Neptune Day . . . In Celebration of Crossing the Equator (last week) . . .

We DID NOT cross the equator today. We passed the equator back on the way to Brazil. But, we didn’t celebrate it then because we had a big global studies test coming up and “King Neptune” thought it would be better if we studied instead and celebrated Neptune Day today. We all heard rumors of what the day would hold, but they kept the whole thing under wraps, so no one was really sure exactly what the day would hold.

At 8 a.m., I was startled from a deep sleep by the loudest, scariest combination of drumming, whistling, singing, and pounding of metal objects that I’ve ever heard in my life. Apparently, King Neptune and his Court roamed the halls with their marching band rattling people’s door handles and generally just waking everyone on the ship up. It’s a really good thing that I had some inclination that we would be woken up with some sort of loud noise, otherwise I would have really been frightened. It was a really creepy and really loud combination of sounds. Of course, everyone pretty much went back to sleep once the noise died down. So, at 9, Queen Neptune came over the loud speaker and commanded the shipboard to report to the pool deck immediately. I really would have loved to sleep, but I was too excited to see what was going on. So, I threw on my bathing suit (with some inclination of what was going to happen), my clothes over my suit, and my hair in a ponytail and ran up to the pool deck. I was just in time for King Neptune to give his speech about being unworthy of crossing the equator and needing to prove our worth. Then it was on . . .

Here’s how it went. You walk to the edge of the pool where someone pours a large bucket of fish guts mixed with oatmeal and melted ice cream over your head. Then you jump in the freezing cold pool to wash it off. Before you can get out of the freezing cold pool, you have to kiss a real fish on the mouth and agree to being worthy of crossing the equator. Then when you get out of the pool, you pass by King Neptune’s court and stop to kiss his ring. Then, having crossed the equator and performed the ritual, you officially become a Shellback. You’d all be proud to hear that I was one of the first ten people out of probably 700 Pollywoggs (those who haven’t crossed the equator) on board to be covered in fish guts and jump in the pool to perform the ritual. The pool was freezing and it was pretty cold outside so early in the morning with no sun. So, after I got out of the pool, my hair was still covered in very smelly, gritty oatmeal and fish guts (think the smell of vomit, it was almost exact) and I was standing in my bikini freezing my butt off. I didn’t want to stay out there like that and I didn’t want to put my clothes back over and get them all gross, so I went through the ship in my bikini covered in fish guts to get to my room. That was something I never imagined I’d be doing on this trip. Anyways, I showered twice and shampooed my hair four times and still didn’t get all the grit out.

After my showers, I ran back up to deck to catch the next event, the ritual hair shaving . . . A surprising amount of students shaved their heads including about fifteen girls. I’m proud to say that two girls I’m friends with shaved their heads. They both had really long hair too. I think they are just awesome to be so brave! I would love to be that brazen. If my ears weren’t so big and strange, I might have actually considered doing it. That’s the impulsiveness coming out in me . . . Anyways, I still have all my hair in tact.

So, those were the main events of the day. After that, we had an awesome lunch of chicken fajitas and rice. Then we had the day free to do whatever we wanted. I think that I basically fooled around talking and looking at other people’s pictures until dinner. I actually did go work out for about forty five minutes before dinner too, which felt awesome.

After a somewhat bland dinner of pasta, salad, rolls, and a very yummy banana crème cake topped with chocolate frosting, I did a little more fooling around and then went and watched a movie called “Red Dust” in the Union with some friends. It was a pretty big deal as they played it in the Union, in several classrooms, and on the TVs in the rooms. It was a political thriller staring Hillary Swank based upon the Truth and Reconciliation hearings which traveled across South Africa. It was a very entertaining, enlightening, and fascinating movie. The best part was that at the end of the movie, there was a quote from Desmond Tutu about peace. If you all remember, Desmond Tutu is our honored guest on the way to South Africa.


In other shipboard news:

The Waves
The waves have seemed to get progressively worse over the past couple of days. They say that they aren’t any higher – just about 6 ½ feet, however, they are coming in a different direction. Either way, it’s hilarious trying to keep your balance as you walk and watching everyone else stumble around. Yesterday, I was up on deck when the boat rocked so hard that some of the water from the swimming pool spilled out onto the deck and basically turned deck seven into a mini wading pool. It was actually pretty funny to see. I was walking, rather stumbling, with some girlfriends down the hall last night when we decided to try walking crooked to see if it made us walk straight. Of course it didn’t work, but that’s the extent of how hard it was to walk strait at points. They made the first “secure things in your cabin” announcement yesterday too. They say that the waves are going to get pretty bad in the next couple of days. We shall see. That may just be a shipboard rumor. They’ve actually seemed better today than yesterday. I’ve gotten a little nauseous now and then, but I’ve been able to cure it with some sea sick meds. So far, so good . . .

