Neptune Day!

The pool gets more packed everyday since the weather is getting nicer and nicer!

Amelia, Kristin, and I with King Neptune and his queen!

Living on the ship is beginning to feel much more natural now that I've gotten the hang of everything; probably helped that I finally bought myself an alarm clock and am now always on time for class and never miss breakfast!Classes are going really well, the eight-day in a row streak was a bit much, but it's well worth it to have 10 days off to explore Africa.The weather is getting warmer and warmer as we cross Southern Hemisphere, and the pool is packed everyday after class!The other day we crossed the equator--no the toilets didn't spin the opposite way Ryan, I know your probably wondering. Anyways, it is a navel tradition to have a ceremony while crossing, so we were woken up at 7:30 for breakfast by the crew, faculty, and staff who were painted green and blue and basically like king Neptune and all the ocean gods running up and down all the halls banging drums, blowing whistles, and ringing bells. After breakfast we were told to go up to the pool deck where the festivities began. So there was some ceremony for those who wanted to be initiated for crossing the equator that luckily didn't involve real fish guts like we had heard. They just poured water with corn starch and blue food dye over our heads then you had to kiss a fish, bow to the fake king Neptune and his queen and jump in the pool, and then afterwards everyone was given the option to shave their heads. (Which I chose not to take part in!!) haha, but a total of 87 people did (including GIRLS!!) Crazy!! After the equator crossing ceremony everyone hung out by the pool all day, what an interesting day!