Profile
Blog
Photos
Videos
Leaving Salvador was tough. It’s so hard to get back into the routine of going to classes and all that jazz after you’ve been playing in a foreign country for 5 days. We were all extremely exhausted on Thursday. I got up for my 8am class and then slept from 9:30 til 12:45. I’m glad I woke up then because I had class at 12:55! I did, however, miss out on a GOOD lunch of mac and cheese and meatballs! Ugh I was mad. It was the first time they’ve served meatballs on the voyage. I can’t believe I napped that long in the first place, but our room is like a cave because we don’t have a porthole, so that in combination with exhaustion from being in port was enough to make me sleep for a few hours.
Land – ho! We’re in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean somewhere between Latin America and Africa and we actually saw land! Our ship passed this random island around 3pm and I’m so glad Ellie and I went out to take pictures. I’m pretty much obsessed with this little island we saw. How could there be such a small island literally in the middle of the ocean?! It was almost like a large rock that jutted out of the sea. There were two tiny ones and one fairly large one. There’s no way anyone lives on it because there was a scarce amount of vegetation and if anyone tried to climb up it, they would fall off into the sea because it was so steep!
We had the infamous “Rock the Hawk” night on the ship. By the end of the evening, quite a few guys AND girls were sporting mohawks! It’s an SAS tradition for people to shave their heads in celebration of Neptune Day. If you’re going to shave your entire head, why not sport a mohawk for a day or two before you lose it all?! I really don’t understand why some guys didn’t do it. Honestly. Guys hair grows back so quick so why not just go for it? I was surprised at the number of girls who shaved their heads! There’s at least 30 some who shaved their heads, including Princess and Ali from Ithaca! I couldn’t do it. I guess I’m too vain to do it because growing it back out would just take forever and I’m not so sure that it would look very good, haha. Guess what?! Donna, one of the lifelong learners got a mohawk! How cool is that? She has to be in her late 60s or early 70s.
Did you know that I’m a shellback? On Saturday, we celebrated Neptune Day. That means NO CLASSES!!! That’s a big deal because we don’t ever get weekends at sea. The day began between 7 and 7:30AM with members of the crew parading through the halls drumming on drums, yelling and knocking on doors to get us out of bed. They were dressed in towels and were wearing aluminum foil hats/helmets! We dragged ourselves out of bed and up to breakfast. At 9AM, the Neptune Day Ceremony began. We met King Neptune, who was really the captain covered in green body paint. He was wearing a grass skirt, a wig, and a big plastic ring. Some of our professors were also dressed up because they were part of the ceremony. In order to become a “shellback” instead of a “pollywog,” we had to get fish guts (curdled milk and yogurt???) dumped on us. Then, we had to jump in the pool, and when we got out of the pool, we had to kiss 2 fish that were about a foot and a half long. Gross! After that, we had to kneel down and kiss King Neptune’s big ring. Finally, our Global Studies professor knighted us as “shellbacks.” After the ceremony, there was a head shaving “orgy,” as one of the professors put it, haha. There’s a ton of guys and girls walking around with completely shaved heads now! The day ended with a BBQ! WHOO!!! I think I could not eat for a week now because I pigged out so much yesterday. They brought grills out on the top deck and we had an all-American BBQ. Burgers, chips, hot dogs, ribs, bbq chicken, coleslaw, and ICE CREAM were served! I had a bowl of strawberry AND a bowl of chocolate. It was amazing.
Just as a little side note – we’re 5 hours ahead of Eastern Standard Time. We’ve lost an hour of sleep the past 3 nights, but I think we have a few days without losing an hour now. It really takes a toll on our bodies even though it’s just one hour at a time!
One more thing – Ellie and I are putting together an itinerary for our independent travel group in China. I found info about sleeping on the Great Wall and I think we’re gonna go for it! It’s $175 USD for a group of 4 people to have breakfast/dinner, transportation, and a guide who will let us hike and then also take us to spots for great views at sunrise and sunset. We have a group of about 8, so we’re seeing if that’s possible to all go together and if it will cost less as well. I’ll keep you posted!
- comments