update!

hello everyone!
Right now i am in Dakar, Senegal, in Africa! :) The connection isnt all that great, and this may be the last time i get internet for like a month since we wont have any more time for it, and because next dail we are crossing the atlantic ocean for two weeks! just letting you all be aware of that!

oh and MERRY CHRISTMAS! hope its great for all of you <3 :)
Miss you,
 Love, Megan

Morocco!

NOTE: PICTURES WILL BE UPLOADED WHEN I HAVE A BETTER CONNECTION!

Morocco!

TIA (This Is Africa) was the major saying/theme to describe our experience, the first being taking over 24 hour to get a pilot boat to guide our ship into the harbour, which was not the greatest experience because the Officers and the Captain were rather frustrated!

Anywho, we got alongside and then we waited for 4 hours for customs and immigration to finish and tehn we finally got shore leave for about 5 hours. I decided to stay on the ship because I had to do watch for 2 hours (we all take our turns so its all good, everyone has to do it) and it took about an hour to get into the city so I didn’t really think it was worth it to leave that night because I would only be allowed to go out for an hour in order to be back in time for shore leave, so I opted out. 

ThThe next morning, we all awoke at 5:30am and had to get on a bus at 6:30 to head out to the Sahara Desert! We drove all day with multiple stops in these little towns where we got to hang out in for a few hours each. We ended up at our first destination, which was a hotel in Zagora! They split us up into pairs for room and I ended up rooming with my friend Marta! The hotel was actually really really awesome! The beds had these overly warm blankets on it, and they had showers that you didn’t have a limit on! J and then Emily and I decided to go swimming in the outdoor pool. You would think that a pool in Africa would be super warm, WRONG! We jumped in and to much surprise, we were out of that pool in less than a second. It was freezing cold, like it stung your skin it was that cold. And another thing is that you think Africa would be warm, but no. It was also quite cold, very very cold at night. But it had it’s warm moments. And girls weren’t allowed to have our shoulders, wrists, or ankles showing, reasons for that is because it’s a Muslim culture and we did not want to be disrespectful to their culture. But it wasn’t that bad since the weather was not scorching. After swimming, we showered and then went to dinner! In morocco, the main things that we had for ALL meals is bread, thjim , fruit, and yogurt. That’s basically what we had at all meals, but just bread and fruit and yogurts for breakfasts. After dinner we all just socialized in the hotel until 11, which was our curfew. In the morning Marta and I went down for breakfast which was bread, marmalade, and yogurt! Then we got ready to go shop. In Morocco, the shopping was very different. They encourage you to barter because the originally set the price really really high because they want you to barter it down. I got an awesome bag and a sterling silver bracelet for a total of $320 Deirum which is about the equivalent of $30 Canadian Dollars.

After shopping we went on the bus and headed far into the desert and boarded some camels! No big deal! The camels took us into this tent compound in the Sahara. Camels are not a comfortable form of transportation. And they are clumsy! We got to the tent compound and they made a sign that said “Welcome Afloat Students Class” rather than “Welcome Class Afloat Students” The English wasn’t there, but the effort was and that’s all that matters! We got settled into our so-called “tents” which were mud shacks with beds. And they were quite comfortable! We headed out and by that I mean ran out to the biggest sand dune in sight to watch the sunset. We sat in silence for 15 minutes and the sun went down. It was beautiful. We had our quietest and calmest 15 minutes spent as a crew followed by the rowdiest. People were jumping/running/cartwheeling/rolling/wrestling/flipping/pushing and pulling people down the sand dune. And it did not hurt at all and it was so much fun! Morocco had been the best port by far! That night a few people brought hookah’s and the Moroccans showed us how to set it up, which was awesome, but the mint sheesha was really really bad according to the guy, and we took his advice because it’s part of his culture and we opted for the grape, which was much better! I am not a smoker, a lot of people just did it because it’s a huge part of the culture in morocco! Then we had dinner. And afterwards we had a big bonfire and then the guides brought out there instruments and we all danced around the fire, after it died down bit, they started playing Waka Waka by Shakira. One of our people asked what the guy’s favorite song was, and they brought out their ipod and started blasting some Akon. The next morning a few of us got up to watch the sunrise and I got some awesome photos! The sand was freezing cold, like it hurt my feet! But I got to see an African sunrise! So its amazing. We had our breakfast of bread, yogurt, and eggs. And got back on the camels and headed out. One of our teachers brought a kite and she flew it on the way back. Everyone was so sore from the camels, it was so funny!

