ATLANTIC OVERTURES
When I signed up for this voyage, the idea of doing a “trans-atlantic” cross on a ship was very attractive to me. It felt so old-school and glamorous… I was imagining that it would be like 1923 and I’d be traveling from New York to London to see some old buddies of mine from the war.
But we didn’t do that cross. We went from Senegal to Brazil. We took the path that was travelled by millions of souls forcibly taken from their homes and sold.
What a change.
I struggled to wrap my head around that… how horrific it must have been.
On our beautiful ship we had several class days and some fun activities. It seemed incongruous that we could be so blessed on our journey under such different circumstances.
When we crossed the equator we upheld the tradition of Neptune Day! Every first timer had to be dowsed in fish juice, jump into the pool, kiss an actual fish, and then be declared a Turtleback. It was pretty exciting.
Another SAS tradition is to shave your head, apparently. I buzzed my head in August so I didn’t do it this time around, however I did do the honors for my friend Elinor. Here is is!
Ship life is really great, all in all. I’m busy with school work but it’s still light in comparison to my usual course load at Michigan.
Oh also I did a tour of the bridge, which is where they drive the ship! It was all very Star Trecky.
–Aline
