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