Trek Across the Atlantic

Saturday January, 29^th- February 6^th 2011

Whew! This week has been CRAZY!!! I think I’ve attended more meetings this week than in the past 2 ½ years I’ve been in college! Another reason why this week has been so crazy is because the Sea Olympics took place this week! This was a big competition between the different seas on board, which is the term used to classify which deck/ side of the ship you live on. Each deck/hallway has a different sea name. For example: the Mediterranean Sea, the Bering Sea, the Red Sea, the Baltic Sea, etc. The best of them all is the Aegean Sea! I live on deck 2 and our sea name is the Aegean Sea! For anyone who has ever been to summer camp or participated in some form of competition involving hundreds of people, divided up into different teams, in which each team is decked out in their team color, and is screaming their teams’ chant at the top of their lungs, this is what the Sea Olympics was like.

So technically this day was scheduled on the calendar to be a Reading Day, which is supposed to be for…. you guessed it, Reading (or studying)! We’re given these reading days when we’re at sea for several days as a way to give us a break from classes. This is definitely needed because on semester at sea weekends don’t exist. Anyway, because the Sea Olympic Events took place on Reading Day, barely any reading/studying occurred. Instead, this is what happened:

First off all, imagine 600 college students who have been on a ship in the middle of the Atlantic for 6 straight days and don’t have class due to “reading day”. From 1:00pm-8:00pm students were running around the ship representing their sea by yelling, singing, chanting, as they go from event to event competing against the other seas in synchronized swimming, volleyball, 3 legged race, stacking a deck of cards, hoola-hooping, trivia, and much more!!! I wasn’t sure what to think of all of this in the time leading up to the Day of the Olympics, but in the end everyone had a ton of fun! Like I said before, not much “reading” took place, but it wasn’t our fault they scheduled the Sea Olympics on our Reading Day!  The most exciting part of all is that the Aegean Sea, my sea, placed 2^nd overall!!! Instead of receiving a silver medal, the Aegean Sea will be the second group to get off of the ship when we port in San Diego at the end of our voyage, which means I’ll get to see my mom and dad that much sooner!!!

Almost in Africa, Ghana be there soon! Ha Ha!

(Me and Veronica)