Caribbean Sea takes FIRST :-)

I am on vacation!!!

Yup


Well not really, but like I had mentioned before, my big day was yesterday, the Sea Olympics! All I can say is…Grrreat Success! After a few weeks of planning with only the help of a few students due to the high amount of academic work they had we pulled a late night making sure everything was in place and ready to go for our Sea Olympics. I belief I mentioned this before, but each floor is a Sea (for example I am the Caribbean Sea, Doug is the Yellow Sea, Anne is the Arabian Sea, Etc.) and the faculty and life long learners are all apart of there own sea which they called the “Si”Sea..cute…

The day started off with our opening ceremonies and every team entering with their banners, colors and cheers…the Caribbean Sea was blue and we of course had a pirate theme (I am pretty sure there is no other theme as appropriate). The union was filled with an amazing energy as every team came in chanting and cheering and trying to be louder then the other. I think the best part of this was the positive energy that had been lacking the last couple of days due to an abnormally high stress level that the students have been experiencing because of midterms and papers on the ship. I had about 6 students that helped me put together the different events and organize the whole day as well as run the day. Joe, one of Doug’s resident was our MC for the opening ceremonies and did a great job.

The Si Sea won…a bit controversial because our judges were all from the Si Sea…but I am gonna blame it on all the kids on the team.

The second event of the day the obstacle course which involved a saltine whistle, balloon toss, egg carry, orange role, and of course a soduko puzzle at then end. While the Caribbean sea had a bad start coming out last from the cracker whistle, somehow we have a soduko genius who started the puzzle last yet finished it faster then anyone else! So score a victory for the Caribbean!

On to a flip cup tournament (and yes there were 9 year old girls playing flip cup) and a mini Iron Chef (first time ever on Semester at Sea, and one of the most popular events!). Caribbean took first in flip cup and 2nd in iron chef!

The afternoon had a few competitions including trivia, taboo, basketball shootout, dodgeball and limbo. One of the most popular events was the Syncronized swimming which was hgilarious! In case you forgot, we are in the southern hemisphere and our water and air temperature are usually around 57 degrees…not something you want to be swimming in! But of course, we had a delegation from each team. Caribbean did a little number in which they came out in bathing suits but then put on sweaters and sweat pants cause the water was to cold and then jumped in…it was cute…It got us third. The first place team was a group of 5 guys all wearing matching orange speedos (well more like orange underwear they purchased in Ecuador).
The evening was topped off with a pie eating contest and twister…by this point the score was obviously in the Caribbean sea’s favor being almost 300 points above the 2nd place team. The last event was the Lyp Synch, which for us entailed a pirate dance off to Michael Jackson’s Beat It…fun, but didn’t get us any more points. Doug’s team did a Brittany Spears 8 minute thing…HILARIOUS…although it did not follow any of the rules, it won first place. So at the end of the night, the Caribbean sea took FIRST place by a land slide and that got us the right to disembark first when we get to San Diego in August. This is a pretty huge deal because as you can imagine getting there and having to sit and wait as your families are waiting to pick you up as a student is hard!

Anyway…we arrive in Chile tomorrow…as I keep saying to folks, I am on vacation now J I just have a couple more things to do on the ship, but mostly I am going to be reading and relaxing.

Oh ya…the other night we had our Sea Social which is a time for students to hang out in the Faculty staff lounge with the faculty and the staff and enjoy food and drinks. It was great, everyone came and dressed up. It was at the beginning of this crossing, so a bit stressful because of the Latin America Today exam, but over all a good time!

I will try and call again tomorrow…hope to catch some folks at home!

Love ya!