Dear friends and family

Sorry its been so long , i just have not had internet in over a month ! This is the first time this year that I have been able to upload pictures and actually post things so I thought I should just give you a run down of what has happened in the past month.

1) Crossed the Atlantic Ocean only by sail . We did not use the motor ONCE ! Our water maker broke during the 4 day in so we were only allowed sea salt showers !
2) I got cabin fever and people saw the crazy Ines by day 10 of the sail
3) I got re-voted for student council !
4) I went to one of the most dangerous cities in the world -Trinidad and we went to see harry potter
5) On Christmas morning I woke up to the beautiful Tobago
6) Christmas was so memorable , i truly felt like I had a second family
7) We went to a steal drum concert , danced in the streets
8)Went to an orphanage , met some great kids
9) Had a surprise port on a desert island in the Caribbean , This was for New years , Got really really sun-burnt!
10) I love my life , I am so grateful that my parents gave me this opportunity
11) I LOVE YOU ALL , SEE YOU IN 9 DAYS !!!!!WHOOOOOOOOOOO

Agadir, Morocco- Culture shock phase one

We arrived one warm and humid day. I had absolutely no idea to expect, we had just come from Europe were everything is more or less the same. What i mean is that it was not culturally different.  We were docked in a guarded area and we even had our on guard.  The day we arrived we had to finish maintenance on the ship and man oh man we had so much maintenance to do. I think we brassed for 6 hours at least! But we had to get supplies for our desert adventure so they did let us of the ship to get water and snacks. We got a taxi, and later on we found out you really had to bargain for the price before getting in the car or else you got insanely ripped off. You learn from your mistakes i guess. We found this little market area were the spices overwhelmed the scent of the air and were colours were vibrant. We got some water and bread and of course some junk food :P We decided we were hungry and just went to the nearest restaurant , the crazy Moroccan adventure had just begun  .

Barcelona,

When we got in the city was so beautiful, colour full buildings, filled with buzzing people and there was also the Christopher Columbus statue that was shining with a rim of gold. We docked right near a mall which was fantastic because we had quick access to internet and food and basically everything we needed. The day we docked was Thanksgiving Day so we were not allowed off the ship because we had a delicious thanksgiving dinner.  That night we went out and had some ice cream and a look around. There were palm trees everywhere and the city was just buzzing. By that time our ice cream was depleted and we decided to go to the mall even though it was 9:00pm it was still open.  The mall was HUGE, everything you could ever imagine was there and the cool thing was that there were no walls in some places so it was a type of “outside mall”. The next day we had shore leave; Jane, Maria, Kim and I wanted to get some clothes for the warmer countries we were going to visit. We spent a solid 4 hours in the mall and my wardrobe was set for the Caribbean. Clothes there were not too expensive so that was a good thing. In Porto, Miss Bourque my History found out that “train” was playing while we were there. Tickets cost 25 euro’s and the concert was not a huge one it was small-ish roughly 300 people were there and it was in a quiet venue. Anyways, I went to the concert and it was so much fun we all got dressed up and took the metro to go to the concert. The concert was really nice, train was a really good entertainer and some of us even got pictures with him. Our first port program: Park Gael, he is a famous architect for all of his crazy architecture. When we entered the park you felt like you had entered a dream , it was so crazy there were vendors everywhere and music playing : it was just a nice place to be.  Our next port program was visiting an old abbey on top of a mountain named “Mont Serrate”.( The serrated mountains) These were the most particular rock formations I have ever seen , they looked like giant columns softened with the slightest touch of a sander.  They were all natural and pure. The view we had when we walked up it was just breath taking: the smell of pure air was really refreshing. Spain was a great place and I hope someday be able to go back and explore a lot more.