Sea Olympics

One of the most anticipated days at sea, Sea Olympics, involves silly “Olympic” games including hula hoop, HORSE, lip synching, jeopardy, synchronized swimming (which could also be called “wardrobe malfunction competition” because several occurred with women’s bathing suit tops; the picture shows the lifelong learners for No Mercy), etc. It is a great way to build community with some healthy competition at the same time. My hallway, or sea, is the “Bering Sea.” This is the sea of 46 student residents I work with to build community and monitor behavior and safety. Much to my sea’s chagrin, Chris represented “Nomer Sea” (no mercy) comprised of faculty, staff, and life long learners. He went where his paycheck comes from, or so he justified. He also claims he can only compete alongside other champions in life (Chris added this line, of course).

There are many events leading up to this grand day of competitive events, such as a pep rally with skits (See No Mercy's in the picture), sign up meetings, cheer and banner creation, and an opening ceremony with Desmond Tutu yelling, “Let the games begin!” Due to my small sea, I signed up for two events: tug of war and rock, paper, scissors. We lost quickly at tug of war and we placed 3rd in rock, paper, scissors. I teamed up with two other students who seemed a bit shocked by my competitive streak as I passed out strategy downloaded from the internet and suggested we practice. Well, it worked and we placed! The judges kept getting irritated as I celebrated my victory each time by throwing my hands in the air vs. showing them my hands for proof. I kept forgetting in all the excitement!

Chris competed in a game that involved passing an orange along a line of people via chins. They got just about last. Overall, No-Mercy won 3rd place in the competition and my sea earned 6th out of 10 teams. I was pleased considering the last minute rush and having fewer students to compete.

The Sea Olympics were a ton of fun and I really do hope it built even more community on our sea.