Being on a ship, one has to be superstitious as there is not much else happening. For this reason, this post will be short to avoid jinxing the whole community. Just to inform you that I have now posted pictures of the Neptune event as well as of our extended family and our travel pictures of Spain and Morocco. You can see these links in the texts of Chapters 6, 9, 11 and 12.
Cheers
Wednesday, February 11, 2009
Travel Chapter 12 Extended Family
Travel Chapter 12
At sea just over the equator
February 10, 2009
Our extended family
There is a tradition on the SAS voyages whereby adults are asked to adopt a group of students to become their extended families. For many students, this trip can be traumatic and apparently many suffer profound homesickness. It is understandable as not only are they far from their family and friends but they are in strange countries and traveling on board a ship. These are all new and difficult situations by themselves but, but put together and it may be too much for many.
To alleviate this problem, each adult couple is asked to adopt a number of kids. In the first days of the trip, the kids are asked whether they wish to be part of such an extended family. Of the 700 students, 388 signed up for the program. There are only so many adults and some do not want to participate. We signed up to take 7 kids as our experience on the last trip showed us that this is an ideal number.
The kids are assigned on a random basis and a list comes out with their names. I then walked around the ship and invited each one to meet us for dinner in the dining room on the fifth deck. I organized with the dining room steward for him to set aside a table for 9 for us on the appointed day. It was interesting as we did not know any of them, nor did they know us. At the appointed time of 6.30 pm B and I were at the table and no body was there. No one showed up for what seemed to be quite some time but was probably no more than 5 minutes and suddenly they all appeared. Two boys and 5 girls. More or less the same proportion of boys and girls on the ship. As with any such first meeting, it started off a little tense but we went around the table and saying each others names. I then told them who we were and asked each to say a bit about themselves. I took pictures of each one in order to remember names and faces. They were from different parts of the US and studying geology to philosophy. After a pleasant dinner we broke up and agreed to meet again once we had left South Africa. Since then, I have run into most of them in classes and corridors.
You can see the members our extended family at:
http://picasaweb.google.com/akeyserlingk/ExtendedFamilySAS09?authkey=VuOGiMSvZ2U&feat=directlink
So now we have 7 kids on board, in addition to Emmett. We will get to know them as the voyage on continues. On our last trip we had 5 such students and we are still in touch with 2 of them.
Cheers
At sea just over the equator
February 10, 2009
Our extended family
There is a tradition on the SAS voyages whereby adults are asked to adopt a group of students to become their extended families. For many students, this trip can be traumatic and apparently many suffer profound homesickness. It is understandable as not only are they far from their family and friends but they are in strange countries and traveling on board a ship. These are all new and difficult situations by themselves but, but put together and it may be too much for many.
To alleviate this problem, each adult couple is asked to adopt a number of kids. In the first days of the trip, the kids are asked whether they wish to be part of such an extended family. Of the 700 students, 388 signed up for the program. There are only so many adults and some do not want to participate. We signed up to take 7 kids as our experience on the last trip showed us that this is an ideal number.
The kids are assigned on a random basis and a list comes out with their names. I then walked around the ship and invited each one to meet us for dinner in the dining room on the fifth deck. I organized with the dining room steward for him to set aside a table for 9 for us on the appointed day. It was interesting as we did not know any of them, nor did they know us. At the appointed time of 6.30 pm B and I were at the table and no body was there. No one showed up for what seemed to be quite some time but was probably no more than 5 minutes and suddenly they all appeared. Two boys and 5 girls. More or less the same proportion of boys and girls on the ship. As with any such first meeting, it started off a little tense but we went around the table and saying each others names. I then told them who we were and asked each to say a bit about themselves. I took pictures of each one in order to remember names and faces. They were from different parts of the US and studying geology to philosophy. After a pleasant dinner we broke up and agreed to meet again once we had left South Africa. Since then, I have run into most of them in classes and corridors.
You can see the members our extended family at:
http://picasaweb.google.com/akeyserlingk/ExtendedFamilySAS09?authkey=VuOGiMSvZ2U&feat=directlink
So now we have 7 kids on board, in addition to Emmett. We will get to know them as the voyage on continues. On our last trip we had 5 such students and we are still in touch with 2 of them.
Cheers
Tuesday, February 10, 2009
Travel Chapter 11 Neptune
Travel Chapter 11
February 10, 2009
Neptune celebration.
Yesterday as we approached the equator, an age old maritime rite was celebrated on board this ship. The crossing of the equator has always been a big even when sailors go through a rite of passage. This celebration goes on all ships crossing with passengers or crew who have not made the crossing. At 0730 some 25 crew members walked the cabin decks awakening the pollywogs informing them that they must report to the aft deck to meet King Neptune. Most of the adults had volunteered for roles in the court. I was the royal barber/butcher. We then paraded from the lounge forward of the ship to the aft deck 7 where there is a swimming pool. We were royally welcomed by the assembled students. They then had to be covered with oatmeal, go into the pool for cleansing, come out and kiss a great ugly dead fish and then kneel in front of the King. The king was covered in green color and had a long flowing wig. Under all that was the British captain of the ship who put up with all this for hours.
You can see pictures of this event at http://picasaweb.google.com/akeyserlingk/NeptuneOnTheExplorer2009?authkey=jXoqRnayQZA&feat=directlink
Part of the cleansing on such an occasion is to shave the hair from the head. This is voluntary but 4 of us spent the whole morning shaving heads. I am not sure what the final count was but certainly more than 50 including adults students now have bald heads. This includes our own grandson Emmett who sat down in my chair and I shaved his head. How many grandfathers get to shave the head of their grandson who submits to this voluntarily?
Emmett is now part of an elite group around the ship who run around with bald heads. There will be a group photo taken tomorrow and no doubt that will be a cherished souvenir of the voyage for Emmett.
Cheers
Alexander NIcolas Graf Keyserlingk,
Aboard the good ship Explorer
Somewhere going around the world in 104 days.
See my blog at:sandersstoryline.blogspot.com
Time of my email Greenwich Mean Time
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