are you looking most forward to about going home? Good food. What I want and when I want.
• When we were sitting in the piano bar ... and you learned that you would be working in the library, what was the first thing that crossed your mind? hmmm, I wanted to work in the Administrative office.
• What was the best part about working in the library? Meeting people I wouldn’t have met otherwise.
  
• Would you recommend Semester at Sea? Yes, but I’d encourage people to consider other similar programs also.

An

• Notable fact: An calls both Sherri and me “boss”. Hey boss. At first, it felt really uncomfortable, but I’ve grown to like it. I'm really going to miss hearing An's voice around the corner: Hey boss.
• What will you miss most? The ports.
• What are you looking most forward to about going home? My car, my sofa, my television, my food, friends. Mostly my car.
• When we were sitting in the piano bar ... and you learned that you would be working in the library, what was the first thing that crossed your mind? what the … ?
• What was the best part about working in the library? The whole educational experience (... BS … says Sherri, before he even finishes his sentence…)
• Would you recommend Semester at Sea? Hell, yes … I mean, yes, of course …

Erika

• Notable fact: Erika’s boyfriend is Ryan who is one of my nephews in my extended family. So, Erika is my niece-in-law in addition to being my workstudy student. Erika & Ryan were together before they came on this trip. They both go to San Diego State and they are one of a handful of couples who came on this voyage together. I told them the other day that I wanted to be invited to their wedding. They both looked at me fairly horrified!
• What will you miss most? Going around the world.
• What are you looking most forward to about going home? Seeing my baby cousins.
• When we were sitting in the piano bar ... and you learned that you would be working in the library, what was the first thing that crossed your mind? I’m working with the person who is from my home town [that would be Sherri].
• What was the best part about working in the library? Ice-cream cake birthdays.
• Would you recommend Semester at Sea? Of course, my sister is doing it.

Roxy

• Notable fact: Roxy is from King of Prussia, so like Sherri/Erika, Roxy and I are also from the same general area. There was mall-talk the other day, in fact …
• What will you miss most? Fun activities, like the Sea Olympics and talent show. And waking up in a new country every few days.
• What are you looking most forward to about going home? Seeing my family and friends.
• When we were sitting in the piano bar ... and you learned that you would be working in the library, what was the first thing that crossed your mind? I thought it’d be good because I’d get to meet a lot of people.
• What was the best part about working in the library? All the people, it's the most social place to work.
• Would you recommend Semester at Sea? Of course!

Clearly, I've got a very social crew! They've been great and they've given super customer service (never mind the part that they don't always give out the right information! ...). But they've been really reliable and they jump at anything we ask and, all in all, they've been really good to work with. And they all tolerated the fact that when they showed up on day 3, Sherri and I had absolutely no idea what we were doing yet, so it was difficult to train them and figure out what we needed for them to do. I've enjoyed working with all of them. At the end of the ice-cream party, Erika got up and thanked Ron for the workstudy program and said that many of them would not have been able to do this voyage without that support. We were glad to provide it and the library couldn't have run successfully without them!

02:03:04 05/06/07

today at four seconds past three minutes past two a.m., the time/date was 02:03:04 05/06/07. I didn’t wake up to experience this once in a century event, but it definitely is worth taking note of.

It was sort of an odd day today. The library was unusually quiet. It’s the day before port and the last day of classes. The Global Studies exam was this morning. Normally the day before port, there is heavy traffic in travel guides, but not so this time. Either folks already know what they are doing in Hawaii or they are not doing much. We’re only there for the day, anyway. Mostly what I’ve heard is that the students who were jealous of their friends’ sky-diving adventures in South Africa are planning to sky-dive in Hawaii. And lots of people are counting the hours to the return to U.S. cell phone service so that can talk to friends/family at the cost of normal minutes. And then there’s the beach. I have a morning trip planned to Pearl Harbor (I’m a trip leader) and my afternoon is free. I’d like to walk along the beach also. My original plan was to mail some packages home, but they are not letting us take anything off the ship. We’ll be going through immigration in Hawaii, but not Customs. So, we’re not allowed to take any more off the ship than we need for our one day stop in Hawaii. No boxes and no large backpacks. And no food, except for sealed bottled water. That news put a damper in a lot of people’s plans. I would like to find a UPS store, or even a CVS, for a few packing supplies. I have tape, but no markers. Robin has bubble wrap. I currently have 2 boxes and was going to pack them tonight so that I had a sense of whether I needed to buy more, but it’s a busy night. Don’t know that I’ll get that done. Plus, I’m really hoping I don’t need more than 2 boxes …

We’re told immigration is going to start at 6:00 am tomorrow. They’ll wake us up for face-to-face meetings with the immigration officers and we’ll get our passports back and our immunization cards back and then we hold on to them for the duration. We’ll officially be back in the United States. I’d like to get up early to watch us dock, but that’ll be REALLY early tomorrow and we lose another hour of sleep tonight. I don’t know that I can make that happen. I’ll get up for San Diego.