We stopped at a few more towns on the way and we stopped at a pottery place where the guy was painting everything and each design is so intricate and everything is handmade. I bought 2 mugs for my mom and dad for like 20 bucks, everything is so cheap in morocco, but its so beautiful! We also went to carpet factories and a lot of people bought handmade rugs and in each one a color means something and each design means something. Its so cool how a carpet can basically tell a story! Normally a handmade carpet will go for like 500-1000 dollars, but most people got theirs for like 50 dollars! Which is unreal! We ended up at another hotel for the night. I was in a suite with 3 other girls but we ended up sleeping 7 in our room . That night people jumped into another freezing cold pool, fully clothed. things get crazy here! We had a wonderful dinner of bread, soup, and thjim, fruit and pistachio yogurt (amazing flavor!) for desert! And then a few of us gathered around the fire and jammed out to some music. Like each of us played the guitar and the Moroccan’s joined in with their drums and it was just awesome. Remember how I said Africa gets really cold!? I was freeing the whole night. I slept in wool socks, leggings, sweatpants, and 2 sweaters AND a blanket and I still couldn’t feel my feet, and I was indoors.  Not fun. It was one of our crewmates birthday the next morning and we threw him into the freezing pool that morning just for the occasion! He took it rather well J. We went on a hike that day into a town where we got some more shopping done! Let me just say that I love bartering; I got so many cool things for really cheap. Get this: I bought a pink hookah! I am so proud of it J and I also bought some Argon and Moroccan oil. And It was for so cheap! And I also picked up a few gifts for people. That was our last stop on our 3-day desert excursion which has been my favorite and most memorable part of this whole trip. It was amazing! <3  I wanna go back to Morocco!

- Megan!

Palma de Mallorca!

We were originally supposed to go to Ajaccio, France but due to a large storm in our way we were delayed on our departure from Barcelona and we ended up having to change our port. So we went the the island of Mallorca, which happened to be a place where one of our crewmates is from so technically he got to go home for a few days.

In mallorca we had one of the most awesome port programs in the world! We got to go snorkeling!!!! We came to this place where they suited us up with full wetsuits and then loaded us up into boats where we were taken out into a few snorkeling destinations. The first one we went to was NOT good at all. Everyone got in and then everyone realized that the really pretty purple things in the water were jellyfish. And they were EVERYWHERE! It was absolutely insane, like wherever you looked there was one, anf if we didn’t have wetsuits I would have been stung everywhere because they were physically touching me. It was rather traumatizing. One of our Spanish speaking students from mexico was listening in on the guides overly loud conversation and they were saying stuff like “oh my god get everyone out of here, they’re going to sue us!!!!”  and not realizing that 3 people there spoke Spanish. But we ended up getting out of there safely, a few people got stung on their hands and faces, but they toughed it out. The next place we went to was amazing. There was only like 2 jellyfish (thank god) and there were just cute little fish and really clear water, so many people brought there underwater cameras and got awesome pictures to add to the memory book. Me and one of my friends decided to go exploring in a dark cave, which was very sketchy because we could not see anything at all. The water was actually pretty warm and a few people took off their wetsuits and then we all started jumping off the edge of the boat doing all kinds of flips and tricks and dives. It was so awesome until one of the teachers spoiled our fun and told us we weren’t allowed to do flips (sadness!) but it was still so sick to be able to say we did that in Spain! Snorkeling was definitely a highlight from the whole entire trip. It was freaking amazing!

The next day Josh, Will, Aidan, Clio, Goldwin, and I decided to just hop on a bus somewhere and get off wherever looked cool and we ended up at the village of Deia,. It was this awesome little village that had a really rustic and Spanish vibe to it (believe it or not, due to globalization the cities in Spain look kind of the same as the cities in Canada. What a surprise!) We decided to go on a little hike down to a little cove. The water was so clear that you could see everything at the bottom and it was just rocks, but it looked awesome! (See photos below! That is if they upload!)  We scaled the side of this cliff and it was worth it, we had an impeccable view of the Atlantic ocean and it was just amazing to think that we were in that place at that moment, and just thinking that we were there and then comparing where we were and where our friends and family were at that exact moment. After our hike we walked back (in the dark) and got an awesome view of the cathedral all lit up. We came across this really cute little restaurant where all the food was made basically in a kitchen just like how you have in your house and it was amazing! I had some of my friend’s Tuscan ravioli and it was one of the best tasting things I’ve had in my lifetime.

So those were the highlights of the Island of Mallorca, and just thought I should mention that I spent about 16 Euros on ice cream in that port (whoopsies!) and they have this amazing brand of chocolate in Spain called Milka and there’s this type that has strawberry yogurt filling in it, and it is possibly the best tasting chocolate out there. I noticed that I say a lot of food is the “best tasting” but it just all tastes delicious! 

PHOTOS WILL BE POSTED LATER! I HAVE A TERRIBLE INTERNET CONNECTION AT THE MOMENT! SO HOLD ON!

Talk to you soon! <3 :)

-Megan

Barcelona!

On the sail from Cadiz to Barcelona, 3 very awesome events happened: We crossed through the strait of Gibraltar, and I was up in the rigging at the time and I personally think that I got the best view of Europe and Africa (At the same time!). The second awesome event was my Sweet 16! During 4-6am watch the AB whi was working at the time made me a Peanut Butter and Jelly sandwich, During colors (our daily morning all-crew meeting) I got about 8 buckets of water dumped on me as they all sang happy birthday to me, Madeline took my morning galley for me and let me sleep in, and then Marta made me a birthday cake that night! I love my crew so much! And the third most awesome event was knowing that we were only a few days away from seeing our parents in Barcelona!

On arrival day, we were scheduled to arrive at around 3 so we spent most of the day preparing for that and having school. When we were able to see the port we were gonna be moored at, the Chief officers sent selected people to dress the yards of the fore mast (which is where we climb onto the yards as were pulling in, its for show mainly, I’ll post a picture below) I was assigned to the Upper Topsail Yard which is the 3^rd from the top. As we were up there and we got closer to our destination we were able to see a large crowd of over excited people, which happened to be our family members! They started cheering as we got closer and were in earshot distance. You could hear the parents calling their kids names and it was so cool!

