Sea Olympics!

The games were intense. I am member of the Yellow Sea. Our color was red. If this alone did not foreshadow the confusion of our team, then our meager construction paper taped to a lacrosse stick torch that was presented by an eccentric guy in a Speedo at the opening ceremonies would definitely stand as our introduction to the Olympic community.

The games included synchronized swimming, relay races, spelling bees, banner contests, human knot, three-legged race, crab soccer, volleyball, doge ball, fishing, tug-a-war, and so many more. I was chosen for the human knot, water pong (civil war style) and flip cup teams.

If any other ship had cruised by us at any point during the day they would have not have thought of Semester At Sea as an academic institution. Music was playing on the speakers, college kids were running around on all of the decks chanting and screaming, and there was an atmosphere of good fun and chaos.

Pong was incredibly competitive. Never have I seen more heated debates over a pong game and I go to Miami, this is saying something. The rules were unclear from the beginning and when the Mediterranean Sea started using other players to hit balls away our Yellow Sea demanded a rerack. We got 3rd place in the tournament. The championship ended with tables overturned and chaos on deck 6 aft.

Our team ran around the ship like a bunch of chickens, sporting as much red as they could, with their heads cut off. We had a BBQ. BBQ night means eating like hibernation is tomorrow. I had three hamburgers, a hotdog, and a plethora of ice cream. Everyone enjoys food choices that stray from the usual. It was glorious to have spent a day off the coast of the Maldives where the water was 86 degrees and the air was 82. After dinner, a group of us jumped in the pool, which is filled with seawater and had an impromptu dance party while watching the sun set on the ship’s wake. It was cool that after a day of insane rivalry between the eight teams that we could all celebrate the fun day together.

To everyone's surprise, the Yellow Sea ended up in second! Yay!