Equatorial

Zero degrees Longitude- 2/10

Neptune Day. Hundreds of myths surround the day that marks a ship’s passing from one hemisphere to the other. People say that sailors in the navy are covered in fish guts and then thrown overboard. That’s not exactly how it happened on semester at sea, but it was a very different day.

They cancelled our classes but didn’t really give us any schedule ahead of time to tell us what this was all going to be about. A 7:30 am pots and pans wake up call with our cabin stewards running up and down the hallways covered in tin foil and war paint was, needless to say, and interesting way to start the day.

Everyone had breakfast and then at around 9am there was an announcement “Calling all pollywogs to the rear deck!” (To clarify: all sailors are considered “pollywogs” until they go though the rite of passage of crossing the equator and become “shellbacks”). With our captain and crew covered in paint and ridiculous outfits, almost all 700 students went through the ritual.

We were covered in a green slime, kissed a fish on the mouth, bowed to the king and jumped in the ice cold pool. It was ridiculous but so much fun. Then probably about 100 students, boys and girls shaved their heads. It was crazy. It looks like we have a bunch of oversized babies running around the ship it’s hilarious. I have a lot of respect for the people who did it, but I was not one of them. I think my ears stick out just a little too much to pull off being bald. We spent he rest of the day just hanging out in the sun (proven by my minor sunburn, its true what they say about the sun being a little tiny bit stronger near the equator) and they had a huge barbeque for us last night which was wonderful. We officially crossed the equator today at about 3:15pm. No, there is not big line that goes across the ocean, but it was pretty cool. I’m officially a shellback.

Being at sea for another 9 days is rough. I woke up this morning feeling pretty sick, I’m not really sure why, so I’ve just been resting all day. I haven’t eaten much so hopefully I’ll make it to dinner. The food on the ship is good but pretty repetitive; we have pasta and potatoes in some form at every meal and peanut butter and jelly sandwiches have made a surprise recurring role in my life at age 20. I’m really convinced that in some time warped way semester at sea is responsible for the Irish potato famine. I swear I’ve never seen so many potatoes in my whole life. They must have a whole section of the kitchen freezers dedicated to just potatoes. I’d even bet there’s someone whose job it is solely to chop the potatoes into different shapes to make us feel like we’re eating different things. When I asked one of the Jamaican waiters exactly how many potatoes we had on board, his response was “Oh we got a whole lotta potatoes mon!” I think that statement pretty much covers it.

Classes have been going well. It’s a VERY weird schedule since we have classes for 9 days in a row even on Saturdays and Sundays and then we go for another 10 days without any class at all. Because of this schedule I now have no concept of what day of the week it is. I could tell you if its an A day or a B day for classes or if we’re in port, but that’s about it. I apologize in advance for forgetting birthdays since I also struggle with the date. Hopefully that will get better. I’m finally now getting used to being on a 2400 hour time schedule. That was trickier than I thought.

Classes are going well. I had to give a speech today and I have a midterm on Thursday (which is funny because we’ve only had 6 days of that class) but hopefully all of that will go well. I really like all of my professors, its really different having them live with us. We see them at meals and around the ship. One of my teachers talked about it on the first day and said that we were more than welcome to skip class but that we shouldn’t assume that it won’t be awkward when we see them at lunch later that day. Very true statement.

I’m really excited for Namibia. We are going on a desert camping trip. We don’t know exactly what that means, but it should be a blast. The girl who is running the trip is actually in one of my classes to I trust that it will be a good experience. We are going to try to buy sandboards in port and take them with us to ride them on the dunes. It will definitely be interesting.

That’s all I’ve got as far as updates for now. I really miss all of you and hope you’re all happy and healthy wherever you are!

Sea you later!