Ship Life and the Sea Olympics

February 14 - SEX 101 Panel

Happy Valentine’s Day to all of you!  Thinking of you all and sending love your way… In honor of the day, our Student Life program was Sex 101.  I had heard from a couple of people that this was a successful event in past voyages so thought we should try it again.  We solicited questions from students in advance.  Dr. Dana (who specializes in adolescent medicine), Diego (a faculty member who is also a marriage counselor), and 3 students were the panelists.  Our program was slated for a room that holds 100.  It was packed by about 10 minutes before the program began so we scrambled to move it to the largest gathering spot.  Our best estimate is that this session drew 350 people! 

I was glad that we had compiled the questions in advance and also surprised at how basic some of the questions were.  It is apparently a mistake to assume that in the age of Google, our students can get the answer to their basic questions about sex.

So imagine me in front of 350 people launching questions about what the difference is between a circumcised and uncircumcised penis, hooking up, anal sex, sex toys (are they allowed on the ship?) and all varieties of questions about protection.  The panelists were wonderful and had just the right balance of high quality information and humor to keep things lively.  The students who were on the panel want to do a Sex 102 follow up. Still thinking about that. 

In the meantime, working on a session called Love 101 with committed couples from the staculty (the name given to faculty and staff) talking about finding a partner and what it takes to keep relationships going.  May not be the same sell-out crowd, but hopefully the topic will be interesting and valuable.

February 15-16, 2018 Sea Olympics

Several days and late nights of preparation for Sea Olympics – nicely timed to prepare for the real Olympics.  Students live in one of 6 “seas” (think resident floors, except in our case our residents can be spread across several different decks.)  Each sea has a name with a corresponding color and mascot.  I am RD for the Arabian Sea with orange as our color.  As some of you know, I put some detailed thought into what mascot to pick, researching animals in and around the Arabian Sea with an eye towards countries we might be visiting.  Camel was in the running, especially when I happened upon a stuffed animal camel in Ikea (who would have thought), but ultimately decided the Arabian Tiger was a better choice.  I found a blanket with tiger stripes (also at Ikea) and executed a last-minute purchase of Tigger as our mascot. 

In addition to the 6 seas, a team of staculty, family members (spouses, children) and life-long learners (brave souls who think it would be wildly fun to pay a lot of money to accompany 600 students on a ship around the world, take classes, and hang out together.  I will add that they are housed on the 8th deck with door-sized windows that open to the sea breeze, but I digress…) make up the 7th sea.  (No clever names this year, but a returning voyager told me this team called themselves the Luna Sea (say it fast).  Pretty cute.)

One of the RDs was tasked to be the overall coordinator of the event.  Each sea identified Captains (about 5 per sea) who helped identify events and rally their fellow sea mates.  The other RDs and a bunch of staculty volunteers staffed, judged, and otherwise orchestrated the events.  This was no small challenge on a 5-star high end vessel whose ship staff cringes at ideas like making paint available to students and anticipates injuries from reckless activities.

Each sea made a hype video (now I know that is a “thing”), developed a cheer, made a banner, created a synchronized swim routine, and did a lip sych / choreographed dance.  On top of this, there were a variety of “events” like 2v2 basketball, a ping pong tournament, a rap battle, frozen t-shirts. Ninja, relay race, whipped cream challenge, trivia and silent library.   Oh, and TP RD Animal Challenge – yes, that would be me.

Definitely a reminder of summer camp and not everyone’s cup of tea, but there was some lovely bonding and community building that happened throughout the preparation and events.  I had been told that the students would pull everything together in time, but it was still remarkable to witness. 

The Arabian Sea used the tiger blanket as a prop for their hype video – including a few cameo roles for me, wearing it.  (We got first prize for the video!  I suspect it may be on Youtube somewhere by now).  This all happened in about 2 hours at about 10 pm.

One of the men took on doing the synch swim routine for our sea—and that seemed to be a theme across the seas.  There were a lot of men sporting women’s bikinis to great hoots.

I was in charge of managing the Whipped Cream Challenge (6 grapes buried in whipped cream; no hands to remove them).  Imagine whipped cream in 80 degree weather on the pool deck and you can imagine a bit of the challenge.  And, not unlike life at  home, the audience contested our decision on the winners and someone had a video tape to do an instant replay.  Lol.

My second event was the frozen t-shirts.  Teams of 4 provide a t-shirt that is frozen in a block of ice.  The students must use their bodies to warm the shirt enough that one person can get it on, get in the pool and make it to the other side.  They had 1 chance to dip it in the pool for 5 seconds.  It literally took the teams 45 minutes of labor to complete the task.  (No hammering it on the pool deck, of course.)  One woman ended up with an abrasion she banged on their shirt so hard.  The children on the 7th sea won – with their tiny little shirt they were able to get through the ice the fastest.  It was a nice victory.

For the RD TP Challenge, my sea decided to make me into an elephant.  It was pretty cute with my hands on top of my head, they made my arms into ears and gave me a trunk out of toilet paper rolls.  The toilet paper is pretty flimsy though and I began to unravel while on stage.  We came in 5th in this event and they were very disappointed.  RD Gabe was made into a mermaid for the win.

The final event was the lip sync/dance.  Arabian Sea won this one with some great choreography by one of the students and, of course, the lead song was Eye of the Tiger.  Susan and Will had equipped me with a great play list for such events.  I was able to show I was cool because I had lots of music, but they were well-equipped without needing my stash.  It keeps me company when I hang out in my cabin.

There was much laughter and fun throughout the day.  The quintessential moment was at the end of the day when the final results were being tallied and someone put Sweet Caroline on to play.  Spontaneously students gathered on the stage of the big assembly hall or stood by their seats singing, dancing, arms waving.  A moment of sheer fun (and not a drop of alcohol, or at least none that we know about)!

Oh, but wait, my personal highlight:  When the RDs were being thanked at the end of the day, my sea broke out in a spontaneous “Mar-tha, Mar-tha” chant.  It was really sweet and I felt so honored by their appreciation!

The high-stake prizes for winning Sea Olympics were:  1st place – gets to decide if they want to disembark in Germany 1st or last; 2nd place – a pizza party; 3rd place – an ice cream party.  Alas, Arabian Sea did not win but I was proud of their spirit and energy.  (Some of them even made headbands from part of the blanket and painted their faces with black and orange stripes.)

February 18, 2018 – On Ship Life

First haircut on the ship with a scalp message to die for.  Spent 2 hours sitting outside writing up the blog from Vietnam – sunny and wind blowing my hair.  This is the voyage I thought I was going to have!

Noticing a shift in student culture.  Students are beginning to discuss how the trip is affecting them in positive ways.  Still dealing with homesickness and relationships that are fraying at home.  At the same time, some students are beginning to really blossom. 

Knock on wood, seeing less dramatic problems with alcohol.  We are discussing get rid of some of the nighttime beverage services (9-11 pm by the pool) for lack of interest.  Students seem to be rethinking whether it is worth spending $6 a drink for not-so-good wine and beer.   Even in port, though, there seems to be a smaller handful of people who are drinking beyond their limits.

I have had duty relatively few times so far – my turn is coming in the next couple of ports.  That may work in my favor as students are settling into routines. 

Had time for a leisurely dinner with a faculty member tonight.  This is feeling more like the pace I had hoped for.