Even More Orientation

Click here for current times in Nassau, Bahamas, and the East Coast of the U.S.

Click here for weather in Nassau, Bahamas

Another full day of orientation...after breakfast, I was in various meetings from 9:00 am through 3:00 pm with a break for lunch.  In these meetings, I learned how to set up my laptop so that I could have access to the Intranet and Internet onboard, how to request equipment for various classes (ie. if I would need a DVD player, etc. for a given class) and we learned more about how the Global Studies course would function (it is a class that every student is required to take...the ship essentially "shuts down" for the time that the class meets each morning - although run by a main coordinator, the faculty all have a collaborative role in helping with the class and some of us will give presentations as they relate to the topics that are discussed.  We also heard from someone who works in the Field Coordination Office regarding our "Faculty Directed Practica" (we had to adopt 3-6 practica for which we'd be the leaders..ideally they should relate to the classes we are teaching in some way...one of the things that we learned is that students who are in our classes get priority over someone who is not for our given FDPs...in other words, one of my FDPs is going to a film studio in Chennai, India.  Students who are in my classes will have priority over others if there is an abundance of students interested in going on that trip).  Finally, we also heard from the residence life people on board and how they will help to organize student activities, etc.

These are the meetings I attended today:

0900 – 1030  Faculty Meeting:  Global Studies Course

1030 – 1100  Faculty Meeting:  Classroom Equipment Training

1100 – 1200  Faculty Meeting:  IT Services for Academic Support

1300 – 1400  Faculty Meeting:  Faculty Directed Practica

1400 – 1500  Faculty/Staff Meeting:  Student Life on SAS

My parents visited the ship this afternoon too around 5:00 pm.  They were impressed with the ship and now they will be able to better visualize what I'm talking about when I refer to certain areas.  Luckily, after being on board for two days now, I was finally able to have a pretty good sense of where everything was...enough so to show them around at least.  They had dinner on the ship and then left for their hotel around 6:30 pm.  They will fly back to the States tomorrow morning.

my parents visiting the ship in Nassau, the Bahamas

my parents visiting the ship in Nassau, the Bahamas - on deck 5 immediately outside my cabin window