We also had a few people on the boat deck playing the pirated of the Caribbean theme song on French horn, guitar, and drums. We thought the music was very suitable for the time being! We pulled into our spot and we could easily see our parents, my mom documented the whole thing! So we were dockside and then the oolice wouldn’t let the parents on for like 30 minutes, so we just talked to them while we were on the ship and they were dockside. Any who, when I was reunited with my mother we went off to a gourmet meal at McDonald’s and then went back to the hotel my mom was staying at. I finally got to enjoy the luxuries of normal life, a real bed, not a bunk. And a real shower with unlimited water, on the ship we are only allowed 3 shower pumps a day! And Internet! It’s quite hard to get Internet sometimes. We skyped people and I chatted with my friends and family and I finally got to relax and it was simply wonderful! The next day Nadia and her mom and my mom and I went out for Tapas and to go to the big Supermarket on Las Ramblas. They have so much fruit and meat there, it’s unreal! They had these fruit juices/smoothies and they were like 1 euro each and they were freshly made each day and I swear to god it was one of the best things I have tasted, my favorite flavor was chocolate/banana/coconut, and the honorable mentions are mango/coconut, guava/coconut, and just plain coconut (as you can see… I like coconut!). After the super market extravaganza mother and I walked around the city just looking  around and we also went back to Nadia’s apartment just to socialize, following that the student crew put together a little presentation for the parents for them to really see what a typical day on Class Afloat is like, we made different stations consisting of meal times, school, bed time, rigging, and safety and we walked them through each one trying our best to recreate our day in 10 minutes per station. I started the next day with a nice hotel breakfast where I could actually choos what I got to eat and how much I got to choose of it, it was actually like the best thing ever, I chose so many pastrieds and TOAST! We don’t have a toaster on the ship! L we got a full day of shore leave where Mom and I and some friends took one of the Barcelona red tour busses around the city and stopped at some of the famous places around the city. We stopped at Barcelona Cathedral which was so gorgeous there were gold statues and walls lining the whole chapel and they had a service going at the time and they were making music and it sounded awesome in there. The next “stop” was Gaudi’s Sagrada Familia we didn’t exactly go in there, but we drove past it for a while and all the architecture is just mind-bending. It’s so awesome to think that this guy designed this amazingly intricate cathedral more than 300 years ago using the very limited resources he had. The guy’s a genius. Our next stop was Park Guell, which was also designed by Gaudi, It has the worlds longest bench there, everything there looks like it cam from Whoville/Candyland. Its all tiled and so colorful, it’s filled with all the colors of the rainbow and it’s a very happy place in my opinon! Ihad to be back at the ship at 4 to do Gangway watch until 6 so we headed back and then after watch, A few people invited some of the ships orphans (the kids whose parents planned to not come to the first parent port) to come out for dinner. We went to an Italianesque restaurant, and just to conclude my thoughts about food: all of the food in spain is delicious. End of story, no questions asked! Afterwards a few of the orphans came up to the hotel right next to the ship that a lot of parents were staying at to come chill in the hot-tub. We did that a lot and its amazing because we obviously don’t have a hot tub on the ship so it’s a real treat!

The final day of full shore leave, we went to  Montserrat which is basically a cathedral in the mountains of Spain. It was very cloudy when we wet but it lightened up for a while and it is so pretty there, all the architecture was so finely detailed and it makes you think how a human can make all of this by hand and have everything perfectly symmetrical and placed. We went inside the cathedral and listened to the Montserrat boys choir sing. These kids are highly gifted, they go to school there and do music lessons everyday and they’re also training to become monks because Montserrat is also a monastery. That night Nadia’s mom organized and my mom helped out too to host a spaghetti dinner for some of the orphans. We walked to the apartment and just had a nice home cooked meal followed by gelato and Canadian chocolate bars. I’d say that that was one of my favorite meals in a long time! J

On the final day (the final day we got to see our parents) mother and I bought me some earrings and we made one last stop at the hotel and the supermarket to get some of the delish fruit smoothies and then headed back to say our goodbyes. But as it turned out our departure got delayed so we got our shore leave extended until 9 O’Clock at night which gave us a few more hours ot spend with our families. My mom and I made one last stop at the hotel to pick up the stuff she brought me from home, and then we went out for another gourmet meal, this time it was burger king! Then came back to the ship to say a nice long goodbye. And now  I won’t see my mother until March! I miss her, and the rest of my family and friends, I miss you all!! And that’s all I have to report from Barcelona J

the fruit juices!

Barcelona Cathedral!

Sagrada Familia

Park Guell

The Black Madonna (Montserrat)

Looooove, megan!

Hola Spain!

So, during the sail from Porto to Cadiz we got to do something amazing! We raced one fo the sister tall ships of the Sorlandet to Cadiz, The ship we raced was the other Norweigan sailing vessed called the Cristian Radich. They got some amazing photos of our ship which will be posted below. It’s an  awesome thing to say that you raced another Full rigged sailing vessel from Portugal to Spain. Its pretty freaking cool!

