#333 Summer is over

Our summer at sea is all over now but the stories.

The MV Explorer docked safely in Norfolk 75 days after sailing from New York City. The fall voyage soon departed without us on board and we are back home again in Charlottesville. After sailing twice on a Semester at Sea voyage, we can't help but think about the similarities and differences of the two voyages.

DIFFERENCES
On our summer 2008 voyage, we...
- Enjoyed calm seas. Library books did not have to be tied down once.
- Visited 6 new countries
- Norway, Russia, Denmark, Belgium, Italy, Greece.
- Revisited 2 familiar ports - Dubrovnik and Alexandria.
- Changed our route for security reasons.
- Said “Well the last time we were in Dubrovnik, we found this great little restaurant right on the sea...” instead of saying “I have no idea.”
- Crossed the wide Atlantic without Kelly, my human map.
- Docked in our home state instead of half way across the country.
- Returned home wondering if Virginia has a "Back home again in Indiana" kind of song.
- Visited 2 museums, both called The Hermitage, a world apart...

The Hermitage Museum in Saint Petersburg, Russia

The Hermitage Museum in Norfolk, VA

SIMILARITIES
Despite all the differences in our two voyages, much remained the same. As on the fall 2006 voyage, we were...
- Blessed with responsible and fun student library assistants.
- Delighted to get to know our adopted students.
- Impressed by faculty and staff.
- Amazed by the accommodating and hard-working ship's crew.
- Focused on Dr. Seuss who advises, "Don't cry because it's over. Smile because it happened."

Yours in smiling,
Mary

#324 The Great Library Redux

Alexandria seemed to be waiting for us as we pulled into the dock before sunrise on Wednesday morning. Our friend Aree was there to see it.

And though we'd visited the great library of Alexandria on our last voyage, it was again on the top of our list. (You realize by now that I have an obsession.) It's a little over 2 miles from the ship to the library, but to best experience Alexandria, we set off on foot. Our friends Aree and Summer beat us there, but they cheated. They took the bus.

These SAS students are eagerly looking through Art in History, a book by one of our faculty members. (I'm sure their eagerness has nothing to do with seeing that jacket photo taken a couple of decades earlier.)

You may also realize by now that I'm not the only one in our family with an obsession. Here Kelly enjoys the map collection.

And finally, to answer the question you all are asking... No. The great library of Alexandria still does not have a copy of "Oh! The Places You'll Go" by Dr. Seuss.

See my comments on the Library of Alexandria on the UVA Today blog.

Yours in believing some things are worth seeing twice,
Mary

#289 Oh, the Places We'll Go!

When last we sailed with Semester at Sea, Kelly finished our journal with this final entry dated December 13, 2006:

"We're on the last leg of our trip around the world crossing the Indiana border on I-74 toward Indianapolis. Thinking back now, the trip dissolves into uncountable little segments. We didn't go around the world. We went to Chicago, then Los Angeles, then San Diego. And each little trip generated its own memories – people, sights, and such. It's like life. You live a whole bunch of days with countless choices along the way and at the end, you look back and realize, that was my life. We saw too many people who don't have the luxury of choices to alter the direction of their lives, so we're returning with a new focus. We know that what's important is what you do along the way – the journey, the days, the choices. As we think back now, we're really thinking ahead, eager for the chance to make good choices every day."

As we prepare now for our second semester at sea, we're thinking about the effects of that first voyage. And we're wishing for more of the same.

Yours in still trying to make good choices,
Mary

#104 There’s a Map on My Lap

You may travel the world,
But no matter how far,
With a map on your lap
You will know where you are.

You can always use maps.
They will help you in knowing
Where you have been
And just where you are going!

I'm sure you all recognize that wisdom from the mapmaking classic, There’s a Map on My Lap.

It’s good to follow the Cat in the Hat and it's good to hang out with mapmakers.

Yours in wondering if Dr. Seuss is everywhere,
Mary

#103 The Cat in the Hat

Kelly is not the only one to turn 50 this year. The Cat in the Hat turns 50, too.

