Sea Olympics

        Today was the day of the Sea Olympics. I’m on the second deck so that makes me part of the Aegean Sea. There are ten seas all together; Aegean, Red, Yellow, Baltic, Caribbean, Mediterranean, Arabian, Bering, Luna (faculty and dependants), and Sea Salts(lifelong learners). Last night we had the opening ceremonies, where each sea displayed their banner and showed off the cheer/chant. These were the first two events that would be judged. We had practiced our cheer as a sea for around half an hour before we were called up to the union, so we were feeling confident. Since the Aegean Sea is located between Turkey and Greece, our mascot was the turkey greaser. Our motto was Boom, because our chant went along with some Nelly song that said boom a lot. Anyway, we ended up getting 3rd place with our banner and 3rd place for our cheer.
        Today was nuts. At around 930 in the morning, the voice came on and said that there was a reschedule for events because it had rained all of last night and the deck was wet. So instead of dodge ball, it was musical chairs. Instead of volleyball, it was balloon volleyball, and most events had changes in time.
I woke up at around 1130, ate lunch with Kyle and Mike, who are both in the Baltic Sea. Of course we poked and prodded each other about who was the better sea. They both had signed up for Trivia, which was based on the voyager’s handbook, SAS information, and general random trivia. As we were eating, an announcement was made that dodge ball was going to be played on the court. So apparently the courts were dry enough to play on, which was good news for me because I did not want to play balloon volleyball. So after lunch, Kyle and Mike went to study for trivia, and I went to check out the synchronized swimming.
The event started at 1 and when I got there around 1255, the pool was mobbed. Our team was very dedicated because they were up the past two mornings at 6 in order to practice. I barely got to see the yellow sea do their routine which was first. After not being able to see the sea salts, which was second, I decided to go support dodge ball. When I got there, we were playing the purple team, which was the Bering Sea. We ended up beating them, but then losing in the following round to the Yellow Sea. I decided to stay and watch the other teams play it out before heading back to the synchronized swimming. I just barely missed my team’s event, but we ended up placing second so im guessing that everyone’s dedication paid off. I decided to go back to the basketball court to watch SAS basketball, which was like horse, but instead of H-O-R-S-E it was S-A-S, original right? Aegean ended up taking second in that too. Then volleyball was the next event. Aegean vs. Mediterranean was the last game in the preliminaries. Some of the teams were really good. I was convinced people played for their college, which made me feel pretty bad. When it was Aegean Sea’s turn, my partner Steph and I ended up losing 11-4 once it was over. I was pretty embarrassed but my teammates picked me up.
By this time, it was around 4 in the afternoon. After the game, the Aegean Sea people at the court decided to go to the main dining hall where dress your LLC was taking place. Oh, the LLC is basically our RA for our sea, or hallway. In this event, each LLC takes a slip of paper from a hat and each slip has an identity and they have to be dressed like what the slip says. One slip had Michael Jackson, one was Lady Gaga, one was an American tourist, and there were other funny ones. We had to dress Dustin, our LLC as a pirate. After the identity was drawn, people from each sea had to run back to their cabin to grab appropriate clothes to dress their LLC. I lent Dustin my white dress shirt. He ended up wearing eye shadow, a peg leg, hook, a parrot on his shoulder, tattoos, sharpied out teeth, a box of captain crunch dangling from his belt, a wig, and a bandana. I have no idea how someone had a wooden parrot, but it came in handy. Needless to say, we got first place in that event.
After all was said and done, Baltic placed third, Aegean placed second, and Red placed first. That means that red gets off in San Diego first, Aegean gets off second, and Baltic gets off third. I’m not sure how SAS sorts the order for the other seas. Today was a very full day, my throat is raspy and I’m exhausted and it’s only 945 at night. I’d say playing Olympic Games on a boat traveling around the world is a pretty memorable day in my book. Definitely won’t forget this one. We’ll be making landfall in 3 days, then no class for 5 days! But for now, I have to go to sleep so I can get up tomorrow and study for my world religions test.