Nineteen-year-old Olivia Gracie has just returned from five months onboard the Concordia - a floating school that allows young people to travel the world while they study.
She battled extreme seasickness, ocean storms and frisky desert camels but says it was all worth it for what she describes as "the most incredible experience" of her life.
She began her journey in Lunenberg, Canada where she set sail with 46 other youngsters bound for the Azores.
"As soon as we got to the Azores after two weeks at sea I Skyped my parents and begged them to let me come home," Olivia said. "I decided the whole experience wasn't for me and that I just couldn't handle the constant seasickness.
"My parents told me that the organizers had already sent them an email telling them to expect us to say we wanted to come home and that this was normal.
"Luckily I stayed on and had the most incredible experience of my life!"
Brimming with stories
By the time Olivia reached Malta two months later she was brimming with stories to tell her parents, who met her there at the "parent port" of Valletta - the only destination in the journey where parents were invited to reconnect with their children.
In the time since she had last seen them, Olivia had been to Canada, the Azores, Portugal, Ireland and Corsica.
She hastily told her parents all about her "adventures" so far, focusing especially on "the highlight" of her trip - an excursion to an Irish farm outside of Dublin.
"We drove up to this farm and it was pouring with rain, freezing cold and we had every item of foul-weather clothing on us," Olivia explained.
"We all gathered inside this huge barn and were given a lesson in Irish dancing, which was really fun.
"We were then split up into two groups - one baked soda bread and the other helped out cooking a giant vegetable soup we all ate for lunch, made with things that grew on the farm.
"In the afternoon we learned how to milk a cow and afterwards we all just played around in the peat moss in this huge muddy field.
"We were all freezing cold but didn't notice it - we were wearing clothes we didn't care about getting dirty and knee-deep in this peat...and having a great time!
"Then we came back to the farm and were told to catch the pigs that had been let out of their pens and round up the sheep using sheepdogs - just like in the movie Babe.
"We finished the day by learning how to play an instrument called the Irish Doon."
But if you think Olivia's trip was all play and no work, you'd be seriously mistaken.
A typical day onboard the Concordia consists of academic classes, deck-scrubbing and dishwashing.
It is only when the ship pulls into port for a few days that the students "get their weekends" and they put their schoolwork on hold for a few days.
Sometimes they can be at sea for more than two weeks.
At 6:45am they wake up for fitness training on deck to keep them physically in-shape while they're onboard.
Then they have breakfast at 7:30am and a morning meeting at 8am to discuss the Concordia's path for the day and how many miles they have covered overnight.
They then have to clean their designated "station" for the day as well as their living quarters.
Classes start at 9am and can go on until 8pm - depending on which classes you chose and when they run.
During the day you must complete two hours of 'watch group' - which involves keeping a lookout for other ships and obstacles.
Lunch is served at 12:30pm and 1pm and dinner at 6:30pm and 7pm.
At 8pm the evening is filled with games, open mic nights and other social activities.
Bedtime is flexible but students must complete two hours of watch duty at night, which often sees them in bed well before midnight.
And then there is the seasickness...Olivia said: "I was seasick pretty much the entire trip, but the worst was definitely the first week. I wasn't used to it at all. It really knocks you off your feet!
"If you wanted to throw up, you would go out on deck, be sick, and come right back to class. No one cut you any slack for being seasick.
"We ended up having classes on deck as it made the ocean more accessible if you needed to be sick in a hurry.
Personal limits
"You learn a lot about your personal limits and how far you can push yourself. Times where you think, 'I just can't push myself any more,' and you end up surprising yourself.
"Somehow you just keep going."
On the days they are about to enter a port students gather for 'Discovery Class' where they present and discuss the country they are about to visit.
Everything about the country - from the politics to the geography to the dress code - is discussed.
Then after they visit each country, they reconvene to discuss what surprised them most about the country and how it differed from their expectations.
"We tried to really immerse ourselves in the country and culture we were visiting," Olivia explained.
"So instead of just buying something from a street vendor, we would talk to them and get to know a bit about their lives.
"We had translators in some of the countries we visited. But a lot of the North African countries spoke French and we had quite a few French-speaking students with us."
She said she picked up a few French words during their "four-day adventure" to Morocco.
"On our second day we drove out to this little place out in the desert where we were told to get into pairs," Olivia said. "Each pair had a camel so we had to walk one hour, and ride the other hour all the way to our campsite.
"When I first got on the camel, it felt like home - I love horseriding. But they had given me this really young camel who was tied to the back of his mom. He kept annoying his mom and getting a little frisky and I had no control. I'm used to riding and using reins, but on the camel I just held onto a handlebar.
"We made it out to our campsite about 10 minutes before sunset. We had tea and dinner and then went up to the highest sand dune and watched the sun set.
"After that we sat around this big bonfire and told stories.
"We basically had free rein until our midnight curfew when we finally got to bed - four of us to a tent."
Olivia also travelled to Turkey, Tunisia, Senegal and Brazil onboard the Concordia, for a total of 12,900 miles at sea.
She left Bermuda in early September and returned mid-January.
Olivia heard about the Class Afloat programme through her friend, Meghan Mahoney, who was on the university ship last year.
Both school-aged and university-aged students can take part in the programme and it is possible to spend the last two years of highschool at sea.
Olivia's five months onboard the Concordia studying business and psychology have gone towards course credits at Acadia University in Canada.
The Concordia crew consists of a captain, two officers, two engineers, a bosun, a bosun's mate, a cook, a cook's mate, and a medical officer.
"I feel extremely lucky to have done it," Olivia said. "I can't stop thinking about it. I find myself thinking and talking about it all the time.
"It has definitely made me more patient with others. You couldn't really ever be on your own onboard - it was impossible to find an empty deck.
"It has also made me really appreciate my family. We have always been a really close family, but being away from them for so long has definitely made us closer."
Although she was the only Bermudian onboard, Olivia says she hopes many more will follow in her footsteps for this chance of a lifetime.
The journey cost $30,000 and scholarships are available. The Concordia will dock Bermuda from