While I haven’t yet figured out how to celebrate Kelly’s milestone, I know just how we can all celebrate The Cat’s 50th. We can support Random House Children’s Books, Dr. Seuss Enterprises, and First Book in a national literacy initiative called Project 236. Thanks go to Joan in Wisconsin for telling me about this cool opportunity.

The literacy initiative is called Project 236 because Dr. Seuss used a vocabulary of only 236 words when he wrote a story “first graders wouldn’t be able to put down.” This story made reading fun and helped books compete against cartoons and comics. If you’d like to celebrate The Cat’s birthday by providing books to children from low-income families, visit the Project 236 web site to read about the many ways you can contribute. One way is to send an electronic birthday card to The Cat. For each birthday greeting sent, Random House will donate one book to First Book. First Book is dedicated to giving children from low-income families the opportunity to read and own their first new books and that seems like a good way to celebrate the 50th birthday of the Cat in the Hat. 236 Words. 50 States. 1 Cause.

Yours in wondering if I could find a red-and-white-striped hat for Kelly,
Mary

#100 Cracking open the bottle

It’s spooky how intuitive librarians are. Back in August, we asked our librarian friends how they predicted our lives would change as a result of our travels. They recorded their ideas on how we might be changed – spurred by personal experiences, quotes about traveling, lines from a poem, hallucinations, wild guesses – then carefully tied each into a neat scroll and stuffed it into a long-necked bottle. The secret messages in the bottle stayed sealed in that bottle - until last night!

At our welcome home party last night, we “cracked” open the bottle and found inside this poem…

Mary and Kelly set sail ‘round the world
To see cities and cultures spread before them unfurled.
To teach and to learn was on their agenda
And they established a blog with their news to a-send-a.
We cheered them goodbye to all their exotic locales
And will delight in four months when they return to their pals.

And we found these predictions…

• the top three locations you visited are: 1) Spain, 2) Croatia, 3) Myanmar. Then again, this is just what we call a wild-assed guess!
• you will both come back teachers of the highest order
• pizza never tasted as good as it does at Bazbeaux.
• you will find a Pacific island and go there to live thereafter. (Perhaps Johnston Atoll?)
• you will have gained a greater appreciation for clutter and chaos and may even consider incorporating it into your life now!
• you will never have the same opinion about CNN “world” news nor will you think of CNN as a news company.
• you will appreciate an entire floor per person and an extra one after your trip. you will find ways to volunteer globally.
• you will continue to appreciate pork tenderloin and mashed potatoes.
• Life is really about relationships – about loving others. You had an amazing 4-month experience. The new lives that are intermingled with yours, the new places you’ve seen, the new cultures you’ve experienced, and all the knowledge you’ve gained is with you and in you. The magic of life is that you don’t know how it will affect you, but you can be assured that it will manifest itself in a thousand ways.
• the sheet music grant will still be going and I will still have a slot open for Mary to be my accompanist.

And these quotes…

• “Of all the unbearable nuisances, the ignoramus that has traveled is the worst.” - Frank McKinney (Kin) Hubbard
• “Travel, in the younger sort, is a part of education; in the elder, a part of experience.” – Francis Bacon (And for those of us in our prime, it’s a part of both!)
• “Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts. Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one’s little corner of the earth all one’s lifetime.” – Mark Twain
• “Certainly, travel is more than the seeing of sights; it is a change that goes on, deep and permanent, in the ideas of living.” – Miriam Beard
• “It is not the going out of port, but the coming in, that determines the success of a voyage.” – Henry Ward Beecher
• “You have brains in your head. You have feet in your shoes. You can steer yourself any direction you choose.” – Dr. Seuss

Thanks so much for welcoming us home with gusto and for looking into our future. We appreciate you all for your questions and for your enthusiastic interest in our experiences, for your cooking and knowing our favorite kinds of pie, for your sense of humor and laughing along with us, and for loving us just the way we are. And, as you can see, Kelly is still appreciating that pumpkin pie on Sunday morning.

Yours in hoping to live up to your predictions,
Mary

#45 Dim Sum and Dr. Seuss

September 21, 2006
Pulling into Hong Kong harbor early this morning was a feast for the eyes.

