Tick tick

In two weeks from today, Nancy and I will get on the airplane from Charlottesville to San Diego. We are leaving on Jan 11 just in case any of this crazy weather causes flying problems. We actually get on the ship on the afternoon of Jan 13. We want our luggage to get there on time as well.

I think it seems sooner because Nancy has her clothes spread out on the bed in our guest room along with her luggage. She wants to be ready, and I'm sure the exact group of clothes will change many times between now and then.

By getting to San Diego early (we hope), we plan to visit the zoo and also buy a lot of the incidentals like sunscreen, bug spray, etc that we don't want to have to pack. We'll also get snacks and other foodstuffs.

Dinosaur

I have a plastic dinosaur that will be keeping us company in our cabin on the MV Explorer. This idea came from someone who carried a smaller rubber one in her pocket at all times as a reminder to not take herself too seriously. She kept a supply to give out to others who were deemed to need the same reminder. My dinosaur will be a reminder to me to try to give up control of things I can't control. As my wife reminded me when we first visited Disney World together, "you must be willing to suspend disbelief". So now, I need to suspend control. It's not that I want to control everything--just those things that affect me.

I just finished reading a book that my student assistants and colleagues gave me as part of a bon voyage package. The book, By the Seat of My Pants: Humorous Tales of Travel and Midadventure, has some amazing tales of travel. Many of the experiences came from serendipity and willingness to take a few chances and interact with strangers. I'm definitely going to try to talk to strangers because as I prepare for this trip, I keep thinking about the international travelers that come into our library and how we can make a difference in their lives. The book also reminds me that even the misadventures can make for some interesting stories and memories.

Did I mention that my dinosaur has a plastic lion friend? I'm hoping he will meet a new friend along the way and become a citizen of a foreign land.

metric system

One of my stocking stuffers was a small outdoor thermometer with a suction cup to stick on the outside of a window. The mercury is measured in Celsius and Fahrenheit. Since most of the places we will visit are on the metric system, I've decided that I should learn a little about how it works. I've checked that thermometer out several times today, and know that when it was 5 Celsius, it was really 41 F.

I'm also trying to think in kilometers. So, if I see a road sign in India that says 78 km, I'll know it is just over 48 mi.

One site to convert is at World Wide metric

Now if I could just learn to think in metrics

Geography deficit

OK, I'll admit that I have a deficit in my knowledge of geography. So, just to see if I am in good company, I have a short quiz for you.

What are the 3 countries that border Ghana?

I also have to admit that when I looked on the map (I love maps), I didn't even recognize the name of one of them.

The answer can be found at http://maps.google.com/maps?q=Ghana&utm_campaign=en&utm_medium=ha&utm_source=en-ha-na-us-sk-gm&utm_term=ghana%20map

Burkina Faso is the name that I didn't recognize, and it was formerly known as The Republic of Upper Volta from 1958 until 1984.

Wikipedia has interesting information about these places.

San Diego Sustainability

As I mentioned in an earlier posting, sustainability is the theme for the voyage.

I've copied the following from that page:
We define sustainability as a "society of permanence"—a world in which humanity ensures its well-being across the generations by improving the stability of ecological and sociocultural systems. Achieving a sustainable society will require decisionmakers to address issues of scale, just distribution, and economic efficiency.

I've thought that I would incorporate this theme into my travels and seek out examples. So, as we prepare to depart for San Diego in a few weeks, I've looked into that city. Univ California at San Diego has many examples of how they study sustainability, but the more immediate example is the airport where we will be landing. They have incorporated sustainability into their organization and policies. Take a look at San Diego Airport Sustainability.

I think we will be starting off at a good place.

Packing the library

Today was a long anticipated day for those of us who are preparing the library for the voyage. This was the day that we packed all the books and videos that had been ordered and received for the upcoming voyage. Most of the titles came from faculty course syllabi for reserve readings. Library acquisitions staff placed the orders, catalogers created bibliographic records, other staff processed the materials, and at the end, Mary Johnston, Barbie Selby, Kelly Johnston and I had a packing party. It wasn't really a party, but it had a festive feeling as it brought me one step closer to the voyage.

Part of the packing process was to label the reserve readings with the faculty member's name. So, those of us who had worked with the course materials would pick up a title and try to guess the faculty member who was going to use it. A book on sharks was obviously Abel and a book of architecture was Crisman. Some were not as obvious, but when we looked them up, they were a good reminder of the class and professor. Just a little librarian party game.

