Day 49 –Sea Olympics

I woke up at 8:30 energized for the day. It was time for the Sea Olympics! They had been hyped for days on the ship, and previous students mentioned the Sea Olympics as a highlight of the trip.

At 9:00 we had our sea meeting, I got decked out in orange paint. I was already wearing my dirty Occidental shirt, my orange swim suit, and my orange Warriors hat, but I figured I needed more orange. So I painted tiger stripes on my arms and put paint under my eyes.

Then a crew of about ten or so hopped around the ship doing our sea chant. It went “B, A-L-T-I-C, S-E-A, B, A-L-T-I-C, S-E-A, B-B-B-AL, T-T-T-I-C, B-A-L, T-I-C, BALTIC SEA!” I’m sure you have no idea the rhythm from that poor attempt, but I figured I’d give it a shot.

My first event was crab soccer, which I was stoked for. I hadn’t played since elementary school, but I really enjoyed it as a kid. I feared I would suck, though, considering I’m not nearly as nimble as I used to be.

I turned out that I did not suck, because no one was as nimble as they used to be. I was actually pretty good. Unfortunately, we lost 2-1, but we played the best team. And we played them tough; they only ended up winning on a late goal.

After soccer, I showered and got into costume for the dance. As with many things from this trip, the dance is better described by the digital media I have rather than in words. I’ll just say that it came out good, but unfortunately not great. We were easily in the top half, though, with regard to the most entertaining acts.

But while at the lip-sync contest, they showed the standings. And to my dismay, our sea was near last place. Even though I was competing for fun and not to win, I was discouraged by the results. I at least wanted the illusion of competition. In my mind, we were already out of it. So I lost interest. And this was unfortunate, because cool events remained. But I just no longer cared.

So I took advantage of the opportunity and went to Megan’s room. I asked her if she wanted to finish the movie we were watching, “Wet Hot American Summer” (sounds much dirtier than it is; it’s a comedy). She accepted, and, just as I had planned, we subsequently made out. Yay Max!

After doing that for a while, I went to the special BBQ dinner. It was absolutely scrump-diddly-umptious. I had a double cheeseburger and probably 10 ribs. And they had this special seasoned bread which was super tasty. Great meal to cap off a great day.

Though I suppose the phrase “cap off the day” is not particularly appropriate, because my day did not end there. After dinner was Closing Ceremonies, where we learned the overall winners of the Sea Olympics and the winners of the bigger events, such as the lip-syncing contest and synchronized swimming. Unfortunately, my sea did not place in either lip-syncing or overall. Bummer.

Immediately following the Closing Ceremonies, SeaTV premiered in the Union. Our broadcast got a great review, which was cool. And people particularly enjoyed my segment. My lone disappointment was that my favorite line—“I didn’t think I’d be able to poop but poop is coming out as we speak”—was cut without my knowledge. I later learned that was an executive decision made by the teacher. I guess she’s gotta look after her job or whatever.

Afterward, at long last, Tolan and I finished How to Pick up a Latin Chick. Once we finished, Tolan was actually concerned that it wasn’t funny. We had been playing it for so long that it had lost its punch. And when he became concerned, I, too, worried it wasn’t funny. But when we called in his roommates and played it for them, they absolutely loved it. They said it was significantly funnier than our first song, which was a big hit. So I went to bed quite content and ready to perform.