Early Preparations

September 30

Preparations for my voyage are filtering into my everyday activities. As I get Peter ready for his internship in Chile, I consider what I did to help Ash, JB and Peter to get ready for SAS and remember that usually it was all done in a mad rush at the last moment. Being an "older" voyager, some things are a bit different.

1. Must get my house in order, literally. I cannot leave with the messes that exist in each room. For some reason, I feel the need to clean all the drawers and closets and organize the basement before the holidays - reasonable? Maybe, in part.
2. I am definitely technically challenged, hence my early attempts to blog, so my children can rescue me if I fail. Also trying to really learn my new computer and IPOD so I don't have to tax the computer people on board ship with my incessant questions. Thank god for Apple's one to one tutoring program!!! Also installing SKYPE and updating all my contacts.
3. I am trying to keep the packing light - ha, ha for all who know what I usually drag along with me. So I am actually thinking of staging my stuff as I do my seasonal clothing switch - that way I'll be able to find things when I need them.
4. Passport and visa updates have to be done in a timely manner and we must get on it as soon as we return from Chile.
5. Reading in preparation for the trip and its emphasis on China
6. Getting advice from my more experienced children on what field study practicums make sense or are good.
7. Parents always ask me about communication and money. For me, leaving a well organized bill paying and money management plan in place will help Dean and kids manage without constant phone calls.
8. Inoculations and updating medical records and getting necessary trip medications put together. Always a challenge not to take a whole drug store along with but to consider the sometimes more obvious choices like Vicks Vaporub and Immodium and band aids.

You would think that having done this three times already, I would be an expert, but I am a Life Long Learner not a college student and some of the concerns are different, some are the same.

Know the nuts and bolts are uninspiring but its good to ruminate over how to get up to speed ahead of time.

The computer came from Shanghai!!!

This is my first blog entry for the commencement of my Semester at Sea experience which will actually begin in January of 2010. How appropriate it seems that my new Mac computer, ordered online to get that great matte screen, has been shipped from Shanghai! If I had bought it in the store, I might not have noticed its point of origin, but in checking the shipping orders, I saw quickly, that these babies are built in China and Shanghai, specifically. Now what does that have to do with my upcoming SAS adventure? Our voyage's focus will be on Sustainability but along with that, the Tung initiative, incorporating Chinese scholars and students will be of equal importance. How apropos. Do you think my computer will whistle and chirp when we dock in Shanghai, knowing it is back home? Anyway, I'm sure those of you readers who do join my blog will skip over these early posts, but for me its practice before I'm on the high seas, trying to beat the learning curve before it gets to me. So, my first few posts are for practice and to get the bugs out and my mind in the game. Bear with me.