Since we were racing, we arrived there a dayt early, but we weren’t allowed off the ship until the next day because we had school to do (sad face). So on arrival day (Arrival days are kind of like Fridays to me because it’s a short day and then we don’t have school for 4-6 days after, so it’s kind of like our weekend.) Everyone got shore leave from 3-11 but I didn’t leave the ship for very long, just to go get some food and stuff. The next morning me and 3 friends, Anna, Allison, and Clio went for a  run around 6am, it was a Friday and let me tell you, the Spaniards do not stop partying until the sun comes up. All the clubs still had music blaring out of the speakers and there were (intoxicated) people everywhere! Which was rather entertaining for us. We came back to the ship and had a wonderful pancake breakfast and then we got ready for our Port Program, which was a day trip to the Spanish city of Seville! We boarded a bus and started on our journey. We split off into groups of 4 and I was with Grace, Clio, and Goldwin for the whole day. We started our day by going out on the search for food, we ended up at the National Festival, which happened to be conveniently there at the same time we were! Grace and I settled for pizza (how cultural of us) and Clio and Goldwin got some Indian food, also very cultural. We went shopping at the festival and I found the most awesome pants ever in the Moroccan booth (Am I the only one who finds it funny that I’m buying Italian food and Moroccan pants in Spain?!),they are these blue gypsy pants which are hard to describe, but a photo will be posted sometime along the way! I promise.  Afterwards we just walked until we found something unique or entertaining to do, eventually we stumbled upon the river separating 2 parts of the city, there was a little bar there and you were able to rent paddleboats, and that is what we did. We rented it for an hour and just floated down the river, which was very peaceful and relaxing, and the sun was shining and it was just beautiful! Time was up, and we got off and bought some lemonade slushies. It was nearing dinnertime so once again; we went on the hunt for food. We settled for the cheapest way out, El Super Mercado! (Supermarket) We each bought 2 items of food (Including ice cream!) and then headed to a grassy area and we picnicked! Then just relaxed and laid out in the sun and watched as it slowly went down. The Spanish nightlife begins to come out now, so we crossed the bridge and went to the busy restaurant/club side of the city. There wasn’t much for us to do over there cause we only had an hour left until curfew so we sad by the river and people watched and had deep conversations about life and the human brain (we’re weird kids). Then it was time to head back to the bus, I had made plans with my friend to sit with her on the way back, but we were both so tired that we ended up falling asleep within 5 minutes of the bus ride. Exploring a city sure takes a lot out of you!

             The next day after cleaning stations A few of us decided to have a beach day. We stayed on the ship until lunchtime because we all were so tired and just napped for a few hours. Then Christy, Nick, Madeline, and I left to go get some food and beach time! We stopped at this kebab/donair place and it was so delicious!! I love those, and they’re everywhere in Spain, which is a very good thing!  We then headed out the beach in Cadiz where we also met up with another group of 4 people from the ship, Annunziata, Kacey, Josh and Phil. We hung out with them for a bit, we splashed around in the water for a while and oh my god the water was so warm and it was a lovely sand bottom! Then we all laid our towels out and more people from the ship came and we all were just chilling there, suntanning, in Cadiz, in Spain, with our closest friends. No big deal at all!!  We stopped for ice cream on the way back to the ship. It was Ben and Jerry’s ice cream, which tastes just like heaven. I always have such a large craving for ice cream all the time here; probably because we ever have any while were at sea! Then we headed back to the ship and did homework, sooo exciting! Not.

Then we went to sleep!

So this was basically the highlights of Cadiz. I like Spain, ice cream everywhere and beaches all around, oh and very warm weather! J

Talk to you soon!

-Megan

Porto, Portugal

On the first day we got a few hours to explore around after we arrived. The area we were docked at was just a little town outside of Porto but we got to explore around the little surf town we were at, but we took a tram or a bus into Porto a few times. So the first night I went out with some friends and we went to restaurant on the beach. I got a really good burger, but I had no idea what it was at the time I ordered it. It was a burger with egg, real bacon, and beef and cheese and tomato. So good! We headed back to the ship after that because we didn’t have much time for shore leave that night. The next day we had our first Port Program which was going to Graham’s Port Wine Company. We got a tour of the place and they keep all their wine in big wooden barrels in this dim storage area. It smelled very odd, like wood and grapes! We learned that the older the wine/tawny is the lighter the color gets and the sweeter flavours it will have. The guide says that the older it is the more it develops flavours like vanilla and berries. It was very interesting. And afterwards we got to sample some 10-year-old port wine. Let’s just say that I did not like it. It was very sweet and it burned my mouth a lot! The same day we also went to the British Factory House, It was so interesting inside everything in there was from the 1800’s and they had a library with 20,000 old books.  It smelled like history! :P We even went to the ballroom in there and Clio played the piano and everyone else danced around just having fun. The kitchen even had the old ovens and pots and it had one of the first electric refrigerators ever made. It was really cool, and the weather was so nice! And oh my goodness the buildings were all so beautiful, they use a lot of rustic colors like pale yellow, dark reddish browns and oranges. After the port programs we went back to the ship and were able to leave and once again go visit the little surf town we were in.

