Update 1: 28°35′ N, 133°42′ W 1,649 Nautical Miles to Honolulu
Apparently it’s Sunday (the 7th of January). But it’s not really – its day A1. The first day of the classes that take place on semester at sea schedule on the A days. For me that was social and sustainable ventures, and supply chain management. It has been a crazy whirlwind getting ready- all to reach this point. From finishing a grant proposal, to getting to the USA before New Year to make sure nothing derailed my travel plans, and of course Christmas and making sure I sorted my home logistics for my time away – including making sure I did all the Jan-April birthday presents!
So now there’s nothing else left to sort. I’ve unpacked my bags and found a home for everything in my cabin. My assessment materials are on the learning management system Moodle, my readings in something called ‘owncloud’ ready for download and I have my ‘seamail ‘up and running. My seamail is why I can send this to you – I can’t send out much and I certainly can’t access anything needing large bandwidths but I can make a few PDFs and send them.
I’ve now met two of my students groups and they are from all over and incredibly keen and excited. They all came on time, prepared and ready to work! For the supply chain class we have a field day at our first port of call – Honolulu. We will be exploring supply chains by looking at the Chocolate supply chain in Hawaii!
We left San Diego on the 4th to sail to Ensenada and the students boarded there. But we were on tenterhooks right up to the last minute as a massive storm shut down all flights etc on the East Coast – thank goodness I came early. There are some heroic stories of how our SASers struggled to get here – taking massive detours to open airports and driving what seems like half way across the US to get to the west coast. Where it was a lovely balmy temperature!
So the evening of the 5th January 2018 we set sail on the 124th voyage of semester at sea. On board we have 534 students, 14 lifelong learners, 58 faculty and staff and 29 of their family members, and 177 crew. 85% of the students are in the 2nd/3rd year of their 4 year degree. They come from 193 different institutions, 47 States in the USA, and 33 nations. 26% of them are business majors so my classes and those of my colleagues in the business faculty are completely full! There are three UK passport holders on board – me, a crew member and a student (who I haven’t found yet)
I have found the various corners of the ship where I will sit and work on my research papers, and already had some amazing conversations with all the different types of faculty that are here.
The academic partner is Colorado State University and it is amazing to see the planning and thought they have put into all aspects of the voyage. The logistics are immense and frankly I would find them quite overwhelming. But this is a well-oiled machine that has thought of everything. They sent a huge team from the home office and the campus to get us sorted – some of whom sail this first leg to Hawaii to make sure we get all our academic systems working smoothly.
Its B Day tomorrow – so time to get ready for that!
Apparently it’s Sunday (the 7th of January). But it’s not really – its day A1. The first day of the classes that take place on semester at sea schedule on the A days. For me that was social and sustainable ventures, and supply chain management. It has been a crazy whirlwind getting ready- all to reach this point. From finishing a grant proposal, to getting to the USA before New Year to make sure nothing derailed my travel plans, and of course Christmas and making sure I sorted my home logistics for my time away – including making sure I did all the Jan-April birthday presents!
So now there’s nothing else left to sort. I’ve unpacked my bags and found a home for everything in my cabin. My assessment materials are on the learning management system Moodle, my readings in something called ‘owncloud’ ready for download and I have my ‘seamail ‘up and running. My seamail is why I can send this to you – I can’t send out much and I certainly can’t access anything needing large bandwidths but I can make a few PDFs and send them.
I’ve now met two of my students groups and they are from all over and incredibly keen and excited. They all came on time, prepared and ready to work! For the supply chain class we have a field day at our first port of call – Honolulu. We will be exploring supply chains by looking at the Chocolate supply chain in Hawaii!
We left San Diego on the 4th to sail to Ensenada and the students boarded there. But we were on tenterhooks right up to the last minute as a massive storm shut down all flights etc on the East Coast – thank goodness I came early. There are some heroic stories of how our SASers struggled to get here – taking massive detours to open airports and driving what seems like half way across the US to get to the west coast. Where it was a lovely balmy temperature!
So the evening of the 5th January 2018 we set sail on the 124th voyage of semester at sea. On board we have 534 students, 14 lifelong learners, 58 faculty and staff and 29 of their family members, and 177 crew. 85% of the students are in the 2nd/3rd year of their 4 year degree. They come from 193 different institutions, 47 States in the USA, and 33 nations. 26% of them are business majors so my classes and those of my colleagues in the business faculty are completely full! There are three UK passport holders on board – me, a crew member and a student (who I haven’t found yet)
I have found the various corners of the ship where I will sit and work on my research papers, and already had some amazing conversations with all the different types of faculty that are here.
The academic partner is Colorado State University and it is amazing to see the planning and thought they have put into all aspects of the voyage. The logistics are immense and frankly I would find them quite overwhelming. But this is a well-oiled machine that has thought of everything. They sent a huge team from the home office and the campus to get us sorted – some of whom sail this first leg to Hawaii to make sure we get all our academic systems working smoothly.
Its B Day tomorrow – so time to get ready for that!