June 17 – We woke up docked in Ensenada this morning. Many of the dependents (spouses and children and others connected to the faculty and staff) had been talking for several days about going shopping in order to pick up items they’d overlooked in their packing. For instance, who knew that we’d need beach towels and marzipan for this voyage? Anyway, Mom and I got up early and caught a taxi to the Walmart of Ensenada – a Supercenter – to pick up these little odds and ends. We spent MX$777 pesos (about US$77) in this Walmart.
The students and life-long learners began to arrive about 1pm on the 17th. You would not believe how much luggage was transferred to the ship! By about 3:30 pm, all voyagers were present and accounted for, and at 4 pm the captain called a life boat drill. Once everyone found their appropriate station, and the captain had reviewed all participants, we were dismissed, and the ship began preparations for departure. We finally cast off about 5:30pm, and sailed away toward the sunset. While we were exiting Ensenada’s harbor, the cry of “whale spout” went up, and everyone rushed over to the starboard side to see the whale. However, the whale was very canny, and we only saw the spout a few times and just a couple of glimpses of the whale’s back.
Some statistics for this voyage: In his introductory address, Executive Dean John Burkhoff said that the ages of the voyagers run from 3 months to 85 years, including 302 students, 47 life-long learners, and 18 children between 3 months and 17 years old. The students are from 143 colleges and universities, and 7 different countries are represented on the ship. The statistic that most interested the student body, however, was that their group was composed of 67% females and 33% males.
Comments on the library: This first week has been really intense. It's very hard to describe just how busy and frantic these past days have been. I haven't had time to stop and think or write. I've spent most of my time reacting to a variety of "emergencies" that needed answers immediately. As Barbie, Erika, and Erin mentioned, there were some problems with the 24Online ids, and a great deal of confusion about the difference betweeen 24Online and UVa Proxy server ids, and which one to use to get onto the internet. As you might expect, some folks were frantic to get to their email after several days. I expect things to settle down after classes really get started, though.