I’ve gotta say, I’m kind of looking forward to understanding the money without having to do math, I’m looking forward to easily finding an ATM, and I’m looking forward to being able to read the signage. I’m also looking forward to -- in principle -- finding toilet paper in the ladies room. And, even though it was very interesting to read other countries’ impressions of the U.S., I’d like to get my hands on an American newspaper. It should be a nice day.

welcome back to the tropics

it’s rainy & warm & humid outside again. When did that happen?? I was inside for lunch today because I sat down at a table with inside-sitting-folks, but I didn’t really pay attention. When I went up for a mid-afternoon snack of Diet 7-Up and popcorn, the pool-deck was flooded-wet. Water, water, everywhere. Somehow, it’s possible to be on a boat and not even notice it’s pouring …

Today, we spent a lot of the day watching the crew fix the fire door that slammed the other afternoon when the ship lurched. A whole bunch of crew climbing on ladders, taking apart the ceiling, the mechanical apparatus that operates the door, etc. etc. It was a very big operation. After it was all reassembled and the ceiling panels were put back together and the lights were all turned on again, a higher-ranking crew member walked through (the rest were already gone) and he was clearly not satisfied. I dunno, it all looked pretty perfect to me. (But, then again I hadn't noticed it was raining either ...) As I was leaving the library, he was back with the other crew looking again at the ceiling and the lights. You can’t imagine how meticulously the crew cares for this ship. Everything is immaculate always. If a piece of paper or a tissue drops to the floor, there’s a crew member appearing out of nowhere to pick it up. There are crew who are -- everyday -- polishing the hand-rails. A lot of it is for health concern (disinfecting), because they don’t want anything contagious going around the ship, but the general level of cleanliness & shine far out-ranks any 5-star hotel. They are big into perfection!

Aside from watching the crew fix the fire-door … I did quite a bit of catalog data-cleanup today. Felt good, I accomplished a lot and (aside from the very un-ergonomic desk conditions), it functions a bit for me as mindfulness meditation! I hope, when I bring these records back to my staff at UVA, that they are kind. We did a lot of work this voyage, but there is still much to be done. There are still a bunch of brief records here-and-there for books and I still have a last stack of original VHS cataloging that I haven’t had time to get through. The only VCRs are in the classrooms, which are hard to come-by. I could try to finish them off during finals week. Or, I’m trying to decide whether they are worth shipping back to UVA or whether we should just leave the brief records in there …

David & Phoebe hosted a “clean-up” party tonight. To finish up the snacks (both crunchy & liquid) that we have all accumulated over the course of this voyage. Every time we found a supermarket, it was so exciting that we bought all we could. I contributed bagel chips & granola bars that I bought I-can’t-even-remember-now-when-or-where. Phoebe & David have a cabin that is much nicer than many, but still much too small to comfortably seat the 18 people that were there tonight. We were on the sofa and on the bed and on the floor and standing all over the place. I wanted my photos to give you the perspective of all those people in a very small space, but I’m not sure I succeeded. Here are a few photos from the evening:

Joyce, Kate, Dawn, Bob:

Vladdy, Gene, Arnie:

Phoebe & Gloria (I love this photo!):

Bob, Monty, Michael:

Robin, Mary, Joyce, Kate, Dawn:

Here are a few scrunched photos. Standing are David, Giles, Phoebe, and Gloria. In front of the sliding glass door is Joyce. What you can’t see is that Robin is seated to the left next to Joyce, Mary in between them on the floor, and Kate, Dawn, and Bob are on the sofa. Pretend that last photo was behind this photo. What you see at the front of this photo is the bed. There were A LOT of us in that space between the bed and the sliding glass door. And again, Phoebe & David have a VERY nice cabin. To give you some perspective of living quarters on the ship …

In this one, standing are Giles, Gene, Arnie, Phoebe and Gloria, and behind them blocked by Gloria and Phoebe are Robin, Mary, Joyce, Kate, Dawn, and Bob. Between Phoebe and the door. Crazy, but fun.