Classes
The two days preceding Neptune Day we had classes as usual. Global Studies has been the usual combination of fascinating and boring all at once. We’ve starting to study the history and culture of South Africa. We’re focusing on the apartheid right now. I still don’t find myself doing a whole lot of studying, but I’ve been doing pretty well on my quizzes and papers so I guess that I’m doing fine. I’m also getting into a little more of a routine, so maybe the serious studying will come soon. Or maybe this is as much effort as I need to put in and I’m just overanalyzing . . .

Activities
We’ve had the standard activities for the past couple of nights. There have been some community colleges. I haven’t really been interested in any of the topics, so I haven’t been to any. I know they had one on Rwanda and one on Snorkeling. Last night there was Karaoke in the Union. It was actually really good. A lot of kids did really funny or really good performances. They’ve also started to play feature film type movies on the TVs in our rooms, which is a really fun evening activity. I watched Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind with a big group of friends the other night in someone’s room. Clubs have also been having meetings. I had another meeting for the Ambassador’s Ball Committee and a meeting for a new club that I’ve joined, FAB (floating activities board). I’m on the subcommittee that’s going to be planning the Halloween festivities. I’m actually really excited about that one. Besides that, we have only had one pub night this crossing and there is a rumor that we will only have one more. Everyone’s a little confused about this since they said there’d be one almost every night, but we’re thinking that they are trying to keep things under control while Archbishop Tutu is aboard.

Food
The food has begun to get a little bland and repetitive already. I have to admit that we do have a lot of choices at each meal though and I am impressed that we always have fresh salad and at least one fresh fruit per meal. As we near a port, the dishes start to get a little sketchy. It’s really not too bad though – just some odd mixtures such as baby carrots with a few peas mixed in.

My main problem with food right now is that I keep eating way too much of it. I think that my diet is screwed up because I haven’t been waking up in time for breakfast, I eat much more than I would usually eat for lunch, I eat dinner much earlier than I usually would, and I’ve been eating too many carbs – which just make me hungrier. I’ve even started making purchases from the snack bar and pool bistro. So far I’ve had two smoothies, two ice creams, two popcorns, three diet Pepsi, and yesterday my first cheeseburger. I swear to myself that I’m going to put a stop to this terrible diet though. I’m happy to report that I’ve worked out three times now. Once the day before arriving in Venezuela and now for the past two days. So, I think that I’ll get back on a healthy track soon. It was going to Rio with those two boys from Texas who made me eat disgusting amounts of food and meat at every meal that did it for my healthy eating, I think. *wink*

Archbishop Desmond Tutu
Archbishop Tutu is the most gentle, sweet looking man. I haven’t really had a chance to talk with him yet, but I’ve seen him walking the halls and said hello. He eats in the dining room with us for some meals too, and I know some of my friends have had meals with him. We haven’t heard anything from him yet, but I’m sure it’s coming soon. I really hope that I have the chance to talk with him personally before he leaves. I wish that I knew more about him so that I could really grasp the significance of his being here with us and take advantage of it. But, I’m sure that they’ll make sure we gain a lot from his presence here.

Our Other Guests
We also have two oceanographers from NOAA aboard for this leg of the journey. They are deploying drifters and floats during our crossing to track currents and temperatures of the ocean. I may try to go watch one of the deployments tomorrow.

So, I think that I’ve caught you up on everything . . .

Now, a personal plea to my readers . . . I seem to have gotten my message board working now. The link is at the top right hand corner of the main page of this blog. I would love to get messages so that I know who is reading. I appreciate all the e-mails that I’ve been getting, but I’d love to have your comments in one place that I can go back and look at later. A reminder (*hint, hint) – if anyone would like to send me mail, the mailing addresses are in a post which is archived under the August link. Mail makes me so happy! And mom, dad, whoever wants to send me a package – please send individual crystal light packages and healthy snacks. I can’t believe how fast I went through mine. I can get some snacks in port, but if you’re looking for something useful to send . . .

Anyways, I’ll probably do a quick update in a couple of days. Best wishes to everyone.


Position Reports

September 18, 2005Latitude 15 degrees - 13 minutes South
Longitude 035 degrees - 14 minutes West

September 19, 2005Latitude 19 degrees - 09 minutes South
Longitude 028 degrees - 19 minutes West

September 20, 2005Latitude 22 degrees - 12 minutes South
Longitude 021 degrees - 02 minutes West

September 21, 2005Latitude 25 degrees - 44 minutes South
Longitude 013 degrees - 18 minutes West