Class Day "A18" at sea

Today is class meeting day "A18."

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)
• Meeting for faculty/staff who are leading trips in Japan (Time:  1800)
• Post-Port Open Mic Night for people to share experiences they had in China (Time: 2000 - 2100)

Update:

The main event on the ship tonight was that everyone on the ship had to get his/her temperature taken as part of the requirements for entering Japan.  They called up people to the faculty/staff lounge and everyone had an ear thermometer stuck in the ear.  We had to fill out a form stating that we didn't have any sickness symptoms and those people who had slightly high temperatures were told to come back in 20 minutes after they put on shorts and a T-shirt and walked around the outside deck (since the weather is chilly now).  Apparently when we get to Japan we will have to go through a thermoscan device and get our temperatures taken again.

We will advance our clocks by one hour tonight which will make us 13 hours ahead of Eastern Standard Time in the U.S.