Neptune Day!!!

Alright so after much discussion on the ship, we were awoken at 7:30 AM this morning to a parade on our deck complete with drums and symbols and loud knocks on our door for the occasion of Neptune Day, a Semester at Sea ritual, for crossing the equator for the first time (yes see what i mean by rumors from my last post, you should hear the funny things people come up with, Side Note: we get a daily memo and there is something called the "Rumor Ranger" which is basically "Stupid Things Said and Overheard on the Ship then Published or Announced to Make You Feel Dumb" [see bottom of post for examples]).

Now you can only imagine how delighted I was to be awoken before 10 AM, seeing that today is a reading day and we have no classes so why not take the morning to sleep in. Apparently Semester at Sea felt otherwise, so there we were all groggy and tired being sent to breakfast with the rest of the ship. Just a Fun Fact for you, this is my second time going to breakfast on the ship because it ends at 8:30 AM, a time that usually I'm not up at or if I am it is to catch a bus for a tour and I am probably cutting it very close on my time. Anyways a majority of the ship appears to be morning people as there are people in bathing suits or dressed to start their day with smiles, my table looks like death compared to these people...

So after eating french toast and potatoes, we all head up to Deck Seven for the beginning of the festivities (note: it is now 8:30 AM). Outside the music is blasting like my alarm clock every time I hit snooze, but the place is packed to capacity which meant nobody could move, we find a spot on the tanning deck around the pool to stand, which happens to be next to four trash barrels full of Sea Water and what smelt to be like fish guts. Finally the ceremony starts with our faculty, staff, and ship crew all marching in with the same drums and symbols that awoke me just and hour prior. Last enters King Neptune (our Academic Dean in costume) and his Queen (our Executive Dean and my friend Marcus' Mom). As the ceremony proceeds we are told as "polywogs" that we need to cross the ocean (the pool filled with sea water, and mind you have the mixture in the buckets poured over your head) to ask King Neptune and the Queen's permission to pass to the other side. However you must also kiss a fish (a real fish from the ocean that's now dead) and then kiss the King and Queen's rings and bow to them and then you will be Knighted and be transformed into "shellbacks".

So it would only make sense that my friends and I would be the first 20 people to partake, me being the third person to jump in. The slime mixture smelt like low tide and then jumping into the pool made it smell worse, but it was a liberating experience all in all. It was as if you were being baptized by the ocean and for that moment you just went with whatever was around you. I did kiss the fish, luckily i know the two girls who were ahead of me, and i was glad that I was not person 230 who got to kiss that fish, as it had been around the block as few times by then. Then i kissed the rings also before the germs started to really get passed around and bowed, then was knighted and became a shellback! Oh and right as you were knight this all happened in front of Archbishop Desmond Tutu, (if you don't know who he is, He is famous enough to be found on Wikipedia) the honorary voyager of this voyage and his wife, Mrs. Leah Tutu.

Then on the other side of the deck by the bar was the optional head shaving ritual, meant mostly for people with long hair to well shave their head. A lot of the girls on the ship took part in this including my friend, Amy who looked ecstatic, liberated, and proud of herself for daring to do it even if people outside SAS will give looks. I think it was really cool to see all the girls who just decided to take a chance and do it, and whats even better is that all the hair is going to be donated to make hair pieces, so all that extra hair will not go to waste.

So all these festivities ended around 10 AM, the time I usually get up at so power nap until noon sounds like a plan until then I leave you with "Serious Comments made by SAS Members"

"I'm tired from walking up the stairs is the ship at a higher elevation now"

"Does everyone who goes to the Doctor's automatically get Drug Tested"

(My Personal Favorite) "Does the crew sleep on the boat?"

Later All,

Ed