The night ended with a performance by more of Judyie’s theatre classes. For their finals, the students in the directing class directed a play, Stop-Kiss, with each student responsible for directing a scene. The scenes were then voted on by the class and the winning scenes were performed publicly. One of my nieces, Jen, was directing a scene and one of the faculty spouses was one of her actors (the actors were taken from all over the community). But, unfortunately their scene didn’t make the cut. The playwriting class also did readings tonight. They were all fabulous and it was very fun to watch.

Today was the last A-class-day and tomorrow is the last B-class-day. Monday, we'll be in Honolulu. We're all a bit sappy and sickeningly overly-reflective.

do you know that you are beautiful?

... asked the Archbishop as he went from table to table and laid his hands on our shoulders last night at the Ambassador’s Ball. I’m glad I went, if just for that one moment. The Ball was nice. Dinner definitely beat out the normal ship fare. Everyone was dressed up fancy and all of our favorite dining hall crew pulled out the stops for us. There was unscheduled lag time between dinner and dancing/dessert, which was sort of confusing and unexpected and so many faculty/staff detoured back to the faculty/staff lounge for wine and pleasant conversation. My photos didn’t come out great because of the yellow-ish ship lighting which was darkened, of course, for ambiance, but here are a few pictures of the evening.

Desmond & Leah Tutu:

Erika (one of our workstudy students) and her boyfriend, Ryan (my nephew, from my extended family):

Lindsay (another of our workstudy students) and her boyfriend, Ivan:

Andrea (left, my niece) with a friend:

Watching the students congregating in Purser’s Square, from above:

Giles and Kate (they are New Yorkers, can’t you tell???):

Crazy sculpted eagle-dessert:

I’m sure this trip will feel like a dream six months from now. Not least, the part about traveling the world with a Nobel Peace Laureate. This morning he called us "scrumptious" ... I’m trying to soak it in while I can …

mostly horizontal

i spent most of the day today horizontal. We're moving much too much in my opinion and I’m not even nearly as ill as others. I can’t keep my eyes open, which they do say is low-grade sea-sickness. I actually think it’s a combination of things -- the movement plus the time changes plus end-of-voyage emotion and stress. It’s knocking me out. I slept and slept -- fortunately Sherri & I haven’t been sea-sick simultaneously, so we’ve conveniently alternated coverage as needed. There is a fire door that separates the library from the stairwell & the Union and this afternoon it slammed shut crazy-fast and crazy-loudly as the ship lurched far to the right (starboard). There were immediately 6 crew standing there chatting about the door. That probably was not supposed to happen …

I did come in for a bit (saw the fire door slam) and I am here again now, 8:00-9:00, to cover one of our students who wanted to go to a show tonight. The acting classes are putting on a show -- last night and tonight. I went last night and it was very fun. It was called “The 13^th Port” and was totally written, directed, sung, acted by the class. They were great and it was really enjoyable to see them do their thing.

This morning was the last discussion group for Global Studies. Some went ok, some went not-so-ok, it was an interesting experiment. Consensus mainly was that we should have done this from the beginning. Tomorrow, the Archbishop is speaking.

Lots of studying happening in the library, but even more than that are group projects. The library has some of the only large-ish tables on the ship, so groups are spread out there and along the bar. We have to climb over folks to move around the library. The show is taking place in the Union and someone just came out of there into the library to tell students they shouldn’t be doing papers, they should go see some theatre instead. That’s definitely one of the challenges here on the ship, many, many extracurricular options … although the students in the library all looked up at him and then went back right on studying. The music is pretty loud, so I will likely get to hear the show all over again.

Another time change tonight -- we’ll be 7 hours behind the East Coast and closing in …

may second the second

may 2nd is Sage's birthday. Toni teaches psychology and women's studies and Sage is her 11-year old daughter. Here's how cool it is to be a kid on a ship going around the world: first, if your birthday is may 2nd, 2007, you get to have your birthday twice. And, if that weren't cool enough, you get to have the Archbishop and Leah Tutu come to your birthday party. AND, they coming bearing gifts. For my part, it seemed kind of mind-boggling (forget even the whole part about traveling round the world at the age of 11!). For Sage's part, she was just running around happy as can be cutting cake (the most giant round birthday cake you've ever seen) for the Desmond & Leah Tutu and for all of us and for all the dining-hall crew.

here’s what wikipedia says about the international dateline:

The International Date Line (IDL), also known as just the Date Line, is an imaginary line on the surface of the Earth opposite the Prime Meridian which offsets the date as one travels east or west across it. Roughly along 180° longitude, with diversions to pass around some territories and island groups, it corresponds to the time zone boundary separating +12 and −12 hours GMT (UT1). Crossing the IDL travelling east results in a day or 24 hours being subtracted, and crossing west results in a day being added.

