Neptune Day
We were warned of an early wake up call on Neptune Day and we got one! The crew came through the hallways at 7:49 am banging pots, pans, and drums and blowing whistles and pounding on our doors! A lot of people didn’t get up, but I changed and headed up to breakfast and then at 8:45 we went to 7th deck to wait for the festivities.
We sat on the wooden platform surrounding the pool, and then suddenly we heard the crew playing their instruments away again…this time they were followed by King Neptune, Queen Minerva, and then the people who have already crossed the equator. Everyone was dressed up in costume and it was a grand parade!
Dean Mike came up to introduce the King and Queen when it finally sunk in who the King and Queen were…starring as King Neptune was CAPTAIN JEREMY in full on green body paint and no shirt, and making an appearance as Queen Minerva was DEAN LARRY! Holy Cow! They are brave! Some of the other professors and staff made debut appearances as the supporting cast and it was great!
We swore an oath to King Neptune, but he still did not believe us to be worthy of turning from pollywogs into shellbacks. So…the games began! At first they told us to just jump into the water and didn’t mentioned the fish guts, so even though I was not originally going to get in, I thought I might as well before the fish guts were brought out. So I jumped in. FULLY CLOTHED. No swim suit and a tank top and my khaki cargo capris. Hot diggity! I got out and kissed the fish and at that point Captain Jeremy told me I was not worthy and told me to get the fush guts.
I was already soaking wet, so why not? Elise and I got the guts dumped on us together and then jumped into the pool… I got out again and this time they made us kiss both of the fish, and then I proceeded to kiss King Neptune’s ring. As I was about to walk off the platform, Dr. Dan (the global studies prof) took his tin foil sword and rewarded me with being called a shellback! Whoohoo! I went back to my room to rinse off and change and then I began to prepare for the shaving of the head!
I waited in line, and my professor, Dr. Wes, shaved my head! I have been harassing him for weeks about him not being sure about the shaving of the head, and so I figured he deserved to take this Mohawk off. There was more dying of the shavers, and so we all had to wait…finally the smart Dr. Wes from
The rest of the day after getting my head shaved was pretty boring…we just hung out and since we had goofed around the night before, we actually had to get work done for the next day. They did have a barbecue for us that night and we ate like a bunch of gluttons…they had hamburgers, hot dogs, barbecue chicken, barbecue ribs…the works. If there is one thing this ship does well, it is their barbecue ribs.
A6
I will always remember the day A6. It was the day I woke up at 6:45 in the morning so that I could attend a Eucharist in the Executive Dean’s cabin celebrated by Archbishop Desmond Tutu. I woke up at 6:45 and showered and made myself look pretty and then at 7:15 I headed up to the 7th deck to go to the cabin. Theo, Anna and Kate were the other students to attend, even though six of us total were invited. How could someone possibly sleep through the chance to be a part of this??!?! My on ship granny was also there, along with some other life long learners.
Before the service he forgot to ask someone to read the appointed psalm, so when it came to that point, he jumped up and said, “You! Read this psalm” and I got to hold the personal prayer book of Desmond Tutu. I read quite beautifully if I do say so myself, reading the slowest I ever have in order to not completely screw up! Being in a community reciting the Nicene Creed and the Eucharistic prayers and the Lord’s Prayer and ALL of it brought some tears to my eyes. I am still searching for the right words to describe how being present in that time and place, but I’m working on it. It just felt like my soul was refreshed and lifted a little after being on this ship so long.
It was weird to have to go right to Mysticism right after the service..it created a disjointed kind of feeling for my day…joy and a sense of calm during the Eucharist and then rushing right into the hurriedness of the day…Mysticism was good though. We discussed the Gospel of Thomas and did a close textual reading of some of the parts. I’ve never looked at the Gnostic gospels before and so it was really interesting to dig into it and see the differences with what has become orthodox Christian theology.
Global Studies was boring…I fell asleep for a little bit and once I started to lightly snore, Jeff tapped me awake. Thank you Jeff! I also had International Relations and I had forgotten to do my journal for the class, and Dr. Wes told us it was due at 1700. However…I had to go to my first day as a study buddy for the dependent children on ship until then!
Working with the kids was pretty darn fabulous. It made me miss my daycare kids so much! Dr. Wes’s kids are Michael and Maddie, who are 6 and 10, Toni Zimmerman, the psych prof, has two kids, Sage and Misha, who are 10 and 13, and the ship shrink has her daughter Supohn with her. Those are the five that are there on a daily basis.
For the first day I helped Maddie…she was practicing her social studies and science tests and so we went over all of her review sheets. she answered almost all of the questions perfectly, so her mom said that it counted for her test…now we have a little joke where I ask her what the two oldest colleges in the US are and where they were located because that was the one thing that haunted her until the end!
We also held the first on-ship worship service that night. It was three worship songs, a welcome, my prayer, 2 worship songs, prayer for
B6
Absolutely nothing interesting. Seriously.
Except that I had my first real test. Medieval Travel Accounts. I am usually one of the first people done with essay tests because I write so fast, but there was so much information to convey in this exam.
Jeff reminded me: this boat has been rocking like CRAZY. When we would sit at meals, we would gaze out the various windows and see all ocean one moment and then all sky the next moment. It became a running mantra where everyone would say, “Ocean! Sky! Ocean! Sky!”
Other than that? Relaxed, watched part of the movie Ed Woods, and then read some of Teresa of Avila.
1 comment:
Hey I was reading your blog...did you really shave your head? lol
What's your facebook address so I can see pics??
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