Hi everyone, my name is Rossella and I was chosen for the Nave Italia because I have Chromosome 22. Other of the group were chosen for other reasons. I would like to begin by explaining what we are doing from when we get up in the morning. We have breakfast at 7:30, (and don’t arrive late or you will have an extra chore added to your daily ship duties, like washing the dishes even if it isn’t your turn!) At 8:30 we clean the ship. Every day during the day we have various group activities. These activities include, for example, games which help us develop trust with the other team members. In the evening we talk for a while or we dance and watch the stars. This experience is very beautiful because it is the first time I've gotten to know people from other countries. Most of the team members aren’t Italian - therefore we must speak English. For example, I am sharing a room with a girl from Germany. I’m not an ace in English but I am beginning to understand the others and I am speaking a bit better myself. The games we play are to develop more trust, as I said before. When we play these games, we must be calm and patient. Now I can’t tell you about all the games we've played, but I can say that they were each very beautiful. One of these exercises challenged all of us to go through a web made of ropes -- without touching the cord. This was very fun because in the beginning, we didn’t have a strategy but then we understood that without a strategy we would not go anywhere. Some of my friends were scared to be lifted up, so we had to convince them to trust us to carry/push them through. Today there was an apnea diving instructor who taught everyone to dive under water. I didn’t join this activity, because the day before I had tried to go underwater but as soon as I saw everything dark, I became so scared that I returned to the surface faster than I went down! If I can return next year, I would be very happy... even if I know that it isn’t possible. Now I go to watch my friends swim. Greetings and kisses, Rossella P.S. We have to be very patient because there might be other people with problems.