Friday, August 29 (students arrive): As a Living Learning Coordinator (LCC), I have 74 undergraduate students living on my deck. I have tons of names to learn, which seems like a daunting task. This just reminds me how the RAs must feel when they have lots and lots of names to learn in such a short time. It was good to meet all of my students, but the day was extremely long with little time to take a break. In fact, Amy Hill and I tried to run to Starbucks for a quick coffee, but about two hours before our departure Dean Jack closed the gangway and would not allow anyone to exit. Amy and I vowed to savor Brazilian coffee in nine days.

Throughout the course of the day, students seemed thrilled and excited as they explored the ship. Before departing from the Bahamas, the Captain had the entire community do a life safety drill. I never knew that, on any ship, the Captain has the ultimate authority about any and everything happening on the vessel. This means that the Captain determines if we have passed the safety drill. Each person had to wear long sleeves shirts/jackets, long pants, close toed shoes, a hat, and a safety vest; all then reported to their muster station. During the drill I worked with two crew members to call roll for 132 people who were in muster station C6. Unfortunately the drill lasted about 45 minutes and students became restless as they waited for the Captain's approval. Students were a little chatty, but I was able to get them to remain relatively quiet during the drill. Thank goodness we passed.

Later in the evening I had a welcome meeting with the 74 people living on my deck, the Baltic Sea. I think I was able to set a tone of firm, but friendly. After the meeting several of my Baltic Sea students stayed in the piano bar lounge to play cards. Surprisingly, when I walked down the hallway at 11pm, it was super quiet…they must be tired!!

Saturday, August 30 (students have orientation & sailing to Brazil): Yesterday the Captain announced that we had to deviate about 75 miles outside of the original route to avoid two storms. Unfortunately the waters were really strong and terribly rocky.Luckily I managed to get through my second meeting with my students, but shortly thereafter I was violently ill…again—yuck! All day I was feeling confident about my sea legs, but I suppose my confidence was pre-mature.

Sunday, August 31(first day of classes & sailing to Brazil): This morning I woke up to a beautifully golden colored sun streaming into my window. As I looked out the window, I saw awesome city landscape…I forgot the Captain needed to stop in Puerto Rico to re-fuel since we added an additional 75 miles to the route. Once we arrived, the US Coast Guard decided to conduct a drill for the crew, which further delayed our stay. (Nope, we couldn't get off the ship, so all day we enjoyed Puerto Rico's charm from a distance).

Although I went to bed feeling really crappy, I woke up feeling good. I showered and headed to breakfast, where I bumped into Tracy, a faculty member. Tracy, a 4'3" older lady, who is very spunky and kindly told me my glasses were crooked, or maybe my head was too big. LOL- SERIOUSLY! As she straightened the glasses on my big head (ha!), Tracy said to me, "I wouldn't want to have your job, because professors were throwing your name around all morning." In addition to being an LLC, I also have a collateral assignment for Academic & Learning Skills. My collateral assignment really needs faculty involvement in order to be successful. On a traditional land campus students would have immediate access to services like the writing center, math success, study groups, and language groups, but those services do not exist on our floating campus. I have been charged to help set up systems/structures that will allow students to receive additional assistance, if needed.

Also, today was the first day of classes. Students only take classes while sailing from port to port. Once we arrive in port, students are expected to complete field exercises related to their coursework. The class schedule has been divided into "A" days and "B" days…there's no such thing as Saturday or Sunday on the ship…just "A/B" days. All students have to attend an "A" or "B" global studies course from 09:30-10:20am; my supervisor, Cindy expects all the LLCs to also attend one session over the duration of the voyage. So this morning I sat in a lecture hall with 300 others to learn about Religion, Politics, and Society from Dr. Paul Grooner. Tomorrow I plan to attend Dr. Len Schoppa's lecture on Economics, Politics, and Society. Hopefully by the end of the week I will be able to decide which course I like better.

While sailing from port to port, I anticipate my day will look like:

0800-0830 = Breakfast

0920-10:30 = Global Studies

1030-1200 = Work on collateral assignments & build community with students

1200-1300 = Living-Learning Team Meeting

1300-1400 = Lunch

1400-1630 = Work on collateral assignments & build community with students

1800-1930 = Dinner

1900- 2000 = Committee Meetings with students

2000- 2100 = Community College

2100- 2300 = Alcohol Service for students (LLCs monitoring)

*2000- 08:00 = On duty for emergencies (LLCs on duty while in port)

…oh, I forgot to mention that we use military time, so 2100hours, 1630hours, etc…I'm still getting used to it.