Shipping Teaching Materials

Another thing I can check off my list - I just shipped off all of the teaching materials I'll be using on the trip.

That's another advantage of being a faculty member on this trip...we have a shipping allowance (up to $200) to send books and other teaching materials to the ship so we don't have to lug it down the Bahamas ourselves. The items have to be received at the place in Florida a few days before the ship leaves from there (apparently some staff and administrators have their orientation in Florida a few days prior to the faculty orientation in the Bahamas). I'm crossing my fingers that everything will arrive okay. I sent the materials in several different boxes so if one box doesn't arrive I won't be completely screwed.

The shipping allowance is supposed to cover the cost of shipping teaching materials to and from the ship, but in my case, most of that is used to ship stuff down there. I did a lot of photocopying this past week and have about five reams worth of paper that was used to print syllabi and other class materials. I have a good deal of books (and some videos) that I am bringing too so I'm glad I don't have to pack them in my suitcase. We get reimbursed for our shipping expenses once the voyage is over and we submit our receipts to the Semester at Sea office in Charlottesville, Virginia. Luckily I won't have nearly as much to ship back home since I'll have distributed most of the materials to the students. When I'm in Hawai'i for the day on May 7, 2007 (a week before the voyage is over), I will probably use that opportunity to try to find a post office where I can ship back my books and videos via Media Mail...hopefully there will be a post office close to where the ship docks.