Middle of the Indian Ocean

October 15th, 2005
The past couple of days have been pretty interesting. We have been spending a ton of time preparing for our synchronized swimming competition although we have not had any water in the pool since we left Mauritius. Which makes doing the whole synchronized swimming part a little difficult. We did although decide that we wanted to do the first dance routine that is in the gym of the movie Old School as well as for AJ and I to tie in the ribbon dance routine at the gym part of old school that Will Farrell does at the end of our routine. As you probably imagined the reason why there is no water in the pool is because the ship has been rocking so much. Now when I say this don’t think that the waves are so bad that everyone is sick (although some people are) most everyone has gotten the sea legs and is oust to the huge waves when they come although I don’t think you ever get oust to being thrown off your balance and into the walls which occurs occasionally. But because of the waves we are trying to plan both a routine not only for the water but also for the possibility that we will have to perform in the union.
We also had our cheer committee try to teach us our cheer or chant for the Olympics that opened up tonight. As you can imagine between 700 students on 9 different seas (or teams) some of the chants got pretty interesting. I would say that the one our committee came up with was PG 13 but I am choosing not to it if you would like to hear it you can email me that request.
We were also notified that if we wanted a seat in the Union to watch the opening ceremonies of the Olympics as well as the talent show that we would need to arrive early to get a seat. Because of the size of the union they were only going to allow 35 people from each sea to sit in designated sections and everyone else had to sit in one of the satellite rooms around the ship to watch the show. Because of this AJ and I got in about an hour and a half early and got seat on the front row. We were actually able to watch a couple of the practices of different talented groups that were in that nights show. One of which had a choreographer student from Iran that took her job really serious (image the Seinfeld episode with the soup Nazi and make him a dance instructor and you’ve got our girl)!!!! But after sitting in there for about 45 minutes or so they made us leave the union so they could set up which forced a ton of people out into the hall. That’s when it all got interesting the yellow sea got control of the front and forced all the other sea to the back and they all began yelling there chants at one another. Finally when we got in AJ and I were able to get the two front row seat which put us in charge of running the banner up and down the aisle before everything started. While doing this we aren’t paying much attention to what’s behind us when eventually we realize that the global studies professors wife had fainted and was lying in the aisle.
She was out for a pretty good time which is pretty scary when you consider that we are in middle of the Indian Ocean. A little while later we got to hear the Captain come on and do his “Attention ships company attention ships company code blue 6th deck union code blue 6th deck union”. Luckily for the lady the SAS doctor and two RNs and two retired doctors were in the union already but it didn’t take two long for the crew doctor and staff to be upstairs with a military stretcher to remove her from the union. We found out later that she was ok, just tired, hungry and overwhelmed.
When the Opening Ceremonies finally started they paraded in the kids onboard with flashlights that looked like flames that lit a big thing in the middle that looked like they lit the Olympic torch that was really cool with the music in the background. The rest of the evening was filled what all kinds of different singing, dancing and other entertaining acts. But there was one that was pretty funny the Captain come on again and said “Attention ships company attention ships company the barring sea balers are now conducting their tryouts for the talent show in the union” which was filled fool of all kinds of hysterical impersonations with a few more commentaries by the captain. After the talent show was over our team was assured that there would be water in the pool and that we would be able to perform as originally planned.
October 16th, 2005
This morning AJ had to get up really early to do his monopoly tournament and I got up shortly after which I am glad that I did because all of the different events were hilarious. I spent most of my time watching musical chairs as did a lot of the ship. It was in the union and started out with three team members from each sea including one which was made up of the adult/faculty/staff. They were playing some of the funniest music and people were dancing and singing along all over the union. AJ and Alberto ended up getting 2nd place in the monopoly and then we spent the rest of the afternoon practicing in the pool and getting ready for the synchronized swimming that was to occur at 3:00pm. Since we weren’t able to find any yellow Speedos in Mauritius we made homemade Speedos out of yellow duck tape as well as painted our bodies with yellow paint ( all things that were found by our yellow sea on the ship for the event). We definitely looked pretty hilarious so just as we make it to the pool and are about to step outside someone tells us that they had just postponed the event till 7:00pm and that we would be performing it dry in the union. This is because it was raining earlier and the tile around the pool were wet and the captain didn’t want anyone slipping and getting hurt. Sorry but when the first performers get out of the pool they are going to get that same tile wet with or without the previous rain. Yet to say we were incredibly mad at this news especially considering they make the announcement over the intercom 10 minutes after the event is suppose to start.
So we end up deciding that we are going to do it anyways and that we are going to just get several people to tape it and that we will just show the video of the performance during our given time slot tonight. When Drew (who lives on our hall and is on the Olympic committee) says that the dean has decided that he is not going to allow any showing of videos with water in it during tonight’s performance. When we finally got everything in order there was a pretty large crowd that had collected and we did our performance perfectly. It was so funny and everyone died laughing, including us after we watched it on video. Some of us in the group weren’t happy especially me about them canceling it being in the pool and considered not performing at all that night if they wouldn’t show the video of the performance. We finally ended up giving in and decided to make the best of it.
We ended up changing a few things as well as costumes because all of the duck tape and paint came off in the pool. We were the 2nd group to perform in the synchronized swim off, and we had Andrew had gone over all the lighting with the technician before we started including having the lights almost completely off when we walked in. We walked in with our heads down and right when we got into position we ripped off our shirts with our swim suits showing and the first song up was lion king but we just let it play a couple of seconds. Then that song “everybody dance now” came on and we did the old school dance, then a classical song, Madonna, du hast me (where AJ and Alberto lifted Tiffany up), spice girls, and finally the last ribbon song from old school where Alberto and Andrew lifted up Tiffany again. It was pretty amazing and we were the only group to get a standing ovation (that lasted like 2 or 3 minutes) who would of thought a bunch of guys who had never danced before could have done something like that (although Tiffany had done dance for many years and Johanna our choreographer had done it for many years as well).
It was funny because when we came off stage everyone was like did you hear me screaming, I screamed the whole time and I was like actually no. All of our group said the same thing we were so serious and into it none of us could remember much of any of it. But don’t worry I have lots of photos and the video of it so you can all watch it when I get back if you want.
As far as today there is not a lot going on, the weather outside is great because we are in middle of the Indian ocean, the captain filled up the pool with salt water this time so the water is hot which I will probably go sit out by later , I am done with classes for the day, and we have a pub night tonight.
Looking forward to India it will pretty interesting going to a country with over a billion people one of which like 82% are Hindu. Today we learned that of all the countries besides India there total population is less than half that of India. We have been studying a lot about the Indian culture as well as the Hindu especially as well as the Muslim, and Islamic religions. Which is nice because so many of my friends are Indian and I know before I had no real grasp of their culture which now after my studies I feel as if I am. And I am sure after we return from India I will have even more of a grasp. The Dean said that most people either love or hate India but that either way it is extreme one way or the other that there is rarely any in between. It is my hopes to go with a positive attitude, an open mind, and hopefully I can come back with that love. I know I have talked your ear off and that there are very few that will actually read all of this. But for those of you still reading I hope that you are all doing well and I love and miss you all very much!!!!

chow!!!

Chad