First Experiences Aboard and in Athens

ATHENS!

THE SCHOLAR SHIP

I boarded The Scholar Ship (TSS) on Tuesday, 28 August. The gangway, just visible on the far left of the above photo taken from the dock, was in the form of steps, which made it a challenge to get my three new hard side suitcases aboard. Thanks to some helpful ship’s crew members who hefted the heavy things, I was onboard with luggage. The ship is lovely in a 1960’s way, with gorgeous dark wood paneling throughout, large lounges with comfortable seating and great views out the windows. The air conditioning works too well in these lounges. Because of that, I ended up wearing a hooded sweatshirt – with hood up! – during many of the orientation sessions held in the lounge that will become the Student Center.

Much of the ship was undergoing renovations to make the space into a campus. The Learning Resource Center (LRC), where I will be the Assistant Director, had been the ship’s gift shop, so quite a bit had to be done, especially since it was filled with gift shop merchandise that had to be boxed up by the Oceanic II’s gift shop crew. Over several days, they were occasionally seen working at it; when it was complete, they removed everything from the space and attempted to offload it but Customs rejected it and they put it back into the room so we still couldn’t get in there to start setting up the LRC. This happened several times: off the ship; customs rejections, back in the room. Finally the space was cleared out and the changes could begin. The sales counters and merchandise shelving had to be removed, the slotted wall paneling that allowed inserting of merchandising shelving brackets had to be covered with more “library-like” paneling.

Lovely mahogany Reference/Circulation desk

Unfortunately, the ship’s wonderful windows had been covered by the gift shop to allow displays and TSS had decided that rather than expose the windows, to bolt cheap wood bookshelves to the walls to cover the gift shop paneling. To add to our distress, the bookshelves are not adjustable. Security bars were placed on each shelf, though, to prevent books from sliding off the shelves onto the floor during rough seas. The overall look is quite nice and traditionally library-like although there is no natural light whatsoever and I tend to become sleepy when in there, because of the artificial lights and the gentle rocking motion of the ship.




Patron (Grete’s husband, Rodrigo) at table near bookshelves

Electrical outlets had to be installed and the computer cabling adjusted for LRC purposes. The beautiful mahogany reference desk that had been ordered by Louise, the LRC Consultant for TSS, was finally located onboard the ship – out on the sun deck along with numerous other large cartons of unidentified objects that had been brought aboard at various times before TSS staff began boarding. Once it was set up, the electricians attached the computer cables (covered) directly to the desk. We nearly had heart failure when we saw what they had done to the desk; not only does it have holes drilled in it but also we cannot reposition the desk; it is going to stay where it is, no matter how we would prefer it to be located for best patron service!

The first several days aboard were spent in Staff Orientation. It was carefully planned, with professional trainers onboard especially for that purpose as well as certain staff who will sail with us presented various kinds of information. There were innumerable “team building” types of experiences that were continuous and did not allow time for teaching teams and other academic support services, including the LRC, to meet together to start planning, do their own team building, etc. One positive outcome for me was that although it is almost impossible for me to learn people’s names, I learned nearly everyone’s name! That’s about sixty names– a miracle! But the numerous sessions meant that we LRC staff didn’t get to start processing the Opening Day Collection (the new books and media materials) until just a couple of days before the students boarded. This was not good. Worst of all, we were denied a key to the LRC, so there was no way to lock it!


Patron Work Stations LRC Work Table

That is because the original ship’s gift shop has been divided into three portions, the TSS gift shop is next to us on one side, their storeroom is on our other side and the LRC is in the middle. One key unlocks all three spaces. The gift shop manager refused to let us have a key that would access gift shop spaces - no way was anyone else going to have potential access to gift shop merchandise. The issue wasn’t resolved until I involved the Staff Captain. He took it on as a personal quest and made sure I had the key in my hand on the morning of 9 September. Grete, who was on duty in the LRC at the time and is the Director (I’m the lowly Assistant Director J), was talking to the Staff Captain but he wouldn’t turn the key over to her; he would only give it to me. The important thing is that we now have a key and tonight, for the first time, we will be able to lock the LRC when we close the library rather than closing the door and taping a “closed” sign over the lock so no one can easily discern that the door isn’t closed tightly or locked. I should explain that the door is a gift shop door, with glass panels that open accordion-style in a semi-circle to expose an opening about ten feet wide. The photo below shows the opening from inside the LRC. The white/blue panel-looking thing on the right is the door in its open position. The brown paneling beyond the doorway is the L-shaped hallway outside the LRC.

Open Door, inside LRC looking out

Louise had decided that the LRC would be initially open from 8:00 am – 11:00 pm. I thought that was completely out of line (I hate working that late!) but Grete, the LRC Director, and I will actually see how patron attendance goes and adjust the hours accordingly. By now, the second day of classes, it has been pretty busy most of the time except meal times.


PREPARATIONS CONTINUE AND THE STUDENTS BOARD

Athens News and Sundries Stand

On Sept 5, the students began boarding the ship. That morning, Louise and I went into Athens to purchase current magazines and newspapers, something I’ll do at each port of call. It was fun to go to little news stands, one of which is pictured above, and choose materials. It puts a new spin on library acquisitions! We even found a current National Geographic, something I was certain we would never find! The corner of a table in the lower left corner of the photo is one of the outdoor tables at the little café where we ate lunch after making our purchases. We also bought a map of the Acropolis and a punch-out/put together replica of the Parthenon and the Mayflower and a small magnetic chessboard for the LRC.


I bought an “It’s All Greek To Me!” t-shirt for myself. Pictured above, it has a list of common expressions in English beside their Greek counterparts, spelled in the Roman alphabet. The funniest thing about it is the one that says, “Your welcome . . . Parakalo.“ I feel it supports the fact that I didn’t buy it in the US because “Your” is misspelled. J I bought a postcard and a small blue glass “evil eye” from a small shop where the proprietor was kind enough to help me learn to say “Kalimera” for good morning. He claimed to be impressed with the way I said it and asked if I were Greek. I said, “Yes!” Then put my hand over my heart and added, “In my heart.” He laughed and that made me laugh, too.