The first date-line problem occurred in association with the circumnavigation of the globe by Magellan's expedition (1519–1522). The surviving crew returned to a Spanish stopover sure of the day of the week, as attested by various carefully maintained sailing logs. Nevertheless, those on land insisted the day was different. Although now readily understandable, this phenomenon caused great excitement at the time, to the extent that a special delegation was sent to the Pope to explain this temporal oddity to him.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Date_Line

After today, instead of being ahead of the East Coast, we are now behind the East Coast. Yesterday, we were 15 hours ahead and now we are magically 9 hours behind. Too much math for me … I don’t get it.

Nor does my computer for that matter, which keeps reverting to May 3^rd, even though I keep changing the setting to May 2^nd. The desk computer is having a very hard time calculating due-dates as well.

I went to bed at 6:30 last night. I went to dinner about 6:15 and it was totally un-inspirational, so I went back to my cabin and laid down instead. I slept until 8:45 (pm) when I got up to change my clothes and get ready for real-sleep. And I slept until my alarm went off at 8:00 am this morning. Yipes. I was pretty drained.

Japan photos are up at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/-erin/sets/72157600170121524/ so I believe I'm all caught up now.

The weather outside is windy and cool, and so the seas are a bit rough again today. We've learned that the advantage of having the reserve shelves full is that the books stay much more secure. Despite the bookends, they've been sliding back and forth along the glass shelves today as the ship rocks. I'm going to miss my little library. I was talking about my real-job with some folks the other day and, when I said that UVA adds more than 60,000 books each year, I realized that is 6 times the number of books in the collection here. Each year at UVA, we add the size of this library more than 6 times over. That's kinda crazy, when you think about it. Don't anyone shoot me for asking this, but do we really need all those books????

may second the first

today is the first May 2^nd. It’s a quieter day than others for which I am very grateful. And it was taco-day for lunch, for which I am also very grateful. I made a little headway getting photos up. The China flicker set is up at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/-erin/sets/72157600166556242/ Japan still to come.

Library business was moderately busy, but people seem mostly drained and sleepy from all the time changes. The seas are rougher today than normal. When we opened the library this morning, we noticed the crew had put barf-bags on the desk. I had some small things fall to the floor overnight. I’m doing ok, although I did put the sea-sickness bracelets back on. Moral support, if nothing else.

Joe emailed today to ask about picking me up at the airport. I guess it’s that soon, I need to start making those sorts of arrangements …

who needs corptime?

when I was working on my annual report for UVA, I opened up CorpTime for the first time since January. CorpTime is our electronic calendaring system. There was a whole mess of meetings in my inbox. Not sure how I can be scheduled for so many meetings when I'm not even there?? Might anybody care to explain?

No CorpTime here, but still much too much going on all at once. Last night, as mentioned, was the crew talent show. Tonight was a charity auction. Every moment is planned. At first, I was enjoying the meeting-less culture (so different from UVA), but it’s just a different kind of perpetual scheduling here. After working all day, tonight at 5:00 we had a life-boat drill, at 6:00 we had a faculty-dinner-meeting where a group of faculty are discussing the various challenges of teaching in this kind of environment and where I was to address some research issues, at 6:30 (for which I was 1/2 hour late), was a birthday party for one of Mary & Michael’s adopted kids (my nephew, as we’re calling these weird extended relationships), at 8:00 was Community College where Robin was presenting on Japonisme & Impressionism, at 9:00 was the charity auction. I left about 10:30 and should have just gone to sleep, but decided to check email … and then blog … first. I’m not sure precisely when students get any studying done … Although, of course, they are also willing to stay up all night long …

I left the auction just after Dr. Matt paid $175 to throw a pie in the face of Dean Mike. I bid on navigational maps earlier in the silent auction -- the printed maps the crew use to mark our route and position, signed by the crew. I stopped at $160, which already seemed frighteningly high, and they finally went for $300. All sorts of things were getting auctioned off, folks who have vacation homes and condos put weekends up for people to bid on, folks with season sports tickets put up various sets, there were handmade necklaces and such, and purchases that people have made along the way but have decided they no longer want to lug home. I imagine they’ll tell us the final tally tomorrow. Students were paying *a lot* of money for all sorts of things. It was a little bit astonishing.

