<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;]I am going to visit one college at the
end of next month and I may visit some others in a few months. I am
Dutch so I will most likely study at a Dutch college. I still got a
few years on my scholarship left. Unless Dutch schools have a
horrible reputation in the maritime industry. Then I will try to
study abroad. <br><br>Here there is only one college that teaches
Hydrography. There are in total four schools that have a course for
Maritime officer and one of them also has the Hydrography course. The
one I am now considering is on an island in the North Sea. They have
a building where they house students, though if you can find a place
to rent on the island that is fine too. Unlike other colleges you
will not be leaving for the weekends. You need a ferry to get to the
island, so you only get to leave the island every three weeks. The
other schools are close by large ports and you are expected to arrange a place to stay for yourself. I must add that a college with
student housing is very rare in my country. It’s a whole package deal
with uniforms and three meals a day and a very strict schedule.<br><br>As
for what I am going to do exactly I have haven’t decided yet. I
already know I love the water and I was practically born on it and
now that I am living so far away from it I find that I miss it. As a
kid I used to love to surf and sail and maneuver my parents’ boat
around. I used to be at the wheel for hours and maneuvering that
thing was a bit tricky, because it was old and didn’t have any bow
propellers like the more modern boats have. This unfortunately was
not at sea. I have sailed on a larger lake once that required some
navigating. It was still not the sea, but that was pretty
awesome and it was the first time I got to do some
navigation, though it was fairly easy and we had floating markers in
the water you could use. So it was basically sail to this marker and
then alter your course by so many degrees, but I loved it.
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;]<br>I also love to be under way. I simply
love to travel and with the current state of the economy I get to do
that less and less. So therefore I am also looking for that
opportunity in my next career.
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;]<br>I currently have got no degree.
Entirely my fault. I picked the wrong college and about halfway
through I realized that getting a job after graduating would be
nearly impossible. I should have researched it better, which is way I
am careful with this decision. So when the company I interned at
offered me a job I decided to stay and I am still working there, but
I find that I am not quite satisfied and I am looking for something
else, something more challenging.
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;]<br>Right now I have looked at some water
courses and the most common one seems to be the course for maritime
officer, but in researching one of the schools, I stumbled across the
course for Hydrography which is incredibly interesting too. They
don’t mind me not having a degree and are asking me to take a test.
Most of the time that test will be math, but it depends on the school. They can
make their own rules about what to do with students who haven’t got
the required degree. I have already started brushing up my math
skills en it is going well. So I am not too worried. A few months of
studying should do the trick. Another school would also want me to
take tests in Dutch, English and Physics. English tests I can
practically do with my eyes closed and Physics shouldn’t be that hard
either once I polished up my skills in that a bit.