We broke the party up in the middle to take a quick trip down Main St to the Amtrak station where we greeted Donna Tolson, the Fall librarian and her husband Tim, the IT guy for the voyage. They had decide to take the train back from San Diego, and they were as tickled to see us as we were to see them. Thanks to Donna for weeding out obsolete materials to make room for our books.

At the end of the day, we had 17 boxes of books to be shipped. Well, they weren't all books. I included some giveaways to use for library promotions on the ship like candy and t-shirts. I'll see these items again when I get on the ship in San Diego on January 13.

Port trips

Several weeks ago we got a packet in the mail from Semester at Sea. It was the long-awaited list of Field Programs--designed to provide hours of interesting and relevant programming for the ports that we visit. (For the listings see http://www.semesteratsea.org/voyages/spring-2010/spring-2010-field-program.php )Yesterday was the deadline for "pre-sale" trips. These were primarily class-related, overnight, or trips that required advanced arrangements. There was a bit of anxiety since the trips can fill ,and then selections are made on a lottery basis. So, Nancy and I spent hours reading the 100 plus pages of trip information and studying our guidebooks and conferring with friends.

Our goal was to do more than touristy kinds of things while getting to see some of the cultural and historical highlights for the countries. But, we also want to get a flavor for the everyday life and participate in programs that support the sustainability theme of this voyage. We chose our "big" trip to be the once in a lifetime (for us) safari in South Africa. It sounds simple, but there were many to choose from, and they ranged in price from pretty expensive to very expensive (for us). We'll let you know in a few months how it went. Our next big trip choice was a overnight trip on the Amazon River. We decided to forgo the Taj Mahal since our VISA card was bursting at this point.

One of my sustainability choices was UNITED FISHING AGENCY FISH AUCTION & LECTURE ON THE BIOLOGY OF TUNA in Honolulu that starts at 6 AM. I think it will be fascinating. A boat trip on the Mekong Delta in Vietnam could be another highlight.

We registered online, entered our VISA card numbers and hit enter, so now we wait. There will be opportunities to take other non pre-sale trips that we will register for on the ship. We'd like to do a service trip to help on a house with Habitat for Humanity in one of the ports. We will also make some independent trips to museums, bookstores, universities nearby hiking spots, etc. I also have former student assistants and friends in Hawaii, Japan, China and Ghana, so I'd love to see them if possible. So much to do--so little time.

Trip reports and photos to follow.

Inoculations

For this voyage, there are certain health requirements for each country, including medicines and inoculations (shots). Today was my appointment at the UVA Travel Clinic, a department in the UVA Hospital to assist foreign travelers. It was nice to deal with an organization that was so prepared. When I made the appointment several weeks ago, they took my travel information and had a packet printed for all the countries I would visit.

The Centers for Disease Control sets the kind of vaccinations or medicines that are needed throughout the world and has maps for each country. Since I had taken my tetanus booster a few weeks ago, I had to take 3 more shots today. One of the biggies was the Yellow Fever shot that I would need for Ghana. We also counted out the number of malaria pills I would need for each country. Normally, South Africa would not require malaria pills, but since we would be in Kruger Game Park, that region does require the medicine. I ended up with a prescription for 52 pills. The Typhoid vaccine is a live oral vaccine.

This was a pretty painless outing and quite informative. It's nice to have medicine for intestinal disorder should that occur. A trip to the pharmacy finished my day. It's nice to have one more detail checked off my list.

Weather

It's hard to figure out what clothes to take, so I've checked on weatherbase.com
Here is our schedule

Weather data from /http://www.weatherbase.com

Hilo HI month= Jan avg. min.temp= 63 avg.max.temp= 80 avg.rain= 2.73 in

Honolulu month=Jan avg.min.temp=66 avg.max.temp=80 avg.rain= 3.4 in

Yokohama Japan month= Feb avg.min.temp= 37 avg. max.temp= 48
days w/precip= 10

Kobe Japan month =Feb avg.min.temp=37 avg.max temp=47
days w/precip+16

Tokyo Japan month=Feb avg.min.temp= 36 avg.max.temp=49 avg.rain=2.8

Shanghai China month= Feb avg.min.temp=36 avg.max.temp=47
avg.rain= 2.4

Hong Kong month=Feb avg.min.temp=59 avg.max.temp=67 avg.rain= 1.7

Ho Chi Minh City Viet month=Feb avg.min.temp=73 avg.max.temp=90
avg.rain=.1

Chennai India month=Mar avg min.temp=76 avg.max temp=90
avg.rain= .4

Cochin India month= Mar avg.min.temp=79 avg.max.temp=89 avg.rain=1.9

Delhi India month=Mar avg.min.temp=53 avg.max.temp=73 avg.rain=.6

Port Louis Mauritius month=Mar avg.min.temp=75 avg.max.temp=83
avg.rain=9.6

Cape Town S.Africa month=Apr avg.min.temp=56 avg.max.temp=72
Days w/precip=9


Accra Ghana month=Apr avg.min.temp=79 avg.max.tem=87 avg.precip 3.5

Salvador Brazil month=Apr avg.min.temp=75 avg.max temp=86
Days w/precip=20

Cameras

OK, I'm finally going to have to seriously read my camera manuals. I have a pocket Canon PowerShot SD1200 IS and a Canon Rebel xTI with an 80-300 zoom.