And to follow the feast for our eyes, we disembarked and made our way straight to a feast for the mouth – a dim sum brunch. Dim sum (Chinese Petit Fours or savouries) is one of the great unheralded Chinese inventions, ranking with gunpowder and paper. We joined Erika, Sally and Mark for brunch and while we are not exactly sure what we were eating, these are among the menu items we did not order:

Stewed Chicken Feet w/ Spot Limpet
Pig’s Bone w/ Dried Vegetable Congee
Congee w/ Ginkgo and Beancurd Stick
Snow Fungus w/ Ginkgo
Black Glutinous Rice w/ Red Bean Cream
Pig’s Blood w/ Leek
Chilled Sea Blubber

We continued our quest for the Dr. Seuss book, Oh The Places You’ll Go, and found the empty slot on the shelf at the fabulous, 10-story, 3-year-old Hong Kong Central Library where the book would reside were it not checked out. Call numbers in English are just way too easy.

Our library treks not only teach us how to find our way around the library, but also our way around the city. With advice from a local, we took two subways, through a tunnel under Hong Kong harbor, and across Victoria Park, where we watched locals play basketball on the way to the library. The subway system (both here and in Japan) is phenomenal and one that the US should copy.

Having had the British in Hong Kong for so long makes it easier for us to navigate the city since most of the signs are in English. And, of course, having Kelly – the human navigator – makes it easy for me since I just follow him (as do the other passengers.)

Believe it or not, the highlight of the day may not have been the library visit. Each night at 8:00, Hong Kong harbor shows itself off with a spectacular 15-minute laser light show choreographed with music. We were invited to a deck on the top of a nearby hotel managed by the father of one of our students. From there, we experienced a spine-tingling, eyes-tearing experience as the lights emphasized one of Earth’s largest cities.

Yours in falling in love with Hong Kong on day one,
Mary

#36 Arriving in Kobe

September 12, 2006 It’s hard to feel anything but great when our arrival at the dock in Kobe is greeted by a local brass band playing John Phillip Sousa marches at 8 am. Oh, and did I mention we were escorted into the harbor by a fire-boat spraying a decorative fountain?

Local dignitaries and performers then boarded for a welcome ceremony including traditional music and dance, speeches, an exchange of gifts, and a briefing from a U.S. Consulate officer.

Finally, Mary and I set off to explore Kobe. Mary has set her sights on finding “Oh The Places You’ll Go”, a Dr. Seuss book, in a public library in each port. We hopped on the Portliner, an elevated people mover a lot like the one in Indianapolis, to the subway station, where we caught the next train toward the library. And even though the Kobe Central Library catalog was in Japanese, Mary matched the characters in the call number with shelf labels and found the book in short order. Impressive!

After that excitement waned, we hopped a bus to the Osaka Dome where the Orrix Buffaloes hosted the Softbank Hawks in the Japanese version of our national pastime. A Japanese soccer star drew a standing o when he bounded from the dugout to throw the ceremonial first pitch. Just then, a batter emerged and took his place at the plate, planting the seed in our mind that he just might send the ceremonial first pitch back up the middle as a screaming liner. But that tension died a quick death when Mr. Soccer chucked a fastball that bounced 25 feet in front of home plate.

Japanese baseball has a few quirks. Each team has a designated cheering section separate from the regular ticket holders. When their team is at bat, the cheerers wave flags, endlessly pound their equivalent of thunder-sticks, and in unison sing a unique song for each batter. The cheerers stand for their half inning, then turn the cheering over to the opposition cheerers. The regular fans never stand to cheer. And although we guessed the crowd at 40,000, there was never a boo or a hiss.

The fans look out for each other too. When a foul ball approaches, folks in the area whistle to alert everyone to incoming danger. As for ball game food, we didn’t find the promised octopus-on-a-stick, but did find plenty to eat including a variety of noodle and fish dishes along with KFC, a version of Bugles, and corn dogs, known here as American Dogs.

So to summarize our first day in Japan using the lingo of our student friends, it was like awesome.

Yours in like closing,
Kelly