Stay Classy San Diego

Greetings from somewhere in the Pacific! We have not yet moved our clocks from California time, but we are definitely heading due West. Online minutes have proven to be few and far between in the last 48 hours, and with all of the students now on the ship, the internet is especially slow. I am getting all of your special bon voyage emails, however, and I love them! Thank you for thinking of me. To update you, two days ago, I was in the Port of San Diego, making my way through umpteen orientation meetings, sneaking in runs around the San Diego Bay when I could. I realize that these runs are especially important because we are always eating on the ship. They say the quality of the food declines when we move away from the ports and into the sea, but so far it has only been good, good, good. Chocolate croissants at breakfast, peanut butter cake at lunch, pie at dinner—I am cut-off until I can get up in the gym and work on my fitness. This past Friday was interspersed with open bar social hours on the ship at lunch and at dinner; it concluded with a celebratory social in the faculty & staff lounge. We sailed from San Diego at 11 PM or 2300 hours Friday night (everything is in military time on the ship). It was such an incredible feeling when we left the dock and motored into Mexico (Good-bye, Ron Burgundy)—I was overcome with knowing that pushing off from the dock was the true start of the trip. The students weren’t on the ship (they had a two hour bus ride from San Diego to Mexico and met us the following morning) so the ship was practically empty with just faculty, staff, and crew. I crawled into bed at 200 hours and, although it seems like weeks ago now, arrived only yesterday morning in Ensenada, Mexico at 700 hours. Once arriving in Mexico, I jumped out of bed and hurried to my Check-In station to greet the 638 students coming on board (ONSP—I can’t ever escape Check-In—at least I didn’t have to make the signs this time, although there is much room for signage improvement). Six and a half hours later, everyone was checked-in and registered for at least 12 credits—you’d be proud, Rachel.

Then the entire ship had to head out for a lifeboat drill. We have life preservers in all of our cabins that we periodically have to wear around the ship for the drills. Only one person fainted when we have to stand in silent attention while the captain walks thorough and makes sure that we are adequately turned out for the drill. After the drill we had dinner and more orientation meetings. It was a LOOOOOOOOOONNNG day, but we were up bright and early this morning for a full day of orientation meetings with the students as we move forward to Honolulu, Hawaii. Not to boast, but, currently, I would be hard to beat in a ship popularity contest as 92847692834769238476529348 students have sought me out with questions about the add/drop period. Add/drop occurs for two days only, is conducted by yours truly, and happens only after the first two days of classes. The good news is I will have a ton of contact with students during this process—some of whom have already emerged as real superstars. The bad news is that I have two days to figure out how I am going to manually enter all of the add/drops for the students. Luckily, I supervise a wonderful work study student to help staff my office, which, before this ship was leased by Semester at Sea was the ship’s casino. It is likely that learning to operate the currently defunct casino will be the only way to maintain my current level of popularity after add/drop. I suppose all good things must come to an end.

One of the best parts of being on the ship thus far is that one of my friends from UVa is on the ship until Honolulu to give presentations to faculty and students about the UVa Honor Code. Justin’s presence ensures that I always have a partner in crime on the ship AND that I will never be without care packages. Learney, Ish, Connie Lee, Tim Him, and Tab thank you so much for all of the goodies you sent my way via Justin. Because of you I got a ton of laughs during a very busy day when I needed them. I have hung all of your photos, Misty and That Jeff’s photos, and Connie’s training certificates where appropriate, as not to scare the students. The Tybee Thug CD is in my player as I write and the school house pen is in use. The gummy bears have sustained me during many an orientation meeting. I also got to expand my wardrobe (thank you for the high heels, Lauren). I’m overly blessed as Paula Deen would say.

I’m off to bed. Sleeping on the ship so far has been like being rocked to sleep. So far the motion of the ocean suits me just fine, but others have not been so lucky feeling up with ginger pills, pressure bracelets, and Dramamine from the on-board clinic. Being on the ship feels like standing on one of those core boards at the gym—sometimes the resistance is set really high and sometimes it is much less and harder to balance. It’s not uncommon to run into people while walking on the ship or to have desk drawers open and the close as the ship rocks back and forth. Tomorrow I intend to hit the ship’s gym where my sea legs will truly be tested on the tread mill. Miss you!

