Class Afloat to Class Acoach

Class Afloat has officially begun! We checked in on the 5^th and then went to a campus where we stayed. We spent 3 days there doing lots of icebreaker games and getting to know each other. There are a total of 52 students and 7 teachers and everyone seems really nice! We were put into watch groups, which are groups of 8 or 9 students. Our second day at the campus, we went on a watch adventure and each watch group got to choose what they wanted to do in Istanbul, and then we went out for the afternoon to do it. It was fun, though it is sometimes stressful making sure that you get back to the check in point on time.

My watch group is the group I will be doing night watch with (night watch is when we get up for 2 hours during the night to watch over the ship). I am in watch 5. Each watch group also has a teacher, which we call the watchdog. We haven’t had to start night watch yet though because we still haven’t boarded the ship. The ship refit was supposed to be done in time for us to board on the 5^th, but as these things often go, it was not ready in time. Now, in order to make it to Rhodes, Greece on schedule, we are driving there! We will be doing some classes and getting to see more of Turkey, arriving in Greece on the 18^th.

We said goodbye to our families on the 9^th as planned, then drove off in buses to begin what we now call “Class Acoach”!