October 6, 2011
I’d love to leave a very long entry about the rich history and culture of Mauritius, but its history (starting in the 1700s) is as relatively short to all of human history as our stay was short to the length of this voyage. I was only off the ship for a total of eight and a half hours. To be fair, it was brief, but very fun excursion. I signed up for a catamaran with several of my friends and we went for a two hour float through crystal clear blue waters. We all took turns sitting at the front of the boat on the trampoline section and letting the waves wash up over us and push us back to the center. The ocean is the world’s largest public playground (not that I’ve forgotten about my lovely mountains, they’re the most fun, the ocean is just bigger.) We eventually landed on a white sand beach where we laid out and I immediately busted out the snorkeling gear and headed for the water. The ocean was warm and clear and I swam around for a solid two hours looking at all the pretty tropical fish. The coral, unfortunately, was mostly bleached out due to the rising temperature of the water, but I still had a blast in my own watery world and I have the sunburn on the back of both my legs to prove it. After snorkeling, I headed back to the beach for tanning and rum drinks. Lunch time was a very difficult time of day for us. We caught the hangries (anger caused by hunger) and stood on the beach shore looking longingly off towards our catamaran and waiting for the little shuttle boat to come pick us up. I had to keep making my brain repeat to my stomach that I had eaten breakfast and would indeed eat again soon. When we finally got lunch I managed to eat three pieces of barbeque chicken, a hot dog, a piece of fish, and a giant salad…don’t ask me how. There is a reason none of us took swimsuit pictures in the afternoon. When we sailed all the way back to the beach, Tori found that her shoes had been stolen from the big basket we’d thrown them all in. Poor girl, she’s a bit of a bad luck magnet. She was a good sport about it though and we quickly ran over to Billabong to buy her some new flip flops. We managed to jump on the bus back to the ship just as it was pulling away. On ship, the evening was an Aloe Vera and early-to-bed night.
You might be wondering what, exactly, was so very vicious on Mauritius. The answer: absolutely nothing. It was the day of great competition and the making a champions that followed. That’s right; I’m talking about the SEA OLYMPICS! The Sea Olympics is basically a giant color war. Each section of the boat is given a sea name and a color. Our sea is the Bering Sea and, unfortunately, we are orange. It’s not the most flattering color but it did help me get my fierce face on. It also helped us in the face painting competition because we had plenty of orange paint to make clown fish with. I personally participated in the banner contest, the human knot, and synchronized swimming. Our banner had a giant narwhal (the Bering Sea mascot) and a trident made entirely of glitter. My theory in arts and crafts is that it’s not good unless it’s glittery. This banner was a work of art, and in the tradition of great art, it is always underappreciated until after the artist dies. Just give it sixty years or so and our banner will be known by all as THE GREATEST SEMESTER AT SEA BANNER OF ALL TIME. You’ll see. 
The human knot was a disaster. Every time we tried to untangle ourselves, the knot just got more convoluted. By the end we were getting pity cheers from all the other teams. I died a bit inside. What were all those years of Girl Scout camp for if I can’t solve a human knot? Let us never mention this atrocity again.
I had signed up with Mary and Lauren for synchronized swimming two days before Mauritius and we didn’t find out we were officially doing it until Mauritius. This means we didn’t have a routine by the day of the competition. Luckily, we convinced our friend Collin to join us. We woke up at 7am, got in the cold pool, and busted out a routine. Girl Scouts may not have prepared me for the human knot, but my expansive store of cheesy choreography from Broadway Show Choir and the school dance team did. We made up and rehearsed our entire dance in about 45 minutes. The actual competition wasn’t until the afternoon and I think everyone of the boat showed up to watch. We chose “California Girls” as our song and we three girls wore matching orange bandana tops and cute pigtail braids. We had Collin rock the Tupac bandanna. Our routine was flawless; I have it on tape if anyone wants to see it when I get home. I think I’ve found my new calling in water handstands. Okay, not actually, but we did have a lot of fun and placed third out of eleven teams. The team that got first place was a bunch a guys who did a dance to “Barbie Girl” and the professors got second. They had four of the male staff do “It’s Raining Men.” Both acts were tough to beat so I’m proud of our standings. I also appreciated the professors’ team name: the Prof A Sea. Hehe, classic. Other events that I didn’t participate in but watched were crab soccer, dodge ball, the reverse spelling bee, tug of war, and taboo. Over all, we placed fifth (we would have gotten fourth if it hadn’t been for the yellow sea dominating us at the reverse spelling bee in the last event.) Going back to normal classes after the Sea Olympics is a letdown, but learning and stuff is cool too I guess. We’re currently sailing full speed ahead to India! I can’t wait to tell you about more of my adventures soon. Love to all. If you find yourself missing me, watch some Bollywood, it’ll be like I’m right there with you!
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