On To the Mediterranean

Date: July 19, 2008
Location: Atlantic Ocean, off the coast of Portugal
Lat: 39° 46.7N Long: 010° 6.68W

All is well on the M/V Explorer. We finally had a day worthy of the Mediterranean which we are rapidly steaming towards at 21 Knots. We should be in the Med after I wake up tomorrow, I guess I’ll miss the Rock of Gibraltar but I’ll see it on the way back.

Shipboard life is going well. We have a midterm that’s due in a few days. It was going to be due tomorrow, but there were some problems with the computer system so they pushed the date back. I guess it’s nice, I can spend some more time editing the paper and making it gleam. We didn’t have any class today so there was plenty of time to catch some rays. I took my laptop outside and typed my paper out with my shirt off, getting some nice sun in. I’m a bit burnt (sorry mom, I’ll put sunscreen on earlier next time) but it isn’t too bad. A little bit of red’s always a good foundation for a real solid tan anyway.

More happened today then just laying in the sun. I also had an intramural basketball game. We won another game by the usual way. The other team didn’t bring enough players, our whole lineup made it so we grabbed the big W via forfeit. The funny thing is that I was matched against some huge guys. I was matched against a big guy with maybe a hundred pounds and a half foot on me. I had to use some of my hockey skills to contain it but it was a mess. When he got winded, they brought in a guy who’s a skyscraper, around seven feet or so. Our team got whipped, the skyscraper was throwing down alley-oop dunks; it was all in fun. I made a basket though so it was pretty exciting.

After the hoops I decided to jump into the pool to cool off. I decided to go for a dive that sort of resembled a Fosburry Flop from the high jump. This went well except I overestimated the depth of the pool. It wasn’t like Greg Louganis or anything, but I conked my head so there’s a little bump.

However, that bump is nothing compared to the indignity of the college quiz bowl. The M/V Explorer’s cabins are divided into seas. The seas all compete with each other in events that comprise the sea Olympics. There are many fun events, such as a toga modeling contest where the toga can’t be made from a sheet. There is also a mashed potato sculpting contest where the contestants have to make a sculpture out of the potatoes following a common theme. The event I signed up for was the college quiz bowl.

This was essentially following the jeopardy format. This would be wonderful if it wasn’t for a huge format problem. There was no clear way to signal in. The way that was determined to be the best was to have the contestants stand up if they knew the answer. There were two judges who had no stake in the contest to judge who jumped up faster. This led to obvious problems. I stood up to try to answer questions, and I knew virtually all of them, yet I was only picked to answer one question out of perhaps 30. This was extremely frustrating when one person gets picked repeatedly when it is clearly not a runaway victory. Of course since the one guy who I was in the round with got an obscene lead and singlehandedly won the contest.

I had fun but it was just dumb how the format was. I suppose not having buzzers severely impacts the methodology of the game. I’m just annoyed at the principle of it because it seems that being selected was predicated on either height or location. The contestants were in a semicircle so the people that were more or less directly across from the judges were picked most often.

Apparently I’ve spent around 300 words on this. I’m not really mad about it or anything, it’s a stupid quiz bowl, and it just is a bit annoying on the principle of the thing. It was a fun time and it’s a bit ridiculous how fired up everyone got. It was fun.

Life is going well. Classes are going by; life at sea is far more fun without classes. I have plans coming together for Italy that I’m excited about. I’m going to Capri for a day, and then out to Rome for a night and most of a day, this is being rounded out with a visit to Pompeii on the last day. I’m looking forward to seeing all of Italy. Italian seems to be very similar to Spanish, so hopefully I can get someplace with the locals. I wish I could get up to Florence but it’s too hard given only having four days.

It’s another day on Semester at Sea: aint life grand.