Erika's Semester at Sea

Rebarcode the whole freaking collection (check)

2006-12-04T17:52:00.000-08:00

Big news from the library. Today we finished the rebarcoding project. We've run a couple of reports too, and checked the shelves and it looks good. Looks like we've got everything. I expect a few things to drift in with old barcodes tomorrow and the next day, but other than that we're done. I feel really good about it. After we remove the Fall reserve personal copies I think we'll have around 600 items left in the database with an old barcode. That's not as many as I was expecting to see. In addition to this we checked how many new items we've put in, and the number is right around 1,000. These are mostly things that were on the shelves with barcodes and spine labels but without records in the database. We've added some new stuff, but mostly it was existing items.

So here's what's left to do:
Take off remaining Fall reserves
Catalog the donations we're adding and add the records to the database
Make a few changes to the manual
Write my end of voyage report...

Oh, and pack, and say goodbye to everyone, and get a million email addresses.

But, I still have two days.

Winding down

2006-12-02T03:15:00.000-08:00

The mood on the ship is subdued. People have one foot on the ship and one foot off. Then with papers and exams it seems a lot like the end of any semester, but maybe more final than that. Like the last week of high school (without the silly string and water balloons).

Three nights ago was the Ambassador's Ball. This is a little SAS tradition dating back to the very beginning. It's prom. Everyone gets dressed up, they serve you a fancy dinner. There's a champagne toast and jazz music, there was even a tissue paper arch that you could get your picture taken under. I was planning on going, but at the last minute I started feeling weird about closing the library for the whole night. Also, all the preparations and hoopla were starting to give me a pukey, grouchy, curmudgeonly feeling. So I stayed in the library. I'm glad I did too. There were a few students who really were glad I was there. It sounds like it was fun, but I don't think I really missed out on a whole lot. I didn't hear any wild party time stories that I wish I had been in on.

Two nights ago we were suppose to be having a little party for our work study students who had their birthday's while we were at sea. Mary and I were pretty tickled that our students had taken it upon themselves to arrange it, and I was feeling pretty pleased about the little community that I had helped build. So, we showed up to a private room off the dining room, and we all ate dinner together and talked and laughed, then they brought in the cake that said "Thank you Mary and Erika!" Can you believe that? They'd made us cards too. Those kids are the sweetest things EVER! Working with them and getting to know them has really been one of my favorite things about this voyage. We've worked them really hard too.

Last night was the talent show. There's some really talented people on the ship. Some of the highlights were: our student worker Megan singing, professor Michael Karlberg performing an original blues song, the dependent children doing a step dance performance, professor David Snyder's impersonations of a fork and an electric toothbrush, and the swing dancing club doing a dance routine.

That's the last of the special events for this voyage. There'll be a little convocation ceremony the last day, but the rest is study days and finals. Well except today is pajama day which is a theme day I can really get behind.

Yesterday the ocean was very rough, today so far it seems not so bad. The Explorer's current position is 31 degrees 15.3 N / 042 degrees 24.2 W.

The barcoding project is almost done. All that's left is videos and that's sort of slow going. I'm going to see what kind of progress we make today, and we might need to go to plan B, but I think we're going to get through it. Kelly and Rich volunteered all afternoon shelf reading. I'm going to have to find time at some point to do my end of voyage report, and make some additions and changes to the manual. I'm sure it'll all work itself out though, tra-la-la.

The main conversations on the ship these days revolve around what one is looking forward to the most about being home (excluding seeing family and friends, which is a given). Here are the common things: doing your own laundry (that's not just me), eating what you want when you want it, driving (though some people say that's something they're dreading), TV, Mexican food, unlimited internet. I'm looking forward to Raising Cane's chicken fingers, seeing my pets, doing my own laundry (I miss Downey), and not having to see one single travel guide.

Moderate Swell

2006-11-29T01:58:00.000-08:00

Here's how the phrase "moderate swell" particularly applies to me:
1) The Atlantic Ocean currently has "moderate swell" conditions meaning the ship is rising and falling in unbroken waves of moderate height. "Moderate" in seaman's terms I think means "a lot."
2) My throat currently has the condition of moderate swell(ing). I just thought I'd squeeze in one more disease before we're done and decided to go for strep throat this time.
3) My emotions are in a moderate swell. Happy to be on my way home, sad to be leaving the ship, happy to see all my friends at home, sad to be leaving my friends from SAS, happy I don't have to be preparing for another port, sad that I'm not going to be preparing for another port.
4) Moderate swell as in to bulge out slightly, as in my stomach after five days of awesome Spanish food.

So Spain. It was great. Terrific port to finish with in my opinion. It was easy to make of it what you wanted. Some people wanted to party and stay up late, it's a great place for that. Some people wanted to just relax and stay near the ship, it was good for that too. Some people wanted to squeeze in more culture and beauty, perfect place. The weather was great except for rain one day. And guess what! I can speak Spanish! Used to be if you asked me if I could speak Spanish I'd say "No way, Jose." But turns out I can. At least compared to most ports where I spoke the language at about what a 8 month old can speak, Hello, Bye-Bye, Thank You. In Spain I can say "Donde esta la farmacia?" And people tell me where the farmacia is and I understand. I can say "Un otro mas por favor," and I get another beer. I can ask for ham and soap... jamon y jabon. I speak Spanish at least at the level of a 2 or 3 year old and that difference means the difference between getting laughed at, and getting laughed at and also getting what you want. There's no peeing in the streets when your with Erika Day, because she can ask for a bathroom and tell you if your a caballero or a damas. Want a table by the window? "Yo quiero un mesa circa la fenetra." Ta Da. It was really like discovering I have some sort of super hero skill. If I had had that level of fluency in every country it would have been a completely different trip.

My friend Marc and I took to the highways. We decided to rent a car rather than be at the mercy of trains and busses (or SAS trips). We ended up with this cool hatchback Citroen Picasso. It was a standard, which I can't drive, so I just got to look at the scenery and navigate. We picked up the car about 1:00pm on Thursday, that was after waiting around in the rental place for an hour for them to finish our reservation and get our car. Then we headed out to Granada.

The scenery on the way was out of this world. Gorgeous green mountains and olive trees as far as the eye could see. Giant modern villas, and tiny farms, and castle ruins. The drive was about 4 hours or so, which was kind of longer than we were expecting, but not too bad. The map I had for Granada was really inadequate so we struggled trying to figure out where we should go to look for a hotel, but ended up settling on a place right by the Alhambra with free parking on the street in front. The hotel was just what you'd want from Spain, lots of wood, lots of red, winding stairways. If you're ever looking for a hotel in Granada I'd highly recommend the Hotel Guadalupe. They have a dining room on the second floor where we ate dinner. I had paella and fried calamari, paella was delicious and calamari was the best I've ever had, tender and flavorful.

The next day we went to the Alhambra first thing in the morning. The Alhambra is a giant Moorish palace complex, including a fort and a little town and exquisite room after exquisite room. Most of the rooms open to courtyards and gardens, and the whole thing sits on top of a hill overlooking Granada so everywhere you look is an amazing view. We wandered around there for a few hours, but one could easily spend a day or even two if you wanted to look at everything. The winding paths and pretty gardens kind of gave me the feeling of going to a zoo. Something weird about Granada is that everywhere you go there's some reference to Washington Irving. There's a Washington Irving hotel, and street, and cafes. I didn't know this at all, but Washington Irving lived at the Alhambra for awhile and wrote a book, "Tales of the Alhambra" and for this he's probably more famous in Granada than anywhere in the US.

We left about 12:00 or so to go find lunch. But the thing about Spain is people eat really late. Wanting to eat lunch at 12:00 would be the equivalent of wanting to eat at 9:00AM in the US. You certainly can't find anything open until 1:30 or so and then it doesn't really get hopping until 3:00 or 4:00. But considering they don't have dinner until 9:00PM or 10:00PM they have to eat a late lunch. Also, you might as well eat a late lunch and take your sweet time at it, because things close between 1:30 and 5:00. The guidebook said that people weren't taking naps during this time, but come on, what else could they possibly be doing? Watching TV? Playing soccer? I think that some of them at least are taking naps. They didn't even get done with dinner until midnight, they must be napping. I'm not making any kind of judgement at all on this, in fact I think I'd probably really like that schedule, but if your tummy is telling you it's time to eat at noon 1:30 is a long ways a way. Fortunately we found a little pub that was open, because 12:00 is not too early for beer. They served us garlic soup (delicious) and I had sauteed ham and mushrooms (delicious). After lunch we went back to the hotel and took naps.

In the afternoon we walked down the hill (the Alhambra hill) and went to the main part of the old city. There was much more hustle and bustle there, than up where we were. Lots of touristy shops and cafes, but all in really fantastic gothic buildings. The cathedral was first on the agenda, and we went to the cathedral chapel first which had the most vivd alter piece I'd ever seen. It depicted tales from the bible and one tale was the beheading of John the Baptist, the second that it happened. The executioner is holding his head in one hand and the sword in the other and poor John is still kneeling there headless showing us an anatomically correct bisection of his neck, complete with gaping esophagus. The big attraction in the chapel though is that this is the burial place of Ferdinand and Isabel. THE
Ferdinand and Isabel. They're buried in a little chamber underneath and in front of the alter, and they have a few steps you can walk down and see their caskets, which are just very plain cast iron. The cathedral itself is very different. It's a huge Renaissance building, and very light and airy and refreshing to be in, and in the sacristy is Isabel's personal collection of Flemish art.

After the cathedral we walked straight up a very steep hill, to go find the troglodyte quarter in Granada. Troglodytes in this sense refer to people who live in homes that are carved out of the hills around Granada. I think we were both hoping for something a little more Lord of the Rings than what we found, which was just cute little homes that look more like they were right up against a hill than were actually in the hill itself. Though we did spot a couple of places where it was more like a grassy regular little hill but with a big wooden door in it. This area also has a really cool sounding name "Sacremonte."

We were hungry at 6:00 or so, so ended up in another pub that was smart enough to be open to serve the starving Brits and Americans. We ended up with a giant platter of meats and cheeses and bread and we were very happy.

The next day after a great breakfast of meats, cheeses and bread at the hotel we got an early-ish start and jumped in the Picasso and headed for Ronda. One of the professors on the trip made it sound like Ronda was a quaint little Medieval town that at some point in its history had been ripped in two by an earthquake, and that the town still thrived teetering on either side of this big rent. Not quite. It is a medieval town and it does have a big gorge through the middle of town, but I would say the reason for the gorge was the river that was running along the bottom. It
also wasn't this vast bottomless (Lord of the Rings) tear in the earth. It was just a good, pretty deep gorge. At any rate, the town was really pretty and the gorge was cool and we had a great lunch at a restaurant right on the edge of the gorge. I had a bird liver puff pastry. Yum. After lunch we got back in the car and headed for Sevilla. We got in to town just as it was starting to get dark and ended up having a pretty nerve wracking hour of driving around in these teeny tiny windy little streets looking for a hotel with parking. But considering how awry that could have gone it actually was pretty easy and went smoothly. We stayed at the Hotel Europa which was just right downtown, and I had a cool room with marble floors and big wooden shutters over the floor to ceiling windows.

That evening we walked over to where we read in the guidebook was a theater that had subtitled movies rather than dubbed, and we had the option of seeing Scoop or something about Goya. We went for Scoop because it was starting earlier than the other. It was pretty silly, I thought, but not silly good like Purple Rose of Cairo.

The next morning another early start and a trip to Starbucks for my first Gingerbread Latte of the season. Then we went to the Alcazar. I would defy anyone to visit the Alhambra and the Alcazar in such close succession and keep them straight in the mind. The Alcazar is another former Moorish palace, lovely gardens, awesome tile work and ornate carvings. The two coolest things about the Alcazar was 1) running into Larry Silver and his wife in the tapestry room. Larry is the art historian on the ship and his wife is a weaver. We learned A LOT about those tapestries, and one of them had a greyhound depicted. 2) they had a exhibit about these young men who recently recreated Magellan's trip around the world in a ship that was similar to the one he used. Watching the video of the their trip and seeing all of their photos and memorabilia on display, seeing their ship docked right where ours was in Hong Kong harbor, well it was kind of moving. It gave me this sense of really having been part of something momentous and historic.

After the Alcazar we walked to where the Fabrica de Tabacos is. At one time this was the second largest building in Spain and the largest employer. Also this is where the opera Carmen was set. How cool is that? Unfortunately you can't go into the building, it belongs to the University, but it was gated off. Then we walked and walked and walked to see the Plaza de Espana which was part of a World's Fair type thing, I was pretty exhausted and starving at this point so I don't think I truly appreciated it. But then we had actually waited long enough for lunch and had no trouble finding places open. We ended up at a cafe and I ordered something that turned out to be little pieces of cod between two thin slices of fried eggplant. Odd, but delicious. After lunch we saw the cathedral, which is probably the
grandest, most ornate, impressive building I've ever seen. It was dimly lit and cold and foreboding, but splendid beyond imagination. I would have liked to have visited it earlier in the day and earlier in the trip so I would have been fresh to examine every nook and cranny. If you only see one cathedral in your life, this might be the one.

Then in the evening we headed on back to Cadiz. The next day was exploring Cadiz and getting one last crack at some shopping. Trying not to dwell on the finality of everything. There was an enormous line of people trying to get back on the ship at 15 minutes to on ship time. I bet 50 people got dock time for being late on the ship.

The atmosphere on the ship now is subdued. A week from today is our last day at sea.

Happy Thanksgiving

2006-11-22T04:59:00.000-08:00

I wish I had more exciting adventures to report to you from Croatia, unfortunately, I spent the entire time suffering in my cabin. I had one of the worst cold I can remember ever having. Tons of mucus and coughing and just a really ill feeling. It was miserable.

I did manage to take a couple of walks, and go to the grocery store a couple of times. So I can report on the fact that Dubrovnik was probably the prettiest place that we've been so far. The grocery stores are also very well stocked and convenient. Everyone agreed that Croatia was absolutely stunningly gorgeous, but many found the Croatians to be distant and unpleasant. I didn't experience that at all, but I had a much more limited experience than most.

The past four days have been full of library busy-ness. I've done a couple of instruction sessions, and have been setting up research appointments with students. Yesterday the proxy server was down, which was extremely bad timing. Mary and Diane Klein and I were planning on having a research and writing clinic, but it was pretty pointless with no databases. Things seem to be working better today, and I think we're going to try it again this evening.

Day before yesterday was the Students of Service auction. People on the ship donated things like vacations at their time share, and neat things they picked up in port. The crew donated things like signed copies of the navigational, manually steering the ship for 5 minutes, and first person off the ship privileges. All in all $18,000 was raised for charity. You can get a full report on these goings on at http://johnston9494.blogspot.com.

Tonight is Thanksgiving as observed on the ship. Turkey and dressing, pumpkin cheesecake, hopefully some green bean casserole. I've also heard rumors that they're going to show a football game on TV.

Tomorrow we dock in Spain. I'm feeling much much better and I'm going to try to make up for lost time in Dubrovnik and have some awesome stories to tell in my blog on my return.

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone.

Yet another awesome place

2006-11-14T12:32:00.000-08:00

You all must be getting pretty sick of hearing this, but Dubrovnik is so amazing. I haven't seen anything but the old town area, but it's just gorgeous. And to think that I almost missed out on it.

We got in this morning at 8:00 AM the captain blew the horn three times as we passed his house. I didn't see it because I stayed in my cabin, I didn't want the cold wind blowing on me. During breakfast I could barely sit up in my seat I was feeling so cruddy. I got back in bed and watched the diplomatic briefing on TV and pretty much decided I was just going to stay on the ship today.

I got cleaned up though just in case, and went to lunch. I talked it over with Mary and Kelly and told them I thought it would definitely be better for me to stay on ship today. I was headed back to my cabin though and caught a glimpse of the city out the starboard side windows and was enchanted. I stepped outside on the deck and it was a glorious sunny day, so I really had no choice but to go.

It was really a low key tour. Just a few hours and most of it was just strolling around old town part of Dubrovnik. We saw a church, saw a palace, saw an old clock tower. The guide pointed out to us places where you could see damage from the Serbian assault, it might as well have been Napoleon, it seems so distant. The city is completely recovered as far as I can tell. Splendid and quaint and serene. It just seems impossible that it was practically demolished less than 20 years ago.

After the tour was over Kelly and Mary and I met up with Tom and Diane Klein and went to dinner at the coolest place right on the water. I had seafood risotto that's probably the best thing food wise I've had on the trip and a glass of local wine that was dynamite. Then we went and saw Borat, which I didn't like that much, but the Klein's liked a lot. I think Kelly and Mary were pretty luke warm on it too.

Tomorrow I'm off for a couple of days up the coast in Split on an SAS trip. If I'm feeling better after that, but more importantly if Kelly is feeling better (since he's driving) Mary, Kelly and I are getting a car and driving around some in the Split area and staying a couple of nights up there.

You can't spell Funicular without F-U-N.

2006-11-12T22:18:00.000-08:00

I was sitting here at what I thought was 5:30am waiting for them to put coffee and hot water in the faculty staff lounge, checking email. When it was a few minutes after 6:00 I went upstairs but there was nothing there, I sat down to wait until I realized we fell back last night and it was really just a few minutes after 5:00am. Major bummer. I took a long nap yesterday afternoon and so I woke up early with a sore throat. Tonight I'm taking Nyquil.

So since I'm up and this is always the best time to do stuff on the internet I thought I'd work on my blog.

I loved Istanbul, it's probably my favorite port. First of all the ship was in a fabulous location right on the Golden Horn in the Beyoglu area of Istanbul which is just over the Galata Bridge from old Istanbul. There's a tram that runs directly in front of where the ship is over the bridge and then to the other far side of
Istanbul. You can buy tokens for the tram (there's also a metro and funicular, but more on that later) at little booths at each station for 1.30 YTL (new Turkish Lira).

The first day I went on the city orientation tour. That's one SAS trip that I think is almost always worth it. The first stop was the Suleymaniye Camii (Suleyman Mosque). It was designed by Sinan in the 16th century. Sinan is the Leonardo DaVinci of the mosque, and the Suleymaniye is magnificent. The mosque is part of an entire complex that includes a library, school and cemetery where Suleyman and his wife Roxelana are buried. While we were walking from the buses to the mosque wepassed by many kebap shops and the smell was too much to take, especially knowing that lunch was going to be box lunch from the ship (cold fried chicken, bologna sandwich, apple, hard boiled egg, marble cake, and ritz cracker if you're lucky). I said "I want some of that," and the guy in the shop carved me off a piece and handed out the window.

Next stop was the Basilica Cistern built during the time of Justinian. It's an underground water tank, but you'd think they were planning to host balls in it, it's so elegant. It use to be that you could just walk down a few steps and peek in it, but now they've done a lot of restoration and built platforms all through it, and even put a cafe down there. Right near the cistern is Hagia Sofia. It was built as a Christian Church, also by Justinian, and then used as a mosque, and now it's a museum. It is enormous and grand. It is under major restoration, but no one alive today can remember a time when it wasn't under major restoration. They're meticulously restoring all of the mosaics that were destroyed over the years by moisture and age. The mosaics are all depictions of Christian tradition, Mary and Jesus, and apostles, etc. These were all left in tact while it was being used as a mosque because Jesus and Mary are also revered in Islam. Giant plaques were hung over some of the mosaics and around the interior with the name of Allah and Mohammed. Right across from the Hagia Sofia is the Blue Mosque or the Sultanahmet Camii. This is another gorgeous mosque from the 17th century. The interior is covered in Turkish (Iznik) tiles and stained glass. All of these mosques and basilicas make for the most impressive and unbelievable skyline. I have never
seen anything like the sunsets over Istanbul. Breathtaking. After the mosque was a quick walk around the hippodrome which is where they had chariot races and is really just a courtyard, not a stadium like you might think.