We lose another hour of sleep tonight. Tomorrow, we are at GMT +11 and then the following day, we cross the international date line. We’re going to get back the 24 hours that we’re losing on the course of this voyage. May 2^nd will happen twice. Tomorrow will be Wednesday, May 2^nd and the following day will also be Wednesday, May 2^nd. Isn’t that the weirdest thing? Hard to wrap my brain around. Everybody has been complaining that it is unfair that we have lost all the time in sleep and we are gaining it back as a regular work/class day … it is indeed most unfortunate ...

thinking about thinking about winding down

our free-sites issue with the UVA databases got fixed this evening. There were many other sites also that were on the “free” list (meaning students don’t need to pay for minutes) that weren’t working properly either. Not just UVA. I’m glad it’s fixed and I’d really like this to be the end of our technology woes.

Today, we started pulling materials off reserve. I asked all the faculty to let us know what they no longer need on reserve, so that we can start to move materials back into the general collection. I’m fine with keeping everything that’s needed on reserve, but if some materials can come off now, I’d prefer not to have to do it all at the end. We had stacks and stacks and stacks of books piled high (and falling off) the desk today. By, the end of the day when they were all taken off reserve and reshelved in the stacks, and I looked back at the reserve shelves, there are still a ton of books up there. Nothing compared to UVA, of course, but still many for us. Sherri and I were taking stabs at what percentage of the reserve materials actually ever circulated … but I won’t post our guesses in the blog … More will come off in the next few days, though I imagine there will still be a lot until the end. It was a pretty productive day. Sherri made collection development decisions on all the textbook-like things. We got everything taken care of that we could. My goal in the next 8 days before Hawaii is mainly system documentation. We’ve got the software figured out pretty well now and we just need to write it all up for the future voyages.

Global Studies -- the class that the whole shipboard community attends -- is taking a new turn for the next 5 days. We are having short introductory remarks and then breaking into small group discussions for the duration of the class (30-40 minutes). I am co-facilitating a small group and we have 15 students -- the same students everyday for the next 5 days. (Usually students attend Global Studies (or don’t) in whatever classroom they choose.) Attendance will count as points towards the final exam. The second to last day before Hawaii will be the Archbishop, the last day will be a group of students talking about impact and activism, and then the final exam. We’re trying to use these small group discussions to move from information overload to a time for processing and reflecting on everywhere we’ve been and how we can use what we have learned to guide the world forward. It’s not an inconsequential goal for the very short amount of time we have left …

And then there was the crew talent show. They were great. There were a whole number of crew we’ve never seen before (folks who work in the engine room, the laundry, etc.) and then there were our favorite people from the dining hall and the purser’s desk and our cabin stewards … They sang and danced and played music and did stand-up and carved ice sculptures while the crew in the background all sang We Are the World (there goes another scary high-school flashback …)

Clocks go forward tonight an hour. We lose an hour every night for very many nights from here to Hawaii. Ugh …

music in the library

Julie, who is an ethnomusicologist, holds her ensemble classes in the Union, which is right next to the library. She teaches African drums and African xylophones. On many afternoons, we get music in the library. Like today. It’s quite pleasant.

Busy busy again in the library. We have a workaround for yesterday’s problem, but haven’t actually identified or solved the issue. Clunky but do-able. The traffic in both course research and in Japan travel guides is very heavy. I’ve done no research on Japan. I have tomorrow free and so far no plans. The next two days I have day trips to Kyoto and Nara. Day 4, I’m hoping to get to Hiroshima and day 5, I’m free again. I’ll be sleeping on the ship at night and theoretically could blog along the way, but we’re told that we will have no Internet access while in Japan. Something about satellite interference. Cingular told me my cell phone wouldn’t work in Japan either. Seems odd. Japan is perfectly technology modern, so there has to be some better explanation (or solution).

We have a combined logistical/cultural pre-port tonight, which they have been doing lately rather than one on each night. We also got some culture in Global Studies this morning, which was really nice. Usually it’s history/politics/econ -- social science emphasis. But, today Mary taught us about the Shinto religion and the Japanese concept of Ma ("the space between", the interval of space or silence) and Robin did a part on the intersections between Japan and the West and the artistic influences of each on the other. We learned that the Jesuit missionaries set up a painting school in Japan to teach Japanese artists to paint Christian religious art. Jesuits, Jesuits everywhere. Pretty much everywhere we’ve been in any case. Gene wrapped up with a bit of the military history of 20^th century Japan and then demilitarization after the war, ending with the question of whether (and how) countries can become superpowers in ways other than military conquest. It was a good Global Studies.