The next day we had an option to go see the Casa Da Musica in Porto, I went and it was such a cool building. It had all these different colored and oddly shaped holding rooms and the concert halls they showed us had amazing sound. Like it was so crisp and pure and the acoustics were really good. And they had all these computers with garage band and a bunch of music programs set up in the lobby and we played around with those for a while. It was an awesome experience. I stayed in Porto for the day after. We went into a little central park area with local stores and a market and 3 friends and I went to get some food from the market and a bakery and had a picnic in the park and afterwards we just laid there and relaxed once we were done eating. Then we started to wander around Porto and we ended up in a really sketchy area which I think would be like the Forest Lawn of Calgary. So we were basically completely lost. We ended up from the center of Porto down to the waterfront. Hmmm…. But we got on a bus and somehow navigated our way back to the area where our ship was. Even though we were completely lost it was still fun and it was a great way to see the city!

On our last day in Porto we had a hike in a small village/countryside area just outside of Porto. The hike took us to the countryside and it was really hot outside! WE got a lunch provided for us from an authentic Portuguese restaurant, I had like no idea what we ate, but there was bread with tuna pâté, some squash or carrot soup, and chicken with pineapple and potatoes. The food here was so good. We also got to navigate around the little village and I bought a leather bracelet! I’m getting one from every country! When we got back to the ship after the hike A few friends and I went out to the beach and swam during sunset! It was one of the highlights from this port. Just splashing around in the waves… on a beach… In Portugal! Afterwards we got back to the ship to get dressed and the whole crew got together and had a dance party! It lasted for about an hour and then everyone got tired and headed off to bed and to go study for midterms! Sometimes it gets hard having to balance travelling and schoolwork, but it’s manageable!

Porto was a cool port, it was so warm, the buildings were awesome and the food was great! And it was just fun!

Talk to you soon, off to Cadiz!

- Megan

Sail from France to Portugal

Sail from France-Portugal

The bay or Biscay, also known as the bay of Pukay. I have not been seasick but a lot of people did on this sail. The swells were really big and the ship was taking on a lot of water. At one point a wave washed over the whole deck! Luckily I was below deck! But for night watches everyone had to wear a harness to avoid people falling overboard. And I fell out of my bunk because the ship moved back an forth so much A lot of people couldn’t sleep during the night because dished were always moving around and some of them broke! During this sail a lot of people energy levels were down because not a lot of people felt very well, we were all tired and just wanted to see land. Everyone also just wants to sleep when the ship is rocking. A lot of the time when were at sea a lot of people will fall asleep during class because we get anywhere between 4-6 hours of sleep a night and because when were in class, the lights aren’t that bright, you’re sitting on a comfy couch type thing and the ship is gently rocking back and forth. It’s just a recipe for relaxation! But not this time around. Books were flying off the tables and people were always running up on deck because they needed to puke. It was definitely the hardest sail to get through, but I hope its gonna make the next one easier for everyone! I’m just glad that I haven’t puked!

Just incase you were wondering, we have these things near the side of the ship which we call the puke funnels, it was one of the most popular places of congregations this sail!

But I’m doing well!

- Megan

Brest, France

Bonjour!

Originally we were supposed to go to Dournanez, France, but there were some complications happening there so we went to a port just an hour away. Sadly there is not a whole lot of things to do here, but we have made our own fun. We had a one-day sail from England to France and we anchored just outside of the harbor for the night and since it was the Captains birthday and the sun was shining and the water was calm, we got a swim call!!! WE FINALLY GET TO SWIM! They split us up into 2 groups and I was in the first group. We only got to jump in like twice because each group only swam for 10 minutes because of the cold water and lack of time before sunset. I jumped off the boat deck, which is the highest deck you can jump from! As soon as you hit the water the cold finally got to you. Like before you jump you’re so excited because it’s the first swim call, and then mid jump you realize that you’re about to jump into the English Channel in October! It was still such a fun time even if it was only for 10 minutes; it was the wonderful end to a school day. The next day we arrived in France and got shore leave after our classes were over and the ship was clean. The first day we just looked out for bakeries and Internet, which we are deprived of on the ship. As I said before this port did not have as much stuff to do as uor previous ones, but we made the most of it! One of the days we took a city bus our to a beach area by a harbor and brought some speakers and played ultimate Frisbee for a few hours and had a nice picnic on the beach which consisted of a variety of cheeses, pâté, and baguettes.  Then we headed back to the ship to gather more people to go play Laser Tag! We walked about 15 minutes to the place and strapped on our guns and vests and just burned off all of our energy playing the game. I was on the red team, but the blue team won L . Yet it was still fun! Our Port Program for this port was by far the most fun! We went out and sailed Hobie 15 Catamarans. We took out 15 boats with 3 people in each of them, I was with Clio and Grace and we just cruised around on a Catamaran dinghy! 3 of the other groups capsized their boats, but it was all good fun. The water was warmer than the air surprisingly! Our boat almost capsized but we saved it, and at some points we got going so fast that our boat started planning, it was amazing, I was the skipper for most of the time, cause no one else in my group wanted to be! But it was such a cool experience sailing dinghies in French waters! Do not even get me started about the bakeries in France! Almost everything I have eaten in France has contained some form of bread. I have had chocolate croissants, almond croissants (my favorite) and 2 whole baguettes, and a variety of Panini’s. And of course I would not forget to go to a creperie, I bought La Carene crepes which is “tiramisu” style, with coffee ice cream and lots of chocolate sauce! And there is this one ice cream place that only had 2 flavors of ice cream, but there’s something about it that is just so delicious! It’s strawberry and vanilla soft serve ice cream mixed and it is amazing! The weather has also been getting warmer! It was like 35 degrees and sunny here one day, and even though its overcast a lot of the time, it is still so warm! The food and the weather here definitely gets two thumbs up!