Day two in Istanbul we left Mary on the ship with a hacking cough and Kelly and I set out for the Kariye Museum or the Church of the Chora. It's in my 1,000 places to see before you die book and the Lonely Planet said that many people are surprised that the highlight of their trip to Istanbul is so off the beaten path. And it is indeed off the beaten path. We rode the tram to a place where we changed to the metro and rode the metro a couple of stops then walked about a mile straight uphill. We walked along the old city wall and through a pretty sketchy neighborhood where Kelly saw a flock of sheep in someone's living room. We were greatly rewarded when we got there because the building is beautiful, but unfortunately the museum was closed on Wednesday. It took us about two hours to get there. The cab drivers must lurk around there for stupid tourists who did just what we did, because there was one sitting waiting for us in front of the museum. He charged us an arm and a leg, but zipped us right back into old town in about 15 minutes, to the Topkapi palace. All the sultans and their families lived here until the 19th century. It's a series of courts that are park like, overlooking the Golden Horn, and splendid and opulent rooms like the circumcision room and the turban room. Kelly and I ate lunch at the expensive but worth it restaurant at the palace. Then we stopped at an internet cafe and squeezed onto the tram for the quick trip back to the ship, where we got Mary and went and saw a whirling dervish ceremony at the train station of all places.

Day three Mary joined us for our Kariye museum attempt two. This time we got off the metro one stop early and walked a half a mile or so further than the day before but through a much nicer more charming part of town. The mosaics in the Kariye were
definitely the best I saw in Istanbul, which makes them the best I've seen ever in my life, except for Sarah's. There's was a guy there who had brought binoculars which seems goofy, but was actually an excellent idea. We had lunch at the cafe right across the courtyard. More kebaps. That's really all I had to eat while I was here. Delicious grilled meats. Then I went crazy buying tiles that I then had to carry the mile and a half back to the packed tramway. I barely complained at all, though I was pretty tired. After a rest the three of us walked a ten minute walk from the ship to the funiculer. I didn't know what this was before hand, it's an underground tram that takes you up a hill, basically. This funiculer takes you up a hill to Taksim square which is the modern bustling Times Squarish part of Istanbul. There was tons of shopping, restaurants, pubs, we found a place that looked sort of cozy and it had really nice employees but we were the only ones in there. More kebaps and a good dessert that was like parmesan cheese covered in honey soaked shredded wheat and then fried. Yum.

For day four one of my student workers, April, and I had made plans to see some churches and do a Turkish bath with her friend Stephanie. I had had all the churches I needed for awhile, so instead we did a walking tour recommended in the Lonely Planet where we rode the funicular back to Taksim and then walked the Istiklal Cadessi which took us through lots of shopping, near many consular offices, the Pera Palas Hotel, and a few churches too which surprisingly were still churches. By the time we made it to the end we weren't really feeling up for a bath so we went back to the ship and I just relaxed and wrote some postcards.

Last day was do or die for the Turkish bath. But first I had signed up for the Bosporus motorboat excursion which took us up the Bosporus to the Black Sea and then let us out near a museum that had some cool Archeological findings and clothing and housewares from the 19th and early 20th century. We were back at the ship around 1:00pm. April, Marc and I and another student Brooke met at 3:00 to go to the bath. There had been a SAS trip the previous evening and their reports were very negative. That it was unhygenic and creepy. We were going to try and go to a different bath than the one they went to, but the one that really seemed the best option was the same one, the Cagaloglu Hamami. We were nervous but determined. Here is a detailed account of the bath experience.
When we walked in it was into a large receiving area where women were relaxing and drinking tea and playing games, the receptionist showed us our options for the level of service we wanted and we each made selections and payed then were given keys to changing rooms and little sheets and told to take off our clothes and come down in the sheets. The changing rooms had little beds in them and a mirror and a hook for our clothes. We each had our own room. The sheet was tinier than I would have liked. It was wide enough to wrap all around me, but short enough that I felt like my ass was hanging out. April and Brooke are of course teeny tiny little things. (We left Marc at the door, BTW, he had to go to the men's side of the bath). Then we went downstairs and this really big, nice, smiling Turkish woman took me by the hand and led me through a room with a big marble slab and piles of towels and into the huge hot room. It had a domed ceiling with little cutouts that let in light. The floor was marble and all around the edges of the walls was a marble step. There were probably 20 marble basins attached to the wall with hot and cold water running into them. My lady took me over and sat me down and used a little metal bowl to splash water on me from the basin and then handed me the bowl and indicated I should continue to splash myself. So I did. I wet myself down really good and got a good look at the place. Right next to me was a giant naked Turkish woman with a tiny tourist girl sitting between her legs getting her hair washed. There were a lot of tourists all sort of anxiously eyeing each other. The room was steamy, but not super hot like a steam room. Oh yeah and once you get in there they take your sheet away from you. So you're naked. Some people had their underpants on, most were naked. The women who worked there, the attendants, some were wearing just underpants, some had on one piece bathing suits, a couple had on night gown looking things. After maybe 15 minutes or so my lady came back and led me to the center of the room, under the dome where there's a big marble slab and had me lay down. I was prepared for this, because I'd been watching other women getting the treatment. She asked me my name and if it was my first time and where I was from, and I asked her name, Anaful. I was laying on my back on the slab and she was sitting next to me. The slab is giant and round and several women are on it laying feet to head around the edge. Anaful had a scrubbing mitten on and started scrubbing my chest and stomach and legs, scrubbing all the dead skin away. Then I turned over and she scrubbed down my back, then I sat up and she did my arms and my face. She had me look at my arms where sheets of dead skin came off. She said, "dirty," and I said "I see that." After the scrubbing I was led back to my basin for more rinsing. Then back to the slab where she oiled me up and rubbed me down. It was a vigorous rub down, not like a massage. She did my front first then said turn over, but with the oiled up stomach and the marble slab I was just sliding all over the place. But she held onto me and rubbed my back down. Then she went and got a big bucket that was full of bars of soap and water and a cloth that looks like a dust mop made of loofah. She took that soapy mop and soaped me up front, back, top, bottom over and over and over. It felt amazing. I loved that soapy mop. She was laughing at me because I was smiling so much. Then back to the basin for rinsing and rinsing. Then she had me sit between her legs and she washed my hair and combed it out and then turned me around and washed my face. Then she put her forehead on mine and said, "Beautiful American face, beautiful, you are clean, it is finished." I just sat there for awhile kind of amazed at the experience. Then I went into the room with the towels and went upstairs and dried my hair and took a little snooze on the bed. April, Brooke and I compared stories and all of us loved it and had a great experience. I didn't find it unhygenic or creepy at all. In fact that's probably the cleanest I've ever been in my life. We met Marc at a nearby internet cafe. His experience had been totally different. He just got the self-service version and the men all kept their sheets on through the whole rinsing thing. There were a couple of tourists who were getting rubbed down and that involved a lot of grunting. But there was no talking or laughing or luxuriating like on the women's side. Like in all things it's better to be a woman. Back at the ship after dinner I was starting to feel kind of run down and thinking I should go to bed early, but instead I went out and walked around in the cold and sat outside at a cafe for an hour. Stupid. Now I'm sick again.

Back on the ship

2006-11-12T08:33:00.000-08:00

I'm back on the ship after Istanbul. We've been having internet problems all day. And guess what, I'm freaking sick again. I'm coming down with another cold, though I'm trying to get as much rest as I can and drinking plenty of fluids.

Right now I'm in the library and will be here until 9:00pm because all the work study students were invited to a Captain's dinner tonight. This is sort of the primo dinner too since it's a day before we land in his hometown of Dubrovnik. Mary and I will go up in an hour or so and take a picture of our work studies with the captian.

I'm trying to get my email to download, and if I feel up to it I'll try to write a blog tonight in the library.

Internet cafe ın Istanbul

2006-11-08T06:03:00.000-08:00

Hello from an ınternet cafe ın Istanbul just steps from the Hagıa Sophıa. Istanbul ıs awesome, by the way. Kelly and I stopped ın here after a day of tourıng to check on the electıon results. There's no ınternet on the shıp rıght now, so thıs could be my last post for a few days. Sorry about that. But, I'm havıng an amazıng tıme. Istanbul really couldn't be more lovely. Tonıght I'm goıng to a Sufı Dervısh ceremony. Sarah, I've been seeıng the most amazıng mosaıcs.

Zooming to Turkey

2006-11-06T10:37:00.000-08:00

I guess we're back on schedule. After sitting in Alexandria for an extra 19 hours, they're still predicting that we'll be on schedule for getting into Istanbul tomorrow at 8:00am. That sure wouldn't happen if we were flying. We had the roughest weather thus far last night. I tried to go to the Coptic Christian service, but the priest was feeling ill and they were afraid they'd spill the communion wine so they postponed it until next week. I don't know if I could have made it either. I went back to my room to lie down. As long as I was prone I was fine, but when I tried to sit up or move around I got nauseous. I ended up watching Cultural pre-port on the TV in my room. The bad weather didn't last long though. By the time I woke up this morning it was smooth sailing.

Today, Mary and I cataloged and rebarcoded a bunch of books. What we still have left to do are the P's, the travel guides, the oversized stuff, reference, and I'll have to do something with the videos though I haven't decided what, yet. It's a very time consuming, very tedious process, though the end is in sight. I'm still hopeful that we'll get it done before the semester's over. I also did an instruction session for Tom Klein's Creative Non-Fiction class. This one went better than the others, because I didn't depend on the internet at all. I pre-loaded all of the pages, and while it wasn't as interactive or spontaneous as ideally it could have been, I think the students got more out of it, and I think Tom thought it went well. I had to cancel a session I'd scheduled with him previously when I was so sick.

The students are really gearing up to do research. I've been passing out proxy ids like crazy, and showing people how to set up their browsers. If they turn in crappy papers it certainly won't be the library's fault.

Tonight is logistical pre-port. I'll probably come right back to my cabin after it's over and try to get a good night sleep so I can be up and at'em for sunrise tomorrow.

Breakfast: skipped
Lunch: pasta with garlic and olive oil (left a nasty taste in my mouth)
Dinner: Chicken Milanaise and chocolate cake
Plus: 2 double shot mochas and a snickers bar (naughty, naughty)

I'll introduce four people tonight, Hank Kennedy (left) and Roger Bennet, Hank's wife Patricia Poe, and their daughter Mollie (with Mary). Hank teaches political science and is a professor at Wake Forest University. Patricia is a muckety muck for the Girl Scouts in their area. They're traveling with their lovely daughter Mollie. Mollie was a babe in arms the last time they did this voyage. Hank is an expert in Pakistan, and he has lived for an extended time with his family there.

Roger is traveling with his delightful wife Barb, but I don't have a photo of her. They live in Briny something, Florida and their town is for sale. Sometime in January it will go on the auction block for a starting price of $500,000,000, if it gets any more than that Roger and Barb's share will be $3.5 mil. Roger teaches communications and this is his 3rd voyage. The last time he sailed was in the Fall of 2001, so he was on the ship 9/11.

In port at sea day

2006-11-05T08:35:00.000-08:00

As of about ten minutes ago we were still sitting in Alexandria (6:00pm Nov. 5). Then in the middle of dinner they fired up the engines and we took off. There was suppose to be an announcement about the sea conditions, etc. But so far I haven't heard anything. We might be in for a rough night. I'm not even sure when we'll be getting to Istanbul.

Today was a strange day, sitting in port, yet going about business as if we were at sea. Mary and I continued to work on the rebarcoding project. We're more than half way done, but we ran into a large section of books that didn't have any catalog record, and that slows us down. We normally get a range to a range and a half done in a good day, but we didn't even manage to finish a full range.

The big excitement for the day was going to the pool bar and talking them into making us m&m blizzards. They weren't perfect, but they were pretty good.

Breakfast: Cornbeef hash and scrambled eggs
Lunch: Beef Goulash
Dinner: Cream of Tomato Soup

Here in a little while I'm going to the union to the Christian worship service, they're doing a coptic liturgy with communion. I think that'll be interesting. Then later will be the cultural pre-port for Turkey.

Here's introducing Debbie Clifford. She's the registrar and assistant academic dean. This is her third voyage with Semester at Sea, previously she sailed as an RD and the Director of Student Life. She's a licensed massage therapist and a certified yoga instructor. When this voyage is over the two of us will be driving back to Charlottesville together. She's accepted a position at ISE and will be moving to Charlottesville permanently. She'll also need a place to live, so if any of you know of some nice places available for rent, she'd be happy for any leads.

In which our heroine recounts her final adventures in Egypt

2006-11-04T12:17:00.000-08:00

Before I get to the blog there are two announcements:
*Welcome to the world Benjamin Edward Truman Underwood, and congratulation to Elizabeth, Walter, Ethan and Daniel.*
*Hello to Rachel Hoebeke in Japan and Amy Hoebeke in Austria from Erika Day in Egypt*

Today was our last day in Egypt, it was really too bad to only have two days in Alexandria. I don't know why we didn't just have this as our main port for Egypt and launch trips to Cairo from here, maybe too expensive, who knows.

Last night a group of us walked and found a place to eat, there aren't very many restaurants in Alexandria, believe it or not. The place we ended up "Tikka" was not very good. Everything was deep fried, and not in a particularly flavorful way. It gave me indigestion. We walked around some after that, and talked to some people. When we got back to the ship four bus loads of Semester at Sea students zoomed past us right at the gate. Barbie and Ashley will know what this means. It means "You ain't gettin' on the ship." Each of their enormous bags has to be searched for contraband, and all of them have to have an argument about whether or not they get to bring their hookah on board.

So to kill time, Kelly and I walked around and looked at the other big ships that were docked near us. This is the first time since Japan that we've been in a port with other big passenger ships nearby. The ship right across from ours, the MSC Opera, looked about 4 times bigger than ours. We talked to some people from the crew and they said it held 2,000, but it looked like it could hold 3 or 4 easily. It was apparent after a little while that this ship was getting ready to take off. There were a lot of passengers out on deck and people milling about the gangway. A lady came running up with a bag and jumped on the ship, they pulled up the gangway and within 2 minutes they were headed out. I yelled "BYE!" and started waving, and everyone on deck started waving back. It was just the two of us to their 100 wavers, so we were very tired seeing them off. After that we walked down to the ship that was behind theirs. It was a teeny tiny passenger ship, much smaller than ours. They had a lounge singer up on their top deck singing "Proud Mary" and "Waterloo." Hank Kennedy has a theory that there's a international songlist of tunes like "People" and "Delilah" and these are all you're allowed to sing or you get your international lounge singer license revoked.* We talked to some people who were getting off this ship and they said they were headed home to Toronto, that the ship had come from Istanbul and was headed to Bahrain next. That the ship never stops it just cruises around and around and people get on and off wherever it is and can stay on as long as their funding holds out. Sounds like a great premise for a TV show, huh?

There were three parts to the day today:

Part the first
Sally and I left the ship around 11:00 to walk around and do some shopping. She was hoping to find some nice Egyptian cotton shirts and I was hoping to find the yarn store, fabled for it's bounty and cheapness. We walked to the market and went into a shop selling coffee and bought a few bags, then we saw a big Christian church and I wanted to go look at it, so we walked up, but it was surrounded by a wall with guards. We asked if we could go in and they said, "Yes, yes" but the church was closed because they were cleaning it. But the guard told us it was the patriarchate for the Greek Orthodox Church in Egypt which is probably why there were so many guards. Then he took us across the street to another church which was Catholic. We went inside and were looking around, but the guy who was working there told us to follow him, he said "French, Italian, German?" I said "English" he said "Oh, no English" and just talked to us in French instead. I understood enough to know that the tiny room with the weird coffin containing a lit up dead lady was supposedly the real dead body of Saint Sabina. Catholic.org doesn't say anything about her real dead body being in a church in Alexandria, and it did look a little waxy, but who the heck am I to say anything about it? Then the guy gave us an en francais tour of the church and I gave him 50 EL and he was happy. After that I was starving so we walked around and found a little tea shop and ordered coffee and something to eat. The lady said "gatteaux?" Which I know is French for cake and I said "Oui." and she said "Chocolate?" and I said "Oui" and so I came to have chocolate cake and coffee for lunch and was glad of it. When we left there we started to head back toward the ship and almost immediately came upon the yarn store. It was as bountiful and cheap as I'd heard and I bought 4 skeins of yarn and a pair of needles for 25LE which is about $5. I went back to the ship and Sally continued to walk around.

Part the second
Back at the ship I met up with Mary and Kelly and we hailed a cab to take us back to the Library of Alexandria. Because.... Mary arranged for us to get our very own private super-secret librarian tour of the library. Our guide was the librarian for Business, though she was a subject specialist and didn't have an MLS. The people with MLSs work in cataloging she said. She told us about their internet policy: Free for an hour and you can get another hour if you want. Circulation: None, unless they have four copies of the book (so none). Collection size: 500,000 but capacity is 10,000,000. Budget woes: Most funds come from private donations from other governments. Printing policy, copier policy, most frequently asked questions, etc. etc. She took us to the children's library where most adults aren't allowed in, not even parents. To the Arts and Media Library where they have viewing rooms and a piano made out of books. She was with the three of us for an hour and a half. She was so nice, and we really had a fun time. She gave us her email and I hope she wants to keep in touch with us, because how cool would it be to have a friend at the Library of Alexandria. There were a lot of people from the ship there and everyone had some crack to make about librarians at the library. I think my blood sugar must have been messed up because every time someone we knew said a word to me I wanted to punch them in the mouth. Mary is very very popular with the students and EVERYONE wanted to talk to Mary and she had a cold and wasn't feeling well and couldn't have been sweeter, but I thought I was going to have a freak out right there in public.

Part the third
I didn't freak out, though. And Mary and Kelly saw the wisdom in getting me to food ASAP. I'm sorry to say we went to McDonald's. But it was delicious and it was full of Egyptians and Kelly had something called the McArabia (which was like a gyro) so don't be to harsh on us. What's better, to go to an Egyptian place that's full of tourists because the locals can't afford it, or just to go for the Quarter Pounder? At any rate, I felt much happier after that and we walked around some really cool streets and managed to find ourselves back at the yarn store, and I bought 68LE worth. Just then I started feeling like I had to go to the bathroom in an emergency kind of way, but the feeling passed pretty soon and we decided just to head for the ship. Then, when we were so close I could almost see the port, it came upon me again only this time there was no denying. So I ran into what I think was someone's house maybe, but they let me use their bathroom which was just a hole but I was terribly grateful. I think they could see the desperation in my eyes.

We were suppose to leave for Istanbul tonight, but Captain Roman just announced that due to bad weather they've closed the port. So we're going to sit here until tomorrow, and then maybe the weather will improve. Hmmm, so I don't know what that means for getting to Turkey. Also I was told it's going to not get above the mid-50's the entire time we're in Istanbul, so I think we're skipping fall and going directly to winter. Which I guess I shouldn't complain since summer lasted till November 4th.

*When we were at the Rex Hotel bar the act played the song "Can't Take My Eyes Off of You" and I thought that was pretty funny so I took a short video of them. Then when we were on the Nile dinner cruise this guy who looked like Borat sang "Can't Take My Eyes Off of You," and I snagged some video of him too. So if I can get just one more before the trip is over then I'll have a collection of international lounge singers doing that song.

