Semester at Sea Fall 2006 Voyage |
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TABLE
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Jamie and the Gentle GiantDubrovnik, Croatia
By Michelle Cox
On Wednesday
morning, my friends,
Raine, Sarah, Megan, and I walked down to the harbor just a few blocks
away
from the ship in
Stravo
and Jamie were our captains for the day. They
kept us entertained for the day even though all the
islands were
deserted with nothing to do. There were
just four other Norwegian passengers, the four of us and of course
Jamie and
Stravo. We all had a very nice day
together and some good conversations. In
talking to Jamie and Stravo, they mentioned how during
tourist
season they would normally have fifty passengers on their tours per day. Jamie said that he preferred to have days
like these with only ten people on board because he feels like he is
with
family and he has an opportunity to talk with everyone.
I thought it was funny that he referred to us
as being “family-like” because it made me think of Irena Plejic’s
article
“Fear, Death, and Resistance”. Plejic
talks about how even after the war the Croats still preserve the home
life
values in that they are always hospitable and the word home is only a
material
expression of an individual and their family. I
wondered if Jamie had lost family during the war and now
maybe thinks of
family in a whole different light, hence his reference to us being a
temporary
family for the day. Neither Jamie nor
Stravo mentioned the war at all that day and I didn’t want to bring it
up, so I never learned of their war experience.
Jamie
was right, we were all very comfortable with each other and kept one
another
entertained as if we were a small family. He
even let us each steer the
boat for a good portion of the day. It was
so nice to spend an entire day with
such friendly and welcoming people. Jamie
and Stravo were by far the nicest Croats my friends
and I had met
during our visit to |
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