UVA Today Blogs: Semester at Sea

Hey there, blog readers

The MV Explorer recently spent 3 days in Egypt and is now en route to Greece. Here are 2 entries from voyagers about their recent experiences – one in Egypt and the other on the ship.

PHOTOS >

1. Rebecca Hantman and her friend Jason take in the desert sights.

2. SAS students make their own pyramid in Giza, Egypt.

FROM MARY JOHNSTON, SEMESTER AT SEA LIBRARIAN – U,Va,

Bibliotheca Alexandrina

I’m a librarian, and I love visiting libraries. So when the Semester at Sea administration announced that we were heading to Alexandria, I was thrilled. Alexandria, Egypt, had been home to an ancient library and is considered to be the place where libraries began.

The ancient library of Alexandria was founded in the 3^rd century BC. We don’t exactly know how, but by 700 AD, the library had been completely destroyed. The Egyptian government, with the help of UNESCO, has built a new, high-tech library near the site of the historic library.

Since opening in 2002, the new library – the Bibliotheca Alexandria – has become a popular tourist destination. According to the library web site, it hosts more than 800,000 visitors each year. As soon as our ship was cleared after docking in Alexandria, I ran off to see the great library.

Not many libraries charge admission, but this one does. I paid my 10 Egyptian pounds (about US $2) to walk into this striking building on the shore of the Mediterranean Sea. Just like with U.S. libraries, the library catalog is online, librarians offer assistance at reference desks on each level, and copy centers are available. Other services include a library for the blind, a rare books room, map collection, children’s library, exhibit spaces, planetarium, and the Internet Archive – “a complete snapshot of all web pages on every web site from 1996 until today.”

The library is huge and has been built to hold millions of books, though many of the shelves remain open. The main reading room covers 8 cascading levels under a glass-paneled, angled roof. Outside it looks as if the library’s roof comes up out of the sea.

I spent an afternoon wandering through the stacks and the exhibits and considered myself lucky to have the opportunity to visit this new, yet ancient, library. To find out more about the library or to search the library catalog, visit them online at www.bibalex.org

FROM RACHEL MOST, ANTHROPOLOGY PROFESSOR – U.Va.

From Italy to Croatia, Adriatic is sure to beat ya…

We’re somewhere between Alexandria and Pireaus…

It didn’t make CNN, but today we held the “Sea Olympics,” featuring such events as synchronized swimming, a lip sync contest, the limbo, art contest, volleyball, a tug of war and mashed potato sculpting. And the headline above was the team slogan of the Adriatic Sea.

All of the seas competed (each hallway has a sea name, like Bering, Red, Baltic and Caribbean). The question of what to name the Faculty and Staff came up since we don’t all live together. We earned the name the Dead Sea (you can likely figure out why). It was a fun and entertaining event after we had spent 3 days in Egypt and had begun sailing to Greece.

It was fun to see the halls come together and show such spirit. Amazing that in 7 weeks students from dozens of colleges and universities have formed their own new campus at sea. For the opening ceremonies, students packed the Union (the large lecture hall) wearing team colors, headbands and even life jackets (which quickly had to be returned to the cabins as they are not permitted to be removed). Team captains paraded in with beautifully painted banners on sheets supplied by the crew. And while the whole day was packed with lots of laughs, the creativity and many talents of the 583 students shined. These talents include singing, dancing, improvisation, art and flexibility — for the limbo.

The winner was the Baltic Sea. Their prize is the privilege of being the first to claim passports in Athens and the first to disembark in Norfolk just 20 days from now. It’s a bit hard to believe how much time has gone by and how little time is left: only two more ports to sail into and depart from, only four more class periods — 20 more days total, 12 of which will be spent crossing the Atlantic. Personally, I think it will take me a long time to process all that I have experienced and I very much look forward to doing that.