Kobe should be cool, mid/high 60’s. Much happier weather in my opinion. China turned out to still be fairly warm, except for that last day in Qingdao. We sat outside on deck six for dinner tonight, but it was very chilly. Windy too. I hope I still get a bit of spring in C-Ville when I return before it becomes too hot.

More after Japan …

you’ve got mail

got another real-life-card today from UVA. I was confused a bit because it all seemed like they were writing at the beginning of the voyage. And then I looked at the address. It was mailed to Mauritius, but somehow just caught up with us in China! Thanks to everyone who signed -- I enjoy getting real mail!

Today was a crazy crazy day in the library. The good news is the catalog is back up online and I’ve met the new IT crew-guy and all seems good there. There was some software conflict. And they’ve documented what they did, so in case it happens again … But, we’re having some problems connecting to the databases again and we’re having troubles diagnosing it. It’s not a proxy server problem. The proxy server is working fine. It seems to be something wrong with the ship’s free-site-server. Sometimes the UVA link passes through as free, sometimes it gives you a 404 File-Not-Found error. If you are logged into the pay-Internet, it works fine always. We don’t know why or what’s wrong but folks are looking into it. It’s another issue of each person only understanding one part of the picture and it’s hard to put the puzzle pieces together. Our stapler ran out of staples around lunch time. You can’t imagine what a crisis it is when our stapler runs out of staples! And many offices around here (except for the library, of course) close for lunch so we had many lines of grumpy students while we waited to get refills for the stapler. Sounds dumb I know, but here are the joys of working in a tiny library. And the stapler is the primary reason that most folks come to the library anyway … Someone stole our scissors and someone stole our calendar from behind the desk while we were at port and that makes me grumpy. Lots of students (way more than normal) responded to this morning’s swath of overdue notices telling us they dropped them in the book drop while we were at port. Except they weren’t there. Note to Jean: I think you need to talk to the Purser’s Desk about being the overnight/port drop-off since materials are secure there. And it’s been busy, busy, busy. There are only 2 days between China and Japan and much paper-writing is underway. The Internet has been sporadic the last two days too which adds to the fun. People underestimate the quality of the print collection. There are some decent materials there, but it does make things difficult when technology misbehaves. A lot of students were doing a lot of work in the library today. And there is so little physical space that it gets very overwhelming very quickly when lots of people are in line needing attention.

Everyone is starting to think about the end. How to process all the places we’ve been to when there is no time to do so between ports, how to prepare for Japan when we have only 2 days and are still flummoxed by China, how to best use the time between Japan and Hawaii (8 days) to bring things together -- both educationally and experientially. How to get all the work done that needs to get done before the end. How not to panic and how not to be exhausted. How not to be focused so much on the end that we forget we still have 21 days left. I feel like I’m on an emotional roller-coaster and I’ve gotta say, despite the fabulous experiences, I’m a little bit looking forward to getting off … the roller coaster that is … the ship, I’m not so sure … it’s definitely an odd space to be in.

Tonight we all had to get our temperature taken because Japan has stringent health requirements for entry into the country. All 850 of us. It’s really amazing how efficient they can be on this ship, processing us all through the bureaucracy quickly.

I didn’t get China photos up today, other than the few in yesterday’s blog. I’m not sure I’ll be able to get them up before Japan, so both will have to be projects as we cross the ocean.

Tonight was open mike night after China. They do this after every port, though I often have one conflict or another. Tonight, it was both China debriefing and debriefing about Virginia Tech. It was hard and sad and lovely at the same time. There were poems and songs and a student from Virginia Tech spoke and also a student who was a high-school friend of one of the students who was killed. Lots of people talked about their experiences in China and many talked about how both events intersected in their minds. I talked a little bit also about some of the things I put in yesterday’s blog. Everybody here has a lot of "stuff" in their heads right now.

We lose another night of sleep tonight, so I’m headed to bed early …

tomorrow in hong kong

we dock tomorrow. There's lots of travel-guide checkout-activity going on in the library. Which, fortunately, doesn't require a library catalog. Also, btw, lots of proxy server handing-out-of passwords, I should mention that too. Folks doing research for papers due between China & Japan.

I won’t be really spending any time in Hong Kong. I would have liked to, it was a hard decision, but I also really wanted to take the big overland trip to China. We leave the ship at 9:45 tomorrow morning and fly to Beijing. We see the Great Wall and all that and then we fly to Xi'an to see the Terracotta Warriors. From there, we fly to Qingdao to meet up with the ship. The ship will be sailing from Hong Kong to Qingdao with about 75 faculty/staff/students aboard who are not doing overland trips. It might have been nice to stay on the ship too, quiet and all.

