Day 38 (02-25-09)

Training tonight. The day after Mauritius is our Sea Olympics, and we have to be ready. The students on the ship are separated into different seas, and we compete against each other in a handful of events. The winning sea is able to get off of the ship first when we dock in Ft. Lauderdale. I’m not in any rush to leave, but the competitive aspect is still nice. I’m signed up for Dodgeball and the M&M Find (burying my face in whipped cream trying to find the hidden M&Ms). My sea is the Arabian Sea, and I’m our mascot. Our color is brown; we’re the Arabian UPS workers... what can Brown do for you? It’s exciting. Unfortunately, not much else is going on. Just waiting on our next port, even if we only get to spend 10 hours there.

Day 39 (02-26-09)

One of my classes was cancelled today. Professor had a stomach bug. Seasickness is running rampant now. This water is the choppiest we have had to deal with on a constant basis. Adding insult to injury, the food is the worst it’s been all voyage, so the people that feel well enough to eat don’t even want to. Gross. I’m just going to lie down for awhile and dream of dry land. Mauritius tomorrow should be fun, if not all that eventful. I think I’ll just wander around, maybe sit on the beach for a little. We’ll see.

Day 40 (02-27-09)
Well, so much for that. 10 hours in a port doesn’t really give you much time to do anything. Illness doesn’t help, either. I woke up with some kind of stomach bug and it kind of killed the day. I just walked around the port area and waterfront for a few hours, got some lunch, and came back. No beaches, no mountains. But, no worries. It was still a few hours in a country I’d never seen before. At least I was able to get off the ship and walk around. Plus, Mauritius is the only place that the Dodo Bird ever lived before it became extinct. So I can say that I’ve been there. That’s cool I guess? When we were all back on the ship, there was a barbeque for us, and the opening ceremonies for the Sea Olympics happened tonight. Each sea displayed their own flag, yelled their chant, and displayed their mascot. I think we did pretty well. Slumdog Millionaire is being shown on our TVs tonight since it just won 8 Academy Awards including Best Picture and because we’ll be in India in a week. I’ve been told that anyone going to India should see this movie first. I’m excited.

Day 41 (02-28-09)

Sea Olympics. First event: Dodgeball. Actually, this ended up being my only event because it took us over 3 hours to do the tournament. There are 10 teams, and it wasn’t single or double elimination. It was round robin. Each team played every other team. 9 Games each. Well, that turned out to be too long, so they just cut a game from everyone’s schedule to make it 8 games each. But then the synchronized swimming competition started and all the dodgeball teams lost half of their members, so they just ended the tournament with whatever progress had already been made. In the end…Arabian Sea wins the Gold. We only lost one match. 6-1 record. It was exciting. But I missed out on whipped cream/M&M action. Sad day. In the evening, they gathered us all in the Union again for medals and closing ceremonies. Our flag took the Bronze. Our chant took Silver. And my mascot-ing earned us Silver as well. Overall, we were in a 3-way tie for 3rd place over all. Not too shabby. Also, in South Africa, one of our team captains contacted a t-shirt printing company and we had Arabian Sea t-shirts made for the games. Dedication. Well, I’m exhausted and they’re showing Lost in the Union tonight, so I’m going to get caught up on that. Back to class tomorrow. Class, really? Weird.