My Semester at Sea Voyage: Neptune Day

March 12, 2011 marked Neptune day for the Spring ’11 SAS Voyage. Neptune Day is a nautical tradition marking when a ship crosses the equator. For SAS, Neptune Day depends on the Captain’s availability, so even though we’ve already crossed the equator a few times and I’m not even sure we did on this day, it was still a good time and I’m not complaining. I woke up to the crew banging instruments and knocking on doors at 7:30 in the morning to get everyone up. Around 9, the actual ceremony started. Our deans all dressed up in ancient Roman costumes and Captain Jeremy dressed in a toga and was completely painted green to be the Roman god of the waters, Neptune. The opening ceremony may have been cheesy, but it was still great.

The ceremony to go from a pollywog to a shellback put everyone through the ringer. People who wanted to participate got into the side pools in pairs, where the crew poured fish guts on top of us. Dr. Bill would never approve of this so all we had to deal with was green water that I think was mixed with fish oil. After the pouring, we jumped into the pool, which was also green and fishy, and swim to the deck. When we got to the deck, we had to kiss the rings of the Captain and our Academic Dean, Lisa Reilly, who was the Roman God Minerva. I got to shake Dean Dan’s hand to finally earn my certificate of honor. The other nautical tradition, which was optional for SAS, is to shave your head once you cross the equator. My hair grows pretty fast so it was really just like a free haircut for me. After waiting in the really unorganized mob by the pool bar, my friend Jake finally shaved my head. A lot of the hair was donated to Lochs of Love, but I think my hair was too short for it to be donated. I think Jake did a good job. There were a couple of hairs that didn’t get cut, but for the most part, it looked pretty good. Barely a week later, my hair is back to a normal length, and according to Elizabeth, it’s really soft.

After completing the ceremony, I went to Professor Hon’s (who is also my “father” in my Extended Family) talk on the earthquake and subsequent tsunami in Japan, which was really interesting because with the internet, I didn’t know a whole lot about the situation, and I know nothing on geology. In case you readers haven’t heard, we are no longer going to Japan and are going to Taiwan instead. After the talk it was taco day, which was amazing, and then took sea wide photos, as well as an all ship photo. At night, everyone met with their cultural reflections groups, which are small groups which meet and just talk about the countries and our experiences so far. Other than that, the day was free, which was a much needed rest from school. It was especially nice because India was so exhausting, and it was only three more days until Singapore!