Alexandria is quite nice

2006-11-03T07:35:00.000-08:00

Here I am keeping my promise, writing a blog.

Today we went on the city orientation tour of Alexandria. The contrast between Cairo and Alexandria was apparant immediately. For one the port of Alexandria has a actual port terminal building with lovely landscaping and nice buildings. For two, Alexandria looks like a cosmopolitan Mediterranean city. The water is beeeyutiful. The architecture is gorgeous. And the tour guide even pointed out how clean the streets are to us. And they are. No horse carcasses in the town.

The first place we went was the catacombs, which aren't catacombs because they aren't Christian, but still they call them catacombs (or something like that). These were the underground burial places for later era Egyptians. The catacombs were discovered when a mule fell through the ground into them. This is similar to how they found a famous site near the step pyramid, when someone was setting up a tripod and poked through to a room of buried treasure. (I keep hoping I'll step in a gofer hole and pull out an ankle covered in jewels).

Our next stop was the museum of Alexandria, which had some cool Byzantine and Coptic art and artifacts. It also had a floor of Roman/Greek and Pharaohnic artifacts, which was also amazing. But the early Christian stuff is what really turned me on.

Next up was the kingdom era palace of Mohammad Ali and his descendants up to King Farouk. The 360 acre gardens and palaces have been turned over to the public, and
you can stay in one of the palaces for a mere $2,000 per night. All of the gardens overlook the Mediterranean, which did I mention, is GORGEOUS! The weather couldn't have been nicer to day. A bit of nip in the air this morning and a sunny, breezy high 70's all day.

Lunch was at a great place overlooking the water. Some of us got fish is a lemony sauce the rest got filet in mushroom sauce. Afterward I walked down to the water and stuck my feet in the Mediterranean, it was exactly the temperature ocean water should be, that cool that starts to feel almost warm the longer you're in it.

After that Library of Alexandria. I'm going to write more about this tomorrow, but I will say it was really stunning and peaceful.

The sun was just starting to set when we came out of the library and the air and the light were magical. What a town. I'm going to upload this real quick so I can meet some people for dinner and an evening walk.

More tomorrow.

A real post on Egypt, a tourism pitch and a promise

2006-11-02T11:19:00.000-08:00

Hello from the Suez Canal. We went into the canal around 10:30 or so this morning. We're the 4th ship in line and there are more than 20 ships behind us. The canal is a narrow narrow strip of water, maybe 1/8 of a mile wide. On the Africa side there are a lot of palm trees and farm areas and the occasional town. On the Suez side it's desert, desert, guard station, desert, desert. There are no locks, because it isn't necessary for the water flow, though I don't understand this fully.

The library is closed today and most other offices, and many people including yours truly have been taking advantage of the spa. There are only 150-200 people on board right now. If every day was like this I would never come home. The only bad thing is too many flies. Oh, and tonight the crew is making us steaks grilled to order out by the pool deck. I think we shouldn't stop and pick up the rest of our passengers in Alexandria and just keep on going to Istanbul.

Our first port for Egypt was Adabiya. If you want to find that on a map you'll need a pretty detailed one because all that's there is a port. It's pretty much due east of Cairo on the Red Sea. The people who weren't signed up for a trip had a difficult time because there wasn't a regular shuttle into Cairo and it was about a 2 hour drive. And that's 2 hours the way Egyptians drive which is pedal to the metal. I was on the Cairo extended trip which was 3 days and 2 nights. There was almost 150 people on that trip and we were on 4 buses which travelled in convoy with a security detail which included a suited, sunglassed, agent on each bus. Egypt has a tourist police force who is only concerned with the safety of tourists. I think they were particularly concerned with the safety of our particular group of tourists. (Here is a picture of me and the two guards assigned to me).

Our first stop was Sakkara where we saw the step pyramid and the tomb of Meruruka. A few students were yelled at for trying to climb the pyramid, I think they were yelled at because you have to bribe the guard first if you want to climb the pyramid. There were hawkers selling papyrus, postcards, little statuettes of pyramids and pharaoh heads, the usual. But also a new addition which is the hawker selling camel rides. $1 to get on (ah yes, but how much to get down?).

Next stop was a lovely brunch at our hotel. The hotel Le Meridien Pyramids was terrific. My room was luxurious with a view of the pyramids from the balcony. After a rest we had a trip to the antiquities museum where the second floor is entirely dedicated to king tut treasurers. The most memorable was probably the wall full of boomerangs found in the tomb. Who knew that the Egyptians invented boomerangs? What didn't they invent?

We finished the evening with a Nile river dinner barge cruise which was cheesy beyond belief. It was a buffet dinner and show which included a really bad lounge singer and "belly dance" performance. The nicest thing was to go outside and enjoy the air and watch the Nile, but while we were going under a bridge waving at the locals someone threw down a bag of cooked chickpeas. I just heard the thud and someone scream and then the security guys came running outside.

The next morning we got started at 4:15 with a trip to the pyramids to watch the sunrise. They took us to Giza plateau and the wind was blowing and it was freezing. I bet among the 100 or so of us out there there's more than 1,000 pictures of the sun slowly rising over the pyramids. We had about 2 1/2 hours out there to see the pyramids and the sphinx. Who thought that the pyramids were way out in the desert? I certainly did. The pyramids are practically in the middle of town. There's a bit of land around them that's protected, but Cairo extends in all directions around the site. There were camel rides galore at the pyramids and some really pushy hawkers. One of our students had a very unpleasant experience with a camel ride peddler and I escorted her to go turn him in and on my way back to rejoin the group I had a very unpleasant experience with a hawker. I heard a lot of stories of women being asked for kisses and groped or having uncomfortable things said to them. It's left me with a yucky feeling about Egyptian men. And honestly my pyramids experience was probably forever tainted with the sleaziness of it all. Not to mention the entire area is covered in trash.

Pretty much all of Cairo is covered in trash, and by trash I also mean dead rotting horse carcasses.

After the pyramids we went to the Citadel and Mohammad Ali Mosque. That was my first time in a mosque and I was overwhelmed by it's beauty. The inside of the mosque was a very peaceful, lovely place. The outside of the mosque was more of the same peddlers, hawkers and people yelling "pesicolapepsicolapepsicoloapepsicola." Our guide spent a long time on some kind of tirade about marriage and divorce in Islam and how the laws are misunderstood. Then there was a quick trip to the bazaar, which of all the large markets we've been to, was probably my favorite. The shopkeepers were not as unrelentingly pushy as some places and there was some nice variety in the stuff they were selling. The market also just seemed cleaner and more pleasant.

Another lunch on the Nile, this time we were surrounded by police boats.

After that we had a quick trip to American University in Cairo. The person who greeted us was the Vice Provost who apologized profusely for making us sit outside and listen to him on the lawn. (The weather was so lovely, and it was so nice to sit in the grass I don't think anyone really cared.) He said no one had contacted them until two days before we arrived to let them know we were coming so there was no place for us to sit and no students around for us to talk to since they were all in class. He gave us a very interesting talk about the AUC and stereotypes of Americans and Egyptians. Then he took us into the Special Collections library and showed off some of their treasures which was fascinating for me, and not terribly dull for everyone else.

Mary and Kelly and I had dinner at the hotel in the Laredo Tex-Mex Restaurant. I had a chicken quesadilla.

The next day we were free to explore on our own. Mary, Kelly and I went to the Greater Cairo Public Library where we were welcomed like celebrities. All the patrons have to sign in and leave their id to get into the library. We had to leave our passports (scary). When we walked in a very nice young guy came out and asked if he could help us. We told him we were librarians and wanted to look around, and he took us on a very long tour of the whole building. Pointing out all the different parts of the collections and then introducing us to the library director who is also his dad. The director then talked to us for ages and ages about the library and their programs and its history. They couldn't have been more welcoming and gracious.

That was it really. It wasn't the mad scramble that most SAS trips are, but we did get to see a lot, and pyramids can be scratched off the giant to-do list of life events. If you would really like to get the Egypt experience, but you don't have the time or money or ambition to actually go to Egypt, I would recommend a trip to New Mexico. Rent a car and drive around on the desert some, then go see some indian ruins-- Chaco Canyon, Mesa Verde (these are UNESCO World Heritage Sites, BTW), then go find a giant flea market and buy some turquoise. If you simply must ride a camel you can do that at the Albuquerque zoo and you can just stand in line and pay $5 and be done with it. While you're there no one will grab your boobs or your ass, or say anything disgusting to you, no horse carcasses and you can get better Mexican food.

I understand if you feel you simply must go to Egypt, but I promise you New Mexico is just as good.

Now, I'm going to make a promise that I hope I can keep, which is: I promise to write a blog entry every day for a week. That means starting today until November 9th I will write SOMETHING every single day.

PS Just Kidding about the two guards, they were just some guys with guns by the market and I just happened to be in front of them when Kelly took that picture.

An interim blog

2006-11-01T09:56:00.000-08:00

Bad Erika, no blog.

I've been in Cairo the last 3 days and the two days before that I was miserably ill. So much so that I was afraid I would end up in quarantine and miss Egypt altogether. I got a miracle shot of something Sunday night that cured me and I was able to make my trip just fine.

Cairo was, of course, amazing. And I promise to write all about it tomorrow, but as usual after a port visit I'm pretty pooped and am going to just rest some and digest the experience.

I did want to tell everyone that I'm okey-dokey and back safe and sound on the ship. We're going through the Suez canal tomorrow. Tonight we're sailing out of port and putting down anchor then tomorrow in the morning we'll start the canal.

Here's hoping I'm done with illness for the rest of the trip.

Sea'lympics

2006-10-22T22:08:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was the glorious epic of victory and defeat that is the Sea'lympics. Ten seas locked in struggle for paper crowns, disembarkation privileges, and honor.

I was on the Pacific Ocean team which was comprised of faculty, staff, spouses, dependents and senior adult passengers. The students, I believe lovingly, referred to the Pacific Ocean as "the old people and the kids." Old people and kids maybe, but we showed them who was boss in ping pong and limbo with first place in each. A second place victory in synchronized swimming, and third place in freestyle and talent show.

I was the captain of the spaghetti and marshmallow team. We really thought we had a lock on it, as we worked on the schematics of our structure for hours the previous day. Our downfall was the the substance that was being used instead of marshmallows (they couldn't find marshmallows) was a lightweight flimsy material that wouldn't take the tension our structure required. The captain of the first place team is a senior at Colorado School of Mines, and the second place captain already has a job waiting for her at NASA in Houston when she graduates.

Some of the other events were volleyball, egg toss, obstacle course, relay swimming, tug o war, dodgeball, flip cup and hot dog eating.

I was dreading the Sea'lympics a bit, I thought it'd be too much chaos, too much anxiety. It was chaos, but it was also very fun. I was exhausted at the end of the day, but had to admit that it was enjoyable. I don't know if everyone felt that way though. At the talent show several of the acts spoofed the person who makes the announcements and the global studies professor. Just one spoof would have be one thing, but it was act after act. I think the GS professor was pretty impervious to it, but I think the announcements person might have got her feelings hurt. I probably would have. The announcement she made this morning was pretty terse.

Another take on India

2006-10-20T09:11:00.001-07:00

My experience in India was far from representative. My grandma always says "the things you worry about the most usually turn out the best." Well, that was what happened for me. If you'd like to read something that was more of a taste of what many others on the ship experienced please read Mary and Kelly's blog: http://johnston9494.blogspot.com

It's a great entry, though they've toned it down a bit for publication.

I would also like to do something I realize I should have done a month ago, which is introduce Kelly Johnston. Kelly knows everything there is to know about maps, he has a hilarious sense of humor, he likes to put jelly on a wide variety of dessert items, he can always be counted on to fix a busted stapler or lift a heavy box. Kelly does a lot of the blog authorship for johnston9494, and Mary is a tough editor so it's not an easy job.

I spend all the time I possibly can with Mary and Kelly. Mary is awesome and Kelly is awesome and together they are an unstopable powerhouse of awesomeness. They are the friendliest, most helpful, fun and charming couple on the ship. They are definitely in the top 1% of all couples I know and each would rank extremely high on my favorite people list individually as well.

Yours in adoring the Johnstons,
Erika

India is kind of a big deal

2006-10-19T11:06:00.000-07:00

I was so anxious (as in standing on the gallows, not like Christmas morning) Saturday night before we came into Chennai, I seriously doubted that even half of us would make it out of there alive. I was expecting to see, pressed to the port gate the desperate and hollow eyed faces of last years semester at sea voyage students, the ones who had been swallowed by India. They would only be recognizable by their tattered SAS flag t-shirts, among the swarms of beggars, cripples, dying people, starving people, criminals and rapists straining against the fence to get their claws in us and eat our brains. Something between "Night of the Living Dead" and a Bollywood Musical. Here are some of the things we were told about India, either by officials or people who've been there before.
1. India is going to smell like a Mardi Gras port-o-potty
2. Practically every animal in India has rabies
3. Things you can get from mosquitos in India that can't be treated
a. dengue fever
b. chikungunya
4. Even getting India water on your tooth brush will give you explosive diarrhea.
5. Hepatitis, Polio, Typhoid Fever, Dysentery (and other things I only thought existed on Oregon Trail), you will probably catch one of them.
6. There's worms that get in your stomach, worms that get in your feet, and worms that get in your skin
7. Traffic is as crazy as in Vietnam only the vehicles don't weave around you, they just hit you.
8. The port security will try to demand bribes to let you back on the ship
9. The ship will be filled with immigration and customs people getting drunk and causing a ruckus.
10. You can't take taxis because they'll rob you, you can't take buses because they'll crash, you can't walk because you'll get run over, and don't ride the train because you'll get robbed.
11. You won't be able to walk a block without stepping over someone literally dying on the sidewalk.

All of this was further cemented by the article "Trying really hard to like India" which everyone should read, because it's pretty funny and very well written.

I was pretty much beside myself by the time we actually got to port.

If this was the first place you went on Semester at Sea, or the first third world port. It would probably rock your world. It's chaotic, and there's a lot of really crushing poverty and injustice. I saw some upsetting things, but I saw upsetting things in China and Hong Kong and Vietnam and Burma too. The poverty here is horrible 35% below poverty line and 50% illiteracy. The fact that people are STILL getting Polio anywhere is this world is abominable. 30,000 people die from rabies from India every year. But, India is just not that scary. It's a little scary, but not zombies scary. Don't be scared by India. But definitely drink bottled water, be liberal with the Deep Woods Off, and don't touch the monkeys. This really is good advice pretty much anywhere you go though. As for the smell, I don't know what they're talking about, it just smelled normal to me. The most egregious assault on my nostrils so far was the fish market in Ensenada Mexico. People go to the bathroom out in the open, but actually it's not all that big a deal. There's trash everywhere--true, but also there's feral goats so it evens out.

I had two big trips in India. First trip: Art of Living at the DakshinaChitra Center. Our trip got special permission to leave the ship before it was cleared. I was the first one in line and the first one to set foot in India. I made it to our motor coach and pulled back the curtains waiting to see just what was in store for me once we left the port. It was just a city. Lots of hustle and bustle, lots of shops and cars and people everywhere, but nothing crazier then New York City. I really really watched on our way out of town and we drove through a lot of city, but nothing at all scandalous. It was Sunday and we drove past St. Thomas Cathedral which is suppose to house the remains of the Apostle Thomas (Doubting Thomas) there were people coming out of church and doing Sunday sorts of things, going to the beach, taking the kids somewhere.

Our first stop was Mamallapuram, which is an ancient port town brimming over with amazing stone monuments and temples, most dating back to the first century. It was oh so hot here climbing around on the ancient rocks, and I was coming down with a cold so I don't think I fully appreciated just how amazing what I was seeing actually was. There were monkeys at Mamallapuram, the first I've encountered on the trip. I tried to give them a wide berth but these monkeys were not minding their own business. They were trying to take cokes and bottles of water away from the students, and evidently they'll take your camera away from you too if you aren't careful. There were hawkers galore following us all over the place, but they were less aggressive and had a wider variety of merchandise among them than I've encountered other places. One of the more popular items was a small set of 6 or 7 naughty Kama Sutra statuettes, which was a nice change of pace from the ratty post cards most hawkers push on you. The Pancha Rathas stop was where I saw the worst of the begging, naked children pointing at their mouths, a legless man. Horrifying. Stomach churning. Inconceivable. Yet, I have seen that sort of thing before in other ports. It in no way excuses it or makes it less shocking, but it's not something exclusive to India.

After Mamallapuram we went to the DakshinaChitra Center for our program. We received a very friendly welcome and red smear on the forehead and some tasty snacks. Our rooms were pretty basic, but had a western style toilet and a shower (mine had AC but some didn't). The DakshinaChitra is the Colonial Wiliamsburg of Southern India, authentic traditional homes from around the south were dismantled, restored and reassembled here. You can see pottery making demonstrations, basket weaving, glass blowing, etc. They have a little avenue where craftsman make and sell traditional crafts (more kama sutra here), a restaurant and a gift shop and facilities for programs like the one we were there for, Art of Living. Basically we joined a cult for a few days. A lot of the students were expecting 8 hours a day of power yoga, but it was a tiny bit of easy yoga in the mornings and meditation pretty much all the rest of the day. The guru is Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, but I don't think he's THE Ravi Shankar. Though to these people he's definitely THE Ravi Shankar. He has adherents all over the world, and it was a pretty trippy experience. Half the students left after our first meditation session. The essential component to the Art of Living is this meditation where by following a rhythm on a cassette you repeatedly hyper ventilate yourself. I hallucinated a bit, had all kinds of weird memories surface, some people cried. Very weird. The second day some additional followers came and led us in some songs and dances and talked glassy eyed about the amazing loving presence of the guru. They served excellent vegetarian Indian food. Excellent. The staff was amazing, so friendly and helpful. We stayed two nights and got back to the ship pretty late the third day.

I had been feeling kind of worried about trip number two: Dalit Village Overnight. I had to be there ready to leave at 7:30AM the very next day after my transcendental experience. I was sick with a cold (Oh yeah, I was sick with a cold the whole time I was in India), exhausted, somewhat dreading the whole thing. So, for those who don't know Dalits are those formerly know as "untouchables," considered so foul by the social and religious hierarchy of India that they were considered outside the caste system all together. While, the caste system has been outlawed, officially, and discrimination based on caste in suppose to be illegal, in practice it is still a part of daily Indian life. The caste system is part of the Hindu religion, so it's very difficult considering most Indians are Hindus to essentially ban a part of the main religion that's been practiced for thousands of years. Our visit was sponsored by a program called the Bridge Educational Service Trust which is an NGO working to improve the conditions of the Dalit people. It's hard to get your head around the plight of these people as it's quite different than the racial and social discrimination we're familiar with. The Dalit people are encouraged to believe that they are in fact lowly and impure because of their unfortunate reincarnation as Dalit. Dalit's are attacked, raped, villages are burned and they believe they must accept this fate as part of their lot in life. The Bridge program works on job training and education but more than that it's aim is to improve the way the Dalit's think of themselves. To help them resist discrimination and feel they are worthy of basic human rights. Our first stop of this trip was at the Delta Training Center, a campus that primarily teaches a three year nursing curriculum to Dalit women. We were welcomed with flowers and singing and dancing and were given a brief talk about the purpose of the center and the plight of the Dalits, Though I would say it raised more questions than it really answered. One of the other programs at the center was a catering school, so our lunch was provided by the catering students. It was delicious and wonderful and included spaghetti and flan as well as many indian dishes served buffet style. After lunch we got to talk to the students who spoke enough English they could get their point across, and then we played throwball with the students. I didn't play because I was too occupied blowing my nose, but it's a game that looks exactly like volleyball except you catch the ball and throw it over the net. It was a great day, and would have been a swell experience in and of itself. But after that they loaded us up and drove us way the heck out into the country for an overnight stay in a village.

