May 30

Money is easy to make if it is money you want.  But with few exceptions people don’t want money.  They want comfort and love and admiration.

~John Steinbeck

Ah, on the rolling seas once again; our minds relieved from our tiring antics in port.  We realize that in only twelve days our feet will feel the solid ground of Belgium, and perhaps our tongue shall taste its fabled chocolates.  Of course, our wallets will lose a couple of pounds in the process.

How many ways can you miss a country?  A lot.  Spain was my favourite port thus-far, but not for amazing experiences (Oman takes the cake in that category), rather Spain wins for beauty and kindness.  Everywhere I explored, whether it was a corner café, or an internet café, a bus station, or a train station, Malaga, or Cordoba; the people jumped to answer my questions and kindly corrected my broken Spanish.  No port has provided such simple kindness, and because of that I am planning on returning some day.  In another category, beauty, Spain lays waste to other ports.  While all the ports have been beautiful in their own way, Spain won with its beautiful countryside, its charming towns, and its delightful mazes of city streets.  This was the first port in which I got the “European” experience; that is, this is the first place I got to sit at a café, and people watch for a couple hours with a tiny cup of extremely perfect coffee.  Oh how I love it.

Anyways, I think its pretty obvious that I enjoyed Spain, but what did I do?  Well it all started with Gangway…

We got into Malaga at about 1600 hours May 26, and because I was on 4-6 watch at the time I was chosen to stand gangway right off the bat.  It was enjoyable as I met many people who came over to check out the Concordia.  One such person could most easily be described as such: Imagine a gruff looking sailor dressed in Civilian clothes.  He carries his bulk casually; his chin bears a dark shadow fresh from a morning shave.  His eyes are small and whip around trying to see everything at once, and his mane of hair makes you wonder if he ever uses a comb.  I approached him mainly because he was staring creepily at some female Floaties that were hanging around.  We talked about the Concordia for a couple minutes, until the conversation switched to his life.  He is the very essence of a world traveler, slowly revealed as he told me the amazing history of his travels.  Once upon a time, when he was young, he worked on a couple tall-ships not unlike the Concordia.  Slowly he moved up the ranks until he took a job as a mate aboard some container ships.  Through that mode of transportation he traveled the world, working for 3 months and then living for 3 months wherever he would end up.  Jeez it’s easier to talk about a person in person, rather than typing it up.  Bear with me.  Anyways, where was I?  Oh yes, what happened to him after many years of sailing and shipping?  Well he stopped.  He decided that after travelling the world many times over it was time for a change and so he moved to Cuba, his place of refuge for 3 years.  There he worked in odd jobs, but mainly as a journalist for a (local?) newspaper.  After 3 years past he felt like moving once more, so he chose Spain; for the culture, and the language.  And there he was, talking to me like an old friend.  Twinges of alcohol on his breath, the shadow of his morning shave on his chin.

Oh and I forgot to mention that he spoke 12 languages.

May 31

To have calm and unswayed balance of mind is to be at home in your own life.  It is then that we see that this universe is much to big to hold onto, but is the perfect size for letting go.

Sharon Salzburg

Tests.  Diplomas.  Stress.  Studying.  I have never been this stressed in my life.  Until now my life in school has relatively free of anguish; now that is not true.  Usually I don’t study for tests because I think I am ready for them.  Most of the time I am ready for them, and I am never unconfident.  So what’s different?  Perhaps it’s the fact that I have to hit a required grade in order to get into university.  Right now I have that mark, but the next two tests I take count for over 50% of my grade.  I know, it’s a bit shitty.

Well in happier news, we crossed through the strait of Gibraltar yesterday and are now merrily putting along at a much nicer speed than in the med.  Every once in awhile we set some sails up, but we are mostly going into the wind.  It will probably work out that the day we have our first diploma/final we will set all the sails and get into some nice strong sailing weather; perfect for rolling.  Tis Poseidon’s will I suppose.

Hi Ho!  To Anthro class I go!

June 4

For a second I would like you to put yourself in my shoes, T – 1 hour ago.  Lets check this out.

You have just gotten out of two hours of Physics 30, equations running through your head, without care nor focus on the weather as you make your way below.  Upon arriving to your cabin, you think, “Eh, a hoodie and jeans should do…”  You scramble to don the said clothing, and in a rush you make your way back on deck.  The wind slices through your thin hoodie and instantly freezes your extremities.  It’s so cold it hurts.

Nick has just finished handing out jobs, and your first question is, “Could I get something warmer on?”  He nods and you quickly return to your cabin, deciding to layer up with everything.  Upon returning to deck you have a total of 9 pieces of clothing on as follows:

One Pair of Jeans
One Pair of Foul Weather Pants
One Pair of Keens
One T-shirt
One Concordia Hoodie
One Condordia fleece
One Foul Weather Jacket
One Toque
And One Swiss Army Watch

Indeed.  Ok so it wasn’t much of a “in my shoes” story.  But damn, it was cold.  I then spent the hour scraping paint off the deck near the anchor troughs, getting massive amounts of water dumped on my foul weather immune self.  Lesson learned: layer up.

Ya know, in my head that story sounded pretty good.  Now that I just wrote it however, it sort of sucks. 

Humm in other news, I have a 91.6 as this quarters physics mark (bringing my current grade to something like a 86), and I recently got a 11.9/12 on a physics test.  In English I am doing quite well, however my grade is only based on around 4 tests and 4 essays.  And finally my chem. status is as follows: although I have a good mark I really doubt I will ace the final.  But I won’t fail, I just probably will be under an 85%.  I really hate how much the final test and diploma factor into my mark.

June 5

Home is not where you live, but where they understand you.

~Unknown

My shirt is inside out.  I forgot that I put it on like that when I woke up for watch and I haven’t changed it since.  One of the few calamities of 6-8 watch.

Last night I took a much needed break from studying to work on After Effects for a couple hours.  By around midnight I finished an intro for Robertson Productions (the name Brendan signs his videos by), which should show up in his end of the year memories video.  Its one of the best intro’s I have done yet because it’s the first where I have used elements of real life.  In the short clip I used an image of a blank paper and created an animation that looks like someone is scribbling onto it.  It has a stop motion effect which is neat.  Oh and I did my own score for it as well.  Completely 100% original Carl-music.  Yay; more stuff for my Studio.Bloon.

As a quick update on the Bloon, this summer (If I get the chance) I am going to begin the transformation of the website into a mini-universe of sub-sites.  Some ideas I have is hosting a forum, a make-your-own-blog, a lifestream, C5 productions, Studio.Bloon, BloonLabs, The Daily Bloon, and some other neat sites.  Just sort of my experimentation zone.  Who knows, maybe one day it will become more popular.  Probably not, but that’s ok.

Uhh…  Hip Hip horay?  I dono, why but recently I have been high on life.

June 6

 I was thinking today about something; something that I was hoping to impart upon you all through this wonderful blog.  Unfortunately I forgot.

A good name for a chinchilla is Yoda.

Well guys, this entry is going to be short cause I need to get some stuff done.  Also, for the next couple days (weeks) I will probably concoct a total of about 0-2 posts due to the fact that I have 3 finals in the next 4 days, which are closely followed by 4 diploma’s right up to the day of graduation.  It’s painful.

Oh and I just spoke to Ms. Galway about grad day and damn it’s going to be sad. 

Ok, well ill try and post some, but if not look forward to seeing me soon! I love you all!!