September 23/10

Tomorrow we are leaving for Porto Portugal. We were supposed to leave today but we were held back because there was a national strike today. So we are leaving tomorrow, i apologize to everybody if i have not talked to them; it’s so hard to find internet that actually works, for example on the boat when we were in France we managed to find internet but it would go on and off and i could not even manage to upload pictures to my blog or facebook. France had been amazing, the food has been delicious and the sights beautiful. We went to Mont st Michel and we went to some of the d-day beaches notably Juno beach. We also went to an aquarium. All in all France was incredible; though i am sad to see France go i am excited to see Portugal .

September 24^th/10 – Realizations

For the past few weeks i have realized many things .

1)      You really don’t need 30 min showers , On the boat we get three pushes a day and each push last for roughly 20 -45 seconds and so if you have a shower every 2 days you get 6 pushes which is plenty to shampoo , wash and rinse and even shave your legs .

2)      Sleep- YOU NEED YOUR sleep !!! Lights out are at 10 , but you don’t have to go to bed , so lots of people don’t and they make so much noise so then you don’t get to bed.  And also we have night watches were we , a) drive the boat b) do fire watch c) drive the boat ( called helming) d) help the ‘helms man’ drive the boat e) you are on standby if the pro crew need help with anything. My watch is from 6-9 am and i have to be on deck at 5:55 and we get woken up at 5:40am. At the end of three weeks we change and my group will be on the 8-10pm watch which is the best because you get a full nights rest ( the other watches are form 10-12pm, 12-2am , 2-4, 4-6am) Anyways sleep is important or else what you do is eat sleep go to class and go to watch.

September  28^th – 100% of my sea legs

Tomorrow we arrive in PORTO Portugal, this sail has seemed really short , i don’t  really know why but it’s just has flown by . The weather has been splendid, We saw whales and many many dolphins . They would just come up beside the ship and jump around. I have never seen such beautiful sunrises and sunsets, they looked like the sky had just been painted!!!! The intense oranges and pinks and blues were just mesmerizing. School has picked up pace and I find myself not liking semester system because everything is worth an incredible amount and everything is so compact. But on the up side I do get to have my chemistry class outside in the nice sunshine with a little marine breeze. I have a very busy schedule, in runs by days and i have 5 days ; so for example,  I had my night watch from 6-9am and then you either have day watch or a class or a break , but i had another 2 hours of day watch ( so that’s 5 hours of day watch) Followed by 1hour of Canadian History followed by lunch than 1 hour of chem., followed by a break, followed by 2hours of Oceans 11 , followed by dinner !!!! That’s my day one. So basically i have been up since 5:40am!! oh and i still have not done my load of homework  , but don’t get me wrong i am not complaining because when the sunrises and dolphins are jumping across that sunrise I am so grateful  I have come here . Thank you mom and dad i hope you don’t think i am complaining i was just explaining: P