SAS Olympics

            The Sea Olympics are a highly anticipated event in your voyage. At the beginning of the semester, your RD will have a sea meeting and will ask your sea if anyone would like to be the Sea Captain (there are typically two captains per sea, but mine had three). The sea captains help organize the Olympics, and even pick the events for the games. They are open to suggestions of course. The Olympics take place around half way through the voyage. For my voyage, they took place during our long stretch from Cape Town to Buenos Aires. They are on a study day, so there are no classes. The night before the Olympics, all of the seas will go to the Union to show off their sea banner and explain its meaning, as well as say their sea chant. It is the “opening ceremony,” so the Olympic flag will be put up in the Union. My sea, the Caribbean, was the color grey. Our sea banner theme was the 87 shades of grey, because we had 87 students in our sea. You are awarded points for every competition throughout the day, starting with the sea banner and chant the night before the games.

Here are the events for the Fall 2013 Olympics:

9:30 – Dodgeball 1^st and 3^rd Place Matches (Court, Deck 7)*

10:00 – SAS Trivia (Union)

10:00 – Spades 1^st and 3^rd Place Matched (Classroom 3)*

10:00 – Ships and Sailors (Deck 7, Port)

10:00 – Hula Hoop Competition (Glazer Lounge)

10:30 – Scrabble (Classroom 9)

11:00 – Ping Pong 1^st and 3^rd Place Matches (Pool Deck)*

11:00 – Wet T-shirt Relay (Pool Deck)

11:00 – Spoons (Classroom 3)

11:00 – Knockout (Court, Deck 7)

11:00 – Water Balloon Toss (Deck 7, Port)

11:30 – Spelling Bee (Union)        [this was a backwards spelling bee, so if your word was hippopotamus, you had to spell it s-u-m-a-t-o-p-o-p-p-i-h]

11:30 – Balloon Smash (Glazer Lounge)

12:00 – Human Knot (Classroom 3)

12:00 – Volleyball 1^st and 3^rd Place Matches (Court, Deck 7)*

12:00 – Ninja (Deck 7, Port)

12:30 – Limbo (Glazer Lounge)

13:00 – Secret Event #1 (Union)

13:00 – Pull Up Contest (Pool Deck)

13:00 – Ishkabbible (Pool Deck)

13:00 – Tank Ball (Court, Deck 7)

13:00 – Relay Race (Deck 7, Port)

13:00 – Cup Stacking (Classroom 9)

14:00 – Secret Event #2 (Pool Deck)

14:00 – Tug of War 1^st and 3^rd Place Matches (Deck 7, Port)*

15:00 – Synchronized Swimming (Pool Deck)

16:00 – Lip Sync (Union)

17:00 – Closing Ceremonies (Union)

*Because of time constraints, these events took place before the Olympics, and only the top four teams compete on the day of the Olympics.

            Everyone is encouraged to sign up for at least one event, although you do not have to. After everyone signs up for one event, you may sign up for as many as you would like. The Synchronized Swimming and Lip Sync contests are the best events of the whole Olympics, so be there early to get a good seat/view. They are some of my favorite memories! The winning sea gets a prize, and for our semester, the sea got to choose if they wanted to get off first or last in Fort Lauderdale. The Mediterranean Sea chose to get off first.