We could hear the drums and cheering well before we could see any of the commotion. When our buses got there (there were about 30 of us on three small buses) there were hundred of people playing drums and horns and dancing and cheering us. We had flowers draped around our necks and our heads anointed over and over. The buses let us off and the end of a road that went through the village and we were led by an exuberant parade through the village. Stopping every five yards to be anointed, they poured water at our feet and danced with us then we would move on. As we passed a home the women would come out and anoint our heads and the men would dance this wild exuberant dance. It took 40 minutes, at least, to get from one end of the village to the other (less than a quarter mile) where there was a stage. They had precariously wired lights along the path and the stage was brightly lit and there was a huge sound system, rented out for our visit obviously. We were given front row seats and the villagers filled in behind us. We were stopping and taking pictures, and then showing them to the villagers as we walked along. They would scream with delight when we showed them our cameras. The kids were all over us, and the women too touching our hair and grabbing our hands. This is what the experience would be like if they were going to take you up a mountain and throw you in the volcano. Kim (the library student who conned me into the trip) and I were in the back of the guest rows and the village women behind us patted us on the shoulders and touched our faces and our hair all night long. A bunch of the little boys were crawling all over us, kissing us and playing tricks on us. Every so often we would get handed a baby. The program started which was some semi-pro traditional dance and magic, lots of fire breathing and tricks with rings. Somewhere a long the way the power blew out and as we sat in the dark they got some boys to sing a song for us. While this was going on I noticed someone had climbed the electric pole and was up there in the dark rewiring things, someone came along with a giant torch and gave him a little light. He got it back on in maybe ten minutes or less, and no one was electrocuted. Then the children did dances for us which were mostly little Bollywood numbers they'd copied and rehearsed. Then they said, "ok your turn." This happens every time, and every time we get caught with our pants down and every time we bail out with the hokey pokey. Thank the lord for the hokey pokey. When your stuck in some remote village and are put on the spot to reciprocate with entertainment, bust out the hokey pokey. We did a triple encore hokey pokey, and a weak version of the Star Spangled Banner and a weaker version of Amazing Grace. I said we needed to do King of the Road (obviously, right?) but no one knew it but me.

After all this we went midway back down the village and climbed to the roof of their sort of community center. There we were led in a very pretty meditation involving little oil lamps, the point of which being, we all have a light that when joined together will light up the world. Then they said, "ok, this is where you're sleeping, good night." We unrolled our sleeping bags up on the roof and snuggled in. People were just dozing off when it started to rain, and they hustled a few of us inside, and a few went to sleep in the buses, a few stayed on the roof. I went inside and slept on the floor of the pantry with Alden, Zach Silver and the Laina (a student). I slept pretty good, actually. Probably got a pretty solid 7 hours. When we got up we marched out behind the village past the cows and goats and lined up along a little ravine with all the other villagers and had a poop and brushed our teeth. They were giving us coconut juice all night long which I think might have a bit of a laxative effect, FYI. Starting about 6:30 we had a tour of the village, we stopped at everyone's home. Mostly these were thatch roofed, dirt floor, no plumbing/electric. Some had concrete floors, a couple had power. We felt awkward and intrusive and suggested we didn't really need to go in EVERYONE'S house, but the guide said they would be offended if we went to some people's houses and not others. Kim had a polaroid and took pictures of the families in front of their homes, but ran out of film and felt horrible when people started posing for pictures. A polaroid is a great idea, but bring a TON of film. The we horsed around with the kids for awhile. More hokey pokey, london bridge's, head, shoulders, knees and toes, (by the way if anyone has any suggestions for good games like this that don't involve knowing people's names or sitting on the ground please tell me).

It suddenly started pouring rain, so we ran to the bus and were sort of unceremoniously out of there. Good thing I guess because we were all feeling heart broken to leave.

(I tried to write a little here about how that trip made me feel, but I can't seem to come up with anything that doesn't sound pukey and sentimental. This is a lack of creativity and writing skill, not a reflection on the power of the experience. I will say it was one of the most exhilarating and meaningful times of my life. I hope that you'll ask me to tell you about it when you see me in person.)

Chennai was flooding when we got back into town so I decided not to go back out. I found Mary and Kelly and Tim and Gwen Kittell and we rehashed our experiences in India. I also have talked to the Klein's and a few others. It sounds like India kicked a few asses on this trip. People who took the big trips to Delhi, Agra, Jaipur, Varanassi, Taj Mahal had bad bad tour guide experiences. Suppose to go to the market and end up at their buddies high end rug shop instead. Constant aggressive hawkers. 3:00AM wake ups every morning. Sweaty train rides. Certainly not everyone had that experience, but those big trip people had a time of it.

Next on the agenda is a ten day ocean stretch on our way to Egypt (it definitely looks like we're going to get to go). I'm sure I'll be chomping at the bit to get off the ship when we get there, but I'm looking forward to some routine and the comforts of my cabin for awhile.

Final post on Myanmar

2006-10-12T23:33:00.000-07:00

The last day here was wonderful. I went on the Twantay Excursion (Twantay is a small village 24 km from Yangon) it was originally suppose to be a trip of pottery viewing and buying with a short service visit to an orphanage thrown in for good measure. But the group that went the previous day said thumbs down to everything except the orphanage. So our trip was just a brief stop in a village to watch them make pottery, then off to the orphanage.

It was a private Buddhist orphanage and when we got there the children were shyly waving at us and smiling. The head monk, sort of an imposing, gruff type came down stairs into a courtyard and blew his whistle and the children came running from all over and lined up by sex and by age. There were girls and boys as old as 16 and a couple of tiny little boys that were only 2 or 3, and everything in between. They all had their palms pressed together in front of their faces, like prayer hands. They proceeded to sing us a few little songs, but it was somewhere sort of between singing and chanting really. So then it was our turn and we did "I'm a little teapot" and "Itsy Bitsy Spider." Then they did THEIR version of "I'm a little teapot" and totally blew us out of the water. The vibe was friendly yet awkward. They had arranged for us to hand out candy and clothing to the children, and this raised the level of awkwardness by a mile. They all still stood there with their hands pressed together in perfect rows while we walked around trying to guess sizes. Some seemed pleased, most seemed shy, some seemed sort of annoyed (it was very hot out). After everything was distributed they said "Ok, you can interact with the children now" but they were all still standing there at attention, and wouldn't break ranks until at last the head monk blew his whistle again. Then the fun started. I played volleyball with a few boys for 20 or 30 minutes and my wrists are red and bruised. People were carrying around the little ones and playing duck duck goose and red rover (red rover doesn't translate as well as duck duck goose). If it hadn't been so infernally hot, it would have been a perfect morning. The guide said many of the students parents had died or malaria or TB, but many had also been abandoned. Their chances of being adopted are practically zero as the government doesn't allow adoption until they've been orphaned 5 years. I don't know how much difference our visit really made, but at least it was something different for them maybe, a change of pace.

On ship time was early 2:00pm and we sailed around 4:00pm. The groups that went to Mandalay (I think it was about 200 people) all have adventure stories to tell. There was major flooding around Mandalay and a dam broke. It washed out a lot of roads and one group had to ford a river with their luggage, One group was stuck on a bus for 18 hours and the trip Mary and Kelly were on ended up taking a 6 hour boat ride down the Irrawaddy to Bagan to catch a flight out of there. Everybody's back safe and sound and I think mostly it was exciting more than terrifying.

Also I heard an exciting rumor, our beloved and foxy captain, Captain Roman, has been off the ship since Vietnam. "Family emergency," we were told. Au contraire says an informed source, evidently our captain is banned from captaining a ship in Myanmar since the last time he was here he had a fight with the river pilot. Even to the point of fisticuffs, perhaps. That has just turned his dashingness quotient to 11. We've had kind of a squirrelly Brit as the captain since Vietnam, but Captain Roman will be back in India. Sigh.

All in all I think people had a marvelous time here, the Burmese people really are so warm and wonderful it's hard not to be touched by them. I hope that they're on the verge of a real breakthrough and that the miracle the Vietnamese are talking about in their country now, will happen in some kind of way for them too. It's really hard to get your head around that sometimes. So often it seems that having enough jobs and adequate health care and access to education and clean water and clean food just go hand in hand with Westernization. The Burmese have a such a rich culture and history and really are such beautiful people I feel a twinge of regret when I think of traffic and fast food and department stores. But who am I to stand in the way of their Home Depot because I enjoy quaint third world charm. I don't know the answer, maybe there's a middle ground somewhere. I really don't know what I'm talking about.

So now we're off to India, two days and we're there. Bam!

Feel Better about Burma

2006-10-11T09:09:00.000-07:00

I think this would also be a good tourism slogan for them: Feel Better about Burma. That's how I'm feeling tonight.

Alright, the dinner and dance performance was pretty darn fun. It was in this very cool faux barge in the middle of a lake. Delicious buffet that served all the favorites (mostly Thai food, I think). They have this awesome thing they serve after meals, fermented tea leaves with nuts. Sounds like hell, tastes like heaven. While we ate there were about 10 different traditional dances performed, some with fire. Then at the end there was about 30-45 minutes of group dancing with everyone, the power went out and then it came back one, then it went back out. They used branches to sprinkle us with water like on palm sunday. I'm glad I didn't wuss out. Tomorrow morning is my last Burma thing, Twantay excursion. An earlier group that did it says it was fun, and they evidently modified the program to give us more of the fun stuff and less of the boring stuff.

Burmese Days

2006-10-10T21:52:00.000-07:00

In the days leading up to our docking in Burma, after hearing lectures on the political situation here, about the health situation, and the human rights situation there was a lot of talk on the ship that sounded like "Why are we coming here?" The democratically elected, but under house arrest leader of Burma, Aung San Suu Kyi, has strongly discouraged tourism. She doesn't want the legitimacy that tourism gives the current regime, and argues that very little money spent here actually winds up in the pockets of the people. The Burmese can be jailed or worse for talking to tourists about anything the junta deems questionable. You can't carry a laptop, cellphone, walkie talkie, pda into the country without it being confiscated because they think most westerners are spies and the the US is ready to launch an attack on them any day. There's a trade embargo against Burma and we aren't suppose to buy anything here anyway. The water here is so foul that we can't take on extra and are under water restriction until we get to India, so on top of everything else everyone stinks and has greasy hair.

Our port in about an hours drive down a bumpy, narrow road to Yangon. There's a shuttle every two hours from the ship to town and back again. When you're on the shuttle to Yangon here's what you see out the window, women and children hauling rocks beside the road, flooded markets with people walking around in chest high water, golden and jewel encrusted giant pagoda, stray dogs, garbage piles, giant golden and jewel encrusted Buddah. All Burmese men are expected to enter a Buddhist monastery at some point in their life, and there are many many many monks that you see out and about. Many of the schools here are Buddhist and the students learn meditation along with all of their other studies. So if you're educated it was probably a Buddhist education. Things just don't add up here. There tourist slogan should be "Myanmar: Land of Contradictions."

We're very restricted in where we can go, and what we can do, and that makes me and a lot of people quite reticent. The amount of hassle and interrogation just to get out of the port is a little nerve wracking. One of our students went to a touristy place on her own, and ended up in a very spooky experience trying to get back to the ship and ended up having to walk more than a mile in the wee morning hours down a pretty sketchy road. Most people went to Mandalay and Bagan either on their own or with the group. I figured I've never been to Burma before so anything that I see will be something different. But I sort of see the value in the structure of an SAS death march tour now that I'm at loose ends here.

The abandoned colonial feel is similar to Vietnam, and the Burmese people are warm and fun (though they will openly point and laugh at you, it doesn't seem mean spirited). There's a lot of English spoken, no big surprise, I guess. The main attraction here are the Buddhist pagodas and and other religious monuments. They are all magnificent, golden, shining things with precious jewels and neon. Tacky, you'd say, if they weren't so dazzling. There are swarms of Burmese at all of them praying and meditating and making offerings. Our tour guide for the city orientation was a Baptist, though. The markets are bustling and colorful but much less hectic than in Vietnam. I'm really in a quandary about spending money here, on the one hand embargoes don't hurt the people in power and I would like some of my money to go to the people here who need it so badly, but Suu Kyi has said that all of the tourist money goes directly to the junta. I've bought some things from kids in the street and made donations at temples but I don't know how much further I really want to go.

So basically here's how I've spent my time in Burma. Day One: City Orientation, Shwedagon Pagoda, Suli Pagoda, Market, Lunch, Reclining Buddah, History Museum, Strand Hotel Lobby. Day Two: Walk around the port, read "Time Travelers Wife," cocktail hour, bed. Day Three: Burmese Cuisine cooking class, finish "Time Travelers Wife," bed. Day Four (today): Updating blog and this evening a traditional dinner and dance performance. Day Five (tomorrow): Looking at local pottery and riding in the back of trucks (I would back out of this but I'm one of the trip leaders).

Really, though, I probably needed the break. I've not been feeling myself lately (sad and harried and anxious) and maybe just a few no pressure days will get me back in the swing of things. There's not much opportunity for down time and not a lot of privacy either just in general on the ship and when we're in port that's just amplified. I don't know how the people who are going to Mandalay and Bagan here and then turning around in India and doing Delhi, Agra, Jaipur are going to manage that.

Four students were "disembarked" in Myanmar for various reasons. As far as I know this is the first time on this voyage that anyone has gotten kicked off (a student left in Japan for medical reasons). Evidently in the past when rich kids have gotten kicked off they've just followed the ship by plane and met up with their friends in port. That may have only happened once, but it's part of SAS legend. Mary and I are continuing to plug away at the re-barcoding project. I'd say we're about a third of the way through. We've been helping more students with accessing UVa databases, but it's still a very small number. I'm going to make a big publicity push between India and Egypt and try to set up some times to teach drop-in library instruction classes. The difficulty is that the internet is so unpredictable and trying to use screen shots and power point just isn't effective at all. The best time to schedule classes would be 5:00AM when no one is online, but I don't think I'd get any takers.

Pics from Vietnam

2006-10-04T19:06:00.000-07:00

I've been trying to write captions for these pictures, but blogger keeps messing it up. So I've decided to just go for the collage effect instead. Enjoy.

Vietnam at last

2006-10-04T05:35:00.001-07:00

Longtime, no blog, I know. After I got back from Vietnam I was pretty ill for a couple of days. There's a bit of disease going around on the ship, lot's of sick stomachs, pink eye, sniffles etc. There's a couple of people under quarantine as a matter of fact (a rumor of dengue fever that I think is just that [rumor]). I'm was feeling better today; the crew had another barbeque for us and I ate a lot more than I should have and that's got me feeling a little upset again. I'm going to take it easy at dinner. This would be a good week to hole up in my room and rest in the evenings, but there's something going on every night this week. They're having mixers in the faculty/staff lounge for all of the "seas" (residence halls) and we're pretty much expected to at least put in an appearance. Then there's some sort of "Malacca Straits" party tomorrow.

The ship is sailing through pirate infested waters right now, and they've enlisted passengers for a "pirate watch" where they're training volunteer look-outs and issuing certificates. I'm not sure how much of that is the crew pulling our leg and how much of that is genuine. But at any rate Kelly is up on deck right now having his turn on duty.

There's no class today, and the students are pretty much head down over their studies. The library has been packed today, and pretty busy with students doing more than borrowing travel guides. Which is good to see.

I'm not going to write a long blog on Vietnam, I've decided. If I keep waiting until I have the time and inclination to write a long blog it'll be December before I get it done. I have a lot of great photos that I'll post when the internet is running quickly, and I'll give you a wrap up on it now.

The first day in Vietnam I went on the SAS sponsored city orientation. They drove us around Saigon (the locals call the old part of Ho Chi Minh Saigon) and we saw a nice Buddhist Temple, had a killer lunch at a swanky place, went on a rush tour through the history museum (which was sort of odd, but in a gorgeous building), and saw the Reunification Palace. This is the place where tanks crashed through the gate in 1975. It's still mostly the same as it was on that day and is now and eerily abandoned monument to.... communism? maybe? The basement is a bunker with a war room and tiny stainless steel offices with typewriters. It was almost like a movie set.

The next day was my Mekong Delta Overnight trip. We drove about 4 hours south of Saigon where they loaded us in kind of junky flat bottom boats and sputtered us up the river. We stopped at a few places: a family home/business where the entire clan makes puffed rice bread, a really nice garden where they served us snake wine and fresh fruit and a brick factory. It was really quite amazing to see how people live their lives on the river. We spent the night in a really nice hotel in Can Tho that had the deepest and most luxurious bathtub. Dinner was at the fanciest place in Can Tho and we had this great Vietnamese-French fusion dinner. There was a good tomato soup and some creamy pork dish. So good. We set out first thing in the morning to see the nearby floating market. I was imagining canoes filled with fruit and fish in a congested noisy knot, but the boats all had outboard motors and were fairly large with a wide variety of food including cokes and pringles. (For some reason pringles seem to be the ubiquitous choice for potato chips in South East Asia. You can find Lays and Cheetos occasionally, but by far the most common chip is pringles. There's almost nowhere you CAN'T find pringles). After that we went to a farm where the family was growing herbs and rice and watched them working and preparing for market. Then we hiked for about a mile through slippery mud and rice patties, I was completely covered with mud from my knees down. The boat captains cleaned our feet and then tried to sell us bottles of water that had obviously been filled up from a well somewhere. We passed.

It was another busy day the next day with a trip to the Cao Dai temple and Cu Chi Tunnels. Cao Dai is a local religion which was revealed to it's founder through the ouija board. It's Buddhism, Confucianism and Taoism with a sprinkling of Christianity, Islam and Bahai. Also Victor Hugo is involved as some sort of reincarnated guru. It's kind of bizarre. The temple we saw is the holy see of the religion, the vatican of Cao Dai and we observed a portion of their midday service, which involved music and chanting. It was colorful and peaceful. After another great lunch, we headed for the Cu Chi tunnels. This is an expansive tunnel system just outside Saigon where the VC would launch attacks on the US and South Vietnamese and then disappear seemingly into thin air. It was raining and muddy and the tunnels were sort of creepy and upsetting. There's an opportunity to go down into the tunnels in a portion that's been widened for fat Western tourists. You can bend completely at the waist and stay on your feet, but my legs got so tired I had to crawl along on hands and knees. It's completely dark in the tunnel except for one point where a tiny Vietnamese park ranger was scrunched into a hole with a flash light. I slipped in the mud outside the bathroom and had to ride back to Saigon in wet muddy pants.

Except for the bathrooms at Cu Chi tunnels and at the ferry station at Can Tho the bathrooms in Vietnam are very nice. Almost all of them are western, clean and have lovely hand soap. The bathrooms at the Rex Hotel are particularly nice, and conveniently located. While you're enjoying they're excellent toilet facilities you can also have an asian daiquiri, which is fruity and minty and has a lychee in the bottom of the glass.

Everyone rides a motorcycle or motorscooter and stoplights, signs, and road stripes are treated as suggestions. You can get a pedicure or dentistry done on the street. Coffee is awesome, they brew it directly into your mug. If you don't like/aren't good at haggling don't go to the market because you'll get ripped off BIG time. There's plenty of department stores with merchandise that has fixed price, and you can get that 10 times cheaper than you could ever haggle and price at the market. But you should go check out the market just for the experience.

