Student Blog

September 21, 2009

MA R I T I ME ARCH A E OL O G Y S

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INTRODUCTION DAY MAP Greetings all ! Here is a little recap of our first adventure together at the beginning of our Master’s Program in Maritime Archaeology. After wandering aimlessly the streets of our new home in Denmark for a couple of days, we finally got to see the faces of those who will be joining in on our adventure for the next two years ! On September 1st, the gathering occurred at the main campus of the SDU. We were welcomed with cookies and tea (of course coffee was served but it sounds more civilized...) offered to us by the second year students, who seemed very determined to get rid of all the cookies... ? Professor Thijs headed the meeting with a proper introduction to the field we had chosen to devote the next months of our lives to, and in some cases, our futures. After his presentation, he introduced us to his team that would be turning us into full fledge maritime archaeologists! The meeting adjourned, it was time to face the Challenge! To our surprise, the second years, wiser from experience some would say, had organized a rally to test our knowledge and skills. Looking back on it, having known that lying, cheating and stealing would influence the outcome, things would have been much more c h a o t i c . T h e fi r s t c h a l l e n g e encountered was a test of a rc h a e o l o g i c a l k n o w l e d g e a n d meticulous precision. One needed to install two perfect 7m lines parallel to each other with the use of a compass. One thinks this to be a simple task. Simple enough it is but, if the

Team “Princess Godzilla” - Winner’s of the 2009 MAP Rally. -I still say they cheated!

And just to make us salivate a bit... S. Lepage

SYDDANSK UNIVERSITET • ESBJERG • DENMARK •

September 21, 2009

MAR I TI M E A R C HAE OL OGY alignment is slightly out of sync, your square meters after 10 m will start to have a strange shape! After this grueling feat, the teams tried to find their way towards the second station of the rally with the aid of the very precise and accurate map of the school grounds... There we faced the wrath of Cate and Delia with their mind boggling memory challenge. After surviving that step, the teams followed the path to the Diving Quiz! A series of questions of all nature pertaining to life under the sea ... The following station of the rally had some of us searching for answers... How to properly dress our mates in dive equipment from fins to snorkel! The following pictures speak for themselves. Where to starts seems to have been a issue for some...

The final chapter of the rally was the hardest of all. The true challenge for those who want to call themselves Maritime Archaeologists... The beer downing race! To add a nautical flavor and for plain awkwardness, why not race in turtle fins (they aren’t heavy enough in the water... ). Lets see how we fared.

Until we put the hood... (sorry Joao, you had the best picture)

After the French founded this brilliant technique, the rest followed suit.

But this activity was perfect for creating team building skills. When you become a diver it’s important that you can trust your teammates when the time comes!

Truly a test of skill coordination and chugging capability... And yes, we wore the masks for added comfort. So after all that hard work, we were treated to a wonderful BBQ inside the faculty lounge. Thank you everyone!

We always look amazing and professional when we put our suits on!

SYDDANSK UNIVERSITET • ESBJERG • DENMARK •