New Friends!

This day was originally a watch day so it should have been uneventful, but because Brita booked in a meeting with other students our age lots of fun stuff happened, so I have much to tell you.

The day started off at about 06:50 when we got woken up. Shortly after we ate breakfast and made ourselves ready for the morning lineup on main deck (a daily routine when we’re docked). On main deck we got told that we were going to visit an Azorean school and talk to some students the same age as us. Everyone was already excited because Brita had told us about this event some days earlier.

We got divided into two groups, one morning group and one afternoon group. I visited the school on the afternoon because I got divided into the afternoon group.

We were told to discuss how living in the Azores is with the students and how they see it from a centrum-periphery perspective compared to how they think it is living in Lisbon. I talked to a girl named Rita, she is sixteen years old, soon to be seventeen. She had never heard the term centrum-periphery but when I explained it to her, she understood right away. She told me that she thought Sao Miguel was periphery and Lisbon centrum and all new trends like music or fashion are kind of delayed in the Azores because of that. Rita also told me this is the reason why she buys most of her clothes in Lisbon.

After we talked to Rita, her and her friends showed us around the school. They said that their school has around 2300 students which is massive compared to ÖSG (Öckerö Seglande Gymnasieskola) that has around 300! They had several real-life living school mascots. Amongst them a dog, a goat and a turkey, that lived on the school’s property. The school had let build a cage for the dog and we went to see it. It was really sad to see the dog live in a small cage just for the purpose of being a mascot, but Rita told us some students take him for a walk once a day and that made me feel a bit better, even if it’s not close to enough to be okay.

After our visit we went straight back to Gunilla to continue our watch day except for a small stop in a grocery store on the way. In the grocery store we ran into Rita and her friends again, so we took the opportunity to take their names on social media. So, if we ever visit the Azores in the future or if they come to visit Sweden, we have friends to contact and maybe meet up with.

Tomorrow we will leave for La Palma and I’m really looking forward to it.

Hannes Tolge Korpe

Midship