Neptune Day!!!

       The day after Ghana, we crossed the equator. We had already crossed the Prime Meridian as it runs straight through Tema (our port in Ghana). So that morning, I had already been up as I was planning to do some work for our first day off on the ship. As I was about to leave, I heard this weird, really loud kind of sound and I thought it might have been a distress signal or something. So I opened the door to find the crew parading down the hall in ridiculous outfits, banging on Ghanaian drums and cymbals. Some of them had items made out of cardboard and tinfoil, like helmets, shields, tridents, and swords. They also had on white outfits, possibly made out of sheets cut into toga-like attire, with seahorses drawn onto them. It was quite absurd, but really funny. This was at 0730 and they gave us about a half hour to wake up and get ready. Around 0800, they called all ‘participants’ to the 7^th deck, where the pool is located. As we gathered there, the parading crew came up with huge fanfare announcing the arrival of the royal party. Some of the teachers were dressed up and one announced the members of the royal party as they took their perches on the edge of the pool. There was the royal executioner, the page (maybe?), Queen Minerva, and of course, King Neptune. Our Executive Dean was Minerva and our Captain was Neptune. He wore a towel-like loin cloth-esque thing around his waist, a headdress with flowers and flowing white locks, and was covered in greed dye. This image plus his terse but awesome British accent made him hysterical. The first people to go through the initiation process were the highest ups, including the Asst. Exec. Dean (Laurie Casteen – I work in her office and she’s from UVA). The pool is set up with a deep square center and two shallow semi-circles on either side. They had to stand in one of the shallow areas, let the crew dump some sort of nasty green, slimy goop stuff on their heads and jump over the barrier between sections into the center pool. Then, they had to kiss a fish once they’d climbed out, bow to Minerva and kiss Neptune’s ring. If you didn’t kiss the ring or if you were just lucky, Neptune would kick you back into the pool. That’s what he did to Ms. Casteen, the first to go through (he’s always joking her so that’s why). I had to go change into my swimsuit because I didn’t know what to wear for the ceremony, so I went and changed before going through the ceremony myself. My supervisor ended up holding one of the fish (there were two) when I went through so I kissed the fish she held. I thought the Captain might kick me in because he jokes with my supervisor, but he didn’t. If you wanted to shave your head (giving the ultimate sacrifice to appease King Neptune) you could. Surprisingly, many people (including a large number of girls and some Lifelong Learners) did. All in all, it was pretty fun and now I am officially a shellback!