Sea Olympics and Bridge Tour

We are, we are the Arabian Sea

We play these games, we’re so classy

We’ll sweat, we’ll bleed, ‘til we win this fight

Then we’ll back it up and shack it up ‘til the end of the night

As a proud member of the Arabian Sea (each hall or deck on the ship is divided into different seas or if you want to go Harry Potter style, houses) I had the great privilege of chanting this cheer over and over again two days ago. If anyone was wondering two boys made it up. The Sea Olympics was the most fun day on the ship thus far. For all you camp goers think Color War but for twenty-one year olds. Banners were made, cheers were chanted, and team colors were worn.

The events:

1. Sea Feud- family feud
2. Extreme Musical Chairs- it was extreme
3. World Cup of Crab Soccer- you know you played crab soccer if you have huge blisters on the palms of your hands
4. “Hula” Hoop- self-explanatory
5. “Asian” Cube Scramble- race to pick up ice cubes with chopsticks
6. Sea Sponge Scramble- filing up a sponge in the pool, passing to three other teammates before rinsing it in a bucket… the first team whose bucket was filled with water won
7. Salty Whistle- eat ten saltine crackers and then whistle twinkle twinkle little star
8. Limbo- self-explanatory
9. Pirate’s Pull- tug of war
10. The Singing SASer’s- lip synch competition (our song was Bohemian Rhapsody)
11. Nail the Sailors- Dodgeball Tournament
12. Synchronized Swimming- self-explanatory not to mention hilarious
13. Adveture”ers” Trivia Bowl- questions about Sustainability, Geography, Potpourri, SAS
14. Dean “White” Says- Dean White’s version of Simon Says
15. Dress your LLC- dress up your RA in the most sustainable way possible
16. The “Gun” Show- pull up competition
17. The “Explorer” Relay- leap frog, fruit pass, mystery chug, library book find, wheel barrow race, whip cream find, flip cup, fishing… in that order

Highlights and Facts:

1. The Arabian Sea is the smallest sea on Semester at Sea and probably has around thirty members, other seas have eighty…
2. I, along with Brooke, Kyle, and Dane, are the SAS Dodgeball Champions!!!!
3. Fruit Pass in the relay was a lot harder than it looks, you have to pass a fruit between your chin and chest to your team of four without dropping it… bottom line, you get up close and personal
4. Our synchronized swimming routine consisted of four boys dancing/swimming to the YMCA
5. Our Lip Synch routine consisted of five boys performing in their underwear
6. I scored three goals in crab soccer but we lost to the Caribbean Sea in the first round
7. The team who wins (turned out to be the Red Sea) gets to be the first sea off the boat in Fort Lauderdale… I’m not sure if that’s such a great prize anyway
8. We ended up coming in 5^th Place… not too shabby

Overall Sea Olympics were so fun and it was a nice break from the previous four days of school and previous month of constant go-time. To top it all off there was a huge bbq on the 7^th outside deck that night that included burgers, ribs, and corn on the cob. At the end of the bbq everyone started piling into the pool and the swimmers kept chanting we need more people. Every time a new person jumped everyone went crazy. Needless to say the pool rules were restated in the Dean’s Memo the following day.

Apart from Sea Olympics and repping the Arabian Sea in Navy Blue, I went on a Bridge Tour yesterday. I was able to see the control room and all of the equipment that is used including the different radars and communication devices. The highlight of the Bridge Tour was sitting in the Captain’s chair and wearing his hat. I was a little disappointed that there wasn’t a huge steering wheel like you see on most sailboats but rather a small wheel that was similar to a Nintendo car racing steering wheel. I learned that when we went through the Strait of Malacca aka Pirate Strait we picked up speed to 19 knots (we usually travel at 11). The chance of a pirate vessel actually catching us was unlikely. The MV Explorer is one of the fastest if not the fastest maritime vessels of her kind. Go us.

Life is definitely good. We’re cruising to India and arrive in Chennai in a day and a half. Right now I am thinking of India as being a completely different world than anything I have ever experienced. To further add to that effect it creepily has a weird “half hour” time zone. We gain thirty mintues tonight. Instead of being ten hours ahead of the East Coast we will be ten and a half hours ahead… strange.

Love from the Bay of Bengal.