Mostly, I can change the mode around and take pretty good pictures. I recently learned that the little pocket PowerShot will take videos with sound as well, so I've figured out how to do that. Last week I actually learned to turn on or off the flash, and I know which modes to use for motion shots. Now I need to learn to take some macro shots and more about how to change the file size. My Christmas list includes memory cards. But mostly, I just need to read that 100 page manual that accompanies each of the cameras. They will each fit a need on the ship and at ports, and I'll just have to figure out when to best use each one.

Getting my finances in order

While I'm at sea, I don't want to have to worry about any financial concerns, so I spent an hour at the credit union today making sure everything was in order. I already have a primary credit card and an ATM card, but it is recommended that you have a second credit card in case you lose that one, or heaven forbid, the company cuts you off. All of my bills at home are already set up to pay with automatic withdrawal except for the pesky propane bill, so I set up a new checking account with the credit union to give me an additional ATM card and online bill pay.

I also had them notify the credit card company that they would be seeing some charges from around the world. Otherwise, one charge in Japan would create a hold on my credit card, and I don't want that to happen. Then I moved some money around from savings to checking so I can make my credit card payment online. It only took 3 tellers 20 min to get all this set up--along with a bunch of forms. I'll go to my real bank tomorrow and get another VISA card, and I'll be all set.

That's one more check off my to do list.

What will you be doing?

OK, I won't to clear up a little confusion with my friends. This is a "voyage" and not a "cruise". It has a purpose. "But" they ask, "what will you be doing?" They know that I'm the librarian, but they haven't realized that the ship has a 13,000 volume library. The collection has been carefully selected to represent ports we will visit and the classes that are taught. Each voyage has a different theme, so we've added volumes to support the "sustainability" theme of our trip. We have also acquired the books needed for reserve reading and copies of some of the textbooks. In a few weeks, Mary Johnston and I will meet to pack the books to be shipped to San Diego to the MV Explorer. HOPEFULLY, the boxes will be waiting in the library when I arrive and will be lovingly located in their assigned places waiting for the student to use. The subjects of the books range from psychology in foreign countries, to literature of a country to bird watching. The catalog can be searched at http://virgobeta.lib.virginia.edu/catalog?f[library_facet][]=Semester+at+Sea&facet.limit=500&facet_sort=hits&id=library_facet&random=1260222488985&sort=date_received_facet+desc&width=490


Once we arrive on the ship (several days ahead of the students), the assistant librarian, Theresa Pepin, and I will get into the online library system to load the "patron records" of all the students and faculty so that they can check out materials. We will also load the bibliographic records for the new books. Then we will load the digital files of the course readings (ie. journal articles) on the ships intranet, so that students will have access to the readings on their laptops.

We will work with the faculty to let them know what kinds of support we can give for their class assignments. The library will have eight student assistants to help with the shelving and evening checkouts. They will all have to get extensive training.

Then the students arrive, and we give presentations to their classes and serve as an information point to direct students around the ship since we are in a central location. As the student trickle into the library, we will assist them in setting up their "proxy accounts". These accounts verify that they are students and then give them access to all the UVA databases and the 70,000+ journal titles. That's a lot of hand holding.

Theresa and I will start to provide reference assistance and trouble-shooting. I'm a morning person, so I'll staff the library in the morning, and Theresa will staff in the afternoon, and we'll both be on call at all times. The library will be open 7 days a week when we are "at sea".

So, I expect to be busy.

Countdown

It just struck me on this December 1st, that we leave next month. I've still got lots of books to read and some shots to get. If anyone wants to help with the above two, please let me know. I've also started to squirrel away some $1 bills. One recommendation I read said to take about $200 in singles. I've also just spent some time on Amazon.com and ordered a money belt. This shopping is a lot of fun.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001LO6OOU/ref=ox_ya_oh_product

Anticipating trips is exciting if you don't get too stressed about it. I'm going the fun route.