It’s so indescribable you just have to admire the pictures and realize that it looks about 500 million times better than that in person looking off into the horizon. The whole world seems almost like a dome that we are sailing through (like in Truman Show, I feel like we’re going to run into the edge of it any day now). I swear sailing through the equator is sailing through the heavens. Especially the night we crossed it, the stars were unbelievable! We had an astronomy/physics major friend out there with us telling us all about the stars, constellations, and with his astronomy laser pointer (which could reach all the way to the stars to point them out!) was showing us all of them. He would explain that this is the most amazing he’s ever seen the night sky (and needless to say he’s studied his fair share of skies) and we were seeing stars and constellations that cannot be seen anywhere else in the world. Not to mention we were officially in the southern hemisphere so we were seeing stars that only exist in the southern hemisphere that we have never seen before! We could even clearly see the milky way star dust swiftly painted across the stars! The skies, both day and night, sunrise, sunset, sunlight and moonlight, have just been gorgeous. Sometimes I wake up and look out my window and seriously think I must still be dreaming—I must be inside a painting.

Anyways, onto why you all are most likely pollywogs and Trevor and I are seasoned Shellbacks. WE HAD NEPTUNE DAY TODAY!!!!!!! Neptune Day is a semester at sea tradition observed by all of the ship, which is based on the very old Navy tradition of equator line-crossing.  It is a ceremony consisting, both in the navy and on the ship, of being slimed with fish guts, swimming across the pool to kiss a fish, kissing king Neptune’s royal ring, and being pronounced as a shellback, or an official son or daughter of Neptune. Then all the navy boys would get their heads shaven as paying respect to Neptune and celebrating the tradition… Semester at Seaers of course, did the same thing.  Luckily, we, unlike the navy boys, had a choice!!! By the way, King Neptune is the God of water and sea in Roman mythology and thus it is an honor to be crowned a shellback by crossing the equator in his waters.

We woke up the morning to the crew drumming and chanting through the halls dressed up fully in white and gold king Neptune attire (carrying gold tridents as well), from there we headed up in our swim suits to the back deck pool area where the ceremonies would take place—there were already  a bunch of pollywogs lined up ready for the fish slime (which was real fish guts--- mixed with green koolaid—so it wasn’t AS harsh as the real tradition—but we still smelled like fishies after. ) Trevor went first as I watched them pour a pitcher of slime straight onto his head, he then swam across to kiss a fish being held by our dean of students, and then kiss the bright jewel rings of two people dressed up as King Neptune, and then be crowned a shellback with the trident of our one and only global studies teacher, Don Goniat.  I went after him and did the same, squirming with the green slime all over me, and unhesitatingly kissing that fish! I was happy to be a shellback finally… and then it was time for the next part of the ceremony. Dozens of people were lined up to get their head shaven while everyone watched. A ton of girls (ICK!) and boys were doing it, so Trevor got in line. His hair had gotten LONG by this time, so it was a perfect opportunity for him to do what he’ll only do once in his life… shave his head! When it got to his turn I successfully pleaded with the person who was supposed to shave it off and he handed the trimmers over to me!!!! I got to shave off Trev’s hair stripe by stripe until he was one of the many baldheads on our ship. I gotta say though, he looks really good with no hair!!! I kissed his head after I finished for good luck and everyone cheered. Some random guys were even like, dude you look good like that.. now lets just hope it doesn’t get sunburned by the equator!

After the festivities we laid out in the beaming sun for a while, got some brunch at the pool bar, hung out with our friends, and got some global studies reading done outside in the sun (our global studies test is tomorrow unfortunately!—but don’t worry we didn’t let it stress out our awesome Neptune day) Then at 4pm we went outside to reserve one of the few tables out on the pool deck because there was to be one of the very few and very yummy poolside barbecues in honor of Neptune Day.. our friends joined us and we ate amazing barbecue chicken and marinated steak along with a gorgeous display of tropical fruits and a sundae bar. The barbecue was going right on the pool deck, making for a great ambiance. These barbecues are like a twice-in-a-voyage occurance we think so we take what we can get and ate like the shellbacks we were, savoring every delicious bite!