Home?

We are home at last! We spent a night in Fort Lauderdale in close proximity, although we didn't realise it at once, to other friends from the ship. Our first meal off the ship was shared with Nilo and Nasim in, of all places, Burger King! They were in the same hotel. Then, walking into Barnes and Noble which was accross the road from the Springhill Suites (my cheap Hotwire discovery!), we bumped into Mindy and Eli who were staying close by and arranged to have supper with them and Mikey. As we all sat enjoying Pizza that evening we were joined for a few minutes by students Amanda and Patricia and then for longer by Sergio who let me speak to his wife Maggie on the phone for some minutes. (Maggie had been on the voyage with us for a short time and it was great to hear her Scottish accent again!). When we finally called it a day and returned to the hotel I walked into the elevator in something of a daze (it is hard to be ashore!) knowing only vaguely that I was sharing he elevator with two young men. "How're you feeling?" asked one: I looked up and noticed their Semester at Sea T shirts...'OK' I replied 'How about you?' "Well....not bad I guess".....I think we were all somewhat "removed" from this stable American world. ('stable' in he sense that it was not moving!)

Our flight back to Toronto was bumpy most of the way but it was great to be 'in Canada' so to speak. Next to me was a young woman, newly married I think, who hated flying, with a young husband who was so scared his mother had given him pills to sleep whch he did all the way. She spent nearly the whole flight touching up her hair and make up. It has been a long time since i have witnessed such total narcissism in a beautiful young woman. I wanted to say to her "Why are you doing this? You are beautiful, you don't need all this stuff on your face, you do need to think outside yourself .....you need a semester at sea to get your priorities and values straightened out. Of course I didn't! I labelled her obsessive compulsive because of the way she returned over and over again to her mirror and some tiny perceived flaw near her eyes which had to be repeatedly dabbed and her hair which had to be similarly touched and moved into the correct 'frame' for her face. All the while she stared into her own eyes in the small mirror. It was really disturbing. Every now and then she would ask me a question or tell me somethng. I think she would have like to talk but I treasure plane time for reading and didn't cooperate. Because George and I both prefer aisle seats we were not sitting together.

When the plane finally bumped down the Toronto runway I felt a surge of relief to be in Canada again. Although I feel much more comfortable and at ease with our American neighbours than I did a few months ago it is a wonderful feeling to be back in sane (?!) old Canada. Most of the close friends we made on board the Explorer were like ourselves, sort of 'ex-patriots'. In retrospect I believe that certain Americans, certanly at the beginning of the voyage, were uncomfortable with our 'differentness'....is there such a word? They seemed to have come to terms with this during the last week (!) but were always a little suspicious of us until then. There were of course some noteable exceptions: Beth, Mikey & Mindy (and Eli), Ted, Pamela and Michael, the two Joans, Jodie and Louise.....and all the friendly and loveable students we met over those months. Alicia, Sonia, Amanda, Lara, Tracey, Grace, Molly, Stephanie, Tammy, Joe, and Danielle (the latter 4 our 'family') Jason and Tiffany (from class).

Did I happen to mention that our group received an A for our project "Othello in Johannesburg, South Africa during Apartheid? well we did!) Ted our teacher director seemed to drift away from his friends during the last few weeks. I think he felt totally lost without his family and hurried off the ship so that I for one hardly had a chance to wish him well. If you ever read this Ted, au revoir and good luck!

I realise this blog is going to make boring reading for most of you and I apologise. I am truthfully not quite here and still feel connected to all our friends....it was hard for all of us, living thousands of miles apart to say goodbye not knowing whether or when we will see each other again. I shall especialy miss Theresa and John, whom I felt I knew from the first day and in a sense I did as John and I had been emailing after being introduced by another Semester at Sea Alumni., Evelyn Hannon....thank you Evelyn! Theresa you will be sorely missed by us both, Calgary is sooo far away; Nilo and I had breakfast together yesterday....this time accompanied by Nasim and George, but we managed to have a chat! When George and I came down with ALL our luggage to get the Airport shuttle, Nilo had managed to sneak away to say a final farewell. Her cell phone rang twice and it was Nasim! I have a photo of her taken from inside the bus...

Emmett we shall be thinking of you, adjusting to going back to school. Good luck and see you soon I hope. You are not quite so far away and I think a visit to Montreal will have to go into our date book.