Sea Olympics

Every voyage, one of the Semester at Sea resident directors has the privilege of organizing the Sea Olympics. The Sea Olympics is a day of no classes on the ship where students, staff, faculty, lifelong learners, and dependent children participate in a variety of events including soccer, twister, limbo, sock wrestling, flip cup, ping pong, board games, trivia, basketball, etc.

This year the Olympics occurred for the first time while we were passing through the Suez Canal, during our eleven day sail between Chennai, India, and Alexandria, Egypt. Teams are organized based on the “seas” where one lives; seas are akin to a residence halls on a land campus. Team names include the Yellow, Aegean, Adriatic, Mediterranean, Caribbean, Baltic, Adriatic, Bering, and Red Seas.






Then, of course, there is the sea made of faculty and staff known as the Dead Sea. Our battle cry throughout the Olympics was “Not dead yet! Not dead yet!”

And we weren’t! As we made our trek through the Suez Canal, we emerged fifth…a respectable finish given the depth of the field. I participated in both the limbo and the synchronized swim team events (I knew my experience in fourth grade on the synchronized swim team would pay off someday--look at those pointed toes). Two faculty members, two faculty member’s wives, the assistant executive dean, and yours truly gave a performance that was memorable if nothing else. Pictures are below…Who says there isn’t time for Beijing 2008????