Day 65: Finals & The Alumni Ball

The morning started early with a final in Infectious Disease.  Since there's essentially no time for profs to grade, the test was nearly all multiple choice and wasn't too bad.  The Abnormal Psych exam also went well.  A little before noon, I was officially done with the summer semester.  After lunch I began the process of packing.  I didn't accumulate a lot of "stuff" compared to most people but it's still a daunting task to fit everything that I originally took (when I had the time/space to figure out how to squeeze every free inch) and some of the new acquisitions.  I made some decent progress so hopefully I can just look at the rest and it will pack itself.

The Alumni Ball was the big activity for the evening.  At the conclusion of every SAS voyage, the ball is a formal program, dinner, and dance to celebrate the conclusion of the voyage and our declaration as SAS alumni.  It was fun to walk around about an hour before the program/dinner started because there were only guys out and about (a rare sight when the ship is over 75% female) because all the girls were going through the normal pre-event freak-out routine downstairs.  The program was comprised of a long slideshow, entertainment and a very strange roommate version of the newly-weds game.  Since everybody was all fancied-up we took pictures with the captain and made our way to dinner.  It was actually like a real cruise for once; the food and service was really quite impressive (not to say the crew doesn't normally a nice job).  Dessert was a huge and well stocked buffet which provided a great way to conclude the "psh...this is sort of like vacation, I can eat horribly" mentality that most have used throughout the voyage.  After desert, the dance was held up on the pool deck.  Those of you who know me well would be very impressed; I lasted quite a while and actually attempted involvement.  Overall, I have to admit that the evening was kind of fun.

We gained another hour last night putting us on Eastern Standard Time.  Yet another reminder that we're getting closer.  Thursday is designated as a day for re-entry prep and reflection with a few sessions that focus on the whole reflection bit.  That's all for now, I should probably get back to thinking about packing.