Yesterday I received my official Offer Letter from The Scholar Ship (TSS). I was offered the one-semester position of Assistant Director of the Learning Resource Center (LRC) for the Maiden Voyage of TSS. I signed the letter accepting the position and mailed it!
The Scholar Ship is a new academic venture similar to the well-established Semester at Sea programs, but with several notable differences. For full details, visit the TSS website at www.thescholarship.com. Briefly, seven universities in various countries are providing academic support for the program and Royal Carribean Cruise Lines is furnishing the ship.
Faculty, staff and the student body will be composed of people from around the world. For example, on the maiden voyage, the LRC Director is from Guatemala and I am being billed as from the United Arab Emirates. I am not Emirati but I will come to the position from two-years experience working in a multicultural setting in the UAE. One important purpose of the voyage is giving students a truly international experience, to include onboard activities promoting intercultural understanding. Students will room with someone (same gender) from another country. (Faculty and academic staff will each have a private cabin.)
My adventure will begin on the evening of Thursday 30 August 2007 in Athens/Piraeus, Greece (!), when all faculty and staff must be onboard TSS to begin orientation, which will last until Wednesday 5 September, when the students will board and begin their own orientation as we set sail for the first port-of-call, Lisbon, Portugal!
While sailing, classes are held and the LRC is open every day, including weekends. However! When we reach port, we lock the LRC, classes are suspended and five days are spent doing either field activities, TSS-organized tours or independent travel. Students are required to participate in multi-day field activities in three ports. Faculty and staff will be accompanying some of the field activities (uncertain exactly how many). I have already identified those I'm most interested in for each port!
Other ports on the itinerary are: Panama City, Panama (we will go through the Canal!); Guayaquil, Ecuador; Papeete, Tahiti; Auckland, New Zealand; Sydney, Australia; Shanghai, China; and Macau/Hong Kong, concluding on 23 December 2007.
I will post additions to this blog as events unfold. Stay Tuned!
In reverse chronological order, this blog contains text and pictorial descriptions of many of my adventures during the semester I worked aboard The Scholar Ship during its maiden voyage in 2007. The final adventures are chronicled in my other blog, www.buvehatsea2.blogspot.com. Enjoy this one and please visit the other one! © by the blog author
Buveh and Terracotta Warrior, Xi'an, China - Dec. 2007
"You are very strong!"
Who is Buveh?
- Meet Buveh
- Buveh means "Grandmother" in the Uzbek language. My first grandchild was born when I was a U.S. Peace Corps Volunteer in Uzbekistan so I decided she would call me Buveh. Now I am Buveh to seven fantastic grandchildren, three girls and four boys. I am also a professional librarian. I have worked the United Arab Emirates University in Al Ain, UAE; one semester aboard The Scholar Ship on its maiden voyage; and at Prince Mohammad Bin Fahd University in Al-Khobar, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia; as well as at several libraries in the USA. Most recently, I worked at the College of the Marshall Islands, at Majuro, Republic of the Marshall Islands.
Blogs by Favorite People
Favorite Movies
- Harry Potter series
- Lord of the Rings Trilogy
- Napoleon Dynamite
- Star Wars (the original three)
- The Other Side of Heaven
Favorite Books
- Bible
- Book of Mormon
- Desert Sands
- Harry Potter series
- Lord of the Rings
8 comments:
Very cool! Great job setting up your blog and adding your first post. Your adventure sounds totally amazing. We are so happy for you and look forward to reading all about it!
Pat! Congratulations!
I should be envious as hell, but I'm just so glad for you, that you have had opportunity after opportunity overseas. What a blessing!
I'm still in Jacksonville at the public library, though for the past year I've been running the Remote Services unit in the Main Library reference department (call center, as well as email and live chat reference Ask a Librarian).
BTW, Walhydra is my curmudgeonly alter-ego, and her blog, Walhydra's Porch, has been going since last September.
Take a look at the links under "Milestones" on the right sidebar to follow the thread of her "personal growth and discovery" over the past nine months.
Blessings, Dear One.
Mike Shell
WOW~~~ This is so great, Pat!! I am so excited for you!!
I don't know how much experience you have with boating/sailing, but one of the quickest ways to overcome sickness is to go up on deck and get a view of the horizon. One of the nicest feelings is being rocked to sleep by calm waves... Ahhh---
I will check your blog often! Yeah! :) lara
WOW~~~ This is so great, Pat!! I am so excited for you!!
I don't know how much experience you have with boating/sailing, but one of the quickest ways to overcome sickness is to go up on deck and get a view of the horizon. One of the nicest feelings is being rocked to sleep by calm waves... Ahhh---
I will check your blog often! Yeah! :) lara
Hay Sis, pretty cool. Good job. I didn't really pay much attention to just what a blog was. Have heard of it and had an idea, now I know.
Your adventure sounds to be very interesting and educational as well as pleasureable.
Good luck. I'll check in often to "The Blog".
Al
Mom-
So Jealous, in a good way, you get to go to all the spots Rob and I wish to go to some day, Take lots of pictures and send postcards from each port, we will track you on a map.
Love ya Nae
Thanks to everyone who left a comment on my blog! Being a complete newcomer to blogging, I didn't realize people might have commented, so I didn't find them until today when I checked on my blog for the first time.
It was good to hear from the niece who inspired my venture into blogging; Al, brother #2, (chronologically speaking); my favorite (and only) daughter-in-law; and two friends from Library School!
If you don't want your comments showing on the blog, let me know and I'll try to figure out how to suppress them.
Very cool sis, minus all of those vaccinations, don't like needles and more so the medicines. I guess if they are safe enough it is good to have em under the belt for whatever.
Best wishes and luck passing the various tests involved with taking on a new adventure as you "will" be doing.(that's my blessing for you)
Good luck,
Love ya
lil bro.,,, Big Al
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