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At Sea to Hong Kong
April 1, 2008
Happy April Fool's Day!!Well, it is a day after a country visit and back to ship life.. we are all exhausted as normal.Classes have started up again, but the good news is that we are only at sea for today and tomorrow as we arrive in Hong Kong on Friday!!This week is going to go very fast.This morning the Dean called in the RD's to review the global studies exam that is scheduled for tomorrow.Many of the students have been complaining about the structure and wording of the first two exams, so today, the RD's reviewed and read the exam for clarity.Overall it looked like it was written well and I hope the students do much better on this exam than the other two.With having 750 students take this class, the exam is all multiple choice and it really depends on the students learning style on how they take in the lectures and the readings.The ship is pretty quiet today as they all have been studying and getting back to some big assignments they left behind in Vietnam.
It was excited to hear that my staff meeting was canceled today!!I used my entire afternoon today to actually work on some personal items, or should I say, prepare for a job interview that I am having next week.I have finished my presentation, came up with the questions and continued to review the material to get ready for this big job interview.It would be totally awesome to leave the ship in May knowing I have a job that I liked and pays well to my expectations and standard.
Tonight we have our pre-port cultural meeting, which we always have two days before a port to learn about some cultural information so we don't look like fools entering the countries.The interesting aspect of this part of the voyage is that the students do not have to return to the ship on Saturday night when it leaves Hong Kong!!Many of the students, including myself, are on semester at sea trips that will fly us to Beijing on Friday were we will spend the next four days visiting that area and then will meet the ship at the port in Shanghai on Tuesday, April 8!!This is going to be a fun trip, which I am very excited for.
Tonight as well, we had to take the temperature readings of everyone on the ship!With SARS and the avian flu going on, Hong Kong and China require that we have our temperature readings completed before we enter their country.I helped the medical staff with this task tonight and it was fun to stick the ear thermometer in the student's ear and to record their reading.My reading was 35.8 C, I have no idea what that is in F.
April 2, 2008
Well, this morning we had our third Global Studies Exam, on top of losing an hour of sleep as we pushed our clocks ahead again.I am now 12 hours ahead of the East coast… it is pretty weird to be that far ahead of everyone, but soon enough in two weeks, I will get a whole another day back.. which I will talk more about soon.This morning I proctored the exam for one of the classrooms and it was fun.. as I was not taking the test.This time, the test was only 25 multiple choice questions and we made it much easier for our lovely students who do not pay attention or go to class.
Right after the exam, I met up with my supervisor who informed me had received some bad news about one of my residents.Not sure if you remember correctly from my previous dates, but I had to inform one of my residents that his father was terminally ill.This morning we received news that my residents father passed away during the night and it was time to tell him.As we called him to the office after the exam, you could see that he sort of knew what was about to come out of our mouths…. And we had to say it… his father passed away.My resident handled the news very well and was a trooper throughout everything.A lot more of the emotions came out last week when he was informed of the possibility, so there has been time to prepare for the news, but as we all know we would never be prepared for the news of a death in a family, especially a parent.He has been doing well all day, calling home and using my internet to save him some money to get communications that he needs completed.He is going to stay on the voyage and continue to the end!! His fathers last words to his mother was that they agree that he finish out this experience and enjoy his time around the world and to let life be life.
Later this afternoon after some work and a nap, as I am so tired right now, I went to help out the registrars director with the grading of the 750 tests!!We use scantron, so no big deal.It was fun to use that machine and to get it going for the residents to see their exam results.Majority of the students did very well, with an class average of 84!!This class average is probably the highest of all of the exams we had so far to date.
Tonight we had our celebration and welcome to China with some Chinese food, Chinese music and our pre-port logistics information about safety, etc.
In my one day in Hong Kong, I am going to the Animal Education Adventure Center all day to visit this amusement park of some sort and to visit the China Panda Bears!! This should be fun!!
Then on Friday, I leave at 5 AM to head to Beijing until Tuesday, which is going to be a blast.We have a lot to see and do in those few days from the Great Wall, to the Forbidden City, the palace temples to an Acrobatic Show and so on on!!This is going to be a lot fun to be on with 70 of the students.The most interesting part is that we will not return to the ship in Hong Kong as it sails to Shanghai, but will meet the ship there at the end of our trip and experiences!!
Stay tuned for more information and the updates of China and the trip!!
It is sad to say that it is almost at the end… oh well… here it goes….
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