Day 48: Sea Olympics

The Sea Olympics is an event that has occurred on every single SAS voyage and today marked 102nd SAS Olympiad.  Each floor of cabins on the ship is divided into a "sea" community, sort of like a residence hall.  For example, I'm a member of the Baltic Sea and down the hall is the Caribbean Sea.  Each voyage there is one day at sea without classes where members of each sea unite and compete in a number of strange events.  It's actually a rather big day with the entire shipboard community participating (including the faculty and staff as members of the "Diploma Sea").  The opening ceremonies were pretty wild.  Each sea has it's own chants and practically everybody stuffed into the Union screaming, dancing, etc.  I was told I actually looked enthusiastic and I don't think they were sarcastic so apparently I'm getting better at this acting thing.

I was a sub for the Global Studies Jeopardy but wasn't needed too much.  Later in the day I competed in the relay race and had to spin around, do hopscotch, run up some stairs to my teammates.  Other big events I went to go watch included dodgeball, "extreme" musical chairs, synchronized swimming, and the infamous lip sync.  People got really enthusiastic and creative about the whole thing.  It's amazing what a bunch of college students cooped on a ship can come up with.  There was a lot of very spirited people and noise throughout the day and it was a fun way to take a break from the normal routine.

The final overall ranking of seas determines who will get to leave the ship first in Norfolk.  I just came back from watching the closing ceremonies and my dear Baltic Sea placed 8 out of 10 (hey, we put in a decent effort) so we won't be off too early but it's not a huge deal since there's nothing overly exciting to see in Norfolk anyway.  As I mentioned, today was solely devoted to the Sea Olympics so that's where everybody's attention has been.  Tomorrow we're back to classes and reality for a few days until Morocco.  That's all for now, I have some papers that should probably be written.