My experience of a lifetime Semester at Sea: Spring 2012: Ship Life

::: Sea-Sickness

I did not sleep much when we exited the Amazon River. We were in some pretty rough weather with the boat rocking a lot. It was not a storm, but we were going through an oceanic gyre which is a lot of winds caused by the rising of warm air at the equator, sinking of cold air from the poles, and the rotation of the earth(this is something we learned about in global studies). So all day Monday and Tuesday, it was rough weather. I was feeling sick after breakfast on Monday so I got the sea sick pills. They had our global studies lecture on the TV's in our room so we didn't have to go there. Everyone on the ship was feeling sick. One of my afternoon classes was cancelled because my teacher was also sea-sick. Everyone was hanging out on the pool on the 7th deck. This is towards the back of the ship and the highest you can go, which helps since you can't feel the motion as much. I think the main reason everyone got sick was because we had not been at sea for a week. We were on the Amazon River for 2 days, in Brazil for 4 days, and back down the Amazon for 2 days. Everyone is mostly adjusted now. Everyone keeps telling us how much worse it is going to be going around Africa, but until then I hope it is smooth sailing.

::: Neptune Day/No Classes

Since I did not know the history behind this special day on Semester at Sea, I looked it up on Wikipedia and it said:

"The ceremony of Crossing the Line is an initiation rite in the Royal Navy, U.S. Navy, U.S. Coast Guard, U.S. Marine Corps, and other navies that commemorates a sailor's first crossing of the Equator. The tradition may have originated with ceremonies when passing headlands, and become a "folly" sanctioned as a boost to morale, or have been created as a test for seasoned sailors to ensure their new shipmates were capable of handling long rough times at sea. Sailors who have already crossed the Equator are nicknamed (Trusty) Shellbacks, often referred to as Sons of Neptune; those who have not are nicknamed (Slimy) Pollywogs. Equator-crossing ceremonies, typically featuring King Neptune, are also sometimes carried out for passengers' entertainment on civilian ocean liners and cruise ships. They are also performed in the merchant navy and aboard sail training ships." Students on semester at sea are transformed from "pollywogs" to "shellbacks" in an initiation ceremony, involving slime smearing, fish kissing, and (optional) head-shaving.

Today I woke up early for Zumba, but 30 minutes in, the announcements came on for Neptune Day, telling everyone to go to the 7th deck. The stewards that clean our room were all dressed up and banging pots and pans walking down the halls to wake everyone up. When everyone was woke up and upstairs, the Executive Dean and his wife, Abby were brought to sit by the pool. The acted as our King Neptune. The first person to jump in was a guy who's birthday was today. He also shaved his head. There were 2 girls that I saw shave their heads, but the word on the boat is that 7 girls total did. I am not sure how many guys, but there are lots of them with either mo-hawks, or shaved heads.

Although the tradition is to do this ritual when passing over the equator, we did not cross the equator today. We have actually crossed over the equator twice, but I guess it just fit into our schedule to do it today. Four more days of classes until arriving in Ghana on Monday morning!!!