Day 5- Meditation, Town and Yoga

Maddy
NAMASTE
This morning, we were free to do whatever our hearts desired. Kaylee and I woke up nice and late at 8:30 and had a relaxing breakfast. John has always been part of our group, but today, it really seemed that he was in it for all of us. He went to the sports shop, got us "squeezy bottles" for feeding, and he led us in a very kind meditation session. John talked to us about fear and how it's all based on the future and how no one actually knows if what we fear will actually happen. He reminded us that staying in the very present moment is the best thing we can do. After we let go of our fears for the moment, we went into town to get Claritin and Subway. THE SUBWAY SUCKED. After that we went to a small playground where an angry British couple called us a couple of "prats". Let's keep in mind that we weren't screaming, cussing, or acting inappropriately. Oh well, breathe. Let it go. A little later, we went to an underground yoga studio. It wasn't heated, however, equally relaxing and a good source of exercise. We came back, changed, and went to dinner for nice Dover Italian. THANK YOU DAD FOR PICKING UP THE TAB. LOVE YOU. Quinn, thank you for following us! We are also so excited for you to go to St. John's we are all so proud of you! Mom, I love you so much. Donna, thank you for my turtle, I've been looking and reading it everyday since I got it. Over and out, see you on the other side.

Kaylee
MOTIVATING TALKS BY JOHN
Today we woke up and ate some breakfast and talked around the table for a bit. We then stepped out onto the pebbles by the water as John led a very refreshing meditation. He spoke of living in the moment and fear. Fear only exists in the future and in the past. (ONE DAY AT A TIME) After meditation we walked around town to scope out the grocery store. We saw a park along the way and decided to play. We were having a lot of fun until some grumpy man shouted at us and called us annoying ignorant American teenagers using British terminology. Some people will just never understand that you can never be too young to have fun. Once we got back to the hotel, we went to yoga. The woman in charge of the studio gave a private class just for us. At the end, she tried leading us into a relaxing hypnosis. It was pretty funny because she started it off by saying we are not to sleep. Two seconds later half the room fell asleep. Anyways Mike payed for dinner THANK YOU MIKE!!! Still can't believe we'll be swimming the English Channel. Thank you again so much for everyone who contributed. ILY!!!!

Lauren
No Subject
Even though I woke up with a sore throat and  a stuffy nose, I am staying positive. I want to take the time to thank all of the people that donated and my family for spending the money on this trip. Because of this money, we are able to give ourselves a little extra treat. (Such as Subway) And I believe that every single Zombie Patrol team member deserves  this considering we've all trained so hard. Today, John took us out to the beach and gave us inspiring words of wisdom before meditation. The main topic of conversation was fear and it made me realize that this is really happening. We are actually about to attempt to swim the English Channel. I know that I keep saying, "this is real! It's finally hit me!" But I can honestly say that it has not hit me until now. Today was an overall relaxing day. We meditated, had a team meeting, and Mike paid for our dinner. Thank you so very much, Mike. I'm happy that you are on our boat. I also think that throughout this trip, I am blossoming as a leader a lot. Today was overall very positive and even though I am sick, I have never been happier.

Betzi
Warrior Pose
Partially due to the guilt of not having swam yesterday, and partially out of the fact that I'm going stir-crazy, I got up early this morning and swam from one side of the harbor to the other and back. Cold, and only Dan actually wanted to get up and swim with me, but ultimately it felt great (especially the part where I looked like a boss when the other team got in to swim their half-hour). The whole team did a meditation, led by John, (a.k.a. Buddha) on the nature of fear. We sat down on the multicolored pebbles of the Dover shore, forming an oblong circle around a single red poppy that happened to be growing there. It really helped to calm the anxiety that the team was feeling. Thank you, John!!! Then, Buddha also got us a private yoga class in the afternoon with a very skilled woman in the area. We all enjoyed the techniques, especially Dan and CJ, both of whom fell asleep on their blue mats during guided mental exploration and started snoring really loudly. I kind of miss yoga. Noah, Matt, Paul, and I found a park in the town with a small zipline and a large net-swing; turns out the zipline was strong enough to support Paul and Matt simultaneously (Noah covered his ears and yelled that the line snapped when two people rode it on America's Funniest Home Videos), and that Matt is decent at holding on to rope swings when Paul and I push it nearly upside-down. Another thank you, to Mike Israel! The asparagus-mushroom risotto was excellent!

Matt

A Day To Take A Breath

Today we did not swim except for Betzi. Betzi and Dan decided to swim while the rest of us slept in bed, ate food, went for walks in the park, and played monopoly. It was pretty fun. After that Betzi, Paul, Noah and I went for a walk in the town and we found a park. You will see the pictures if you watch the videos you can see we had a lot of fun on the swing and the zip line, it was pretty awesome. We also saw a skate park, don’t worry ugh I didn’t try to skate today but I sure wish I could. Right now we are all reveling in the fact that we are going to swim tomorrow night or Thursday morning. We are finally going to do it, it is pretty amazing. I am really confident we can all do it. Mike Israel got us dinner today it was amazing and I would like to thank him in this blog. I also wanted to say thank you to John Allcock for helping us meditate and bringing us to yoga.

