Sea Olympics

Sweet kids' faces poked through the holes for the seahorses in our banner

Once the Atlantic crossing activities were over, we also had the Sea Olympics to look forward to while traveling from Brazil to Barbados. The Sea Olympics events were intensely competitive, challenging our physical, mental, and emotional strength. As you can see below*

limbo

water balloon toss

slippery Twister, on a moving ship

Seahorses synchronized swimming. We tanked.

Faculty, staff, dependents and lifelong learners formed the SAS Seahorses team. I was proud to contribute 100 points to our historic win by acing the Backwards Spelling Bee (final word: baccalaureate). Kudos to my worthy runner-up, Kayla Simon of Nebraska.

As an elder member of the adult cohort, I also led off our lipsync medley, Evolution of Dance in Glazer Lounge (the faculty lounge, where the students were immensely curious about nighttime activities) by demanding some R-E-S-P-E-C-T.

The World Religions professor astounded students with his dance to 'Beat It'

SAS Seahorses won the whole thing, marking the first time in SAS history that faculty had won. The prize: first group to debark when we reached the US. Plus an evening in Glazer Lounge, which we donated to the 2nd place team.

*I borrowed some photos from John Dahl's blog as I can't find mine. I suspect they're on the flash drive I left at work, which is not nearly as close as Glazer Lounge or the ship computer lab were : (

Atlantic Crossing

view from my cabin

I've been home and suffering from reentry for three weeks now, but want to fill in the gaps in my blog so that I'll have a somewhat concise view of the entire voyage to share with those who ask.

So, dear readers, you might recall that we were looking ahead to a daunting 14-day transatlantic experience between Barcelona and Rio. Our faculty, staff, and students were so organized (anxious?) about preparing for it, though, that we amply filled the time with events:

• evening seminars 
• a hilarious reduced production of Hamlet with the backwards version as an encore 
• non-documentary movies (and catch-up on assigned documentaries) 
• ice cream with our library student assistants 
• talent shows by students and crew 

Neptune and Court

• halfway party for faculty and staff 
• star-gazing with the ship's outside lights off 
• Halloween dance 
• singing with the faculty and staff music club (we flash-mobbed the dining hall at lunch on a rocky day with "Wade in the Water" 
• speed-friendship-dating 
• African drumming and dancing 
• a serial reading of the entire Odyssey 
• and the highlight as we crossed the Equator--NEPTUNE DAY!

Yes, I kissed the fish. Yuck, bleah, icky-poo!

Royal Barber

and a lot of people shaved their heads

It was not all fun and music, though. Our thoughtful group created some learning opportunities to assuage the loss of Ghana and Senegal from our itinerary. We had seminars about Africa, faculty discussions about how and why the decision was made, and a very moving reading of slave narratives by students, faculty and staff as we traveled part of the very route they had endured, the Middle Passage.

photo courtesy of Marissiko Wheaton aka Koko

              

whale-watching from Deck 7