Neptune Day!

This ain't no pleasure cruise!  Well, at least that's what we keep telling ourselves as we head around the world with 650 college students. In all honesty,  we actually do work hard, and travel hard, and try to take every opportunity to learn more about the world and become better people in the process. But, on occasion....

Point any camera at a group of college students and this is what you get. Smiles are even bigger if you have a freshly shaved dome.

NEPTUNE DAY! Today is probably the first day where we haven't had any education at all (actually, not true, we did take the morning off to play, but classes are back on track this afternoon, and I'm grading papers and writing a proposal). This morning however, was 100% about having fun.


Yesterday we crossed the equator, on a ship. That's big deal. The British Navy many years back (and the true origin probably goes back further - my sailing buddies can chime in with what they know) started a ceremony where unworthy "polliwogs" could become worthy "shellbacks" by going through ritual of having fish guts poured on them, then kissing a fish, then kissing Neptune's ring (or something much worse according to my Navy friends), then have their heads shaved. Semester at Sea has been following a much nicer version of this since the voyages started. We get green water poured on us, then leap in a pool, then kiss a very dead and smelly mackeral, then kiss the ring. Getting your head shaved is optional. It's tough when you're a professor - they really want to see that hair come off. Peer pressure is high. No, I will not fold...

I now look like Walter White.

I'm sure there are thousands of pictures of me floating around so you don't get one here, and I will probably end up on the SAS Facebook page. Lovely. Honestly, it feels great.

Step 1 - Pour fish guts all over. Ok, it's just green water. It was cold, does that make it better?

Step 2 - Jump in the pool. This is our crazy Dean of Students Lisa.

Step 3 - Kiss the fish.

Step 4 - Get blessed by the queen (the Dean's wife Abby) and kiss the King Neptune's ring.

Step 5 (optional - only for the coolest of voyagers) - Stand and line and think about the consequences. I think Jasmine is having second thoughts! She did it though. And the thumbs up is from Daniel. He mooned me from a bus in India this week.

Step 6 - Say goodbye to your locks and watch a few hundred people laugh at your expense.

Step 7 - Be the coolest dudes and dudettes on the ship!

Step 8  - Drive the world's fastest cruise ship! Actually, this had nothing to do with the ceremony. We took a bridge tour today and got to fake drive the ship. But the Explorer really is the fastest cruise ship in the world. Kinda cool. We did a speed test the other day and you really could have water skied off the back.  And I'm covering my head with a cool hat.