Au Revoir!

-Megan

Falmouth/Penzance, Cornwall, England

We arrived on the 22^nd in Cornwall. As we were docking I got to go on the small boat that hang off the side of the ship, what my job was to do was to hold a fender right in the tip of this small dinghy while we were literally pushing the ship to the right direction it needed to go to dock. It’s fairly intimidating feeling like you’re going to crash into a 210 foot sailing vessel. After we docked we were able to get shore leave in Falmouth and the first thing we did was go out and explore and go to Tesco to get some junk food, and we stopped to get some famous Cornish Kelly Whip ice cream, which was so good. I have no idea what made it taste so good, it just did! We returned to the ship after our explorations and then went to sleep. The next day we had a port program in Penzanze which involved us going to listen to a lecture about an environmental program that tries to locally prevent pollution, they hope that their program will spread, it’s called Transition Penworth. Afterwards and afterwards we went to a local farm that is involved with Transition Penworth. That port program was not my cup of tea, but it was still cool to see what people’s ideas are. The next day we had a full day of shore leave and we just hung around Falmouth and I went shopping and then we stopped at this food place called Harbour Lights which is famous for fish and chips and its very obvious why, it was delicious and I had these things called cheese chips which are chips (French fries) covered with mozzarella cheese. The next morning some girls and I from the ship got up at 5:30 and went for a jog. Let me tell you, it was epic! We jogged down to the Pendennis Castle and sat in one of the windows (it was fairly small) and got to watch the sunrise over the ocean. It was majestic. I am trying to watch as many sunsets and sunrises as possible! The next day we had our 2^nd port program. We went out to Penzanze once again and  we visited a local high school called Mount Bay Academy. We got to mingl with some of the students and we found many similarities and differences between our culture, lingo, and apparel. Everyone got along really well. They had to wear uniforms everyday, and it was a public school, but it seemed so much like it would be a very prestigious prep/private school. After we went to Sennen Cove, which is this beautiful beach area, it had white sand, but the water was freezing. We weren’t allowed to swim but we all got our feet wet! My friend Clio and I sprinted along the whole coastline of the cove, it was a magical moment! :P  And on the way home on the bus ride we saw travelling gypsies in the caravan! Have you ever heard of a Cornish Pasty? They’re like a type of bread/pastry filled with potato, onions, and meat. That’s the traditional type of Pasty, but you can fill them with whatever you want! They even have dessert Pastys. Cornwall and Penzanze were both beautiful places in England, and it was sunny for the most of it, which just made everything even more amazing!

Talk to you soon,

Megan

A Typical Day At Sea!

A day at sea!

 -Wake up at 6:30

-Go out on deck for gym class at 7.We stand on the boat deck (upper deck) and stretch and do push ups and sit ups and all the stuff (There’s only so much you can do on a ship!)

-Go down below and eat breakfast

-Be out on deck for Colors at 8 (Colors is like a daily meeting with everyone on the ship to find out what’s going on during the day.) Colors is always at 8 no matter what and you always have to be present and always on time or else you get to do the early bird watch from 6-7am!

-Then we stay out on deck and work from 8-9 at cleaning stations, I currently clean heads (bathrooms), which change when each watch time changes. While the galley crew from yesterday cleans the banjer (our sleeping, eating, classroom, and social space) and the galley from that day goes and cleans up. (We each have galley groups made up of 6-8 people and there are 6 galley groups. I’m in galley 3, so on my galley day we get up at 6:30, have to be at the galley at 7 and then we help out the cook and the cooks mate for that whole day, and we do galley once every 6 days. Galley is great because you don’t have to do your 2 hours of daywatch and 2 hours of nightwatch, so you get to get a full night of uninterrupted sleep and you just have galley and classes for that day!)

-Classes go from 9am – 6pm and during that time frame you have your classes, daywatch, and lunch. Our schedules differs each day based on whether its day 1-6. Some days I have as little as 3 hours of classes, and some days I have 6 hours! But no matter what we always have 2 hours of watch, and you have lunch at 11:30 or 12, it depends which seating you are in.

-Daywatch is fun sometimes. My favorite physical watch position is lookout because you stand at the bow of the ship as the ship is pitching and you get that butterfly feeling in your stomach, and I’ve gotten drenched by the waves of the North Sea while on lookout, it was quite the experience, then one time on lookout a water plane circled around and the pilot waved at me! Lookout can just get boring sometimes though since your out there by yourself for an hour until the next person scheduled there comes to relieve you. I enjoy doing Helm as well, helm is a term for steering the ship. It’s kind of intimidating though.  Nightwatch helm scares me a lot because you cant see where you’re going, you have to say on the course or else the navigator yells at you! And when the water is really rocky you get thrown off the helm sometimes because the rutter is getting smacked my waves which jolts the wheel to the side which then lifts you off the ground. That’s when the harnesses come out! Steering a 500 Tonne ship with 60 people on it sure is fun!

