Sea Olympics- Feb 3, 2011.

After 6 straight days of classes and nothing but ocean, we were finally given a day off. Again, they called it reading day. They really need to change the name, no one reads on reading day. It should be called pool day. Today was different than most reading days though, it was the Sea Olympics! The entire ship is broken up into 10 different “seas.” Each hall way is a different sea. I am in the Caribbean Sea, and our color is orange. The night before the Sea Olympics, we had the opening ceremonies. This was where we all presented our chants and banners, and wore our colors. Dr. Bill gave one of his inspiring and funny speeches, about how we would all lose, but at least we would lose together. And that the winners… well they were the loners. The Union was so loud all night, with everyone screaming their chants. Each sea went separately, but by the end of the night, everyone was screaming together.
There were a lot of really clever chants, and a few that were seriously lacking. One of the favorites was the “Sea Salt’s” chant. The Sea Salts are the life long learners, and their color is white. The joke that had been passed around the ship all day about them being called “The Dead Sea” was put to shame when they got up and danced to Thriller, the oldest man being Michael Jackson with his silver glove! They followed their chant with their banner that said “Age ain’t nothing but a number, kiddo!” After the opening ceremonies and the normal nightly festivities, Gina, Idin and I came back and watched a few episodes of Entourage before bed. (This has become a nightly habit for the three of us. Something doesn’t feel right if we miss a night! hahah)
Because there were no classes the next day, Gina and I slept in until about 11:30. When we woke up, we got some last minute homework done, put on our colors, and went up to the 7th deck to watch the first event of the day: synchronized swimming. We got up there a bit early, so we had front row seats on the pool deck. I took some awesome photographs and videos of each team. Everyone was really good and funny, but I have to say my favorite was the Baltic Sea. This is Idin’s hall, and of course he was on the swimming team! It was Idin and 5 other guys, all in extremely tight spandex or leggings. One of the guys was wearing a long black wig with cheetah print leggings, two of the guys were wearing very… interesting leggings, one guy was wearing my spandex shorts, a girls sweater, and a headband, and Idin was wearing tight denim looking leggings. They “danced” to songs such as “Baby I like it,” that Brian McKnight song that goes “one… you’re like a dream come true, two… just wanna be with you” etc. and the Lion King songs. They were absolutely hilarious, everyone’s favorite for sure. Unfortunately, they went over the allotted time so they were disqualified.
After the synchronized swimming, I walked around with some friends watching some of the other competitions going on, before I had to compete in a relay race. Sadly, my team lost the race. We were really good, but the other team was REALLY fast! Unfortunately, I had to take about an hour break from all the fun because I still had to fill out all my immigration forms. They gave us two days to do it, but of course I left it until the last minute and it took forever! As the day wound down, we had a barbeque on the 6th and 7th deck outside, and talked for a few hours until it got dark. Finally, at 9:00, we had closing ceremonies. The Red Sea ended up winning, followed by the Agean and the Baltic. The Carribbean (my sea) came in 4th my one point! The winner’s not only get to brag for the rest of the voyage, but they will be the first sea let off the ship in San Diego! The rest of us have to wait. I’m actually kind of glad we didn’t win. I mean, it would have been amazing to win! But now I get more time to spend on the ship with my friends! After a long day of sun and fun, I watched some Entourage and went to bed! Three more days at sea until Ghana!

Watching volleyball

Baltic Sea boys

Sea Salts

My roommate, Gina and I.