Log 29

Yesterday was Neptune Day. Someone who has never crossed the equator is called a “polliwog”. Now after you pass the equator, there is a ritual that you do, which with transform you into a “shellback”. This ritual is actually sort of gross, but hey, how else are you going to become a shellback. So first you get fish guts and slime (water dyed green) poured on your head. The thing about that is the longer it was in the heat, the less watery it was and the more goopy it was. Then you jump overboard (into the pool). Now I want to take a sidebar here because I don’t recall telling you about the pool. The pool is basically a square cut into the floor of deck nine that they fill with seawater. So instead of chlorine burning your eyes, now you just drink salt. I think I prefer to burn my eyes. Anyway, after you jumped overboard, you climbed back onto the ship (up the pool latter on the other side of the pool) and pledged your allegiance to King Neptune by reciting and other and kissing a fish. Yes, I kissed a fish, with my lips. Then you proceeded to the great King Neptune himself, and kiss his ring. Lastly you finish at King Neptune’s sired knight where he with dub you worthy with his sword.

Then that same day from around noon and through the night, we were sailing toward a cyclone. Which sounds really cool, but is also terrifying at the same time. The swells increased, and there was thunder and lightning. My friend and I thought it was a good time to go to bed when we started seeing lightning bolts hitting the water, and thought about the fact that we were floating, in the middle of the ocean, on a metal and wooden box, so to speak. Our lovely captain steered us a little more north than our autopilot was taking us, in order to avoid the storms worse parts.

Something that is a little frustrating is that Sea Olympics is on the next no class day which is in two days. Which is great and with most likely lift moral on the ship. But that means that Sea Olympics is now the day before our next exam. There is a lot of different opinions flying around. Some people feel that they can’t participate in the games, because they have to study. And others just don’t care about the exam and are cool with it. I don’t have a preference. I am studying before then anyway so I will not have to study that day. Either way, Sea Olympics is going to happen on that day, so there is nothing people can do about that. But we have known about these dates for a while and it is on them to study accordingly.

I really want to skip global studies tomorrow. My professor for current world problems is guest lecturing about things we have already discussed in our class. Instead, I would like to spend the day out of the deck watching for any life forms. Yesterday, while skipping global studies, some people saw spinner dolphins and whales. The issue is, I volunteered to be the global studies buddy for the interport student. So every port is associated with an interport student. They come one the port before their home country, and get off at their home country. So this interport student is from Mauritius. She flew to India where she boarded the ship, and she will be left in Mauritius, where the South African interport student will board. Being a global studies buddy, it is my job to make sure the student has a seat in the front of the lecture hall and make sure that the professor Tom Taylor, introduces then at the first class after port. I don’t mind the job, but if the student doesn’t connect really well other students on the ship, to the point where they want to sit and spend time with the new friends, I remain the interport students “lifeline”.

Other than the annoyingly consistent diet of potatoes and pasta, life on the ship is good.