Today is class meeting day "B10."
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)
- Logistical Pre-Port Briefing for Mauritius (Time: 2000 - 2100)
Update:
We just found out on the noon-time announcements that the ship won't be arriving in Mauritius tomorrow until 1200, not 0800 as originally planned. This is due to both to the waves that have been slowing us down since Cape Town and also leaving Cape Town later than scheduled (we couldn't leave until the middle of the night the night we were scheduled to leave - we were originally supposed to leave Cape Town at 2300 but the winds were too strong that night).
After the logistical pre-port briefing I wandered around the ship for a little while and found a group of people I knew watching some episodes of Nip/Tuck on DVD in one of the classrooms. The group included the following people:
- Anne-Claire (the wife of Simon, one of the professors, age 31)
- Emily (the girlfriend of Tom, one of the residence hall directors, age 26)
- Theresa (the wife of Micah, the photographer, age 28)
- Shannon (the wife of John Paul, the AV coordinator, age 28)
While I was there, Shannon told me that a group of people were renting apartments in Mauritius (which is a common thing to do among people from the ship) and that she would give me the address. She said that another group of people might also be renting one so I should see if they do that. I think what I'll end up doing is tagging along with the group that has a place rented and then just go back to the ship at night if another group doesn't rent something...that way I'll have access to their bathroom and people to hang out with at the place they are staying at (the only thing I know at the moment is that it is called Pereybere, near Grand Bay, and it's about 30 minutes from Port Louis).
I think I'm just going to play it by ear in Mauritius and see what other people are doing. I did sign up for some trips in the port, but if something more fun comes up with friends from the ship, I think I will just hang out with them. The field trips I signed up for don't sound all that exciting at this point but they are there in case I really don't have anything else better to do. I can always try to sell my tickets to someone else if I decide not to go on the Semester at Sea trips.
After watching an episode of Nip/Tuck, I headed up to the faculty/staff lounge where another group of the 20- and 30-something group was playing a game of Cranium. I joined them for the remainder of that game and then went to the 7th deck to buy a veggie burger at the snack bar area by the pool. I bought a veggie burger for the first time on the ship yesterday and, as people had been telling me, they are really good - so that's my back-up food if there isn't anything appealing in the cafeteria. The snack bar only sells food from the grill (pizza, grilled cheese, burgers) from 2:00 pm through midnight (I think) and they don't serve food when the dining hall is open for dinner.
In response to the comment posted by my pen-pal Angie in South Dakota about the caliber of the students, I can take the time to address that right now (sorry to everyone reading this blog...I'm not really able to write individual emails back to people all that easily - it's a combination of lack of time and a super super slow Internet connection that results in me never being sure that my emails ever got "processed" before the connection times out - I've spent time writing emails that I later learn never got to people and then I am kicking myself. At least on the blog, I know if my comments get posted!) Essentially, the students on the ship seem very good in general. When I was on the safari, the guide for our trip said that this was a calm bunch of students compared to past Semester at Sea groups she has led in the past. In general, students seem to be handing things in, asking questions, working on papers whenever I am in the computer lab, etc. There are some students who are complete idiots (like the guy I mentioned in the past who was basically trying to find out what happened on one of the field trips from another student so he could write about it...all doing this within earshot of me and other people in the computer lab). The writing skills of the students are adequate - I don't ever have tons of grammatical corrections to make and it seems like the students are "with it" in general and asking intelligent questions on field trips to the guides.
