de-gnoming, water survival and more friends

de-gnoming...comes from harry potter series (great books). all the magical people have gnomes in their gardens and they have to degnome occasionally (i guess they create all sorts of ruckus or something) so amy mentioned something about having a de-gnoming party once we're all on board...i guess we have to find some gnomes first!

water survival. this was the last two days of the class and of course included lecture, written and practical. the practical is the only bit that is really fun so i'll post a few pics from that. our practical check offs included flipping a life raft, getting into a life raft with just regular clothes on and also with a gumby suit (infinitely more difficult), donning a gumby suit in less than 2 minutes, a few manuevers like making a circle and caterpillar in the suits with other team members, swimming side to side in the pool and treading water for 1 minute. the gumby suits are for decreasing hypothermia. best to have them on before you have to abandon ship but not super maneuverable. plus, they have friction against the life raft so not only are you fighting weight, any water in the suit, the waves but you're fighting suit against raft. but, i guess if it's death by freezing or those minor inconvienences...

so, here are a few pics of water survival stuff

more friends...a lot of the pics are from the last week so you'll have to meet them in some of our toys we played with =)

this is kim...i chose this pic b/c it so captured her personality...she was always laughing, real belly deep laughs that cause others around to smile or laugh too.

next are andre and donna...they were recently married and donna was going thru the training, andre was helping facilitate. andretaught us a few african songs as well as some lingo, i look forward to getting to know him more on ship. donna is an absolute delight. she didn't talk a lot in class but i enjoyed our one on one conversations and can't wait to have tea dates with her on ship. she has such a great heart.

this is roseann here...she is from new york and is a firecracker! you can hear new york in her speech and she is so fun. she'll be working on the dental team so i can only imagine the fun they will have in the midst of work.

and below are marilyn (on left) and dorothy (on right)

marilyn was a schoolteacher once upon a time but will be making yummy starbucks on ship (we don't have to give up all our creature comforts!) she was quiet a lot during training but the one on one conversations were great.

dorothy is going on ship to be a science teacher in the academy...it was interesting to hear her take on some of what was said in class, don't just accept it but tear it apart to make sure it makes sense and fits with what she knows about the Father.