UVA Today Blogs: Semester at Sea

PHOTOS (Courtesy of Rachel Most) >

1. Students line up at the Explorer’s Field Office desk to sign up for tours in Egypt.

2. View from the ship departing Italy

Hi, readers

In the past 36 hours, I’ve heard from several voyagers about how the shipboard community learned of the diversion away from Turkey and toward Egypt. Thinking about everyone aboard the Explorer — with whom I traveled for nearly 6 weeks — I’m relieved to hear about the change. I wish them a safe landing and happy tidings in Egypt.

Here are updates from 2 voyagers: Rachel Most, professor of anthropology at U.Va., and Carolyn McCall, a lifelong learner from Ames, Iowa. I’m grateful to both of them for contributing their thoughts and perspectives on this recent turn of events.

RACHEL MOST - ANTHROPOLOGY PROFESSOR AT U.Va.

As most of you reading this are aware, our trip to Istanbul was cancelled due to the tragic events in the residential area of Gungoren. Yesterday was an unusual day on the ship as we all waited to hear what would happen.

The wait began at 8 a.m. with an announcement over the ship’s loud speaker that our plans were up in the air, and that we would learn at around 10 a.m. EST whether or not we were going to Istanbul. This, of course, led to lots of speculation. Would we go anyway and, if so, would we be safe? If not, where would we go? Cyprus? Crete? Seychelle Islands? Alexandria? Bulgaria?

I think most of us faculty encouraged students not to speculate and not to spread rumors but to just wait. At around 19:00 hours ship time, an announcement was made that we would learn of the decision in an hour – at 20:00 hours. Meanwhile, it was impossible not to notice that the ship was practically making a U-turn; it seemed to most of us that Istanbul was no longer on the itinerary.

At 20:00, the Union (the large meeting hall on Deck 6) was packed. A few minutes later, Executive Dean Jill Wright announced that we would not be going to Istanbul; rather, we would be at sea all day Tuesday and dock in Alexandria on Wednesday morning for 3 days. The Union erupted into applause and cheers, making it hard to reflect on just why the route had changed. Our new trip to Alexandria is thrilling. And as an archaeologist, I am very excited to be able to see the pyramids and visit the Archaeology Museum. But we are going because 17 people, including at least five children, were killed. That warrants some reflection.

I can only imagine how complicated it is to change the itinerary less than 24 hours before dock time. From finding a berth to the Field Office staff scrambling to put together new trips, to figuring out refund policies for the Istanbul trips…there are endless details to consider. Yet, it was somehow all accomplished. In just a short period of time, we have a berth and the Field Office was able to coordinate seven trip opportunities, including city tours of Alexandria, trips to Cairo, camel rides at the Pyramids, visits to the Archaeology Museum, and boat rides on the Nile. My thanks to all of them.

And, as Istanbul struggles to recover, life on the MV Explorer goes on. Everyone should take a moment to reflect on how lucky we all are.

CAROLYN McCALL - LIFELONG LEARNER

The first we heard of any change in plans was a few minutes before my 8:00 class. Dean Jill Wright came on the ship’s intercom saying that there had been a bombing in Turkey the night before. She was very calm and straightforward and said they were in contact with the University of Virginia administration. She also said they would be contacting the U.S. State Department and their insurance consultants and would be giving us more information as it became available.

My first thought was, “Oh dear, this may be for real this time” because there had been a shooting outside the American Embassy earlier this month (when we were in Denmark). At that time, I was very concerned because of an incident 25 or 30 years ago, when we had been scheduled for a tour that included Turkey. A passenger ferry had been sunk in the Black Sea shortly before our tour was to take place. As a result, the tour was cancelled, and we missed going to Turkey.

As I listened to Dean Wright, I was glad that she was the one in charge because I had heard that she was the Executive Dean during the 9/11/2001 fall semester voyage. And she sounded very capable.

But I felt disappointed and dismayed, because the chances were very good that we would not be going to Turkey this time, either. After hearing and seeing Professor Larry Silver’s pictures and descriptions of the things we were going to see, I was especially disappointed. But knowing I couldn’t do anything about it, I continued my class schedule for the day.

Throughout the day, I heard from students who had watched the news on CNN or whose parents had emailed information about the bombing. The students I talked with were very disappointed for many reasons. During the day and into the afternoon, the ship kept going northeastward and at one point actually seemed to speed up, so we thought there was a chance that we might still be going to Turkey.

Finally, about 6:30 p.m. ship time, Dean Wright announced on the intercom that she and others had been in contact with University of Virginia, the State Department, and their insurance consultants. The trip to Turkey was cancelled. I was disappointed, but not surprised. I was also quite relieved to know that I wouldn’t have to live in fear during my time in Turkey.

The announcement that we would be going to Alexandria, Egypt, came during the 8:00 p.m. meeting in the Union, which was overflowing with students, staff, life long learners, and parents. There was a tremendous cheer and roar that kept going for several minutes.

This morning about 10:00, we received a list of available tours with instructions to fill these out by noon. Because of the limited number of spaces for each tour, we won’t know until after the lottery this afternoon if we got the tours we signed up for.

Anyway, it sounds fun, and we will have a good time no matter happens. Who knows: maybe we’ll make to Turkey some day.