-After daywatch we have dinner from 6-6:30

Then we get free time to do homework or watch movies or whatever ( unless you have daywatch from 6-8 or nightwatch from 8-10)

-Lights out is at 10pm every night. Just the banier lights go off, but we have the aft and fore nooks to do homework or silently chat with friends. But everyone is typically asleep right at 10 because were all so tired. It’s surprisingly easy to fall asleep with 22 other girls in the room! I have the bottom bunk which I have managed to fall out of sometimes because the ship is rocking back and forth because of the waves, but our bunks are very comfortable and just a little bit smaller than a twin sized bed!

Nightwatch hours run from 8pm to 9am. My current watch is from 12am-2am, every 3 weeks it changes times.  On October 6^th my watch time will move from 2am-4am. We are all divided into watch groups made up of 6 or 7 people and the watch groups you’re put in at the beginning of the year is the group you’re with most of the time fro the rest of the semester. It’s crazy how close with them I have become, we get up in the middle of the night every night together! It’s quite the bonding experience. Anywho, the previous watch wakes us up 15 minutes before our watch starts. An alarm never wakes you, someone always wakes you up which is nice! During nightwatch 2 people clean the heads, and the rest of us go on helm and standby (there has to be 2 people on the helm cause its tough by yourself), lookout, and firewatch which is where every half hour you make rounds of the whole ship making sure everything is safe and that no fires have started because there is a lot of tire hazards on the ship.

After your nightwatch is done, you get to go to sleep until the next morning where you do that all over again!

And whenever you have free time, everyone is asleep because you’re so tired all the time, and it’s tough not being able to eat whenever, just mainly at mealtimes and the small amount of free time you get on some days.

It gets really tiring sometimes, but when we get to port, its like our weekend because at sea we always have school no matter what day it is!  It’s amazing how you lose track of what day and date it is!

So that is a typical day at sea :D

Some Pictures

Ireland :)

Belfast/Ballymena, Ireland:

We docked in Ireland on the 18^th on a beautiful day, our docking attracted a few people to our ship to watch. We had a meeting with the faculty about the guidelines for this port and then we were announced shore leave. What is the first thing i did? Walk to McDonalds, for internet, but mainly a Big Mac, we are deprived of fast food on the ship J . Afterwards we met up with another group from the ship and went glow bowling and played around in an arcade, and then just chilled in a field in the middle of Belfast. We returned to the ship with all of our junk food from Tesco. Tesco is basically our lifesaver while at port, its just a grocery store with junk food, and we all come bag with so many bags of food from there to last us for the sail to the next port. On the 19^th 4 friends and me took a train to Ballymena to visit my friend’s mother’s cousin’s dairy farm. It was actually such a cool experience we got picked up at the train station and taken to their home. Get this, their house is 300 years old and Timothy Eaton (as in the Eaton Center in Ontario) was born in that house, and Prince Charles and Camilla were visiting there just days before we arrived there. The family that owned the place were some of the nicest and most hospitable people I’ve met, they gave us an amazing lunch composed of 2 sausages, a fried egg, REAL bacon, potato bread, soda bread, Irish wheat bread, and pancakes. They literally did not stop giving us food, after we thought we couldn’t eat any more they came around with dessert, like a lot of cake and bars. And I’m pretty sure they had an infinite amount of tea, and the milk they had was fresh from the farm so it tastes so good! Afterwards they showed us around and we came across these adorable Jack Russel Terrier puppies and played with them for a long time. We went out into the field with the puppies, and my friend had brought a guitar so he brought that and played it. It was so awesome! Helen (the farm owner) took us around the farm in one of the old fashioned land rovers, and then took us into town in her nice land rover, we bought some snacks and got a brief tour of Ballymena and then we headed over to climb Mount Slemish, I stopped halfway because I was getting tired, but the mountain was loaded with sheep, and it was the exact same mountain that Saint Patrick used to herd his sheep on. We went back to the farm afterwards and we got to witness a calf being born, which was a little gross but still cool. We were driven back to the train station and had a joyful ride back, jk most of us slept on the way back. We arrived in Belfast and walked to the McDonalds where we discovered some Class Afloat Floaties that had made some Irish friends, we chatted with them and got some potato wedges with garlic mayo (from McDonalds!) and then wandered back to the ship. That was probably my favorite day at Belfast. As you know we have 2 port programs at each port and for one of them we had a lecture about the history of the city at Queens University, and then the same day after that we went on a tour of the city and got to look at all of the Murals regarding the Protestant and Catholic uprising in Ireland. The murals are all beautiful, I will upload photos as soon as I get them from my friend’s camera (my camera died there).  We also saw the peace wall that separates the Protestants and the Catholics; they have all these powerful messages written on each side of it. The artistry is just amazing, its hard to believe that people can create that! The next port program we got to go to Giants Causeway, which is these natural rock formations that resemble stepping stones, and then the waves would crash up against the rocks and it was epic! You wouldn’t think it was Ireland if you saw it, the beaches looked sort of tropical and they were white sand beaches! And the sun was actually out for once in the UK. We also got to cross a rope bridge that went over crashing waters, which was fairly intimidating since you’re trusting rope and wood to suspend you over jagged rocks and water. But it was still so breathtaking to see how big our world really is, and it’s a privilege to be able to see all of it.  That’s basically how Belfast went for me. It has been one of my favorites out of the 3 ports we’ve been to!

Talk to you soon,

Megan

Stornoway, Scotland.

