Wednesday, August 16, 2006
August 16 - this post covers August 13-16.
Cell phone day!
Oahu off the port side.
We dock and bunker (fuel up) in Honolulu today. That means ONE thing – cell phone coverage!! Everyone is very excited to talk to friends and family without having to negotiate the intricacies of a foreign phone card.
Some students didn’t need to wait for cell phone day. Several of them have computers with cameras and voice over internet phone service. It’s quite amazing to see that someone is not only talking to her boyfriend via her computer, but has him up on the screen as well. It’s the Jetsons!
We were talking at dinner last night about the technological advances that have undoubtedly been made in the past 2 months of which we’re blissfully unaware. While we’re up on most major new events via CNN.com and LexisNexis, etc. it’s definitely the case that the ship is just a bit of a time warp.
Library stuff
When I talked with Don earlier today he told me how much everyone enjoys it when I write about Library Stuff!! So, here you go….
I’m getting the books that needed cataloging done now. Some of these are books that Pitt had decided to add. They were doing their cataloging back in Pittsburgh. UVA decided to catalog on board. That’s worked quite well. I’ve been able to connect to OCLC pretty easily. It remains to be seen how well Erika will be able to connect with over 600 students on board. I think her cataloging will be done mostly from 800-900.
Shelf reading
Somehow the books in this library seem to get out of order more than normal libraries. I haven’t quite figured it out. We have signs up for people not to reshelve their books, but I’m sure some do and that’s one issue. I also suspect that when the crew cleans the shelves and books (2 or 3 times on this voyage alone) they may not always put them back in exactly the same order. I will try to get some areas (DS, Q’s, H’s) shelf read before I leave.
Donations
I’ve already gotten a few books from passengers to add to the library. Mostly so far these are books that will be good additions. I may have to reject some, or offer the option of the “take one, leave one” collection for some donations. I’m afraid that, as usual, the library will be the de facto recipient of many text books from the voyage. These excess text books are a problem that UVA will need to figure out.
Find@UVA access
We’re on the way toward figuring out why Find@UVA isn’t working on the ship. Since not too many students were doing research until the homeward journey I hadn’t worried too much about Find@UVA. However, it would be much better if it worked on board. I tried it yesterday when I was logged into Online24 (the for-fee internet access) and it worked. I believe it’s a matter of supplying another URL to the ship’s IT guy for free access. I hope so. We’ll figure this out.
August 15
Final Day of Global Studies
Several faculty members spoke to try to tie together the voyage and draw some lessons from it. The final speaker was Shira, the student with cerebral palsy. She did a PowerPoint and spoke eloquently on what it’s like to be disabled, and particularly a disabled traveler. Because Shira has difficulty with speech as well as mobility issues she had difficulty making friends at the beginning of the voyage. It’s been wonderful to see the students get to know her for the person she is rather than for her disability. I think having her speak at our last Global Studies class was a perfect ending.
With a 92 year man (Chief) and a disabled student on our voyage I think everyone’s awareness of and appreciation for the challenges and possibilities of age and disability grew.
August 14
Ambassador’s Ball
The biggest social event on the ship is the Ambassador’s Ball toward the end of each voyage. The Ambassadors is the student group which hosts the interport students for each port. These are students from the countries the ship visits who join the ship at the port before their home country. They attend classes, talk with the students (and the rest of us), give a presentation, and generally help the students prepare to visit their country. A great program.
Ana & Katie
The Ball is hosted by this group, but primarily planned by one of the residence directors, Marci, for our voyage. It’s our major “dress up” event. Many of the students wore clothes they bought or had made in either Vietnam or Hong Kong. Some truly beautiful outfits. Some students, including one of my library students, YY (Yun Yan), wore traditional outfits. YY and another student wore traditional Korean clothes and looked beautiful.
YY and Chris
The Captain’s dinner preceeding the Ball was very nice and elegant. We and our main dinning room clean up pretty good!
The dance was held in the Union. Several of the faculty and staff went early and we even danced to a song or two. However, the rap songs that they played early didn’t really lend themselves to dancing. Most of us retired to the Staffulty (Faculty/Staff) Lounge for our own after party.
All in all a very fun evening.
August 13
Passenger Talent Show
It’s always fun to see how talented people you know really are. When I worked at the Law Library I was awe struck by the talent that the law students displayed at the Libel Show. Same goes for this shipboard community. These students, staff, and faculty sang, danced, drew, painted, played instruments, performed monologs, and performed songs they wrote. They were really amazing.
It would be difficult to pick my favorite:
• Two teenage boys performing Saint-Saens Cello Concerto in A minor
• Eve who wrote, played and sang a song about our voyage and her new found friends
• Mondo, Ana, Katie, Emily, & Kelsey who danced their hearts out
• Shira, who made a puppet and performed a monolog using the puppet despite her cerebral palsy.
• Zizi who played a violin solo written by a countryman of her’s.
• Adar who did a hilarious skit which incorporated all our stops and many of the things that people did.
• Nikki and Lindsay who each sang a cappella
All the folks performed while the ship was rocking and rolling a bit. I call that real talent.
