Class Day "B21" at sea

Today is class meeting day "B21."

On the agenda for me is the following:

• 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 "Cinema and National Identity" (Time:  1415 - 1530)
• Ambassador's Ball

Update:

The Ambassador's Ball is basically two things - a sit-down dinner and then a dance afterwards.  There are two sittings for dinner - one at 5:30 pm and one at 8:15 pm.  I'm in the 8:15 pm sitting.  When we signed up we had to say which of the three entrees we wanted.  I chose the chicken teryaki (all of the food relates somehow to one of the ports we've visited).  The dance is from 10:30 pm through 12:30 am and is apparently held in different locations on the ship with different kinds of music.  That's all I know at the moment.

Other stuff I forgot to mention before:

• Apparently in Kobe, the photographer Annie Liebovitz came on the ship to take photographs of Desmond Tutu.  The interview with Brad Pitt has apparently been postponed until Hawai'i though and will be a phone interview.
  These were the images of Archbishop Tutu that were taken while on the ship and then, obviously, later composited with George W. Bush and Brad Pitt for these covers

Second Update:

Went to the Ambassador's Ball dinner (not as good as the captain's dinner a few weeks back, but since they were cooking for so many more people this time around, I guess it wouldn't be).

My table at the Ambassador's Ball dinner on the ship (clockwise:  resident director Tom's girlfriend Emily, resident director Tom, AV coordinator John Paul, AV coordinator John Paul's wife Shannon, nurse Brenda, me)

at the Ambassador's Ball dinner on the ship (clockwise:  resident director Mindy, resident director Dan, registrar Dia, resident director Drew, resident director Lesley, resident director Matt)

at the Ambassador's Ball dinner on the ship (clockwise:  IT coordinator Matt, Global Nomads Group documentarian Ben, nurse Emily, Global Nomads Group editor Joanna, assistant field office coordinator Kristen)

After dinner, the group of people I'm friends with headed down to the "Dalit Village" area of the ship (the area where a lot of the staff people have cabins that is in the front of the ship on the third deck).  Our party basically was there while the students had a dance in the Union.

The faculty/staff after-party in the "Dalit Village" part of the ship (Deck 3 forward, crew quarters where some of the staff were housed)

registrar Dia, resident director Lesley and nurse Emily at the faculty/staff after-party in the "Dalit Village" part of the ship (Deck 3 forward, crew quarters where some of the staff were housed)

The faculty/staff after-party in the "Dalit Village" part of the ship (Deck 3 forward, crew quarters where some of the staff were housed)

AV coordinator John Paul's wife Shannon and resident director Tom's girlfriend Emily at the faculty/staff after-party in the "Dalit Village" part of the ship (Deck 3 forward, crew quarters where some of the staff were housed

video from the faculty/staff after-party in the "Dalit Village" part of the ship (Deck 3 forward, crew quarters where some of the staff were housed)

(click here for bigger version of the video)

video from the faculty/staff after-party in the "Dalit Village" part of the ship (Deck 3 forward, crew quarters where some of the staff were housed)

(click here for bigger version of the video)

Global Nomads Group director Mark and AV coordinator John Paul at the faculty/staff "Dalit Village" party (Deck 3 forward, crew quarters where some of the staff were housed)

I got some use out of my German to find out that Mark can claim to be a count.  (Not entirely sure what that means, but it sounds cool I guess...it seems like such an antiquated idea).  Basically, I learned this because his birthday is tomorrow and the Dean's Memo that was put out yesterday has those people's names on it who would be having a birthday the next day.  Mark's name was on it and in between his first and last name the word "Graf" appeared.  For some reason I actually knew what that meant and said to him (in German) that I saw his name listed on the Dean's Memo and that I saw the word "Graf" which I told him I knew meant "count."  He nodded and I told him "Graf bedeutet 'count' auf Deutsch, nicht?" (Graf means count in German, no?).  He nodded again and I asked him if he was a count to which he nodded again.  He said that most people would have no idea what that meant and I just told him I was all over that with my mad German skills.  I'm not sure if he likes to keep this cool title a secret or not though - I'd make everyone call me "Count" if I had a crazy title like that. :)

On another note, bizarrely, the captain of the ship meandered into the Dalit Village area and started to "hang out" with us.  

the captain of the ship hanging out with us in the "Dalit Village" area of the ship (Deck 3 forward, where some of the staff were housed)

The guy is not a conversationalist at all and it became pretty evident that he was a white elephant in the room.  Very awkward.  Everyone kind of gravitated to Emily's room and the captain was still standing outside in the hallway with a few people who were apparently trying to talk to him.  Very awkward.  Very weird.

video of Global Nomads Group director Mark taking a break from the party on the smoking deck of the ship addressing his thoughts on his 35th birthday (Deck 5 starboard)

(click here for bigger version of the video)