I am back from six days on a boat sailing around the South Danish Sea, hopping from island to island with thirty-one teenagers.

Since I came back late yesterday afternoon, I have barely spoken to anyone. It's been wonderful. Silence was in very, very short supply all last week, as you might expect if you cram the aforementioned thirty-one kids, my two colleagues and I, as well as the five crew members into an area smaller than blog HQ. Privacy was also completely suspended, as only a very thin piece of wood separated my bunk from the kids, with two tiny and showerless toilets (cleaned most unwillingly by the youthful ones) to provide for all of us.

I also bust my finger five minutes into the only bit of physical exercise I had all week - an ill-advised game of football on a very rough patch of triangular field. It looked pretty broken despite not hurting very much, not even when a grizzly Danish doctor pushed and pulled it for a few moments, seemingly delighted to have the chance to practice his charming English. Delighted enough, in fact, to treat me for free.

So, all in all, a marvellous week. I say that while trying my best to repress the memories of hours of constantly harassing kids, trying to get them to wash up after dinner, before just giving in and doing it myself along with my equally-stressed colleagues; pining for an hour to myself, not to mention feeling nasty and dirty after far too many showerless days.

No, instead I am thinking of the boat's gentle to-and-fro motion rocking me to sleep even during the daytime (motion that still assaults me when standing still on solid ground - nearly fell over when brushing my teeth this morning); the fresh wind ruffling my almost-curly-again hair, the sun massaging colour into my pale skin; the crew, who were the friendliest and most laid-back Germans I have met in my four years here; my colleagues, with whom I got on famously because they are wonderful, and of course the kids, who, now that I have had a few hours of quiet time away from them, were challenging yet adaptable, raucous yet respectful, annoying yet somehow still charming.

I threw some photos on that other social networking site, feel free to have a look.