THE  JOURNEY  OF  A  LIFETIME

 






Dear friends and QE 2- Retournees!
 

As promised to you , I have sat down almost immediately after getting home, to gather a few thoughts about this memorable trip on the QE 2.
When I arrived at Salzburg airport at the same gate through which I had left 12 days ago, it came to my mind wether things had actually happend the way I´d expected them to.  And you know something, they did!!
 


long nights, long days

 
 
It was even better and even more fun then all of us had imagined before we went on this trip. It just was a heck of a journey and I would not want to miss one minute of it, not even one of those in the registration hall before boarding the ship. But then we should have been warned anyway since all of us, who took part in this trip were AFSers,  had not grown anything older since high-school graduation, had not gotten any wiser and last but not least kept this special spirit, which we developed through the year as an AFSer, matured on the bus-trip, brought home to our families to stay in our lives for ever.

 Scanning through this  multifacettated experience of good times, the marvelous food on a luxurious hotel-ship, plowing through the atlantic ocean at 28 kn/h, the intellectual challenge (if taken on), the chance of making new friends, the late night discussions and not to forget the dancing-sprees which somtimes lastet until early morning,  it started to get to my mind that this was rather an uninterupted continuation of  my bustrip in July of ´71. Was there anything in between, or was it that I just had a dream and woke up to the monotonous humming of the engine of the bus? No, it was not the bus`, it was the ship´s engines. I felt as if I just continued on the snap of my fingeres, where I had left off 27 years ago ( t-w-e-n-t-y  s-e-v-e-n !!!!)  So even as we grew older, wiser, prettier (more handsome)  and improved on our figure (?) most of us kept this special and unmistakable AFS-spirit that has been always present through this journey.
As Ward Chamberlin  mentioned  in his introductory speech about the founding  of AFS  and it´s change from an organisation of ambulance drivers, which had lost ist objective after the war had finished, into an organisation whose main   interest  was and still is to  promote and organize the  exchange of teenagers on  highschool level  to different countries to further mutual understanding and respect, there were two different mainstreams among those ambulance drivers: the one who wanted to build a nice

 
The THINKERS and the DRINKERS

clubhouse, meet there regularely and thrive in the memory of  the glorious times past, and the other group, who wanted to put up something like AFS  with the major goal as mentioned above.  They later were characterized as the DRINKERS and the THINKERS.  As  has been prooven, the THINKERS won, but throughout the course of AFS the DRINKERS  have stayed on stubbornly and had strong support from the SINGERS (Give me an A.... and so on). In this way prejudices and onesidedness were kept at bay. This long tradition of thinking, drinking and singing has been continued
 

 
on the QE2 as is vivedly proven by the pictures above. Cliniging to old AFS-tradition in igonoring any kind of social distinction or prerogatives most of us at least once during this boat-trip where annoyed by the strict seatingorder drawing wanton lines through groups, friends and even husband and wife (sure hope that was the reason). But ingenuity, disrespect for social casts and the will to change inherited rules  were the motor of sucess, and I was told, that there was intensive smuggling of passengers going on between Mauretania, Princess Grill, Karonia etc. After all assigning food by coloured cards reminded me of foodstamps or even culinary racism, which in neither case fitted the occasion. To prove the fact I depicted one of the troublesome objects. I was told that such behavior and  the everage age of the passengers was a new experience even for the crew.
 

Arriving in New York on a sunny morning
 
So we finally made it to New York, on a sunny and warm morning, privileged by nature with a panoramic view of the New York Skyline which most of us grew to love, this time from a rather unusual perspective.

 
The official anniversary emblem

 I personally was very impressed by the anniversary-program organized by AFS-USA: The „Greet the QE2“, the „Jubelee Dinner“, The Village Gate and finally the „International Festival“ at the Manhattan Center. As I was told never before had  Rockefeller Plaza been  reserved for  a private party, even so party is an unfitfull expression for the celebration on the 2nd of August. It was AFS and ist Spirit at it´s best. So all of us felt a touch of sadness when we said good bye to each other sitting on the lawn in Central Park,next morning, each one of us leaving in different directions, not knowing if we should ever meet again. Remember -15, 20 or how many years ago - end of stay - wasn`t it the same feeling?  I thought it was a deserving final to this unusual trip, when Ruth, Verena, Bibi and I decided to see the brand-new musical The Titanic.
There is only one little difference for the AFSers who traveled on the QE2 and those who traveled on the Titanic. For them it was, for us it still is and hopefully will stay  THE JOURNEY OF A LIFETIME.

 
Dear friends, dear Johanna. We enjoyed your company so much on this memorable trip and sure do hope to see you again, be it in our home in Salzburg, which is and always will be open to you, or anywhere else in this world on the journey through your lifetime.
Lots of Love and Good Luck to you

Bibi and Clemens

Summer 1997