Ashbury College - Ashburian Yearbook (Ottawa, Ontario Canada)

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MEDITERRANEAN CRUISE One result of a 1972 trip to the Holy Land by the Chaplain and a group of students was another cruise in the Mediterranean in March 1973. On Satur- day, March 17, fifteen students of the Senior School, accompanied by the Rev. E. E. Green, set sail from Venice aboard the S.S. Uganda, a 'School Ship' oper- ated by P. and O. First reaction to our floating home for the cruise was stunned disbelief: lf the first thing they show us is where to stand when the ship sinks, how safe is it? I recognize the knife and fork, but is this really food? You mean that guy who acts like Hitler is going to make me go to bed at 10:30! Towards the end of the cruise 'muster stations' are a matter of course and the ship is obviously safe. The food is not only recognizable, but edible. The Sergeant-at-Arms isn't so bad after all, and most nights bed-time is welcome. After a day sailing the Adriatic, we found ourselves on Greek soil for Monday the 19th. Our chief interest was a visit to Delphi, the ancient sanctuary of Apollo, where Pythia chewed on laurel leaves and gave her ambiguous pro- phecies. After another day at sea we landed at Crete for Wednesday the 21st. The Minoan civilization surely reached great heights, as our inspection of Knossos revealed. The next two days were shore days. On the Thursday we crossed the Peloponnesus by bus, stopping at Palamidi Castle, which the Turks had built, Epidaurus with its acoustically superb theatre, Mycenae, where we saw the famous Lion Gate, Ancient Corinth, where St. Paul preached, and the Corinth Canal, which allows passage between the Gulf of Corinth and the Saronic Gulf. Although it was a long, tiring day, we still had lots of enthusiasm for a typical Greek meal in the port of Piraeus. We invaded Athens on Friday, the 23rd. It was a glorious day in the Mother of Arts and Eloquence. We took pictures of the Evzones Lpalace guardsj in their traditional costume, sampled more Greek food, strolled and shopped in back streets of the city and, of course, had the day crowned by a visit to the Parthenon on the Acropolis. The hectic pace was broken by spending Saturday at sea. It was a typical school day with periods for lectures and sports. As usual the evening saw most students on the dance space having a thoroughly good time. Other night time events were movies, ship's concert, dress-up evening, 'horse' racing and quizzes. Ashbury won its preliminary round in the general knowledge quiz and had a third place finish in the ship's finals. After a very early worship service on Sunday, the 25th, we drove through the Turkish city of Izmir, through tobacco, cotton, fig and olive plantations to the House of the Virgin Mary and St. John's Basilica. Many believe that the mother and friend of Jesus spent their latter years in this area. Even though only fifteen per cent of the ancient city of Ephesus has been unearthed, it was easy to picture the magnificent city teeming with a half million inhabitants and visitors. Our stay at Izmir included an evening at a night club. The unabridged floor show was enthusiastically applauded. For Monday and Tuesday we sailed through the Aegean and westward to Naples. It was an unique experience to steam into and around the extinct volcano of Santorin and to see the rock strata and layers of lava deposited hundreds of years ago. Some of us think that Santorin is the 'lost' Atlantis and that the tidal wave from its eruption wiped out the advanced Minoan civilization on Crete sixty miles to the south. A real spectacle was to watch Stromboli colour the darkness of night with its dazzling red fireworks. One boy claims that ash from the volcano hit his eyes. Goethe said, One who has seen Naples can never be sad. Things have changed. Most of us were disappointed in Naples. You could hardly take a step without being accosted by a sidewalk vendor of extreme persistence and doubtful wares. Some delicious pizza moderated our view, and our excursion won Italy 28