Cell phone day!
Oahu off the port side.
We dock and bunker (fuel up) in Honolulu today. That means ONE thing – cell phone coverage!! Everyone is very excited to talk to friends and family without having to negotiate the intricacies of a foreign phone card.
Some students didn’t need to wait for cell phone day. Several of them have computers with cameras and voice over internet phone service. It’s quite amazing to see that someone is not only talking to her boyfriend via her computer, but has him up on the screen as well. It’s the Jetsons!
We were talking at dinner last night about the technological advances that have undoubtedly been made in the past 2 months of which we’re blissfully unaware. While we’re up on most major new events via CNN.com and LexisNexis, etc. it’s definitely the case that the ship is just a bit of a time warp.
Library stuff
When I talked with Don earlier today he told me how much everyone enjoys it when I write about Library Stuff!! So, here you go….
I’m getting the books that needed cataloging done now. Some of these are books that Pitt had decided to add. They were doing their cataloging back in Pittsburgh. UVA decided to catalog on board. That’s worked quite well. I’ve been able to connect to OCLC pretty easily. It remains to be seen how well Erika will be able to connect with over 600 students on board. I think her cataloging will be done mostly from 800-900.
Shelf reading
Somehow the books in this library seem to get out of order more than normal libraries. I haven’t quite figured it out. We have signs up for people not to reshelve their books, but I’m sure some do and that’s one issue. I also suspect that when the crew cleans the shelves and books (2 or 3 times on this voyage alone) they may not always put them back in exactly the same order. I will try to get some areas (DS, Q’s, H’s) shelf read before I leave.
Donations
I’ve already gotten a few books from passengers to add to the library. Mostly so far these are books that will be good additions. I may have to reject some, or offer the option of the “take one, leave one” collection for some donations. I’m afraid that, as usual, the library will be the de facto recipient of many text books from the voyage. These excess text books are a problem that UVA will need to figure out.
Find@UVA access
We’re on the way toward figuring out why Find@UVA isn’t working on the ship. Since not too many students were doing research until the homeward journey I hadn’t worried too much about Find@UVA. However, it would be much better if it worked on board. I tried it yesterday when I was logged into Online24 (the for-fee internet access) and it worked. I believe it’s a matter of supplying another URL to the ship’s IT guy for free access. I hope so. We’ll figure this out.
August 15
Final Day of Global Studies
Several faculty members spoke to try to tie together the voyage and draw some lessons from it. The final speaker was Shira, the student with cerebral palsy. She did a PowerPoint and spoke eloquently on what it’s like to be disabled, and particularly a disabled traveler. Because Shira has difficulty with speech as well as mobility issues she had difficulty making friends at the beginning of the voyage. It’s been wonderful to see the students get to know her for the person she is rather than for her disability. I think having her speak at our last Global Studies class was a perfect ending.
With a 92 year man (Chief) and a disabled student on our voyage I think everyone’s awareness of and appreciation for the challenges and possibilities of age and disability grew.
August 14
Ambassador’s Ball
The biggest social event on the ship is the Ambassador’s Ball toward the end of each voyage. The Ambassadors is the student group which hosts the interport students for each port. These are students from the countries the ship visits who join the ship at the port before their home country. They attend classes, talk with the students (and the rest of us), give a presentation, and generally help the students prepare to visit their country. A great program.
Ana & Katie
The Ball is hosted by this group, but primarily planned by one of the residence directors, Marci, for our voyage. It’s our major “dress up” event. Many of the students wore clothes they bought or had made in either Vietnam or Hong Kong. Some truly beautiful outfits. Some students, including one of my library students, YY (Yun Yan), wore traditional outfits. YY and another student wore traditional Korean clothes and looked beautiful.
YY and Chris
The Captain’s dinner preceeding the Ball was very nice and elegant. We and our main dinning room clean up pretty good!
The dance was held in the Union. Several of the faculty and staff went early and we even danced to a song or two. However, the rap songs that they played early didn’t really lend themselves to dancing. Most of us retired to the Staffulty (Faculty/Staff) Lounge for our own after party.
All in all a very fun evening.
August 13
Passenger Talent Show
It’s always fun to see how talented people you know really are. When I worked at the Law Library I was awe struck by the talent that the law students displayed at the Libel Show. Same goes for this shipboard community. These students, staff, and faculty sang, danced, drew, painted, played instruments, performed monologs, and performed songs they wrote. They were really amazing.
It would be difficult to pick my favorite:
• Two teenage boys performing Saint-Saens Cello Concerto in A minor
• Eve who wrote, played and sang a song about our voyage and her new found friends
• Mondo, Ana, Katie, Emily, & Kelsey who danced their hearts out
• Shira, who made a puppet and performed a monolog using the puppet despite her cerebral palsy.
• Zizi who played a violin solo written by a countryman of her’s.
• Adar who did a hilarious skit which incorporated all our stops and many of the things that people did.
• Nikki and Lindsay who each sang a cappella
All the folks performed while the ship was rocking and rolling a bit. I call that real talent.
