Board games, hippies and ABBA

There's a narrow hallway on the Queen Mary 2 that sits between the tea room and sales office. In this magical corridor, the tables that line the wall are piled high with scenic puzzles and Scrabble boxes in 3 different languages. Since being on the boat, I've learned to love Scrabble (I've never played before, amazing right?) even though I'm 0 for 3 against Mang-Git so far. I still have my dignity, though, because deep down I know that my plays of "enigma" and "Jews" (which was tripled by the way, making my 14 point word into a truly original 42-point game changer) make me more deserving of the win than Mang-Git's attempts at playing words he learned from his Java book.

Today's after-dinner activities consisted of an ABBA-themed dance party and listening to a ~20-person group of traveling musicians play electric indie music on the top floor of the boat. Re: the ABBA clubbing experience, things didn't really get interesting until they started jamming to "Dancing Queen" and "Fernando" (my mom's favorites), at which point I joined in. I made sure not to take out any old woman's shoulders again, and tried not to think so much about how strange it was to have sequined blazers and velvet floor-length skirts rubbing against my arms and legs.

We eventually made our way upstairs to the top deck where there is a pool with a large lounge area and stage set up for a live band. There, we met up with a handful of other young people and listened to individual artists who are part of a tour group, the "Pleasant Revolution". They were a really interesting bunch - everyone in the band who was on the Queen Mary 2 was from around the US (mostly west coast states, or somewhere out in the American boonies), wore tattered hemp clothing, sported dirt under their fingernails, and had names like Cello Joe, Genie and Laughter. The Pleasant Revolution is apparently doing a Eurotrip this summer, touring in different cities around the continent by bicycle. No kidding, they really plan on riding their bikes some thousands of miles with their guitar, drum and amp sets, from city to city, stopping only to perform at indie music festivals. They even had a chef and personal masseuse tagging along with their own apparatus as well. Apparently at their performances, they have audience members power their stereos and instruments by pedaling on a stationary bicycle, which all aligns with their greater cause to promote environmentalism. For the most part, though, the musicians all seemed like leftover flower children that never quite made it to the 70's. I guess you meet all sorts on the Queen Mary 2.