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been no attempt to renovate the prefects' area, for this would leave the sanctum sanctorum as the last remaining common room. That is the arena of, would you believe, the wildest shenanigans. The story is told of the visiting parent who had not previously heard of the building project fthe ambassador to Lower Slobovia is not easily contacted, their postal service still as yet being limited to Slobovian pony expressj and was startled when he saw the fruits of W.N.'s labour. Opening the thick green doors he was shocked when, instead of the accustomed nineteenth century soccer teams and graffiti-covered cricket bats, exposed wiring and piled planks gaped back at him. What have we here, a fake front, Rockcliffe slum, no one could possibly go to school under these conditions, he was supposed to have remarked indignantly. I have news for the dignitary from Lilliput. We do! We do! Wait one minute, didn't the bell just ring? Everyone has stopped eating so it must have. The duty master rises to address his captive audience. Games as ..... buzzzzzzzzzz! They want me to knock on the window and ask the workmen to stop for a momentg well, why not? Excuse me, excuse me, could you possibly desist for just a little while? Thank you very much . . . Okay, go ahead sir! As I was saying, games will be as usual today. But would our over- enthusiastic baseball players please stop trying to hit home runs into the construction area. Workmen's Compensation refuses to cover such freak accidents, so please be careful. If there are no other announcements we'll stand and say grace. For these and all thy ..... buzzzzzzzz! Well as I told you all before they are really renovating Ashbury now! . . . . buzzzzzzzzzz . . . . . Amen! Amen! D. SIVERSKY DORMITORY RENEWAL PROJECT Two summers of hard work by Old Boys of the School tSandy Stiles - ,71 and Peter Johnston-'73J have brought about the transformation of fourteen old senior school dormitory rooms into accommodations which some boarders are said to prefer to the new rooms which have just been completed. The rooms vary in the color of the paneling installed, but all now contain lowered ceilings, new wiring and lighting, and new mirrors, towel bars, and shelves. It is hoped that the project will be continued until all old quarters throughout the school have been refurbished. B.W. 27

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back to our hearts. Three boys visited Rome, where they were most impressed by the Sistine Chapel, St. Peter's, the Pantheon, the Forum and Colosseum. Most of us found Pompeii intriguing. Destroyed by earthquake in A.D. 63, the partially rebuilt city was completely obliterated in A.D. 79 when Vesuvius spewcd out pumice stone and ashes to a depth of twenty feet. Reconstruction has almost recreated the atmosphere of the old Roman town. The cruise really ended on the Wednesday we were at Naples. Some of the groups flew home and we ourselves left Italy by air on Thursday, March 29th. We didn't come straight home, however. We enjoyed two nights in London. where we hurriedly visited the Tower. watched the Changing of the Guard and took in The Mating Game at the Apollo Theatre. We arrived home tired. but happy, on March 3lst. All in all it was'a re- warding experience. We realized afresh something of Man's creative genius, and we were somewhat humbled by the evidence that centuries before our scien- tific and technological age human achievement could be so magnificent. We tasted much of the sweetness of life and the beauty of nature, but also agonized over the poverty in which so many people eke out their lives. We entered on new friendships and gained deeper insight into people-including ourselves. It was a good trip. E.E.G. of 1 'Kai ' 4 xl . I I ' .. s J i X535 , I . 4. , 3,-. - 4- ' 'yA 5gp.0llDLh?:5t'n. ui . f e ..--....--e-I. M. a e 1 ll. A - E K - A j. ll' 5 ' U Al-I n E 1 AJ . -U AQ' .. ' Tr U w i '---fbi .5 I in ' -I '77'-f -Ji . 5 -. ,: :Ki !!i'nu.'i ij . ' . - I! L hh. f - 'T N Pi' in Ilul 's' Q,' ,:. is i I. S Q i . . 5 'HHiIlllI!IllllllIll it T ' 1:4114 , l ' ' u ' P' '- 1- . H it Y,-Etlpilnlzmggg as i I j A Ln, . ., .-...,..... lg SN OWSHOEIN G A sport native to Canada was resurrected at Ashbury during the Winter Term. Snowshoeing was offered as an alternative to cross-country skiing. Snow- shoes were made available to the seven enthusiasts through Mr. Beedell's outdoor programme. The club attacked the football field and two days later announced that they were ready to tackle the wilds of Rockcliffe Park. The available trails had soon been exhausted so new trails were blazed through the woods. During this process, Rollo became quite proficient at dodging trees on the run. while Mike led us exploring. Mike was soon to discover that the shortest way to the bottom of a cliff is straight down, and it wasn't long before everyone joined him in this new hybrid sliding sport. The air was fresh, the walks invigorating, and an enjoyable time was had by all. G.E.l-1. 29