Semester at Sea, 5: Montreal, Canada, August 26, 2011 by Michael H. Prosser, Ph.D. [Post 227]
no commentSemester at Sea 5: Montreal, Canada, August 26, 2011 by Michael H. Prosser, Ph.D.
Facing the M/V Explorer Semester at Sea port is the 1967 World Expo, Habitat, expected with its multilayered homes and open spaces to become the City of the Future, but alas! The idea did not spread, and this is perhaps the only one of its kind, now apartments. My Frist World Expo was in 1958 when I was in Brussels, Belgium. Then there was a large compound with Congolese exhibiting their native customs. (Something like them being in a zoo for Expo visitors to ogle. Two years later, the Democratic Republic of the Congo was recognized, given up reluctantly by Belgium as their largest African colony. Unfortunately, only a very small amount of Congolese were university or even secondary school educated. Today, it remains one of the troubled locations in Africa.
After the 107 voyage of our Semester at Sea program got to Montreal, a large number of participants in the Forum on Sino-American Relations and friends of the program disembarked. During the afternoon, 60 Life Long Learners and 70 work-study students entered the ship. In the evening the nonprofit Institute for Shipboard Education hosted a very delightful on board reception for 466 family members of the rest of the 451 students coming on board today. There was a very informative program about the history of the nearly 50 year program (celebrating the golden jubilee in 2063). I had the opportunity to meet many of the parents and siblings—many of whom had been Semester of Sea participants earlier, including one speaker whose three children had taken the around the world voyage.
Yesterday, I met many of the life long learners (lll), and at the “Meet and Greet” session last night. This morning from 8 AM to 10AM, we (the lll) had an orientation meeting where many ship board details were discussed by the leaders. When it was my turn to talk, I spoke very briefly about my experience in China, encouraged them to have homework for our next meeting to do what Public Radio has done often—creating a six word essay about themselves. Mine will be “Not citizen of America, but world.” One Chinese lll said his will be “I want to learn a lot.”
Today, I introduced myself to many of the students who have come aboard, including many having lunch together. They seem like an eager group: 62% female and 38% male, but only 451 students, down at least 150 from previous semester voyages. Perhaps the end of the recession or fear of a double dip recession has made their parents cautious about the cost of this experience. Typically, there are more than 600 students, but the Life Long Learners have increased from about a dozen in the early voyages now to 60, and the number is likely to continue to increase in future voyages. The largest number of students are from San Diego.
The key goal of the M/V Explorer for all participants is safety and the well-being of all 800 people on board, whether we are on the ship, as we will be for the next 8 days enroute to Morocco, or in the shore ports in Morocco, Ghana, South Africa, Mauritius, India, Malaysia, Viet Nam, China, Japan, Hawaii, crossing the International Date line, Costa Rica, going through the Panama Canal, Cuba, and returning to Fort Lauderdale, Florida on December 12/13. The ship is also a “green” ship with the encouragement for all of us to be energy and resource conscious. Last week and today, those of us on board have had our mandatory fire drill. We will leave the Montreal harbor at 5 (or 1700) PM today. A number of parents are on the shore deck to say good bye to their sons and daughters. Perhaps there will be some tears both by parents and our students as we pull out of the harbor at 5pm (1700) shortly.
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