Full Steam Ahead

Life on the ship is moving fast. I can't believe that we sail for Ensenada on Sunday. There is still so much to do. Right now the ship is gearing up for two days of celebration activities to honor two men who have given 31 and 28 years of service to Semester at Sea, respectively. This all starts tomorrow. As a result, we are reaping the benefits of tons of free food and drinks. There are also loads of people (SAS donors, family members, and alums who have supported the program over the years) who boarded the ship today and will depart the ship on Sunday before we sail. It seems like you only have to sail one time to become a permanent part of the SAS family. From what I understand, these events make the goings on of the ship even more hectic than they usually are at the start of the voyage. As a first-timer, ignorance is bliss! My days have been full getting things ready for the students to come on Sunday. I'll need to oversee Community College sessions, which are basically sessions where faculty, staff, students, and lifelong learners (adult participants who pay to come on the voyage) can present on topics of their choice. Their topics can be academic in nature or pertain to something much more serious like procrastinators anonymous. These "community colleges" happen every night we sail with the exception of the two days prior to our arrival in any port. I am also responsible for academic advising with individual students, supervising a work study (work study students receive a 40% break on tuition in exchange for 3 hours of work per day when we are sailing) organizing the add/drop days (two days of course adding and dropping, where I manually enter add/drops into a database and then coordinate the purchasing of texts with the ship's bookstore) and supporting my dean with any academic issues that arise. Then I have random jobs like selecting movies to play during the evenings and supervising the scantron grading of global studies exams which are exams that all students on the ship have to take (I knew there was a reason I needed this Ph.D.). Fun stuff. I am also getting anxious to do some shopping at the Semester at Sea store (think UVa bookstore the first time you went in high school) but because we are in port, the store isn't open. US Customs forbids it! It's only open when we are at sea. In two days 638 students will board from over 252 schools and over 15 countries. ...

How Sweet It Is

Friends,

I miss you all. I miss you even more than I miss internet access (and that's saying a lot since I haven't had any access since Tuesday; I am like a druggie looking for a fix). Sad, but true. I am using illegal internet of sorts right now. I cannot reveal how I am online to protect the guilty. Tomorrow there is promise of legitimate online usage and the ability to upload my photos, which I can't wait to do, but, enough about that. On to the good stuff!

I arrived at the ship on Tuesday after four fabulous days in La Jolla, California with my three best friends from college, Jen, Abby, and Sarah. (Yes, I did use six pillows under my head on the bed, but that is neither here nor there.) Those of us who are royalty make no apologies. Since Abby had to head back to Philly, we took her to the airport first and then drove our rental car (affectionately known as the big rig) to the port in the San Diego Bay. The summer Semester at Sea voyagers were just getting off as we arrived to the port. Sarah and Jen helped me haul my 1800 pounds of necessary luggage to the port authority. I have to say, it was empowering to have that much luggage (it would have weighed more, but Lauren cut me off. Some would say Lauren was my packing regulator, others would call her the voice of reason. I still think a yoga mat is a legitimate item to pack, but the enforcer was not deterred by my desperate pleas.) Whenever anybody like a bell hop would say, "Wow. That's a lot of luggage" I could say, "but I am traveling around the world." Very powerful indeed. Super special thanks to Madelyn who lent me the world's best luggage for this trip. I owe you my first born child.

After sad goodbyes with my roommates at the port gate, John, the world's nicest porter came from the heavens to haul said luggage through 89 security check points, up an elevator, down a long ramp to the ship where I boarded and received my offical ID card (Note to Jennifer Wegner: why did you let me take and send in that terrible, horrible, no good very bad CVS passport photo for my ID card? Big face is not my best look.) John refused all of my attempts to pay him for his services and told me to "buy something nice for myself on my trip." It was such a nice act of kindness right off the bat and immediately made me feel relaxed.

After proceeding through security, I got to my room which was another extremely nice piece of kindness. The room has a huge window with my own bathroom. It's located on the end of deck five (there are seven decks in all). The staff make my bed and turn it down everyday. I have a mini frig and enough closet and shelving space to make me think I could have indeed packed the yoga mat. I have a TV, phone, and fresh towels in the room. I am worried about what I will do when I return and there is no such staff awaiting me in Charlottesville. It's really quite nice and I will post real photos tomorrow as soon as I am able. The ship is also magnetized so I've been able to hang a ton of pictures around my room courtesy of some fun magnets from Connie Lee.