Vietnam is about to take off in a big way, one of my tour guides told us that he had tried to escape from Vietnam three times and had been captured and put in jail. Today, Vietnam is "like a miracle" to him. His brother went to Thailand and learned a way to drain soccer fields, now he's rich. If you can think of something to get rich in Vietnam, now's the time to make your move.

Just a quick note

2006-09-30T18:38:00.000-07:00

The internet has been intermitent we've been in Saigon. That's why there hasn't been any blog updates or email communication from me. It's been up all morning, so maybe I'll be able to catch up this evening. I've been having a great time, this is my favorite port so far. I'm about to go out and try to catch mass at Notre Dame cathedral and then go to the market and shop shop shop. On ship time is late 10pm and we don't actually sail until 6:00am tomorrow. Then it's 6 days until Burma. I'm glad because only having two days between ports is just not enough time.

Saigon River

2006-09-27T03:13:00.000-07:00

When the alarm went off at 5:30 this morning and I opened my blinds, what I saw in the mist were the jungly banks of the Saigon river. The pilot was on board around 4:00 this morning for the 4 hour ride up the river. Fishing villages line the waters edge, and fishing boats and trawlers were out barely avoiding getting swamped by our wake. We're about 10 minutes away from port side, now.

Out my porthole at blog's writing.

Healthy Living Hong Kong Style

2006-09-25T02:42:00.000-07:00

On my last day in Hong Kong I went on an SAS sponsored trip called "Healthy Living Hong Style." It was a smallish group, 25 people or so. First thing we did was walk to a courtyard near they ship where a master led us in some Qui Gong exercises, this is similar to Tai Chi, but focuses more or the breathing.

After that we went to the Sunday flower market, which was lovely and to the bird market (which is for pet bird hobbyists, not for dinner).

Then it was to a traditional fresh foods market which made a few people a bit ill. Then we had Bird's Nest Soup and a huge traditional Honk Kong lunch featuring jellyfish, BBQ pork, mushrooms and bok choy, and little rabbit shaped marshmallow. If you like to see a picture of me enjoying jellyfish (I was the only one at the table that did-- tastes like seaweed salad) check out Mary and Kelly's entry on the occasion (which is actually much much better than mine).

Sorry for the short blog, I'm not really feeling very well.

How to see Everything in China in 3 days

2006-09-23T05:40:00.000-07:00

Group travel, I think, may make you less aware of what you're seeing and doing and less engaged in your experiences. Even though you can see a lot of things with a group, and it's nice not to have to worry about transportation and negotiating tickets, etc. I think I go into sheep mode-- herded around here and there-- given a schedule, given a box lunch, the only thing you have to learn is what your guide tells you. There's definitely something to having to figure it all out on your own, even if that means it takes longer. Bedsides, you'll probably make up that time in not having to wait for 60 people to take a pee or get out of bed.

______________

After just a few hours in Hong Kong that I spent walking around and shopping a bit (and eating Dim Sum, though there's was no cart you ordered off a menu and an English speaking waiter had to help us, though really we probably could have figured it out ourselves) we were off to Beijing. It's about a three hour flight. We were on Dragon Air. They served us dinner, free beer and wine, and they showed Nacho Libre. It was near midnight when we arrived and were met at the airport by our guides for the trip.

Our first glimpses of China were of the massive construction, done under floodlights, around the airport. Actually, the whole city is under construction in preparation for the 2008 Olympics. We got our room keys at the airport so when we got to the hotel we were able to go right up to our rooms.

I shared a room with Kristin Koptiuch (one of the Anthropology professors and someone I hadn't spent anytime with before, so that was cool). It was very nice and modern, but the beds were probably the hardest I've ever slept on. It was about like lying on a blanket on the floor. I didn't sleep that well, because I couldn't get comfortable. Before we turned out the lights we flipped through channels. There was a very weird movie on that went to commercial soon after we started watching. There were 15 minutes of commercials-- mostly for products we have in the US-- L'Oreal, Mabelline, Johnson & Johnson, Motorola.

Breakfast was at the hotel, a combination Western and Chinese buffet. Our group aside, almost everyone in the dining room was white, other Americans and Brits mostly. I think they were all on tours with the same company we were with. I ate Chinese style breakfast, dumplings, steamed buns, soup.

First stop was Tiananmen Square, the most impressive thing is it's vastness. Enough room for 1,000,000 people. The first site there was Mao's tomb, but our tour guide didn't want us to stop. Turns out we had to march down to the other end for a group photo op in front of Mao's portrait (the first of a few times our tour guides tried to sell us something). I would have rather seen Mao. Then we had 20 minutes to walk around Tiananmen. Everywhere you turned there was someone with postcards, little red books, Mao watches, "Gucci" bags, flags, kites-- trying to hustle you. It was like being spammed in person. I think most people bought something and some of the stuff was cool, but the persistence with which they persue you is exhausting. "Mao watch, Mao Watch, Lady, you like, Lady, Gucci bag, Gucci, bag, postcard, 9 postcard." AAYYYYAAYY!!! I thought I would have a more reverential feeling, but it was too chaotic and kitschy. The other thing that is hard to overcome is the thick smog. It burns your eyes and your throat and makes it so you can barely see from one end of the square to the other. It's incredibly smoggy in Hong Kong too.

Forbidden City was next, mostly under renovation. I didn't realize how huge it would be. I thought it was a palace they called a "city." But it's a city (without quotation marks). We walked almost non-stop for two hours and still didn't see everything. It was amazing, but by the end I was so tired, hungry and parched I could barely take another step.

Tuna salad sandwiches on the way to the Great Wall.

Now, the Great Wall, that was awesome. I really don't know how to describe it. It's as amazing as you imagine. Almost everyone from the group immediately started racing along the wall to the top of a nearby crest. This was a STEEP climb. I asked someone, "Is this the Great Wall that I'm standing on?" I thought maybe the wall somehow started further up FOR REAL. They said, "Yes, Great Wall." And I thought "To hell with the death march." I wandered around the village area near where we stopped and was, for the most part, completely alone. There were amazing views of the wall, and some really peaceful, interesting temples. It was a perfect experience. The group took about an hour and a half to climb to the crest and back down, and they stopped, red faced, at the bottom and bought an "I climbed the Great Wall" T-shirt, and then time to get back on the bus. I asked the climbers what was the best part about it, and none of them really said anything about the wall itself. I'm so glad I didn't do that.

After the wall we went back to Beijing and had Peking Duck Dinner, which was very delicious. Unlimited beer, seemingly limitless duck. I spilled a full glass of sherry on myself. Half the group went to an acrobat show after dinner, I went with the other half and went back to the hotel. All of the grown-ups went to a little outside bar right by our hotel. The beers were 5 yuan, about 40 cents and were probably about 20 oz. There were locals all around playing games and talking and smoking. Very friendly to us, and interested in us. There was a lot of smiling and offering things. We left around 9:00pm and went for a walk around the block. it was mostly normal big city stuff-- barber shops and restaurants-- but then we ducked down a side road into a hutong (traditional Chinese neighborhood). This was probably the best part of the trip. It was lots of friendly neighborhood people sitting outside, playing games, playing with their kids, playing with their pets, talking, eating. The streets are very narrow and the homes are packed in together, kind of ramshackle (but then some of these are hundreds of years old.) It wasn't impoverished or grim, at all though. People were dressed well, and clean and healthy. I can't say how friendly they were to us. They stared a lot, but then were staring some ourselves. We were greeted over and over sometimes with a "Hello!" Especially from the kids. It was a great experience. These hutong villages are disappearing. They're being torn down to build high rise apartments. Kristin told me they're building a lot of gated communities on the outskirts of Beijing filled with condos and tennis courts. I saw some billboards advertising them. They look like they could be on the outskirts of Charlottesville or Denver or Biloxi or anywhere. Very generic. I'm not saying I'd live in a hutong over a condo (no plumbing for one), but it's a shame that such intimate unique places are vanishing. If you don't go to Beijing soon you'll probably miss them. The government considers the residents squatter and can boot them at will. Casualties of the Olympics.

This morning, Sally Kristin, Stephanie and I got up at 4:40am to make it back to Tiananmen Square to see them raise the flag at dawn. The guidebook said this was a must-see. There were a gazillion people there, and we got to experience the Chinese sense of personal space (this was good practice for the airport). I don't know if I was being groped or not, there were so many people squished together. This was Tiananmen Square too, not a small space. We waited for 45 minutes and more and more people kept coming and squishing in and piling up and stacking on top. There were uniformed guards trying to make people sit down and scoot over mostly with no success. Then here's what happened, at sunrise around 30 soldiers marched out, put the flag on the pole, played the recorded anthem over loudspeakers, the marched back, then everyone dispersed. It was 2 minutes tops. It was quite moving, and also a little odd. In the ruckus of the dispersal there were a lot of people taking our pictures and saying "Hello!" "Hello!"

We wanted to try for Mao, but it didn't open until 8:30 and we had to be back at the hotel at 9:45 and we didn't want to spend our last hours standing in line. We decided to look for coffee and breakfast. There was a street vendor selling roasted sweet potatoes, and Kristing stopped to get one. A little while later she realized she didn't have her camera. The strap was on her wrist, but without the camera on the other end. It was pretty evident it had been cut, probably at the sweet potato place. She was so upset. One of the selling-postcards-in-the-square ladies tried to help her, but there wasn't much she could do except shoo away the other street spammers. We were all pretty upset, so we stopped for awhile and kind of regrouped.

Then we started walking back toward the hotel and found another hutong that we strolled through and found a dumpling place. They cook them out on the street but you go inside to eat them. I didn't have any, because my stomach felt a little weird. We got a bit lost, but not bad, and when we asked for directions we were quite close.

Steph and Sally were trip leaders so they went into the hotel to get ready, but Kristin and I walked a little farther and found a market. Produce and live fish mostly. But we bought some buns from a vendor and some treats for the students and walked back to the hotel.

Once we got to the airport it was total chaos. The airport probably wasn't bigger than Dulles but for a city of 15 million people. From immigration through security was one solid mass of people vaguely in lines. It took 9- minutes to get through security, we barely made our flight. Plus it was hot and people were shoving.

It was an Air China flight with a meal, 3 drink services, and a movie. The airport SUCKED but the flight was nice. I thought at first that the person in the seat in front of me stunk, but it turned I was smelling my own feet. At immigration in Hong Kong they give you delicious mints.

Just watched the light show of the Hong Kong skyline from the from the pool deck on the ship, and after I post this I'm going to bed.

Night before Hong Kong

2006-09-20T17:44:00.000-07:00

(A note on origin. I wrote this last night thinking I would be able to post it right away, but no such luck.)

This is just a quick blog before China. Due to our heading the past few days we've had almost non-existent internet. It's been very frustrating, especially since the students haven't had classes the past two days. They're a little bored and they're driving me a little nuts. This afternoon a guy walked around the ship in loops with some sort of stereo blaring annoying songs. He was followed by two or three other guys giggling and punching each other in the arm. It's been rainy and cloudy so they can't even get outside. I took half an ativan at lunch and the other half five minutes ago.

Because we weren't able to land in Quindao our Beijing trips have been seriously altered. Instead of two and a half days we're down to more or less one. With 5 or 6 hour plan rides on either end. We leave Hong Kong tomorrow afternoon and get to the hotel in Beijing after midnight. The next morning, breakfast at the hotel and then The Great Wall for two hours, Forbidden City for two hours, Peiking Duck for dinner. Then we see Tienamen Square on the way to the airport the next morning. Not ideal. I seriously considered staying in Hong Kong, but here's what I figure 1) I've already payed for Beijing, and while they did refund half the price it's still a lot of money. 2) Hong Kong is suppose to be more or less a big city, and not that different in feel from Japan, I'm afraid I'd just spend the whole time shopping and eating. Most of the students that are staying are going to Disneyland. 3)I'm still going to get a day and a half in Hong Kong. and 4) If someone walked up to me and handed me an already payed for trip to the Great Wall, Forbidden City and Tienamen Square, I wouldn't say, "No, thanks, I don't want to spend that long on a plane." I'd say "Heck yes!" I think ISE lost a load of money rebooking more than 400 trips to Beijing and Xian, and refunding us half our fare besides.

The rumor on the ship is that this won't be our last major schedule change, that they won't be sending us to Turkey or Egypt, either. I, of course, want to be safe and wouldn't want to be put into any kind of dubious situation. But I sure hope we get to go to Turkey and Egypt.

I've spent most of the last four days working on rebarcoding the collection. It's tedious and exhausting, but we're making some progress. There's a lot of things we found that weren't in the catalog at all. Though, most people on the ship look at us like we've lost our minds, it's a good project. And I am so grateful to Mary for going along with the somewhat preposterous endeavor.

When I haven't been working I've been napping and reading. I miss TV a little, I have to confess. But one of my students brought season one of "Grey's Anatomy" with her, and I've got the first disc. Tonight after preport I'm coming back to my room and drinking my last Coke Zero and watching an episode. I'm SO excited.

Finding mindless and private ways to relax is a challenge.

If you want to check my position I'm at Lat: 21 degrees 51.0N Long: 117 degrees 48.8E We're traveling at 18.2 knots with a heading of 277 degrees. It's 7:30PM, 12 hours ahead of EDT.

I won't be writing again until after Beijing, likely. Unless I squeeze one in tomorrow morning.

Here's some random pictures to look at:

Grave near a Buddha statue in Kobe

Interesting Statue

Japanese kitty

Shanshan

2006-09-17T05:38:00.000-07:00

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/T202473.htm

We've been rerouted due to "super typhoon" Shanshan which was barelling down on southern Japan as we were leaving. Seven people have died on Kyushu island in Japan where the storm made landfall.

Instead of going to Quindao we will be heading straight for Hong Kong. We're heading as fast as we can, considering how rought the seas are, around the storm. Right now we're back tracking some eastward.

We will be departing Hong Kong as scheduled for Vietnam.

We're all safe, in good spirits, and enduring the pitching and rocking as best as we can.

Last Day-Japan

2006-09-17T05:31:00.000-07:00

Mark and I had talked about going to Osaka today, but since we did that on our first day we decided to try for the sake breweries of Kobe, instead. We left about 9:00, and headed for Sanomiya station. I was prepared to head straight out there, but Mark reminded me that it was 9:00 in the morning and maybe we should do something else first instead. So we bought an all day pass for the trains (I would have never figured this out, but Mark had done it the day before) and headed for China town.

Outside most of the major trains station in Kobe and Osaka (and I would guess all of the cities in Japan) are huge shopping malls. Some of them are underground, but they're all covered in some way or another. These malls have everything from Brooks Brothers to 100 Yen Stores. There's one mall that has 3 or 4 stores dedicated to socks. Socks seem to be a pretty big deal in Japan, and not the after thought they are in the U.S. These stations are also a great place to observe the Japanese implementation on English. Many signs are in English with no Japanese character translations. But the meaning of these signs is virtually incomprehensible. Mark's theory is that there's some sort of Japanese version of English that they can understand but native speakers can't. "Happy Smile for Open Hand Time," for example. Sometimes the signs are just really good descriptions of the store's purpose though, "We Have all kinds of Socks." We walked through one of these great malls on the way to China town and bought some awesome stuff at the 100 Yen stores. I learned how to fold paper cranes on the way to Hiroshima, and I bought a bunch of origami paper so I can keep practicing.

China town wasn't that big, and it was mostly just food booths, but it was colorful.

We tracked down a giant Buddha statue to that was very impressive.

Then we headed down to the Sake Breweries. There were suppose to half a dozen or so all in the same part of town. So we went to the train stop that was suppose to be near them, thinking it would be evident once we were there. But far from it. We walked in the wrong direction in this strange industrial part of town near the dump and warehouses before we finally gave up and went into a tire shop. There were 5 really surprised looking Japanese guys in there behind desks, but we pointed at the map and said "Sake sake sake sake." Until they figured out what we wanted. Finally one of them put us into his car and drove us to one. There was someone else from the ship there and he told us where to go next. The breweries are just like wineries back home, with a little tour and tastings and a shop. They just sample on or two sake's at each one though. I think we were both hoping for a giant line-up, but no such luck.

We went back to the central station area and found a place to eat and shopped a bit more. It was kind of an anti-climatic ending to Japan, but we had to get back to the ship and beat the rush.

Hiroshima

2006-09-17T05:09:00.000-07:00

Today was a very sad day. I don't think I can describe what I saw and how I feel, but it was certainly one of the most moving events of my life.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atomic_bombings_of_Hiroshima_and_Nagasaki
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hiroshima_Peace_Memorial_Park

Japan Day 3

2006-09-17T04:56:00.000-07:00

Sally and I made plans to visit an Onsen (Japanese Bath). We were tired from our long day the previous day, so we didn't get a very early start. She wasn't feeling that well either, sort of had the same problem that I had the day before, which makes me think it might have been a bug.

There was a note in my room that said there was a box waiting for me, so I went down to the pursar's desk and lo and behold there was the missing box. Pretty much everything I thought should be in it was in it. I'm glad it came, I suppose, but I was also thinking I might get out of some work if it didn't.

Sally and I left the ship around 10am and walked into Kobe instead of riding the portliner. Right near the port terminal there were several tents pitched, obviously some sort of homeless area. I've seen several people sleeping on park benches as well. I know there are homeless everywhere, but I was surprised to see it. It's not nearly to the extent one sees it in the U.S., but it is present.

It's about 3/4 mile to downtown Kobe, and we walked and explores some. Sort of aimlessly. The towns in Japan I've seen so far are excellent for this sort of meandering. There's a lot to look at almost everywhere you go. We turned a corner near a gas station and were face to face with a shinto shrine, for example.

About noon we found a Starbucks and sat down to rest and look at the map to Arima Onsen. We walked to the station and only having to ask once, we found our first train. It was 900 Yen one way, kind of expensive, but not terrible. We had to change trains 3 or 4 times, but at the end of the line was the lovely town of Arima Onsen (Arima Bath). It was how you would imagine a rustic Japanese village, winding streets with homes and shops dotting the hillsides. It's a tiny town, maybe the size of Gordonsville, VA or Madrid, NM. It was touristy, but catering more to the Japanese tourist, I'd guess.

We found the onsen, not the one we were originally looking for, but whatever onsen will do in a pinch. This is how it works: You go in and put your shoes in a coin locker, then you pay and get a key for another locker. Then you go into the women's locker room (if you're a woman) and get naked. Then you go into the bath area. About midway up long one wall there are maybe a dozen or more shower heads each in front of an overturned bucket. Before you get in the bath itself you sit down on the bucket and give yourself a good wash, there's shampoo and soap provided for this purpose. The first thing I saw when I walked into the bath area was an old Japanese lady scrubbing her crotch. It's a little bit weird, I have to admit. But the general disregard for modesty made me feel less awkward, I think. After you get yourself nice and clean you get in the bath, which is naturally heated mineral water. It's hotter than any hot tub I've ever been in. You can soak for a little while, then get out and cool down then get back in. You can stay as long as you want but we were both getting hungry so we didn't make a day of it.

After we left the onsen we found a good place for lunch and I had beef and rice with a raw egg on it. (The Japanese eat A LOT of eggs). It was very delicious. After lunch we walked around town a bit more, found a shrine and got lost looking for another one. We headed back to the ship about 6:00pm or so, because we were both signed up for the Hiroshima trip the next day, and it leaves at 6:00am.

They had Japanese television on in our rooms and I watched some Japanese "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire." The Japanese Regis Philbin seems just as annoying. Then there were sumo highlights. We just so happen to be in Japan during the few times a year that there are tournaments. This year is somewhat controversial as more than half of the wrestlers are non-Japanese. A lot of Mongolians, I guess.