Zach

Today is Today (June 23, 2015)

Before I talk about today, I do want to put out that yesterday, I taught Noah to play a card game called WAR. It’s a game that simply just wastes time. I also played a game of monopoly with Noah which he beat me by a lot, he is really good with his board games and has a lot more luck than I do. Now, moving on with today, I would rather say that it was a simply plan and do nothing day. We all got to wake up to no swims at all today and most woke up at 8:00-8:30 AM; except for I who woke up at 6:00. We then sat around and did a lot of nothing. We then decided that instead of sandwiches for lunch since everyone was tired of sandwiches, we would all go out in town to plan what we need for the boat and get lunch. We ended up getting Subway so I guess some were not sick of sandwiches. After that, we all went back and did a good 2 hours of nothing but card games and shenanigans. After that, we took a yoga class which was really good and interesting. There were some poses that I knew but there were also some different ones. It was cool to learn. After that we went to dinner after changing that Mike, Maddy’s father, bought for us. It was amazing and a lot better than the hotel dinner which I had too many times. Today was cool and I can’t wait to swim.

CJ

Day 3

Today was full of…interests. I finally got my dad and my little brother to enter the cold, dark and terrifying waters of the Dover Bay. Matthew did not like the stones of death, and my Dad did not have the endurance to put his whole body in, and only swam 10 strokes. Afterward, we went into town and had Subway. American Subway is better. Just sayin'. The meat is different. Ours is better. Then, we went to Yoga, which was decent. Still not too into it but it was interesting. I am kinda nervous, but I think I will have the endurance to preform my important role as alternate. And thanks Mike for the dinner. Night.

Parth

The Yoga Day

The counterweight of bad sleep is always a great night’s sleep.  Today, as the morning’s light streamed through the curtains and touched my eyelids, I was content with the greatest night’s sleep since I had come to England.  I managed to get down to breakfast in a record time, and sprang my way through my day immediately afterwards.  Later, we went to subway for lunch, after a sparsely event-packed day.  Later, we went to yoga, where I managed to achieve new heights of flexibility.  When I later ate dinner, It was delicious, providing me with a great

end to my day.  A shout out to my parents, family, and supporters.  Thank you all for your support, and I miss you guys. 

Wesley

The Village of  Dover

Today I woke up, and I had breakfast. They had noodles which I was hopping for. After that I went for a walk with Faith, Diana, and Noah. On the walk Diana and Faith had a talk with me about some of the things I still need to work on. That was also one of the things that made me know that everyone here cares about me. Then we all went for a walk as a group. We went and had Subway, and then we went to a very pretty park. Then we came back to the hotel. I was bored and some negative thoughts came to my mind so to let them go, I went and spent some time with Dan, and I felt better. Then we went to yoga, it was hard because I had not done it in awhile. For dinner tonight we had Italian food. Me, Cheryl, and Dan, had veal. Betzi was not happy. I am so proud of myself, and I have more fun to come.

Faith

Stay in the Present

Today was the day we didn’t swim, so I woke up later. Shortly after I woke up, I went to town with a few other students. We had a great time, and we took lots of pictures. We came back at around 10:30. An hour later, all of us headed down to the rocky beach to have a meditation session. John gave us all an amazing talk about staying in the present, and how fear is only a part of the mind that worries about the future… he explained it way better! We went out to Subway, had a group meeting, and then came back for awhile to pack our swim bags for the swim J . We just came back from an amazing dinner, thank you Mike. We are now blogging, and going over some information about the swim, and I am very excited. I’m very thankful for all the support of the students back at Arch that supported me and my teammates. ZOMBIES!!!!!

Diana

SICK IS NOT FUN

I am still sick and it sucks. I have a stuffy nose and my stomach feels turned up. I am tired and today I got to listen to John give an amazing talk about fear. We ate at Subway today and it was not as good as the one at home. Faith, Noah, and I went out to town and had a fun time. Mike bought us dinner which was really good. Thank you to everyone who helped make this trip possible. We are going to do great. Good night and have fun. Bye.

Noah

Traveling the town of Dover

I almost forgot to talk about the castle. The castle is good because it has a lot of towers and buildings. We woke up at 8 o’clock and we ate breakfast. We went to markets, restaurants, and stores. We didn’t swim in the morning but I traveled through the town with Wesley, Faith, and Diana. I didn’t buy anything at the stores. I also got back to town with Betzi, Paul, and Matt. After we got back to the hotel, we ate lunch at Subway, don’t worry I know what I’m doing because I know what I should be eating and what I shouldn’t be eating. I also took enzymes before I ate. After we ate lunch, we walked to the park to have group about what we should be packing for English Channel swim. We got back to the hotel and we dressed for yoga. I didn’t know we were doing yoga because I thought we were not doing yoga in England. When we were doing yoga, I felt tired and I tried not to go to sleep. After we finished yoga, we walked to an Italian restaurant for dinner. I ate salad and pizza. Tomorrow morning, we’re waking up at 7 o’clock and we’re going to practice our swimming lesson.

Paul

Forklifts

Today, Matt, Betzi and I found a children’s park and a skate park in our walk through the town center. Rather than swimming today, we practiced yoga at 4:30, which was interesting to go through because all of the stretches were very different. I’m surprised that it didn’t rain today since it seems like there are darker clouds today than there were in the previous days when it did rain. On my calculator, I discovered how to edit the icon of the file, which involves placing a series of digits in hexadecimal format. I’m still positive about the relay we’ll do on Thursday. On a positive concluding note, I’m getting around 10 hours of sleep every day on average, which is pretty fantastic for me.