We had the sea Olympics… pretty interesting since our events included pie eating contests, mash potato sculptures, synchronized swimming, and some other wacky events.  The ship's living quarters are divided into sections, like a regular school, with Resident Directors to keep the peace and scold people when they walk around barefoot.  Each section is named after a sea or ocean and gets to select a mascot to proudly represent them during the Olympics. 

My section of the 3rd floor is the Caribbean Sea and we are none other than the Pirates of the Caribbean (Aarh!).  I have to say, when you are trying to intimidate the opposing team, its helps to be a mean pirate rather than the Red Sea's "Moses parting the Red Sea" or the "Green Boogers" who I think belonged to the Mediterranean Sea. 

The ceremonies started off with the lighting of the torch (not a real one of course), followed by the talent show, a showcase of talent and silly stupidity, all very entertaining.  We had opera singing, guitars, piano, acting, dancing, boys in drag, a stand up comedian, SNL's "the perfect cheer", and anything else you can think of, we had it all.  I'm more into comedy than anything else, so my favorite stuff was the comedic video the Vitamin Sea made, the Murphy jokes, and the "I'm in love with Tanya Storch" part of the stand up comedy.

The Vitamin Sea is the "grown up" section of the ship, the faculty and staff and their family members (who get to come for only $2000, good deal!). They made a video about all the adults on the ship being
actors who auditioned for roles and are pretending to be real professors and staff on the ship.  The video showed them auditioning which is hilarious because you see them imitating each other.  And the Captain says he got the role cause he's the only one who can do the British accent.  I think it's only funny if you are actually on the ship and know the people. One of the teachers says "well they (the producers/writers) gave me these lectures (to teach to the class) and I told them they didn't make any sense and they told me they're not suppose to make sense."  Then the people auditioning for Murphy were imitating him. 

Murphy is our global studies professor who's here with his beautiful wife and 2 of his kids.  Global Studies is the class we do everyday that teaches us about the countries we are going to, it's a huge lecture for the whole ship.  Well, he, like any other person, uses the same phrases on a regular bases.  For example the word pregnant to mean "with a lot of"… "the film is pregnant with information."  And during his lectures he repeats the important things 3 times, mind you there are a lot of important things: "security, security, security."  So a lot of people imitated him for comedy and it was quit effective.  We all love him of course but anyone who uses the word pregnant that much and isn't referring to a baby is bound to end up in a few jokes.  Well, he ended up in quite a few jokes through out the evening and being imitated at least by 5 different people- it never got old.

The last and possibly the funniest thing I've heard in months was the Tanya skit. One of the guys on the ship is a total stand up comedian.  So he did his bit joking about different things and people on the ship.  In the middle he starts talking about some girl he likes who won't pay him any attention and he talks about how he keeps trying unsuccessfully to talk to her.  Then he says it's Tanya Storch
he's in love with, my religion teacher. You remember her right? The crazy hippy genius. She's beyond eccentric and she's kinda clairvoyant (I of course completely adore her) but it's histerical to think some 20
year old dude has a crush on her. 

Anyway, maybe you have to know Tanya to understand how funny it was… but then, what made it better was that I found out that it was TRUE!  He really does have a crush on her! I think a lot of things are hard to explain to people at home because our experiences are so specific. We are living in such a tight space,
sailing for days on end. No one knows the date or what day of the week it is or what time it is at home or anything.  When we are in port we make so many jokes that no one at home can understand because they
haven't been exposed to the locals and the beggars and the sights that we have.  This is why they say that kids on Semester at Sea tend to bond and they remain friends for a long time. No one at home can ever fully appreciate the vast joy that comes from the words "It's Taco
Day!"