Orientation Day

First of all, here's the porthole picture from this evening at about 7:30pm (1930).

Our current location is Latitude: 29 degrees 45.3N Longitude 125 degrees 10.9W. Speed 16.9 knots. Course 254 degrees. I know this, because there's a channel on the TV that has a map of our position and heading, and all of this information. This channel also plays the most awesomely weird music. It must be someone's demented ipod playlist. I've heard "Iko Iko," "Jungle Boy," lot's of song from the Flashdance soundtrack, lot's of Depeche Mode, right now it's "Betty Davis Eyes." Thank god for Jeremy's mix CD, or I'd be in big trouble. At noon everyday they do the "Noon Report" where they give information about our current position and speed, they also say where we are in relationship to the nearest land. Today it was some thousands of miles in relationship to Easter Island. That's weird. According to Jonny Hoebeke Hawaii is located further from any major land mass than any other island, and he would know because he's 14.

Today was the first real day with students, though they were in orientation most of the day. It was fun and exciting to have them around. We were very busy in the library, but we decided not to keep regular hours until tomorrow which is the first day of class. Mary and I spent the day putting things on reserve (despite the obvious success and efficiency of the electronic reserve system some of them still want hardcopies of articles and chapters on reserve, and in the tradition of UVa Libraries I'm not saying no.) People are already borrowing guide books. The students are wanting to check out videos. So far I've been saying, "No, just faculty and staff." This was the previous policy and I don't have a good enough feel for things yet to want to change that. I may loosen up a bit on this later on. The VHS tapes, which are 90% of the collection won't do them any good since the VCRs are all in classrooms. There aren't that many DVDs and I'm not sure if I have EVERYTHING that the faculty are going to want to show on reserve, yet.

I put a self-checkout sheet on the counter yesterday when we closed up, and there were several things written down this morning. Hopefully they're seeing it and using it. (Now they're playing the Spanish version of "Oh Mickey" on the TV). Dean Sisson gave the students the spiel on the honor code today. I haven't had a chance to talk to any of them about their impressions. She mentioned me in her talk as a resource for assistance with it. Hope I'm up to the task. I hadn't really anticipated how much of an ambassadorial role I would have. When Shamim and Karen Ryan get off in Honolulu, I'm going to be the lone UVa person (except for 3 students). So far I have to say though that anyone would be very hard pressed to find anything to complain about UVa. ALL of the faculty stuff is here and on reserve, everything is scanned and in their folders, access to the proxy account is a major revolution for learning and research, Shamim is unbelievably poised, professional and charming. I overheard some students saying, "Yeah bra, I heard it's going to be way harder since UVa has such high standards, way more than Pitt." Wahoo! Shamim told me she heard some students who were complaining a little about being told to discourage care packages from home, one of them said, "Well, what if I needed some books," and the others said, "Dude! There's a library, sha!" I don't think that's exactly how Shamim related the story but that's how I imagined it. Most of the faculty have independently told me how impressed they are with the UVa library and how much we pulled together at the last minute, and how on top of it we are. I'm taking all of the credit for now. If you want to bask in the glow you'll just have to come on a voyage.

The ship is rolling around some, so far I've been ok. It's just a vague ill feeling. A little headachey, and little queasy, sort of dizzy, cotton mouth. Like a mild hangover. Some kids are very ill. (Karma Chameleon on the TV) The sky was overcast and grey all day. Outside it's windy (duh) and chilly like mid-late October. Pleasantly chilly.

Here are some things that I've been thinking about today that have been unexpected:
Carrying your tray in the dining hall is really challenging on a moving ship
When you eat salad on the deck, your lettuce blows away
When you try to bend down to shave your legs in the shower you turn the water off with your butt.

I also had a couple of moments today when I got so busy doing library stuff that I forgot where I was, then when I looked out the window I thought "Man, it's really raining out there." But actually it's the ocean.

What an amazing proposition, to build a ship, get on it, and sail across the ocean. Even more amazing to bring a librarian and her laptop. By the way, my mom sent me a Nancy Pearl sushing librarian and I put that up behind the circ desk, she's a big hit. I also let my student workers put a book back there they found in the browsing collection, a
Fabio type bodice ripper called "The bride wore spurs." It's turned out to be a good marketing strategy because people see that and ask if we have leisure reading.

Last night for dinner I had salad (but it blew away, more dressing next time), roast beef, a bit dry but good and green beans.
Breakfast of omelets, watermelon, and bacon.
Lunch was delicious lentil stew, roast chicken and salad
Dinner was sirloin steak filet, brussell sprouts and bean sprout salad. I also had a big dollop of peanut butter for dessert.

I should mention I've only been mentioning the food I've been eating. There's almost always 2 different kinds of pasta, two meats (usually one of them fish) and two vegetarian options, as well as a potato dish, a vegetable, salad bar, dessert, and rolls. Today was the first time I saw something sketchy in the buffet: Fisherman's pie for lunch (just didn't look right, and I've never heard of fisherman's pie) and beets for dinner (beets are wrong).

First day of class tomorrow, or as it's referred to here A1.
(We've got the beat)