Stornoway is a very small little place right next to the water. It's adorable though and all the locals were ridiculously nice. We arrived a few days early. Then on our actual "day of arrival" we had our arrival day school schedule and then did a Captains Clean of the ship, which is basically a very, very thorough cleaning fo the whole entire ship. And the Captain then inspects it. Then we were announced shore leave until 11pm. For the first day we went into our groups of 4 or more and just explored around, we went to the Lewis Castle and then got internet to talk to our families. Oh wait, the first thing we did was go to a convenience store and got chocolate and just alot of junk food because we do not get to have that when were at sea, So everyone just buys so much to stow away and eat it later when were not allowed to go out and get food because were just chillin in the middle of the north sea. The next day we had our Port Programs which are organized by Class Afloat, we got to go see the ancient Lewis Chessman which was pretty cool. Then we went to Calanais, which is these ancient rock formations which are in the shape of a Celtic cross and apparently each stone lines up with  a  star and has something to do with the Solstices. It was really really awesome, then we went more into the Scottish countryside and went and saw a Broch and got to go inside it, it was so cool, I'm planning on uploading photos once I get them all organized. The next 2 days we just explored around Stornoway and went to thrift shops, food places, and the castle. Clio and I would go for runs everyday, and we are trying to run at every port since we do not get very much cardio on the ship haha. Stornoway was a nice quiet town :)

What I've Learned So Far:
If you make the AB's mad just get them a cup of coffee and it makes it better
Never get caught without shoes on in the ship.
Falling down the stairs when the ship is pitching hurts.
Surprisingly, cleaning the heads (bathrooms) is the best cleaning job on the ship

to be continued.... :)
-Megan

Almost on our way!

I have been living on the ship for 3 days now and its been pretty good so far. Everyone is so nice and I notice that we all have stuff in common and we get along really well with each other. Breakfast is served between 7 and 7:30am everyday and then before breakfast we have to make sure that our bunks are all clean and our bedding is put away (Our beds also serve for the area we eat in and meet in.) We call the students area the banier. There is a girls side and a boys side and the beds are lining the walls (bunk beds) I have the bottom bunk! I will upload photos soon to give you a better understanding :)  Anyways, by 8am we have to be up on the main deck for colors, which is basically a meeting with all the crew that lets us know what will be happening during the day, and also when the flags are raised everyday. Then we do an hour of cleaning the banier, heads (bathrooms) and the galley (kitchen). The past few days we have gone through safety training and just knowing where everything on the boat is. Then we also have nightwatch, I have to 10-12 shift which is the best one! and then there are more 2 hour watches after that 4-6am is gonna be the worst of all of them.  Everything has been great so far though :) Tomorrow we set sail for Stornoway, Scotland. I'm a little nervous considering how we are crossing the North Sea, which is one of the roughest seas in the world, where we are expecting 20 foot waves tomorrow DURING OUR FIRST SAIL! :( hello seasickness

-Megan

Finally Here!

I have safely arrived in Kristiansand, Norway! I haven't slept in 24+ hours :( but everything has gone great so far! Tomorrow i will be able to move into what will be my home for 8 months, the Sorlandet tall ship! :)

5 more days!

Cannot wait to leave!


Itinerary!

Kristiansand, Norway Aug 25 - Aug 28	(Start of Second Semester) Dakar, Senegal Dec 26 - Dec 30
Stornoway, U.K. via Bergen, Norway Sept 11 - Sept 14	Fernando De Noronha, Brazil Jan 13 - Jan 15
Belfast, U.K. Sept 18 - Sept 22	Sao Luis, Brazil Jan 21 - Jan 27
Penzance, U.K. Sept 26 - Sept 30	St. Georges, Grenada Feb 8 - Feb 12
Douarnenez, France Oct 2 - Oct 6	Portsmouth, Dominica Feb 15 - Feb 19
Oporto, Portugal Oct 12 - Oct 16	Samana, Dominican Republic Feb 23 - Feb 29
Cadiz, Spain Oct 20 - Oct 24	Freeport, The Bahamas Mar 6 - Mar 10
Barcelona, Spain Oct 30 - Nov 4	Hamilton, Bermuda Mar 18 - Mar 22
Ajaccio, France Nov 7 - Nov 11	Ponta Delgada, Portugal Apr 7 - Apr 11
Agadir, Morocco Nov 24 - Nov 30	Kristiansand or Alternative Northern European port Apr 27 - Apr 30
Tenerife, Spain Dec 4 - Dec 7
Dakar, Senegal Dec 15 - Dec 25

The Unavoidable Packing Experience

In 7 days I will be on a  flight to Kristiansand, Norway to begin my journey around the world. 7 days isn't even that long, only a week, it's all coming so fast!


2 hours of my day was spent labelling my clothes and checking off the packing list!

Its just stressful making sure that I have everything and that everything will fit in the bag I got! although I'm sure the stress is just the nerves starting to kick in!
Even though packing is such a pain I'm glad I have the help of my family :)

The Class Afloat bag!

Love, Megan 

The SS Sørlandet, a fully rigged Norwegian vessel, built in 1927. This is what I will be calling my home from August 25 2011- April 30 2012

First Post!

This is my blog where I will write about the times spent on the SS Sorlandet for my grade 11 school year, oh and also post pictures. Only 8 days until I leave! It's all coming so fast :D