Departure Date, Classes, and Packing

Departure Date
The faculty and their families board the ship on January 2, 2016, and the students join us a few days later. We leave port for Hawaii on January 5.

Classes
I (Rick) will be teaching three classes on the ship: Global Health, Public Policy, and Comparative Government. The way classes work is that we meet during our days at sea and not when we are docked in a port. So the first two plus weeks, as we cross the Pacific Ocean, will be very "class heavy". After that, we have more port breaks (usually 4-5 days) mixed in as we make our way around Asia, India and then Africa.

We were pleased to discover that they have a very structured "dependent children program" and our boys will be following the same class schedule as the college students every morning and early afternoon. Jen has been busy pulling together the boys' work in advance, knowing that our Internet connection on the ship will be slow to non-existent. Thanks to several very helpful teachers -- and the great on-line resources available (especially Khan Academy and Crash Course) -- they will mostly be following the same general curriculum that they would have in their classrooms at home.

Packing
"Less is More" is our mantra. One big rolling duffel bag per person for 5 months of travel = #wewillbewearingthesameclotheseveryday.

Our Grand Adventure

In the spirt of full disclosure, we have never been on a cruise. The furthest from land our children have ever gone is on my (Jen's) family "putt-putt" up in Maine (named to imitate the sound of the boat at its maximum speed of 5 kph):

So we'll be nearly four months on a giant ship venturing FAR from land. This should be quite an adventure!

Semester-at-Sea Overview:
(two great videos toward the end)

https://prezi.com/zpxvdr07p0t1/module-1-welcome/

Preparing for Semester-at-Sea

Now that Jen has completed her substitute teaching job, we are focusing more and more on our upcoming semester abroad: visas, vaccinations, schooling materials, etc. Below is the map and website for the Spring 2016 Voyage that starts in San Diego and ends in Southhampton, England. We are getting excited!

http://www.semesteratsea.org/voyages/spring-2016/