Can't Torch This

After we were all back on the ship after our various Mauritius adventures, the Sea Olympics began. We lit the sea olympics torch in our opening ceremonies, where each sea-

Hold on. Back up. Some background info.

The cabins on the ship are divided into seas, much like halls in a regular dorm. They are named after seas, such as the Mediterranean Sea, Bearing Sea, and my personal sea, the Yellow Sea. Each sea as an LLC, aka a “learning-living coordinator” who is usually a professional in some kind of working-with-people field and range in all ages. They are really awesome people. Mine is named Laurie, which is weird to call her Laurie because my mom's name is Lori which is a name I almost never say.

Ok, back to story.

-presents a flag, cheer, and mascot. Our theme was Yellow Fever, like the disease. I was a co-captain for our sea, and I was also the mascot. I went shirtless, and had post-its all over me. Our catch-phrase “no cure no hope”was written on larger post-its on my chest and the countless symptoms of the disease were written on smaller ones all over my body. I had band-aids here and there, a bloody nose, black vomit collecting in the corner of my mouth, and a bandage on my head. We presented our cheer and flag and it was awesome.

The next day was full of events like volleyball, work-out relay, pictionary, sudoku, everything for athletic people and brainy people. The seas were really into it and it was a whole lot of fun. My sea ended up taking third place, tied with two other seas out of the 10 seas there were total. The faculty and staff, some kids and lifelong learners (people who have paid to go on this voyage and continue their lifelong quest for knowledge) were in a sea called the “Oddies-C” which is a really cute pun. The professors beat me and my team mate at sudoku by a millisecond. I was sad. Oh well.

For the first time during the whole trip, I had a moment where I actually thought about home and friends and things I've left behind. I have learned that I don't really miss things when I am away, but during the synchronized swimming competition, I remembered Newsies and the Goofy Movie performances and during the Olympics as a whole I remembered camp and Maccabiah. And I thought about them both. So for everyone back at Chapman, Newsies, and Camp people, I officially say hello and thanks for some wonderful memories.