Japan Day Two

2006-09-17T04:03:00.001-07:00

I had a group trip to Kyoto. There were two buses with 40 people each for this tour. It was a mixture of students, faculty, staff and senior adult passengers. We set off from Kobe at 8:00 am, for the 90 minute trip. About 10 minutes into it I started feeling really sick. Diarrhea sick and nauseous sick. I did my best to relax and I would start feeling a bit better but then it would come on again worse than before. I finally told Sally who was our bus leader that I really needed to stop and she told the Japanese guide who told the bus driver. They said there was a good place to stop 10 minutes away but we almost immediately hit a traffic snarl, I was pounding down the pepto, but it was touch and go the whole time. About 25 minutes later we got to the rest stop which thankfully had western style toilets. You've got about a 50/50 chance in Japan of getting a western style toilet. The rest are squat toilets which is not at all what you want in the condition I was in. After the bathroom stop though I was much better.

Our first stop was Nijo Castle, this is an early 17th century castle and the country home of the shogun. One of the most interesting things about the castle are the floors. They're wooden planks, but built in such a way that when you step on them they make an unusual chirping sound. This was done intentionally so that assassins couldn't sneak up on the shogun. I think a first rate ninja would have been able to sneak up on the shogun anyway, but I didn't feel broaching the subject of ninjas with the tour guide would have been appropriate. The other very interesting thing about the castle is that there isn't/wasn't any furniture. They sat on mats and slept on futons that they stashed away during the day. It was giant empty room after giant empty room.

Stop two was Kinkaku-ji shrine (golden temple). This is a beautiful temple that's completely gold plated. It was surrounded by gardens and woods and would have been very peaceful if it weren't for all of the annoying American tourists (us).

Stop three was Heian Shrine (Shinto), and then Kiyomizu Temple which is one of the most amazing things I've ever seen. It was located on the top of a hill overlooking Kyoto and was surrounded by an enormous veranda. The views were spectacular.

This was a very interesting trip, but I didn't like being herded around on a bus all day, getting off taking pictures, getting back on. It would have been very difficult to see everything we saw on my own, but it was difficult to enjoy it fully in such a big group. You know how it's annoying when you're somewhere trying to take in some awe inspiring monument or scenic area and a bus load of Japanese tourists show up and start taking pictures and jostling you around. Well, that was us.

When we got back to the ship I ate a quick bowl of soup and went to my room for a nap, because Marc and Sally and I were planning on going out for some karaoke. I was exhausted and really wanted to cancel. But I drug myself out of bed and got ready. We caught a cab into town and went to a karaoke parlor. We pointed and nodded and shrugged and got a room and 3 gin and tonics. We had to get the waiter to show us how to work the thing, but it wasn't that hard once he showed us. There's just a little wireless box with English directions and you enter a song title or artist name and it shows what songs are available. We sang, "Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go," "Waterloo," "Light my Fire," "Sweet Caroline," "Suspicious Minds," "Paperback Writer," "For the Longest Time," and finished up with "Like a Rolling Stone." The drinks were really watered down, but sweet and refreshing. We sang for an hour and drank three gin and tonics and then got kicked out. The bathrooms in the karaoke bar were western style, though, and that made the experience truly excellent.

After that we wanted to find a place for a drink and stumbled on an English style pub called "The Hub." It was only Japanese people inside, but a familiar pub type atmosphere and menus that were in English. I had a mojito, Marc had a beer and Sally had a glass of wine. It was very cozy and nice and we chatted for awhile, and then I went to the bathroom. Western style again! Awesome! While I was washing my hands, a Japanese woman came in and asked me if I lived in Kobe. I said, no and didn't try to elaborate because I thought she might not speak good enough English. But she asked me what I was doing, so I told her about the ship and about semester at sea. Turns out, she's the ship's doctor on the ship that's docked right next to ours. She just started that job and had previously been a doctor either at a base or on a ship in Antarctica. She introduced us to her friend who had been in Antarctica with her and was now going to be a pilot in Kobe. The five of us talked for 20 minutes or so and exchanged business cards. (Her English was perfect, by the way).

Japan Day One

2006-09-16T21:00:00.000-07:00

I got up about 5:40am to watch the ship come into the port and watch the sunrise (over the land of the rising sun) but it was overcast and not much of a sunrise. It was still very exciting to see Japan, and very reminiscent of Hawaii. I guess that's not a big surprise since they're both volcanic islands. There were just a handful of people up that early, but gradually more and more people started to make their way up to the 7th deck. I waited to watch the pilot come on board at 6:30 and then went down for a quick breakfast, and then back up to the deck to watch the festivities. As we got closer to the port there was a fire boat that pulled along side us and shot water up into the air in celebration, then a band lined up along the port terminal building's deck and played Sousa marches. There was also a guy with an umbrella and a surgical mask dancing around and encouraging us to cheer. This guy must be an indigent self-appointed welcome committee, because I've seen him hanging around the port since then.

They took all of our passports into the terminal to do immigration, we didn't actually have to present them in person. My passport now has some Japanese stuff stamped in it, though. Around 9:30 there was an official ceremony in the student union building. A super goofy guy who was the port agent gave us a greeting speech full of tourism plugs for Kobe and a kind of long talk on a soon to be opened airport in Kobe. There were also several young women in pink hats that must be chamber of commerce there to present gifts to people. Bob Viera the executive dean received a sword and the captain got a vase, the chief engineer, hotel director and staff captain got bottles of sake, and they presented two students with official welcome robes. After this there were three traditional dance performances, one about a samurai who was having a sake drinking contest. Then an American diplomat gave us a diplomatic briefing that freaked everyone out, because he kept telling us we wouldn't be able to get money out of the ATMs and no one would take our credit cards. This isn't really true. I've found at least three international ATMs, and I haven't even been looking that hard. Everyone was so anxious to get off the ship that by the time the diplomat was on, it was very hard to pay attention to him.

At last, though, the ship was cleared and Mary, Kelly, Sally and I set off for Kobe. The port is about a mile from downtown Kobe, but there's a very convenient train that goes right to the downtown station (Sanomiya). Buying tickets for the train is a little intimidating at first, but once you figure it out it's pretty easy to get around. If you look at the map of the trains in the station you can figure out where you are, and the station you want to get to, and there's a number in bold print above the station name, that's how much the fare is one way. Put money in the ticket machine and press the number corresponding to the amount of the fare, a ticket prints out and ta-da. It's no big deal if you mess up and don't get enough money on your ticket, because there are fare adjustment machines at each of the exits and you can put your ticket in and it will tell you how much additional you need to add and give you an adjusted ticket. All of the train maps have roman character names on them in addition to Japanese. The biggest challenge is, if you have to change trains to get to your destination, figuring out which train you need, but you can ask someone just by repeating your destination over and over and over again until you pronounce it well enough that they understand what you said. (This works in general very well for all communication, just keep saying karaoke, karaoke, karaoke, karaoke, until the person says "OHH, karaoke" and then they'll give you good directions.)

We rode the portliner into town and Mary and Kelly took off to go find the public library and Sally and I went to an ATM. There was a huge line of semester at sea people at the international ATM in Sanomiya station, and it was taking a long time since not everyone could figure it out quickly. When Sally and I got up though we didn't have any problems and I told the senior adult passengers who were right behind us is line "Don't worry it's easy." and they all said "Would you help us?" So I stayed in the little booth and the first one up was a lady who is known on the ship as being pretty out of it. (She sat in on a friend of mine's class and when he asked if anyone had any questions at the end of his lecture she raised her hand and said "What time is lunch?") She handed me her card, that was clearly a debit Visa and said "I don't have a checking account so take it out of debit." and I said "What?" and she said "I don't have any money in my checking account, this has to come out of debit." I thought, "Oh no." So then I asked her "How much do you want?" and she said "$200" and I said "Well, 10,000 yen is about $85 dollars, and so 20,000 yen would be $170 or so, and 30,000 yen would be $250." She said, "Oh, ok... uh...uh...uh... let me have $200." The line is getting longer and longer. I put her card in and entered her pin, and tried getting money off of credit, and it spat the card out. I asked her if she was SURE she didn't have a checking account she said she was sure it was debit, so I tried savings and it spat the card out. The line is getting longer and longer. So I thought, "This lady doesn't know what she's talking about," so I put her card in and got 20,000 yen out of her checking account no problem. I figure that her kids probably didn't want her writing checks so they told her she didn't have a checking account and to just use her debit card. The next four seniors had their acts together and I got them in and out of there lickity-split. When I stepped out of the booth, the first lady said "tell me how you did that, because I don't have a checking account, what did you do so I'll know. I don't have a checking account." I said, "I took it out of your debit," and she said "oh, ok."

After that Sally and I wandered around Kobe for a couple of hours, found a place for lunch and ended up with salads because we couldn't figure out how to order anything else. But they were good. We got kicked out of a pachinko parlor for taking pictures and went to a 7-11 and bought some iced tea. I had to get back to the ship to leave for the baseball game. There were four buses to take people to Osaka for the game, and it was about a 30 minute ride. There was a English speaking guide on the bus who taught us a little Japanese and told some funny stories on the way. The stadium in Osaka was huge, I think they said capacity was 65,000 people. We watched the Orix Buffaloes play the Soft Bank Hawks, we were rooting for the Orix Buffaloes which is a Kobe team, but frankly they weren't that good. The fans have elaborate cheers for each of the players and they wave flags and play instruments. It was a lot like a college football game. Marc Peterson and I arranged to leave the game early and explore the nightlife in Osaka. We left after the 4th inning, and spent 30 minutes or so trying to figure out how to get to where the nightlife in Osaka was. We ended up in a very cool part of town that looked like it came straight out of Blade Runner. We wandered around for a long time gaping at things like 5 levels of overhead train lines and neon, looking for a place to eat until we wandered down an alley with a lot of restaurants. Most of them were full of Japanese men in suits. We finally found something I guessed was Shabu Shabu, which I was told by Chris and Rachel was a must do.

The restaurant was very small, a circular bar with a serving area in the middle. The total capacity was 20 people, maybe. The staff seemed pretty nervous about our obvious lack of skills, but we just kept smiling and pointing at things until they brought us beer, iced sake, a bowl of delicious sauce and a plate of vegetables. Each seat has a pot of boiling water in front of it and you take the vegetables and put them in the pot and cook them. Then they bring you a big plate of thinly sliced beef (or pork) and you add this gradually to the pot. As your meat and vegetables cook you dip them out and put them in the sauce and eat them. It's very tasty, and fun, and also dangerous because that pot of boiling water is very very hot and if you don't know what you're doing with chopsticks you're probably going to burn yourself. I did. The fun doesn't end there, though. After you've cooked all of your food and eaten it the waitress uses the broth you've just made to cook noodles. But, you have to get these out of the water yourself which isn't as easy as you might think. We made an enormous mess and were very embarrassing. Then they bring you some cool tea and a tasty scoop of ice cream.

After that we went to a shopping mall that had an giant, red, plastic whale hanging from the ceiling and on top of that mall the 3rd largest ferris wheel in the world. It was the first, but London and Tokyo have beat them out. There were amazing views from the top, though. After the ferris wheel we wandered and wandered like zombies. There are seemingly hundreds of alleys each brightly lit with shops and cafes and nudie bars, and karaoke. We walked until we couldn't stand to take another step and then caught the train back to Kobe.

Hot off the press

2006-09-11T05:04:00.000-07:00

Here's a few last minute photos before Japan.

First, a picture from the Captain's dinner. From left: Henry Pontell, Jane Allison, Petar Petrov, Roane Atchurin, Dwight Allison, Tony Gomez, Me and Reta Enders

This is a picture of the library at night, they turn on a blue light in the center of the atrium and little star lights in the ceiling. It's really quite nice.

Here's the union from about an hour ago. People getting settled before the logistical preport. The student with the blue tshirt is actually our interport student from Kobe. I just accidentally caught him.

Captain's Dinner

2006-09-11T00:30:00.000-07:00

I just saw Japan. We won't be docking for another 20 hours or so, but we just spotted some of the "outer islands." At least that's what Nurse Deb told me a little while ago. They were a long way away and sort of misty in the distance. People who were trying to take pictures weren't having much luck. I'm ready, and I know all the students are ready, to finally be there. And once we've gotten to Japan we'll have three port stops right in a row. Japan, two days on the ship, China, two days on the ship, then Vietnam. I'm only going to have to work in the library four more days in September. Then I'll get down to the business of "sight-thinking" as they call it on SAS.

We evidently won't have internet while in port in Japan, and I'm not sure how much time I'll have, but I will make every attempt to post a blog or two while we're there. I think I should be able to manage.

I've been meaning to write about the Captain's Dinner for a couple of days and keep putting it off because I don't have any pictures yet. I didn't take my camera, because I didn't want to be the only dork with a camera, so I'm waiting to get pictures from the dorks who did take their cameras. I'll post them as soon as I have some. But before I forget about it, let me tell you. That was probably in the top 5 fanciest meals I've ever had. If you could see how high my pinky is extended right now you would be amazed at the fancy-ness.

We started off at 7:30pm in the faculty staff lounge for cocktails and appetizers. There were about 26 people or so including the officers. It was like mingling around making small talk when there's a rock star in the room (the captain). He was making the rounds though and everyone got to shake his hand and say something stupid to him. I said "Thanks for ordering up such nice weather for the dinner." Lame-o! I had a martini and the appetizers were smoked salmon on toast, pate on toast, blue cheese on toast, etc. After 45 minutes or so of this we went down to the 5th floor dining room, the one that's like the Omni and they had a lovely arrangement of three tables with centerpieces and an elegant jumble of forks and glasses and plates. Each place setting was bread plate/butter knife on the left, 3 forks on the left, main plate, two knives and a soup spoon on the right, three glasses on the top right, and above the main plate a tiny spoon and fork. There were place cards with our names and three servers sat each of us, one to pull out the chair, one to put the napkin in your lap and one to fill up your water glass. The people at my table were Petar Petrov the Chief Engineer, Tony Gomez the Hotel Director, Henry Pontell business prof, Reta Enders Field Office Coordinator, Jane and Dwight Allison adult passengers and Roane Atchurin the Assistant Executive Dean. Pretty much a fun crowd, and since Tony is in charge of all the dining and service on the ship, I think our table got a little something extra.

We started with a really good full bodied white wine. The appetizer was little tiny rosettes of smoked salmon with a creamy dill sauce, no one would start eating because I think we were waiting to see which fork Tony used, before we jumped in (at least I was) but he kept saying "Please, please enjoy yourself." So we all went with the one on the far left, and so did he. Every time I took a sip of wine, someone topped off my glass. Next was a very good cream of spinach soup, then caesar salad with good parmesan. Entrees were a choice of Salmon, Filet Mignon or Tofu, everyone at our table had the filet and it was truly top ass. The conversation was pretty lively, fun, we asked a lot of questions about the ship and Petar and Tony were both happy to share. We talked about our families, and travel and work. While we were waiting for dessert Tony asked me, "Do you like Sambuca?" I said "YEAHHH," and then immediately remembered that it's licorice and I hate licorice. (By the way there was red wine with the filet, so I'd had quite a bit to drink at this point. I asked the steward, "Are you trying to get me drunk?" and he said "Yes.") So Tony whispered to one of the stewards, "psspssspsss," and then they came with enough glasses and Sambuca for just our table. There were coffee beans in the glasses and Tony lit the Sambuca before he served it. Dessert was black forest cake that was about 6 inches tall, and delicious but none of us could finish.

After dinner we all went back to the faculty lounge and I knocked a full glass of wine over.

Yesterday was my day off. Mary and I decided to give each other a break every now and then. Today it's her turn and I'm deadly bored. Yesterday I had every intention of laying out on the deck some, maybe working out. Instead I rinsed out a few things and slept. I didn't even make it to breakfast or lunch. Then, last night I slept a full night too. This is a pretty common phenomenon, many people have reported sleeping much more/much more soundly than usual.

Last night was the cultural preport of Japan, several professors gave talks about Japanese art, music, religion, etc. Tonight is the logistical preport. This is mandatory and will cover things like, how not to get thrown in jail.

Today I'm posting some pictures of the library. It's quite small, but also very popular. A lot of students study in the library and like to meet there and visit with each other. Some profs use the library as an unofficial place to hold office hours. It's in the middle of the ship and is a very pleasant open space.

A view from beind the circulation desk.

A view of the circulation desk

A view of the library from the computer lab.

The door to the circulation desk, from behind the desk. Barbie recommended a swooping move under the counter. My move is more of a hunch 'n' waddle. I have to grab the computer table on the other side to finish pulling myself out and it always startles the students sitting at the computers as I lurch out groaning from underneath there.

Some stacks

More Stacks

Map cases.

Also I'm introducing Sally McBeth. Sally is a professor of Anthroplogy specializing in Native Americans and gender studies. She's originally from Detroit, and was a catholic school girl deep in the heart of most dangerous Detroit back in the day. Now she's on the faculty of University of Northern Colorado. She's got a son and a daughter back home, he son is house sitting for her but is bad and doesn't email her.

Global Studies Test

2006-09-08T16:48:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was a grey cloudy day. It rained a lot, and later in the day the ocean was rockier than it's been before. For this reason, I think, the internet wasn't working very well. Everything depends on how clearly the view of the satellite is, and yesterday I think there was too much weather.

Today, however, is gorgeous. Very warm and sunny, the students also had their first exam in global studies, which meant most of the faculty and staff were at their leisure. I took advantage of that and headed out to the pool. I had about 1 peaceful hour before they finished their test and started streaming back out here to the deck. I'm still sitting outside under the shade on the deck while I write this. It is 10:00 AM on Saturday, I think it's 8:00 PM Friday on the East Coast.

The buzz on the ship the last couple of days has been the Global Studies Exam. Several students said they'd never been more nervous about a test ever. I think because the topics covered are so broad, the lead professor is really unpopular, and students like to whine. The students coming out of the test have been saying it wasn't that bad. Some of the questions were out of left field, but in general it wasn't as random as it could have been. Most students are saying they think they got B. If it had been a very hard exam, there would have been mutiny. But it doesn't look like mutiny is afoot out here right now. Everyone is back to cow eyed docility.

Out here on the pool deck with me are all of the RDs, which form sort of the in-crowd among the staff. They were in the pool playing Marco Polo until just a few minutes ago, now I think they're playing dominoes at one of the tables. There's some sun bunny students in the deck chairs reading, I think they wear their swimsuits under their clothes at all times, so after class they can come directly here, strip down and start sunning. There's some adult passengers who are getting ready to do some aqua aerobics. And a few gym rats out here lifting weights and doing pull ups.

There's evidently a bit of drama going on with the RD clique. Several of them bought Japan Rail passes and are planning on pal-ing around together, and traveling around Kyoto/Nara area. One of them invited someone from "outside" and the rest of them were annoyed about it. Now they've made it known that they've closed the doors on their clique, no one else allowed in. And they've been telling other people with rail passes that they can't hang out with them. High School, not even, try Junior High.

My plans for Japan are, Baseball Game with practically the whole ship the night we get there, the next day is a day trip to Kyoto, then a free day, a trip to Hiroshima the next day, and then a free day our last day. I'm going to try to get a group together for Karaoke one night, and take a trip to a bath one day. We're getting into Kobe September 12th in the morning (that's the afternoon of the 11th for most of you). Just a reminder that my full itinerary is posted in my blog as the first entry.

