Observations

As a crew member on the SS Aurelia, which sailed on a run between New York and Southampton. I observed American and, European students as they crossed the Atlantic either for a vacation or a period of study abroad. In the isolated world of the sea, the Americans were in a number of ways a different breed from their European counterparts.

On the social side, the Americans looked foolish compared to the Europeans. The European folk danced, arrayed themselves with gusto for fancy dress balls, land threw themselves delightedly into all the sundry, ridiculous games traditionally played on board a ship.

The Americans, on the other hand, tended to regard such pastimes as "kid stuff," and they spurned them with disdain. They boozed a great deal. They stood about a great deal. And they concentrated a great deal on goals.

One American girl, whose goal was finding a Man, did not join in on evening festivities, but instead passed every evening sitting determinedly in a conspicuous spot in the main lounge. Another refused to go out with any American boys on shipboard because she had promised herself only to associate with native French—so intent was she on her "European summer."