Once I settled into my room, I took a quick tour of the ship. It felt so surreal to walk around and think that this ship is going to be my home for the next 100 days. The ship is really shiny and clean with a good sized library, computer lab, student union, dining halls, gym, and faculy/staff lounge. Since Tuesday when I've boarded we had at least two socials in the faculty/staff lounge each day. Today our drinks and munchies were on the house, other times we pay for drinks by swiping our ID cards. It's so easy. There is also a really nice spa with massage and pedicure treatments. Apparently, you can just swipe your ID card for the charges and feel no pain until the bill comes at the end of the month.

Teaching faculty arrived today, but students don't arrive until the 27th, AFTER we've said to Mexico from San Diego. The schedule is nice because it allows us to ease into our roles and becoming a part of the shipboard community. Yesterday and today we've had almost nonstop orientation meetings, so it's information overload, but in a good way.

Finally, but perhaps most importantly, is the people that I've met thus far. I can't tell you how many people I've met who have sailed in the past. In my administrative team meetings I am the only person who is a first-time voyager. There are many more first-timers in the teaching faculty, but in the administration there are a lot of repeaters. It definitely feels like a family atmosphere. I absolutely love the dean who I will be working most closely with on the voyage. Dean Soffa is a material science professor at UVa, but has sailed before when he was on the faculty at the U of Pittsburg, which is the school that used to be Semester at Sea's academic sponsor. Even though I know nothing about the magnets he studies, I think we'll get along just fine. He is wondefully bright and funny and liberal (and I suspect he's a recycler, too, and he probably likes dogs (or dergs as Jill always says)--people like him usually do). Several of the people I've met who have helped trained me have been super friendly, too. One was even so kind as to present me with a gift of almost every chocolate candybar imagineable my first night here. Life is good!

I hope all is well in your respective corners of the world. I am sad to miss opening week at UVa, but I know my ONSP family, Him Tim, Constance, Tab, and Beth are doing the world's best job with everything going on in the Ville and that V Hawes will ensure that all of the Grounds for Discussion cast members receive Oscar nominations. I only hope that I can say I knew you when.

Lots of love and more to come!!! Alexis P.S. Happy Early Birthday, B! Enjoy the big D!

To Pack or Not to Pack...That is the Question

I like to think that there are several things that I am good at. I am a good recycler. I am an excellent cake-eater. I am an expert (some might say professional) phone talker. I can teach the Good Old Song to anyone. I know how to peel an orange so the peel comes off in one continuous peel. I am pretty good at opening jars that nobody else can open. I know a synchronized swimming move or two. I make a mean list and am an A+ color-coder.
There are many things I am not good at. I am NOT a good packer. This is a problem. My roommate from grad school, Shannon, is an excellent packer. When I moved back to Charlottesville from Burlington she essentially packed my entire two years of Vermont living into my Toyota Camry. There was no way I thought we (the royal "we" is used here to protect the guilty) could do it, but she did. I think her packing skills were honed after years of voluntarily camping. Those who know me well that I would never voluntarily camp anywhere. I don't even like watching camping on TV. When I traveled earlier this summer to Maui for said roommate's wedding, I realized that I had not magically acquired any packing skills. For my six day trip to Hawaii (where in theory you only need to pack swimsuits) I was over the 50 pound limit for one bag by 17 pounds. Eeeek! If it's true that less is more, why does it hurt more to pack less?

By the Numbers

I can't believe how quickly the Semester at Sea voyage is coming up. In preparation for the trip I've created this blog (thank you, Christian, for the tutorial), previewed it (thank you, Lauren and Tim, for serving as official testers), and got a plane ticket for San Diego (thank you, Pauletta, for donating your flight voucher on my behalf). Like a good researcher (Curry pride!) and procrastinator, I have reviewed the pertinent documents and have calculated a "by the numbers" edition for my MV Explorer voyage:
2001 the year the building of the ship was completed in Germany
918 number of berths on the ship
650 approximate number of students on the ship
590 length in feet of the ship
418 cabins on the ship (296 outside and 122 inside)
196 number of crew members
70 number of faculty and staff members
32 the cruising number of knots the speed of the ship can reach
954-538-6163 number to fax the ship
877-266-0986 number to reach the ship's receptionist, who will connect you to my room
$5 cost per page for sending a fax
$3.95 cost per minute for calling me on the ship
0 number of people who will actually call or fax me--that's what email is for!