After 4 months as an essentially closed community, it was pretty poignant to bring it all to the end. Being on the ship had the feeling of being at summer camp -- those intense relationships that build in a closed community over a defined period of time are hard to bring to a close. For the students, this was particularly intense; but even the grown-ups found it poignant to bring the journey to a close. We have new friends in assorted places from Moab Utah, to Ashville NC, to Poughkepsie NY, to Charlottesville VA.
Ship friends and their 3 small kids had been in Iowa for his school; then, when he got his PhD, moved back in with parents in California, looking for a job. Semester at Sea was what came along. The whole ship cheered him along through a long distance job application process that included a Skype interview from India and a quick trip back to the US while we were in South Africa. And now we have new friends moving to Switzerland.
Before every port on the Semester at Sea voyage, there was a mandatory "Pre-port" session on health and safety, cultural information, and logistics of embarking and disembarking. The session on England was hysterically funny -- including a language session on how to speak British. Biscuit, not cookie; crisps, not chips; chips, not fries; pudding means desert, and how to pronounce aluminium. We were also instructed about British food, and told TO drink the water (and beer).
We are all changed by the experience of our voyage, and we will all have a round of reverse culture shock. I participated in a "re-entry" program and spoke about service as a way to continue the journey and manage the feelings of boredom/stress/loneliness. Why lonely? No one will really understand the experience. As one of my students said, "there is no way that they will think of us as anything other than spoiled brats." And who really wants to see 4 MONTHS of photos? And breakfast will be with the same people every day at home.....
No comments:
Post a Comment