I'm really excited about this trip. Amazing sights for sure. And tons of faculty/staff are on this same trip. In many ways, it kind of feels like the last hurrah. I have day trips planned in Japan, but nothing big. Then we’re only in Hawaii for one day. And then we’re done. So, it will definitely be nice to do this last big trip with a fun group. There is Robin & David & Phoebe & Sherri & Giles & Kate & Anne-Claire & Simon & Joyce & Bob and other nice people I'm not sure I’ve mentioned on this blog. Anyways, it should be nice. We're gone for 5 days, so this will be the last post for a bit.

I missed breakfast this morning because I missed the time change. This is the first time I've done that. They remind you both at the noontime and dinnertime announcements when we need to advance our clocks, but nonetheless I totally forgot. I was in the shower when the announcement came on for Global Studies. I made it to class on time, but breakfast was already closed. We're back to 12 hours ahead of Eastern Standard Time, which is easy for the math at least. In the next 29 days, we'll be advancing another 12 hours. Yipes. The last 3, though, will be in the air from San Diego to Charlottesville.

The summer voyage is under-enrolled. Yesterday, they offered discounts to our current students if they want to sail again in summer. There is lots of speculation as to why the enrollment is so low. This is the first time there is a language requirement (Spanish), as they are going all around South America. Some people are wondering whether the language requirement is a deterrent, since there are so many other good study abroad opportunities for Spanish-speaking students. Summer is always lower than fall & spring, but current enrollment is still considered low by comparison to other summers. This voyage that I am on now has a record 702 students. More than ever and students were turned away. If you know any college students who would like to take a voyage to South America, send them to http://www.semesteratsea.com. The summer voyage is 65 days long and they take 3 classes for 9 credits. And they will have to take Spanish at "their current level of fluency". The full itinerary is on the website.

grumpy days in the library

destiny (the new library catalog) is down and we don’t know why and we don’t know how to fix it. They installed the new Microsoft updates on the server and now Destiny refuses to run. Despite the fact that it is normal class days for us, it is the weekend in the States and we are 11 hours ahead, so we’re having trouble getting technical-support. And by the time it’s Monday morning in the States, we’ll be in Hong Kong. Kenny, the IT crew guy on the ship, knows lots about the server but little about library systems. I know about library systems, but not so much about why the Microsoft updates caused us problems. We tried all kinds of things either of us could think of, but no luck. Ugh. And, Kenny is going off in China. A number of our crew are leaving in Hong Kong and more in China. Kenny’s relief arrives in Hong Kong, they sail together the 2 days to China, and then Kenny goes off in China. I’m going overland from Hong Kong to China and so won’t be on the ship during the transition. I’ll get back on the ship in China and there will be a new crew-IT guy who hasn’t been through any of the Destiny issues with us. I’m a bit nervous – and grumpy -- as you might imagine …

Today, was a Global Studies exam. So, lots of photocopying of people’s notes going on in the library yesterday. First, we learned that the students have the photocopier access code and are making free copies. Which made me REALLY grumpy. The copier requires that one of us put in an access code, so when we see someone standing there, we always ask if we can help. Yesterday, I asked that and the kid said no. I walked over and he had the access code written on his paper. He wouldn’t tell me where he got it. So, then I had to track down Kenny to change the access code, which it took us forever to figure out how to do. Students were copying Global Studies notes all day long. Particularly, one set of notes that was 22 pages long. Students would come up to fill out the invoice form and try to calculate the cost of 22 pages (25 cents/page). We spared them the math. We all knew. $5.50. Those notes got copied over and over. At one point, someone must have miss-copied because all of the sudden all the students were paying for 21 copies instead. I let them know they were missing a page!

And then -- the rest of the day, besides photocopying and catalog woes, was spent tracking down potential plagiarism. I had two faculty ask me for help in trying to prove plagiarism. And students well know that plagiarism is cause for UVA’s single sanction (expulsion).

The only library good news is that the collection is small enough that working without a catalog isn’t the end of the world. And we have a dump of the catalog we did a couple weeks ago to send back to UVA. That’s a little bit helpful. And everyone has been very understanding. We’ve got a backup circulation system going that’s working ok. Clunky, but manageable.

