We docked in Ensenada at 7:30 this morning. I made the very unfortunate mistake of opening the curtains when I woke up and discover dock workers only 50 feet away with a full view of me in my sleep shirt and not much else. Oops! We won’t be doing that again.
Last night we pulled out of San Diego at 11:00 and a group of us went up to the top deck to watch. It was a thrilling experience feeling the engines running and pulling away from the dock. The lights of the city slowly faded into the distance and we all stood there with goofy grins on our faces. A totally undignified faculty moment. I finally went to bed after midnight in my new room and was a very happy woman.
This morning after breakfast on the back deck with a bunch of demented seagulls, I headed off to the library to start making some order of the mess that we left yesterday. I know I’ve been wanting the boxes of books since my arrival but it certainly adds a lot of tasks to my day now. I had all these wonderful intentions on focusing on getting the catalog functional but all of the faculty members were having tons of problems with the password to the UVa databases. It required more computer knowledge than I possessed but there wasn’t anybody else to run to so I took a crash course on troubleshooting computer problems and tried to find answers when, in fact, I was totally clueless. Not a confidence boosting exercise. I made some of them happy and had to send others away with the promise of finding the answer.
The students started arriving at 10:30 and it was a steady influx of bodies until 4:00. We have 630-ish students on this voyage. It’s not the maximum that the ship can take but it certainly feels like that right now. They are everywhere. We had gotten spoiled with having the ship to ourselves for the last four days. It was an amazing process to watch them arrive and be assigned their rooms. The crew and staff of Semester at Sea have this down to a fine science. It was an amazingly orderly boarding.
Eileen and I had intended to at least get off the ship after lunch and taking a quick tour of the town of Ensenada but by the time we were ready to do that an announcement was made that nobody would be allowed to exit the ship for the remainder of the day. So we missed Mexico. Total bummer.
At 4:00 we had our first life boat drill with the entire ship. It was crowded, hot, and lasted way too long. Not the fun experience we had last night. By the time it was over, several of the students had fainted. The response of the crew to this medical emergency was astonishing. They were out there in no time flat with their stretchers and first-aid kits. Very impressive.
At 5:00 we pulled away from the dock in Ensenada with all the students (and faculty) crowded at the rails. There weren’t any parents to wave goodbye since they were in San Diego, but it was still a momentous occasion. I had fun watching the students’ reactions. A fellow faculty member took my picture for the occasion.
After a quick dinner, I headed back to the library to get some more things done but motion sickness was starting to make itself known. I put on the wrist bands and it’s amazing the difference it makes. Thank God!
Tomorrow, Eileen and I have great hopes to make some more progress in the library. It’s our last day to focus on setting it up before classes begin on Wednesday. We’ll need every second we can get!
Last night we pulled out of San Diego at 11:00 and a group of us went up to the top deck to watch. It was a thrilling experience feeling the engines running and pulling away from the dock. The lights of the city slowly faded into the distance and we all stood there with goofy grins on our faces. A totally undignified faculty moment. I finally went to bed after midnight in my new room and was a very happy woman.
This morning after breakfast on the back deck with a bunch of demented seagulls, I headed off to the library to start making some order of the mess that we left yesterday. I know I’ve been wanting the boxes of books since my arrival but it certainly adds a lot of tasks to my day now. I had all these wonderful intentions on focusing on getting the catalog functional but all of the faculty members were having tons of problems with the password to the UVa databases. It required more computer knowledge than I possessed but there wasn’t anybody else to run to so I took a crash course on troubleshooting computer problems and tried to find answers when, in fact, I was totally clueless. Not a confidence boosting exercise. I made some of them happy and had to send others away with the promise of finding the answer.
The students started arriving at 10:30 and it was a steady influx of bodies until 4:00. We have 630-ish students on this voyage. It’s not the maximum that the ship can take but it certainly feels like that right now. They are everywhere. We had gotten spoiled with having the ship to ourselves for the last four days. It was an amazing process to watch them arrive and be assigned their rooms. The crew and staff of Semester at Sea have this down to a fine science. It was an amazingly orderly boarding.
Eileen and I had intended to at least get off the ship after lunch and taking a quick tour of the town of Ensenada but by the time we were ready to do that an announcement was made that nobody would be allowed to exit the ship for the remainder of the day. So we missed Mexico. Total bummer.
At 4:00 we had our first life boat drill with the entire ship. It was crowded, hot, and lasted way too long. Not the fun experience we had last night. By the time it was over, several of the students had fainted. The response of the crew to this medical emergency was astonishing. They were out there in no time flat with their stretchers and first-aid kits. Very impressive.
At 5:00 we pulled away from the dock in Ensenada with all the students (and faculty) crowded at the rails. There weren’t any parents to wave goodbye since they were in San Diego, but it was still a momentous occasion. I had fun watching the students’ reactions. A fellow faculty member took my picture for the occasion.After a quick dinner, I headed back to the library to get some more things done but motion sickness was starting to make itself known. I put on the wrist bands and it’s amazing the difference it makes. Thank God!
Tomorrow, Eileen and I have great hopes to make some more progress in the library. It’s our last day to focus on setting it up before classes begin on Wednesday. We’ll need every second we can get!
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