Ciao! My name is Rachel and I live in the UK. Apologies for the late start (I was in the ‘right part’ of the sea, just waking up at 3.00 in the morning for my flight obviously meant I needed to retire to my Cabin, which I’m sharing with Anna, who is one of the Russian members of the group) First things first: I arrived in Italy around 9 or 10 or 11 maybe…still adjusting to the one hour time difference! The group trickled steadily into the airport over the next few hours, and I decided I might need an Italian phrase book, so bought one from the shop…have not yet opened it and am getting by on my Spanish. Language is a big element of this trip. The Americans, other Brits and I are highly advantaged, and everyone else is amazing at English…why is Britain so behind on language? On the first day, we played a few name games. They were all really great ways to learn people’s names, but admittedly I still have problems pronouncing a few. We also made personal passports… which lead me to learn how many people are ‘Passionate about Cars’. Today was pretty busy too, the press were running around taking many pictures under the sweltering heat! We also played a great game. I got to sit on top of many peoples arms. Okay, so you must be thinking ‘What?!’ But really I did, We all had to fit inside a hula hoop and there are 20 of us. We used trust and balance by everyone having a partner, holding their wrists and leaning far outwards. The only place I (‘a small and light pizza’ according to one of the educators) could fit was sitting on top of everyone’s arm. Another task was leading a partner blindfolded around the boat… much easier said than done, but again the game helped build trust and team skills that we very much need to sail this boat. The boat itself is beautiful and I have so far not experienced much sea-sickness (*Touch Wood* of which there is a lot of, some of which I have polished. Wooop Shiny!) Got to go now