Traditional Tall Ship Sailing

I just spent this weekend sailing in the sound between Denmark and Sweden on a traditional tall ship.  About 25 of us from my program went aboard the Maja and sailed where the wind took us.  Luckily, we had a ton of wind (not too much sun, though..) and actually sailed further than where we hoped to end up.  We docked in a small town in Sweden for the night and hung out and slept on the ship.  The way the trip worked is that we broke up into 4 groups that were each responsible for different sections of the ship.  My group was in charge of the back of the boat, where the steering wheel is.  We had one sail to keep track of and also had to watch the compass and flags to make sure we were headed in the right direction.  We got to work under the Captain of the ship, who was hilarious, and he just really made the trip fun.  The groups also rotated through meal duty, and we cooked a lot of food and ate family style on the ship, so that was great, too.  I really enjoyed the people who were on the trip with me, too, and it was nice to spend some quality time just hanging out with the other Americans on my program.  

We learned how to tie knots and "clean the rope" and keep the ship nice and clean.  We had to make sure the deck was up to the Captain's standards and we had to redo anything that wasn't how he wanted it. 
That's me in the middle!!! I got to climb up to the top of the mast and hang out up there for a while.  It was amazing just rocking back and forth with the ship standing on nothing but a chord.  I went up with my friend Taren and we saw the greatest views from up there.  Once we got comfortable and our legs stopped shaking, it was really relaxing. 
This is my group for the weekend! We got along well and had a lot of fun. The girl next to me in the yellow, Kendall, is one of my closest friends here. 

This is our ship! How cool, right?