Becca and I decided to wake up at the crack of dawn. Literally. We woke up to watch the sunrise right along the Equator. We didn’t have classes today so we woke up at 0600 for a 0615 sunrise. The sky was pitch black when I got up and it was hard to believe that the sun would be coming up in a matter of minutes. Apparently near the Equator it’s really dark right before the sunrise and then it gets dark almost immediately after sunset.
It was cloudy out, but the light shone through and was beautiful. It took almost a full hour for the sun to manage to poke out above the clouds on the horizon. The water was pretty calm. It felt so great to be up with the sun. Shannon and I were up on the 7th deck taking pictures. The three of us got breakfast and enjoyed the start of the day.
Becca and I were supposed to go to the gym after breakfast before the festivities of the day. But when I was back in my room I heard pounding and drums. I looked out of my cabin to see the crew members dresses in white sheets with tin foil shields, hats, and weapons. They were drumming and knocking on everyone’s doors to wake them up at 0800 to start out Neptune Day.
Neptune Day is something that sailor’s celebrate when they first cross the Equator. Typically they go through an initiation where they get fish guts poured on them, then they jump into the ocean, they have to kiss a dead fish, then shave their heads.
Becca and I put on our bathing suits and headed up to the 7th deck pool area. Everyone gathered around the pool to see what would happen. A few minutes later the crew drummed up with Dean White, Crabtree and his wife, a bunch of the staff, and a few of the teachers’ children in tow. They were all dressed in white. Crabtree had on a crown. They processed up to the front of the pool and addressed us that we’d be changing from Pollywogs to Shellbacks as we got initiated. They chose several people to go first through the initiation process. Becca and Victor were two of the chosen.
The crew dumped a green liquid that smelled rancid onto them, then they had to jump into the pool, then climb out and kiss a real dead fish that Cindy was holding, kiss Crabtree’s wife’s ring, then his ring and be dubbed with a sword by Dean White. Everyone went through the process and the pool changed from a light blue to a murky green.
Then they started the head shaving process. A ton of people shaved their heads. Girls included. I was sad for them as I watched them chop off their long locks. I can’t believe how many girls shaved their heads. I did not. As I’m sure you all know, I love my hair and can’t imagine not having any. I feel sorry for all those that did. Some of the girls look amazing with shaved heads. Others…not so much. More power to you for shaving your head, but it’s definitely not for me. Bea and I were discussing it, it’s cool on here while we’re all together and we know the meaning, but when May comes and you’re back in your regular life, it’s not going to be the same. I’ll be curious to see how that goes. One of my friends shaved her head except for a mohawk. It looks awesome.
The rest of the day was spent studying for the Global Studies and Anthropology tests the next day. Well, not the whole day, a lot of it was spent chilling outside and doing random things since we had the entire day off from classes. Dinner was a BBQ like for the Sea Olympics. It was delicious, it was BBQ chicken and other delicious foods we never get. And then there was ice cream.
After dinner was the Talent Show. We went a little early and got good seats up front so we could see everyone and tape Mason’s poem. Everyone who performed was amazing. It was about two hours long, but it flew by. I was so ready for bed by the time it came around.
No comments:
Post a Comment