Class Day "A5" at sea

Today is class meeting day "A5."

On the agenda for me is the following:

• Teach "Mass Media Systems Around the World" (Time:  0800 - 0915)
• Sit in on the Global Studies core course that the entire ship "shuts down for" daily - it is held in the Student Union area of the ship with the lecture being broadcast on the closed-circuit TV system of the ship to the various satellite classrooms on the ship for those students who can't fit in the Union (Time:  0920 - 1040)
• Teach "Intercultural Communication" (Time:  1045 - 1200)
• Tour of the Bridge (Time: 1430)
• Attend meeting for the students involved with doing "Sea News" (Time: 1700)
• Post-Port Open Mic Night for people to share experiences they had in Brazil (Time: 2000 - 2100)

Update:

The thing of note today was the bridge tour I signed up for.  They did a few tours on the leg from Puerto Rico to Brazil and essentially, someone comes on the P.A. system and announces that there are three tours of the bridge and it's a first-come, first-serve basis for the sign up sheet in purser's square.  Each group has 15 sign-up slots.  The other day when the announcement was made, I opened my cabin door to just go right down the hall to where the purser's desk was and as I did, I heard a stampede of footsteps coming at me - a few students were making a mad dash to sign up.   By the time I walked down the hall to where the sign-up sheet was, there was already a line of about 20 people.  I waited in the line and got a spot on the 2:30 pm tour for today.

Essentially, we all met today where we signed up and then someone from the crew led us past the Union area to where the bridge was.  I've uploaded my photos from that experience and since people were taking some photos with the captain of the ship, I got one too.  The captain is British and seems to have a good sense of humor in general.  You will occasionally see him in the halls of the ship walking somewhere.

The main things I learned on the bridge tour was that the ship can tilt 70 degrees and still upright itself.  Apparently the wave that hit the Semester at Sea voyage a few years ago made the ship tilt about 45 degrees.

I also learned that the ship can convert about 15 cubic meters of sea water into drinking water per hour - even more if usage is low during that time.

That was the big event for today.  We were also told that we will be advancing the clock ahead one hour for the next three days.  Given that I am behind in my grading and have no motivation for doing so, losing more time won't help me much.

The other thing to mention is that last night at the faculty meeting, we met the interport lecturer for this leg of the voyage.  He is an Argentinian guy who works for NOAA and who deploys these monitoring devices at various points throughout the world.  He will be recruiting students to help him deploy several of these devices as we go across the Atlantic.  Apparently Archbishop Tutu will be speaking a good deal in the Global Studies class this leg of the voyage as well so, in essence, he is really the "main" interport lecturer who will discuss the problems and issues surrounding South Africa.

We will advance our clocks by one hour tonight which will make us 3 hours ahead of Eastern Standard Time in the U.S.