July 21-23 At Sea

So, after Andy left, we had three days at sea on our way to Russia.  We were monitoring closely all the fun things happening around Russia, worried that there might be travel advisories, but thankfully we were still planning to go.

The three days were hectic with work and activities.   The highlight around day one was the talent show in the evening.  The students/faculty/staff performed  for the first half and various members of the crew performed for the second half.  They were hilarious.  It was great to see the men and women that normally function in the dining room or as cabin stewards (did I mention someone makes your bed everyday?) on stage having fun.    The crew come from the Philippines, India, Jamaica, Croatia,  Greece, England, Russia, just to name a few countries.  A hidden part of this experience is the interaction with the crew and getting to know their backgrounds and stories.  They are amazing and extremely hard working.  Earlier in the day we got to enjoy a beautiful sail in the straits between Denmark and Sweden.  They were so close on either side of the ship, saw a beautiful castle too.

The second day at sea was a non-class day.  The day was filled by the shipboard Sea Olympics.  The students living areas are divided into seas instead of floors in a residence hall, overseen by Resident Directors.  So, in the Olympics each student sea competed against each other.  Other teams were the faculty/staff/dependents and the Life  Long Learners, not sure if I mentioned that the Life Long Learners is a program on the ship for anyone that wants to sail, audit classes and live with the students.  They are typically retired folks, but can and are many ages.

The Olympics got off to a great start with the opening ceremony.  Liam got to help carry in the Olympic flag and Shannon was the torch bearer.  The kids were totally into the Olympics,  Shannnon and I competed in the team cheer, lip sync and yes, the synchronized swimming categories.  Liam participated and almost won the Ship, Captain, Wave (Rock, Paper, scissors) competition.  Alice came in third in Sudoku.  The absolute favorite moment for me was when the two kids competed together in the stand-up comedy competition.  They were fantastic and won first place over all the students and adults competing.  You will have to ask them to do it for you.  See photos below of some of the activities, and link for more:
See olympics      By the way, the faculty/staff/dependents (families) came in second overall!

Shannon and I are in this team cheer-

Sychronized swimming to "Dayo"

Shannon and Liam watching the frozen t-shirt contest (team of two has to be creative and thaw a frozen tshirt ball enough to get it on one of them:


Day three we spent doing work to get ready for the pre-port for Russia.  Lots of cultural and logistical information to get together for this particular port.  Scared everyone silly, then was pleasantly surprised when we hit St. Petersburg.