I've been thinking a lot lately about the experience of living in community the way we are. It just really occurred to me the other evening what a very different experience this is than life on a college campus. Living with the students and your colleagues, and sharing every meal with them and their families, and spending every evening socializing with them, is not the same as an evening or two at the faculty club and lunch occasionally at the Pav. Several of the faculty spouses have started a writing clinic. The people with small children pretty much turned them loose after a couple of days, there's someone around every corner to watch out for them and teach them something or play with them. The teaching faculty have been commenting on how much more enthusiastic the students are in class. More engaged, more curious, much livelier discussions. I have to think that the community experience might explain that. I'll need to think about this some more.

Everyone have a great weekend.

Dateline SAS

2006-09-07T03:38:00.000-07:00

Today was a great day.

1) We had a good meeting with our work study students, and Mary had cookies brought to our table. We gave them extra hours and they didn't grumble.

2) We got a lot of work done on inventorying and weeding the video collection.

3) I got an invitation to have dinner at the captain's table on Saturday. YES!

4) I learned about Reiki from Amie Chaudoir at the community college tonight.

5) They had a giant barbeque for everyone on the pool deck (I didn't have my camera but I bet I can get some pictures). Some of the officers even came up and ate with us. There was sausage and hamburgers and ribs and suckling pig. The pig heads were part of the decorations (this means there have been whole pigs on the ship with us at least a part of this voyage). Kelly suggested that the reason Dr. Bob's clinic hours are so short is that he's tending a farm somewhere on the ship.

6) We crossed the dateline, today is tomorrow, and we earned the Order of the Golden Dragon. Huh? Look here at Mary and Kelly's awesome blog for the full details.

How to do SAS pt.1

2006-09-06T03:01:00.000-07:00

This blog is especially for Erin and Jean, and anyone else who will be going on this trip in the near future. It is a few thoughts I've been collecting. I might pull a few more of these together as things occur to me, especially when I have more in-port experience. I'm writing this now, because eventually all of these things will seem so normal to me that it won't occur to me to mention them.

Most importantly, be very very very careful when you're ducking under the library counter, because when you doink your head on it, it hurts really bad. Trust me.

The ship is cold and dry, it's a lot like the libraries at UVa, but probably drier. I get dehydrated very quickly. It's also a bit of a challenge to stay hydrated. It's not that easy to keep water around in the library, and there aren't drinking fountains around, soon after you get here you need to get a hydration plan and stick to it. There's no soft drinks in the dining rooms: water, juice and sweet ice tea. So take advantage of that and drink up at meal time. I don't know if it's a function of the atmospheric conditions, but I've been having a bit of a dandruff problem. I'm not usually inclined to that, though I've had an outbreak or two in my day. If you've ever had dandruff, bring some head n shoulders.

The coffee mugs in the dining hall are tiny, if you need to tank up in the morning you should bring a hearty size travel mug with you. Don't bring a regular mug, because you'll slosh hot coffee on yourself. The dining room staff don't mind at all if you want to fill up your giant mug. There's equal and sweet n low and sugar, no splenda.

Bring some kind of fiber supplement. Even the vegetables are a little bit greasy, I think a little extra fiber makes the food adjustment easier.

Bring a wine bottle/bottle cap opener for your room.

You'll probably want to have some snacks in your room, especially if you miss a meal here and there. Some nuts, power bars, crackers. If you like an afternoon coke you might want to think about getting a 12 pack. There's a tiny fridge in the cabins, big enough for a six pack, a nalgene on its side, and a glass or two. There are two snack bars, but what they sell is a bit limited, and if you just want to crack open a diet coke every once in awhile it's nice to have some at the ready.

There are some toiletries in the room, specifically shampoo, conditioner, mouthwash, lotion, shower cap, soap and sewing kit. Just like in a hotel. You probably won't want to rely on these for the whole trip, but you won't need to bring soap with you just so you can take a shower your first night on the ship. You can expect the same sort of amenities in your cabin as you would in the average Holiday Inn, plus there's generally turn down service but no mint on the pillow. Though I expect if you supplied your own mints your cabin steward would be happy to put one on your pillow. Also, the first night I stayed in my room I left a small pile of dirty clothes on the floor, when I came back to my room after breakfast the next day they were folded neatly and placed in the chair, even my dirty underwear. If you don't want the cabin steward touching your dirty underwear you better put it away when you take it off.

There's plenty of storage in a cabin for one person. For two people it might be a squeeze. You can put things under the bed, like duffle bags, etc. There are five nice deep drawers under a deep shelf that's 18 inches tall. There are two bedside tables with three drawers each. The vanity/desk also has a drawer. There's a nice size closet with hangers (hotel style with the ring that's permanently attached to the rod). There's a shelf above the rod, and two shoe racks. There's also a full size cupboard with shelves and slide out bins (the slide out bins are a good place to put those dirty clothes). There's also a shelf and a cabinet in the bathroom. Plenty of room for storage.

There's also plenty of outlets in the cabins that take an american style plug. Yet, none in the library.

Clothes are tough. Professors dress in everything from sport coats and skirts to polos and shorts. There are dressy occasions every once in awhile, but if you dress about like you would if you were talking at a library town meeting that would be perfect. A little dressier than normal, but not much. It's also nice to have a couple of things that you could wear if you were talking to a professor's class. Mary and I have been dressing pretty casual in the library, but not sweat pants and shorts casual. I wear pajamas to breakfast, and I put on shorts to go to evening meetings. Don't be afraid to wear the same thing over and over again, no one really notices. Bring some febreeze and downy wrinkle releaser and you'll be all set.

Be prepared to handle a lot of non-academic type reference questions. The majority of reference at this point has been questions like "What kind of bird did I see this morning?" "What is that flower that's everywhere in Hawaii?" There's also a fair amount of traffic from the staff and faculty children working on their assignments from home. We've also been called upon to assist with lesson plans for these kids too. If you had a reader's advisory class in library school that will serve you well.

My early advice on field programs is: don't over commit. Definitely sign up for the things that will be hard to manage on your own. If you want to travel a lot outside of the port city, I think the SAS sponsored trips are a good deal. You will find people to pal around with though, and there will be a lot of interesting opportunities beyond SAS. Leave yourself some flexibility.

*********

Thank you for leaving comments on my blog. I read them, and I love them.

My cold is better, though I'm still sort of run down. There's definitely a bug on the ship, lots of people dragging around feeling crappy. I haven't had much of an appetite. I'm not sure how much of that is this cold, and how much is just getting a little tired of the food. It's basically meat in sauce for every meal. Chris said if you ate at the same 5 star restaurant everyday you'd get sick of it eventually, I think he's right. Today for lunch they made grilled cheese sandwiches, I was so happy I thought I might cry. The soup is always really good, and a bowl of soup and a peanut butter sandwich is a really nice change of pace.

I had two meetings today, even at sea you can't escape committees, so don't entertain any romantic notions about that. There was a faculty meeting today that was so angst ridden it made my stomach hurt.

We're gaining another hour tonight, hurrah! We get 3 more hours between here and Japan. We also won't have Thursday this week. We'll go to bed Wednesday night and wake up on Friday. Too bad for Brandon Kidd (student) who would have had a birthday November 7th. Ha Ha

Mostly Hawaii

2006-09-04T01:30:00.000-07:00

Porthole 2 Sept 2006

Hawaii was amazing. The only regret was that we just had one day. I hope that I can make it back very soon.

My day started at about 6:00AM. I went up on deck to see the sunrise and watch us come into Hawaii. There were already a lot of people up there. It was strange to see land after so long of nothing but ocean ocean ocean. The faculty and staff were taking tons of pictures and the students all had their cell phone's out. I think most of them had a cell phone glued to their ear the majority of the day. As we got closer to the port the pilot got on board. This entails a speed boat zooming up alongside us and a pilot literally leaping on board. This is evidently the same process used by pirates. The harbor pilot is the one who actually parks the ship, there wasn't a tug boat this time, because the water is deep enough the ship can come in under its own power. A tug boat did pull us out of port at the end of the day and turned the ship part of the way around.

Here's the process they use to clear the ship. Immigration comes on board and has to look at our passports, because we came to Hawaii by way of Mexico. They have a table with all of our passports, a couple of immigration officials and a table to turn in our passports. As they called us up to the faculty/staff lounge in groups they handed us our passport, the official glanced at it, then we handed it back in. The whole process took 20 seconds at most. Very efficient. The ship would have been cleared in 30 minutes if it hadn't been for two students who didn't go through. It took another 15 minutes to get them through. Just as we were getting ready to leave the ship the computer that checks us in and out crashed. We got out as the 4th or 5th person on the manual check-out, but it was evidently 10:30 (2 hours later) before the last people managed to get off. I'm so glad that didn't happen to us, I was already about to have an anxiety attack standing there waiting for the little while we had to. I was able to call Chris while I was waiting, though the reception wasn't great.

Mary, Kelly, Sally and I caught a cab right outside the port and our cab driver, Ted, took us to Enterprise where we had our reservations. We got a Honda CRV and a navigational system and then we were off. Our first stop was the Dole Pineapple Plantation. I'm really glad we went there, because I had a lot of misconceptions about pineapple agriculture that I got cleared up. Plus some very tasty pineapple bread.

Me and a baby pineapple

We then drove up to the North Shore and stopped at Sunset Beach. We stuck our feet in the water and walked on the beach, there were only a couple of families there having picnics and fishing. There were shells and pieces of coral on the beach. I was also introduced to sea glass, and picked up a few pieces that I think I'll give to Sarah for mosaics. It was very peaceful and beautiful. We continued to drive around and stopped for a seafood lunch, we shared fried fish, clams, onion rings and shrimp cocktail in a pineapple boat. Lunch was good but we immediately found two other places we would rather have eaten, but that's always the way. Then Kelly and Mary decided they really wanted to go to Pearl Harbor, so we took a short cut from the Northeastern part of the Island back to Honolulu, through a tunnel that cuts through the mountains. Sally and I dropped them off, then went to Borders where I bought some magazine for the library and a few books for Kelly. Then we went to Walmart, the biggest in the world, and it was BIG and overwhelming and we got out of there as quick as we could. (I HAD to go to Walmart to buy a sleeping bag, by the way, I didn't go to Walmart as a tourist destination. I also got a little vino, and another pillow. Erin, the pillows on the ship are awful! I'll leave you the one I bought in the library. I'll leave you my sleeping back too, it's purple and gold, GEAUX TIGERS!)

Then the day was almost over, but we went to Waikiki where we saw the brightest, fullest rainbow I'd ever seen. Waikiki is usually packed and very touristy. It was late in the day though, and sort of misting-raining, so it wasn't very crowded at all. Beautiful water. We hustled back to the rental car place, and got a lift back to the ship, then ran back out for a quick bite (Tom yum at a Thai place)

I was really glad that we got that GPS, it was so helpful driving around, it was also the best entertainment. The digital voice authoritatively mispronounced the Hawaiian words to comic effect. The best was Kamehaha Highway. I think it's Kah-may-ah-may-ah, right? She said Commie-ah-me-ah-ha. She also combines words in strange ways. Highway 2 East, for instance, Highway TA-WEEST. So that was worth the 7 bucks, right there.

Ok, here's the part that's going to be tough to describe. If you've never been to Hawaii you need to stop what you're doing immediately. Seriously, stop now. Turn off this blog you can read it later, and book yourself the next flight out. This is the greatest place in the United States (except the lawn at UVa, obviously). I have never seen anything more lovely and enchanting. Yeah, yeah, yeah you're thinking, of course Hawaii is beautiful. If you haven't been here, you don't understand. It's GORGEOUS. Every direction you turn there's a view that will knock your socks right off. Dramatic lush mountains, crystal clear ocean that ranges from almost black, to blue, aquamarine and green. Giant, white clouds against, blue grey sky. I had a lump in my throat more than once during the day. It was awful to leave after just one day.

It was way too much for one day, and as a consequence my cold finally caught up with me. I've been a mess all day. Sore throat, runny nose, run down, headache. I slept in, missed breakfast, missed Global Studies (bad girl), went to lunch but just had some soup and half a PB&J, went back to bed and woke up feeling somewhat better. I had to go give a little talk to the senior adult passengers, and then drug myself into work. After dinner (chicken n sauce, green bean casserole, tabouleh) I went to work for a bit, and learned the news about Steve Irwin. No piece of news has caused a stir on the ship like that. I'm back in my room now, watching "Lost in Translation" and working on this. I'll probably go to bed very soon, I think I'm a bit feverish.

I hope to post most of my pictures on Flickr. It's not going to happen tonight, as the internet is very slow. I'll post something as soon as I can manage it.

Hawaii=Awesome

2006-09-03T03:19:00.000-07:00

Here's me coming into port in Honolulu this morning about 6:45AM. Seems like a week ago.

Aloha, and a full recounting of the days activities tomorrow.

I love Hawaii.

Countdown Hawaii

2006-09-01T18:08:00.000-07:00

Porthole from yeseterday (Sunrise)

Porthole from today

Yesterday was just sort of a long, busy day. That's why there wasn't a blog. It was a good day, but I'm not completely used to my weird schedule yet. I'm thinking after Hawaii I might start staying until 9:00pm and not until 11:00pm. At this point it is a lot of directional questions and reserve circulation. It could get to the point where I would need to be there until 11:00 helping with research, but we're not to that point yet. It's busy at night, pretty steady stream of traffic, but the students are double-staffed and are really excellent.

I've also been feeling a little blah, I think I might be fighting off a little low grade something or other. I have a half-way sore throat and have felt a bit run down. I'm pounding down the airborne and trying to rest as much as I can. I don't think it's going to take hold, but I'm being cautious.

I guess I've gotten my sea legs. I'm not sure how you know when you have them, but I think it's when you don't get sea sick anymore and weaving around while you're walking, and lurching drunkenly from side to side doesn't seem weird. I thought I would get to where I could walk a straight line with the ship at a 45 degree angle, but even the crew weave around while they're walking. Tomorrow we're docking in Hawaii and I'll see if it feels strange to walk around on something that isn't moving.

Yesterday we crossed the Tropic of Cancer, I wouldn't have known that except Kelly has a couple of GPSs with him. That's not as cool as crossing the equator, but that's not too bad. The other big excitement yesterday was Mary and Kelly and I figured out the remainder of our field programs. The way it works is this, before you leave they send you a guide with all of the trips, some of them are marked as pre-sale and you have to buy these before you leave. These are all the trips in Hawaii, all of the major overnight trips through India, and some of the day trips in Japan and China. It's basically the things that require reservations. For instance, I'm going to Beijing and they'll fly us there from our port in Quindao, then back to meet the ship in Hong Kong, and we'll be staying in a hotel. Due on Sunday is all of our day-trips and minor overnights through India and our major overnights through Spain. Then at some later point we'll buy all the rest of the day trips. I already had a pretty good idea of everything I wanted to do, the three of us sat together and matched up some trips too.

Dr. Bob (the real doctor) gave us all a talk on Malaria. I was pretty well informed from the doc at the geographical medicine clinic at UVa, but if anything I feel even more aware of the dangers. I sort of assumed that the malaria medication was precautionary, and that chances of getting malaria probably weren't that high. Au contraire says Dr. Bob. More than 1,000,000 people die from malaria every year, and many people in tropical regions are capable of passing the illness on. I'm taking my malaria drugs no doubt. They're much better than they used to be. A woman who has been on previous voyages said two of the main side effects of earlier versions of the drug were hallucinations and insomnia. Can you imagine being of a ship with 600 sleep-deprived, hallucinating undergrads? Well, probably the Clemons overnight people can. Ba-dum-bump.

I have to say I have been really impressed with the students on the voyage. They seem studious, the library is always packed with them studying and reading. They're signing up for meaningful trips (not just planning drinking binges). They're definitely spoiled, but also polite and cheerful. Most of them act like they know how fortunate they are to be able to do something like this. The parties are sort of wild, but not shockingly so. Probably about what it would be like at UVa. I think I mentioned I was teaching a library instruction session yesterday morning. 8:00AM and they were asking me questions about Historical Abstracts, raising their hands. It was a better group than any I've ever taught. The brats are pretty few and far between.

I picked out the films that are going to be shown through the weekend on our closed circuit network. I think I did pretty darn good job. Yesterday was a good tropical nature documentary, KonTiki, Master and Commander, and The Corporation. A little something for everybody. Tonight it's 20,000 leagues under the sea!!

Yesterday for lunch Taco Bar! Salmon and beef tips for dinner with coconut cake for dessert (I had some of that). We must have eaten up all the leftovers because there hasn't been a stew or a casserole in quite awhile. Over easy eggs this morning were new and there was a lot of new stuff at lunch, chilled berry soup, chicken fricasse, and fresh ripe plums (where is this food coming from?)

Tomorrow is Hawaii, Mary, Kelly, Sally McBeth and I are getting a car and are going to ride around Oahu. Pearl Harbor maybe, Diamond Head, Waikiki, Dole Pineapples and Walmart.

Deej has asked that, in addition to being introduced to people around the ship you get to see some places to, so today is the most important place on the ship... not the library... this is the Garden Lounge Dining Room on deck 6. This is not my new favorite dining room, but my sentimental favorite.

Lunchline when it's short...

Lunchline when it's long... (that's Karen Ryan from Arts and Sciences in the lunch line, peeking around the pole)

Inside Seating

Deck Seating...

This is Alden Jones on her way to the Garden Lounge to get some hot water for her French Press. A lot of people have been complaining about the coffee, but if you can stand Alderman Greenberry's then this stuff is a pleasure. Alden is at Emerson College and teaches creative writing. She has a Sheltie at home that her mom is taking care of. She didn't get any of the trips she wanted in India, so I think we'll both be on the Dalit Village Overnight trip (a recent addition for me, Phil looked a little shocked when he saw that in the field program guide. People have been talking like this is the trip that separates the Girl Scouts from the Brownies.)

We've gained three hours since leaving San Diego. 25 hour days are the best. Hawaii is going to be fun, but you know what, I love being on the ship so much I'm almost a little sorry to be getting off. I'm sure I'll snap right out of that tomorrow morning, though. Maybe no blog tomorrow, but I promise a tropical delight on Sunday.

Special request

2006-08-30T23:42:00.000-07:00

I must have been tired last night, because I left out many of the most important aspects of my blog. So before I go any further here's my porthole picture from yesterday:

Breakfast was a very cheesy ham and cheese omelet and some good fresh melon. Lunch was fish and chips (I had fish but not chips), and dinner was thai spicy beef.

I slept in some this morning and ended up missing breakfast just by a hair. Then it was off to global studies (I don't know if I mentioned but EVERYONE has to take global studies) which is a little hard to do after staying up late in the library. I really felt like ditching, but now that I'm a fancy-pants faculty member I feel like I need to set a good example. Or maybe, now that I'm a fancy-pants faculty member I can hang out in the teacher's lounge and drink coffee instead... hmmm? At any rate I put on my name tag that has a bright red ribbon on the bottom that says "FACULTY" and went and set in and yawned and rubbed my eyes.

After that, I went back to my room and slept for awhile. I really feel like I'm back in college again, barely getting up for my first class going back to bed after it's over, working the circ desk at the library. It's fun. I also can't help thinking about how this is like being in a science fiction TV show. Being on the ocean is a lot like being in outer space, at least in the way that Star Trek the Next Generation has made me imagine being in outer space. I might just be in the mood for analogies because this mornings global studies lecture included a lengthy analogy about how political systems are like bus parts on a gymnasium floor.

So basically this experience is like being in college again, only in space.