Yours, in hoping tomorrow will be a better day in library-land …

traffic & squat toilets

In Vietnam, crossing the road is like frogger. There are thousands of mopeds and some cars and trucks and no one stops. Some of the only evidence of communism here is the large number of mopeds and the small number of cars. Prices are controlled by the government and cars are very expensive while mopeds are very cheap. There are thousands and thousands of mopeds on the road. Mopeds (and cars, but not so much trucks) will swerve around you. No one will stop for you. If you wait for a break in the road, you will never get across a street. You just need to step off the curb and walk purposefully and deliberately (no hesitation, no running, no worry) and the traffic will move around you. Truly, you just have to believe. I LOVED it! Those of you who have watched me cross 29 in C-Ville or City Line in Philadelphia will understand. I am a very aggressive pedestrian. My philosophy is that cars are not allowed to run pedestrians over. They just aren’t. I kept wondering what the Vietnamese people must think when they come to the U.S. There are occasional stoplights here, though not many, and they seem to be only advice not law. If no one is coming, you go. If someone is coming, just as long as you properly judge their speed and distance, you go. When they come to the U.S. and see all of our rules and regulations, they must think we have the most oppressive, totalitarian government in the world. Somehow, the traffic pattern in Vietnam speaks much more to democracy than ours does. They don’t want to hit you just as much as you don’t want to be hit. So, if everybody just does their part, everyone will get where they are going safely. You don’t need rules, you just need some faith in human-kindness. They even put their children on mopeds, clearly no seatbelt laws let along helmet laws. It’s mind-boggling.

The night we went to the Rex Hotel and then dinner, Robin & I & a few others decided to walk back afterwards. Most of the rest of the group decided to take a taxi. It didn’t look far on the map and it was after dark and had cooled down significantly. It seemed a nice night for a walk. Michael said (before he hopped in the taxi) that he thought you had to walk through construction and it wasn’t a nice walk. The ship arranged for shuttle buses back and forth to town, but we didn’t yet appreciate why. It was a short shuttle ride. We walked down a block or two to the waterfront and then turned right. We could see the ship’s lights. We crossed the crazy busy road that separated us from the waterfront just as we had all the others -- we walked deliberately and purposefully and traffic swerved around us. Then we hit the construction to the left of us. We had to walk to the right of the barrier. We were walking into incoming traffic. There was a narrow place where we were walking, which seemed like it should have been fine. If it had actually been a sidewalk or shoulder, it would have been. But there were trucks coming towards us and there were mopeds who were trying to pass to their right and when they would do that, they would come face to face with us. With no room for either of us to go anywhere. Robin was in the lead and I kept teasing her that she was stopping traffic. Each time we would stop, Lois -- who was immediately behind me -- would put her hand on my shoulder. Like that would help in some way. The mopeds then had to merge back in with the trucks into the main lanes (which I use loosely, ‘cause it’s not like there really are lanes). There was absolutely nowhere for us to go, so the mopeds had to move back into traffic. It should have been a 3 minute walk, but it lasted much longer. When we got back to the ship, we ran into all the folks who took the taxi. They were just getting on the gangway. I was all hyped up. I LOVED it! Robin, however, looked pretty horrified and totally glared at me when I said that. She seemed mildly traumatized.

There was traffic in other countries too. Chennai was frightening as well and they seem to have their own set of unspoken rules. In Chennai, they use the horn for everything. I’m going through the stop sign, honk, honk … I’m going through the red light, honk, honk ... I’m a big bus going around a curve on a narrow mountain road and I have no idea who is coming towards me, honk, honk. It was dicey crossing the street there too, but the traffic wasn’t nearly as dense. In Vietnam, the mopeds are non-stop. And while they use the horn some, it seems the governing rule is just "go when no one else is" and "don’t hit anyone" and all else follows from that. Pretty simple when you get right down to it. Vietnam is the first place in a while where they drive on the right side of the road. I got pretty used to looking out for traffic coming the other direction, but this definitely felt more comfortable again. Walk deliberately and purposely, have faith, and all will be fine.

Squat toilets. I keep meaning to mention about them. Ever since we left South Africa, squat toilets have been the norm. Hole in the ground, with little places to guide your feet on either side. The touristy places have western-style toilets as well, but we’re not always there. Or, even it we are, in the public restrooms there will be both options and with a bus-load of Americans, if you want to jump to the front of the line, you have to be willing to squat. I’m getting very good at them. On the train in India, there were both options but the western-style were so much grosser that this is when I gave up and decided the other style had its merits. How much more do you want to know?

The Vietnam photo set is up at left. Today is April 14^th. One month from today, we’ll be pulling into San Diego.