Sea Olympics

Last night was the kick off to today’s shipboard tradition of Sea Olympics! In this event, the different floors or “seas” (Aegean, Arabian, Baltic, Bering, Mediterranean, Caribbean, Yellow, and Red), compete in a variety of fun games and events. The prize to overall winning sea is getting to be the first floor to get off the ship in San Diego, avoiding a process that can take up to 12 hours!

The competition kicked off last night at the banner ceremony. Everyone gathered in the Union (the largest meeting room on the ship), to represent our seas wearing our symbolic colors and was judged on our spirit and cheers.  All of the different seas made banners to represent their floors and were judged by a panel of deans. The Union was loud and full of energy, everyone was there to win. After a long deliberation, the panel selected my sea, the yellow, and the Baltic Sea tying for first place for the most creative banner! We were so excited to have won the first event and were positive that we were going to win the competition.

Today, the real competition and events began. We divided up into small teams and competed in events like synchronized swimming, volleyball, crab soccer, trivia, limbo, hula hooping, basketball, dodge ball, three legged relay, card tower building, and categorical dress up. There was so much going on all over the ship! I was really surprised to see such a great turnout of participation for all of the events, I had such a great time.

I competed in trivia, and stayed up for hours last night practicing with my group! Unfortunately, we lost our event. We were really bummed. And later found out that the Yellow Sea had lost most of the events, which was really sad. The competition lasted from about 1 pm-5 pm and at the end of the day everyone was exhausted!

We finished up the day with a BBQ on the pool deck after all the events were over. I think that everyone had a really great time, Sea Olympics did a great job at bringing us all together.

At the end of the night we headed back to the Union for the closing ceremony. We got together first and sang, “We are the Champions.” Then we were told the winners: first place, Red Sea, second place, Aegean Sea, and third, Baltic Sea. Unfortunately my sea lost, but I think that we still did a really great job regardless.

Today was supposed to be a “reading day,” but I don’t think anyone got any school work done with all the excitement that went on today! We have three more days until we arrive in Africa, specifically Ghana and I can’t wait!