I've started weeding the collection, this is very easy, because there's a lot of obvious choices. Namely, old out-of-date textbooks. I think I'm going to get these as a first pass, and then maybe go through again a little more carefully as time permits. Our student assistants are wonderful. They're learning everything very quickly, and seem to really like it in the library. Three of them have gone through LC easy (thanks Todd) and have decorated their certificates and hung them in the library. I can't say that I've ever worked with a more impressive, friendly bunch. As I suspected there is A LOT of male traffic in the library, mostly asking questions of the assistants like, "So, uh, what kind of books do you have."

Right now I'm in the library, it's about an hour till close. I'm feeling much more rested than yesterday thanks to rolling the clock back an hour and the post global studies snooze. I also chatted with Chris on the IM today. He's laid up with a painful ankle, and I get the feeling morale is low. If anyone feels like walking the dogs or taking him a casserole, I think he could use the company and assistance. But don't tell him I mentioned it.

Tonight I'm taking a special request from Todd, who asked for a cast of characters so you can picture who I'm talking about. That's way too much for one blog, but I thought I would do this as a regular feature. Tonight I'm introducing you to the most important person on the voyage Mary, the other librarian. She's traveling with her husband Kelly, and the day we get to
Honolulu it will not only be the 50th state they've travelled to together but also their twelfth wedding anniversary. So, that's pretty special. She was the librarian for the NCAA for years before going to the State Library of Indiana. She is an amazing librarian, and I would be a mess without her support. She's in the picture with our assistant April.

The porthole picture is special today, because the day was very grey starting out, but around 2:00pm the sun came out just enough to turn the water the most amazing blue I've even seen.

missed breakfast, like I said, but for lunch I had vegetable casserole (whenever you see me write casserole or stew this means yesterdays leftovers with sauce, but it's usually just as good if not better than the previous day) and greek salad which was good, but gave me onion breath big time. I had dinner in the dining hall on the fifth deck today, which is the first time I've done that. I was under the impression that it was not as nice, but actually it's much nicer. There's much more seating and an Omni-Hotel-brunch atmosphere. The Garden Lounge on the sixth deck is more like Ponderosa. It's the same food in both places, only I suspect when they serve ice cream it's only in one or the other. Mostly dessert is different kinds of cakes, which aren't a big temptation for me, so I usually don't have a problem passing it up. Tonight dinner was some kind of chinese chicken, mixed veggies, a sauerkraut salad that had cheese and roast beef in it (trying to hide leftovers I suspect), and clam chowder.

Tomorrow I'm doing a library instruction session in Mark Peterson's British History class. I think it's going to have to be brief so I'm going to try and focus on what you CAN do and not necessarily HOW you do it. But I have a couple of good searches to do in InfoTrac and Historical Abstracts if the internet is behaving.

First day of class + drinking

2006-08-29T22:09:00.000-07:00

First day of classes went fine. I've been at the library more or less since 8:00 this morning and it's now 9:30pm. Mary worked a shift by herself in the middle, but I was still hanging around a little helping out. I'll be here in the library until 11:00pm. I'm tired. But my morale is good. I have two students with me now busily working on reserves. So I'm not alone.

Once the students are trained a little more, I'm anticipating leaving them here alone more. I'll double staff in the evening and just check in on them when I'm done in the lounge (just kidding).

Sitting in the library alone in the evening is a good way to meet the crew members. They aren't quite as busy so they stop by and visit a bit with me. I like the security crew members the best, they all look sort of severe and German.

Tonight was the first drinking night for the students. They sold tickets at the pursars desk, then there were drinks from 5-6 then again from 9-11. I can't tell how it's going, if they're behaving or not. The tickets sales were chaotic I think. The lines were so long, I heard some students saying they just gave up. The library opens out onto the main atrium above where the pursars desk is. It sounded like a football game, cheering and yelling. I definitely think Michael would want to experience that before he settles on his atrium idea.

One of my students just came in and said that it was like a frat party. She was grossed out.

I think I'm going to make this short. I'm sort of spaced out and tired. The ocean has been really rough today, a little bit of white caps.

Orientation Day

2006-08-28T21:22:00.000-07:00

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)

Ensenda, Mexico

2006-08-27T14:48:00.000-07:00

I woke up this morning to the "arf, arf, arf" of the seals in the harbor in Ensenada. I remember waking up briefly during the night, and being aware that we were still moving. We must have come down here slow. We docked around 7:00, I'd say. They served breakfast early this morning so that the people helping with check-in could get fed. I didn't make it, in fact I pulled my blind and got a couple more hours of sleep, because it is Sunday afterall.

I met up with Mary in the library and we got all of the reserves up that didn't need to be cataloged. I created brief records for a few of the films that won't be added to the permanent collection. I was holding off on doing some of this hoping that the barcodes would come, but I can hold out no longer. We went ahead and used the Pitt barcodes, but we'll replace them when we get new ones.

We closed up the library around noon and went to lunch: beef stew, pork tenderloins, salad, chicken consome and vegetable ragout (I missed breakfast I was hungry). Then Karen (IT woman) and I went into Ensenada. We walked around and looked at the shops, went to the fish market (didn't smell too good). There were a lot of rowdy college kids which I'm guessing are our students. They started arriving at the ship around 9:00 or so two busloads at a time. The last 10 students are boarding now. Which is kind of cutting it close since on ship time is in 3 minutes. We're having a lifeboat drill in an hour and then leaving for Hawaii at 5:00pm.

I didn't get sea sick at all, I don't know if the sea bands did the trick, or if I'm just not inclined.

I'm feeling kind of low energy today. I think the excitement of last night, plus too many days without a day off. I'm going to try to have an early night. We're sailing early, so I can be up for that, without having to be up too late.

Here are some pictures to jazz up my post, since I'm well aware that this one isn't that great.

A picture from where I'm sitting and writing my blog right now:

A street scene in Ensenada:

Our ship in the distance from Ensenada, and a view from my porthole this afternoon:

That ship has sailed

2006-08-26T00:04:00.000-07:00

To heck with everything else, tonight we sailed. At about 2300 we cast off from San Diego, and now we're on our way to Ensenada. There was a life boat drill, that consisted of everyone dressing in closed toes shoes and warm clothes and putting on their life vest, assembling in the union, a roll call and that's it. Then most of us went to the faculty/staff lounge and waited for the ship to shove off. A tugboat came and pulled (pushed?) us away from the dock and then... well, we were off. Some students (work-studies) were up on the seventh deck with music and were dancing a bit. The wind was blowing. The atmosphere was reserved, yet festive. I have my sea bands on and I'm feeling ok. I can DEFINTITELY feel the ship moving, though. It feels like being in a car with someone who's learning how to drive. I know it's that we're rocking fore and aft, but it feels more like speeding up and slowing down. Not unpleasant, but also not ignorable.

The rocking is getting heavier now

Now I can say in answer to all of you who asked me, "Are you getting excited?" Yes.

Here is a picture out of my port hole in San Diegeo this afternoon:

Last night in San Diego

2006-08-25T21:53:00.000-07:00

Today was mostly the same as yesterday, except for the food, which I will update you on at the end of the message.

No boxes came, Chris and Jean scrambled around to get me tracking numbers, but it turns out that there was some weather delay and the boxes ware scanned en route in LA late last night. UPS couldn't or wouldn't do anything to track them further, and said that we couldn't reroute them (directly to the port agent or to Honolulu) until there was an arrival scan. I haven't decided if its time to go to plan B, and what plan B might entail or if I'll just keep the dream alive at least until we leave Hawaii.

The main exciting thing about today was that the 25 students who will be work-studies on the voyage arrived. The library is getting six, all sweet, pretty girls. So I know that the library will be well trafficked by the male students. I liked them all instantly, and gave them a little customer service talk which they seemed to respond to. Tomorrow after breakfast they'll be reporting for duty. They're committed to 200 hours of service for which they receive a $6500 credit to their tuition. That's not a bad deal. I'll be putting them to work initially with some shelf-reading, straightening out the book donations, doing some work with the records of the travel books (some are in the system as reference, some as reserve, some as travel). Some other odd jobs, too. I'm not going to train them in circulation yet because 1) the patron database isn't loaded and 2) I don't really know how to use it that well myself, yet.

Another little accomplishment today was I got all of the "donated" textbooks off-loaded from the ship as well as some other donations that looked liked they'd out lived their usefulness. If there's not a better plan for the textbooks at the end of the voyage I'll try to arrange to have them removed at the end too. I don't know in the last minute chaos if I'll have time. That's something nice, it's pretty easy to get stuff removed from your life, especially if you drag it all out so it's an eye-sore and safety hazard.

I could have spent a few more hours in the library this evening, probably. But I knocked off about 6:30 after I'd met my work-studies and went and met Alden Jones for dinner at this nice, fancy mall near the harbor. The ship is really nice, and there's not that many people on board, yet, but it still can feel kind of cramped. I really needed to get off for a bit, and I think I'm going to make a mental note that getting outside and getting some exercise everyday is essential for my sanity.

When I got back from dinner, I noticed Shamim Sisson in one of the rooms talking with Bob Viera, the executive dean. She's here to give the students the drill on the Honor Code. It was really nice to see her, someone from home. She'll be with the ship until Honolulu.

Now I'm in my room, and I plan on making it an early night after a little TV (I've gotta get my final fix), and crosswords. It's going to be a Donna-Reed-in-It's-a-Wonderful-Life librarian night, not a Parker-Posey-in-Party-Girl librarian night.

Breakfast: Mushroom and Ham Omelet and Bacon
Lunch: Pork Chops and broccoli and cauliflower
Dinner: Off the ship, Shredded beef tacos with beans and rice (very delicious)

2006-08-25T00:14:00.001-07:00

Sorry about the lack of post yesterday, but here's a catch up. Wednesday morning I had scrambled eggs and bacon for breakfast and then went back to the library where Barbie had left me a "Pine Bud" Drink and goodbye note. I almost had a panic attack, but pulled through. I didn't have any boxes or barcodes or scanners, so I spent the morning shelf reading and bugging people about my boxes. After lunch which was grilled grouper and green beans the faculty and remainder of the staff boarded the ship. I suddenly went from complete newbie to veteran. It was nerve wracking to have them there, and to suddenly realize I had to be "THE LIBRARIAN." It was also very interesting to put faces to all of the names I had been emailing for months. I couldn't have been more wrong about many of them, as far as how I had pictured them. Someone I had pictured as a 60-ish balding, yet distinguished gentleman was actually a 30 year old hipster woman. I met the assistant librarian, Mary, and her husband, Kelly and we all went to the union for an introductory orientation. Then there was a nice reception with fondue and tiny sandwiches in the faculty/staff lounge. Then dinner, which was minute steaks and mixed veggies, and a very productive faculty meeting. Then social hour where you can use your room key/ship id/debit card to buy drinks, or as some people call it "the magic drinking card."

Today it was a little hard to get out of bed, but I started the day with more scrambled eggs and delicious cornbeef hash. I brought my own mug to breakfast and had a giant cup of coffee. Then it was more faculty meetings and faculty/staff meetings, then lunch (chicken curry YUM! and broccoli and cauliflower). Then miracle of miracles my boxes arrived. Everything that was in the original shipment of 14 boxes came, plus the box with the barcode scanners and a box with a few videos. Mary and I spent most of the rest of the day going through the boxes and putting things on reserve. The new barcode scanners work, so now if I just get my box with the barcodes in it I'll be all set. So now I anxiously awaiting the remaining boxes which have barcodes, videos, proxy logins, paper reserves, and maybe some other things that I don't remember. Maybe ask St. Anthony to help my boxes come tomorrow. Mary and I worked until 9:00pm and put her husband to work as well. He spent at least an hour today trying to figure out an easy way to export the Winnebago records into XML or something. The reports in Winnebago are very limited and it doesn't seem to be possible to select on location or circulation statistics or fund or anything that would be useful to weeding or inventory.

I bugged the IT lady all day about getting my computer to work with the internet. All the other Mac people were online no problem. No one could figure it out. At one point they said "Hurray your computer is online." But it really wasn't. This evening I was upstairs in the lounge and I noticed a couple of Mac people happily googling things in the corner, and I went over and asked if they could get me on. So Joe the textbook guy worked and worked and finally got it to work. I wouldn't say he figured it out, because it's inexplicable. You have to clear out all of the network settings, like ip/subnet/ etc. It can't list anything there. Then you click "renew DHCP lease" then lock the settings. Ta Da. Hopefully this has solved it once and for all. So going up to lounge was actually one of the most productive things all day. I'm writing this now from the comfort of my bed.

I'm making friends, and getting to know people. It's amazing how quickly you get to know people, actually. I like almost everybody, and today when I spoke briefly in the faculty/staff meeting everyone laughed at my jokes (If you don't know what a librarian is you should come and see me right away... Ha Ha HA HA!!). So I instantly liked all of them.

I was going to post some pictures, but it doesn't seen to be working. I'll play around with that tomorrow, and if all else fails I'll put some things in photobucket.

pictures

2006-08-25T00:14:00.000-07:00

The ship:

More the ship:

The sketchy stairs into the ship:

My cabin:

Day Two in San Diego

2006-08-22T22:51:00.000-07:00

Barbie and I really tried to have a productive day today, but things just didn't work out that well for us. The coast guard were on board doing drills. All of the crew were involved with that in some way or another, in fact many of them got into the lifeboats and motored around the ship a bit. We took refuge in the bookstore for awhile and when we got out part of the power to the ship was out and the internet wasn't working. But we did manage to get done what we needed to. I got a bit of shelf-reading done besides.

The computer guy couldn't get my Mac on the internet, but it seems like there's some issue with Mac and the ip address randomly changing? or something? I've been assured that when the ISE computer guys show up they'll be able to get it working. I'm somewhat concerned that I'll need to have IE on my computer, which I don't. I should try getting on with Virtual PC. I'll do that tomorrow.

The library books still are nowhere to be found, but I think the Coast Guard has disrupted the normal flow. There's boxes all over the place, but I haven't managed to find the particular cache of library stuff. I'll have a more thorough search tomorrow.

The ship is a cross between the USS Enterprise NCC-1701-D and camp trailer. Things are futuristic looking and high tech in an early 90's kind of way, but also the doors are all very heavy and there's high thresholds. Odd things have latches on them, like my grandpa's Prowler. It's very nice, and I really like it. The crew is VERY VERY nice. I want to find out how they do their customer service training and try to implement some of that back home. Many of them know my name already and wave enthusiastically whenever they see me. It's disconcerting now, but I know I'm going to take right to it.

I get a few channels of TV in my cabin. Some closed circuit ISE channels and the local NBC and CBS and public access. This morning the San Diego weather man said, "It's going to be hot and sultry today. It's already 69 degrees. Humid air will be moving in off the ocean and with a high of 81 it's going to feel pretty awful. This hot muggy weather makes it feel like waking up in New Mexico." What?

Barbie and I just got back from a wonderful trip to Coronado Island and the Hotel del Coronado. We had wine outside on the beachside and burgers. Then walked down to the beach where the Navy Seals were doing some kind of training in the icy water. It was quite chilly feeling to me. We shared a cab back to downtown with a cute couple from Detroit who were smooching the whole time. I bid farewell to Barbie who's leaving at 0dark:30 tomorrow morning.

Breakfast was Huevos con Chorizo at a local diner and lunch on the ship was a good chicken casserole, green beans and roasted squash (yum).

The MV Explorer

2006-08-21T19:47:00.000-07:00

I'm in the library on ship right now. It's probably about 7:30 or so, and I'm exhausted. Jill and Les from ISE were on my flight out here, and the helped me figure everything out once I got to San Diego. The airport is VERY close to where the ship is and it was a quick jaunt to the ship. I got on board and there were still summer students milling around outside, I found the library right away, but couldn't find Barbie. Some nice folks found me though, and showed me where to get lunch which was cafeteria style. I had some iceberg lettuce and tomato salad with ranch and a piece of fish and some grilled vegetables. The crew in the dining area were very friendly and helpful.

After lunch I had to bring my luggage on board which was spooky. You go through security like at the airport and they open your bags, but then you have to carry them up the huge wobbly stair case (photo coming soon). Some people came to my rescure, luckily.

I found Barbie right away, and not a moment too soon. She showed me what to do to get registered and got me help with my bags. My room isn't as swanky as hers. Two twin beds, a vanity and a tiny bathroom. It's ok, but we're going to talk to Cathy tomorrow to see if I can just have Barbie's old room.

Barbie and I worked in the library for a few hours. We did a little basic orientation, then loaded the VIRGO records (which seemed to work). I forgot to bring a barcode scanner, but Erin's going to get a couple overnighted here. I don't have any of the books or other boxes yet. Jill said they're probably on board, but there's some sort of Coast Guard drill that will prevent them from bringing them to the library for a couple of days (someone ask Doug Hurd).

Barbie and I went for a walk and had a drink, then she went out with the administrative team from the summer trip. I had dinner at a little convenience store/deli place and had a diet cherry pepsi and a pastrami and swiss sandwich.

Now I'm trying to decide between staying up until Barbie get back or going to my room where there's fuzzy ABC and NBC, and going to sleep. I think I'm going to sleep.

My computer won't connect to the wireless network, but the computer guys going to take a look at it. When he gets it going I'll post some pictures of the ship.

Last minute

2006-08-18T10:16:00.000-07:00

Today is my last day at work before I leave. Eventhough I feel like I've been working hard these past few weeks and trying not to leave anything until the last minute, there's a lot going on at the last minute anyway. Today I'm going through my email inbox making sure I haven't forgotten anything. We're putting together a couple of boxes to overnight to the San Diego, mostly things for the library's collection that arrived in the past few days, and professors print reserves. I'm getting a video camera from the DML, and need to learn how to use it. I've downloaded some audiobooks.

I'm mostly packed, there's still a couple more things I'll want to throw in my suitcases. I'm sure that I'm taking more than I really need to, but it seems like more effort at this point figuring out what I really NEED, than just taking it all.

I'm getting ready to go back and enhance my itinerary blog with links to wikitravel, so you might want to check that one again. After you look at those and get familiar with the wikitravel format you should read the entry on the US. Kind of weird... America sounds scary.

The Itinerary

2006-08-15T10:45:00.000-07:00

Here is my first official post for my voyage with Semester at Sea. I hope to post regularly. Just briefly here is my anticipated itinerary:
August 21 Depart Richmond, VA for San Diego, CA
August 21 Arrive San Diego, CA
August 27 Depart Ensenada Mexico for Honolulu, HI
September 2 0700 Arrive Honolulu, HI
September 2 2300 Depart Honolulu, HI
September 12 0800 Arrive Kobe, Japan
September 16 2200 Depart Kobe, Japan
September 19 0800 Arrive Qingdao, China
I will then be going to Beijing and will rejoin the ship in Hong Kong September 23
September 2300 Depart Hong Kong
September 27 1100 Arrive Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam
October 2 0600 Depart Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam
Ocotober 7 1615 Arrive Yangon, Myanmar
October 12 1600 Depart Yangon, Myanmar
October 15 0800 Arrive Chennai, India
October 19 2300 Depart Chennai, India
October 30 2030 Arrive Adabiya, Egypt
November 1 2200 Depart Adabiya, Egypt
November 2 Suez Canal
November 3 0800 Arrive Alexandria, Egypt
November 4 2300 Depart Alexandria, Egypt
November 7 0800 Arrive Istanbul, Turkey
November 11 2300 Depart Istanbul, Turkey
November 14 0800 Arrive Dubrovnik, Croatia
November 18 2200 Depart Dubrovnik, Croatia
November 23 0800 Arrive Cadiz, Spain
November 27 2300 Depart Cadiz, Spain
December 7 0800 Arrive Fort Lauderdale, FL