Neptune Day

For all the students on the MV Explorer, Neptune Day began with a form of “hazing” by the night crew members who, dressed as Greek gods, went from cabin to cabin banging on pots and pans to wake up of the sleeping inhabitants who were excited for a day off from school and an opportunity to sleep in. For all the students besides Darcy and I that is. We were wonderfully oblivious to this debacle as we were the only students in the dining room, enjoying an early and quiet breakfast. (Leave it to me to wake up my roommate at 7am on a day with no school.) We returned to the second deck just as the night crew was making their third and final round of all the cabins. Darn.

The most entertaining part of this wake-up call though was probably the people in inside cabins. Without a porthole, they had no idea what time it was and literally thought that they were being dragged from their beds by Filipino looking Greek gods at 3am. It was actually about 8am and time to start the day.

Then came the real wake up call. Big Brother over the loud speaker announced that it was time to go to the seventh deck and worship the sea gods.

I know I’ve already delayed this too long – I shaved my head. All the cool girls were doing it, so I decided to join in. Unfortunately though, all the cool girls actually look fine with shaved heads because they have cute earrings and nose piercings that make it quite apparent that they are females. Seeing as I have neither, I actually look like a scrawny pre-pubescent boy. Therefore, the next stop is to get ear piercings in Brazil so I actually look feminine.

The cooler part of this story though is that I had my head shaved BY THE CAPTAIN. Student of Service raffled off the opportunity to have your head shaved by him and I won. I swear that I would not have shaved it had I not actually won the raffle. But how could I say no?

After the head shaving ritual (and no, I have no idea what it actually has to do with worshiping the sea gods), we showered in fish guts, jumped in the pool, kissed a fish and were knighted. I am now a proud member of the Shellback clan. I even have a certificate to show it:

“A Neptune Day Proclamation

Whereas by our Royal Consension, Our Trust Well Beloved Eli has this day entered Our Domain. We do hereby declare to all whom it may concern that it is Our Royal Will and Pleasure to confer upon him the Freedom of the Seas without undue ceremony. Should he fall overboard, We do command that all the Sharks, Dolphins, Whales, Mermaids and other dwellers in the Deep are to abstain from maltreating his person. And we further direct all Sailors, Soldiers, Airmen and others who have not crossed Our Royal Domain, to treat him with the respect due to One of Us. Given under Our Hand at Our Court on board the MV Explorer and on the Equator in 037 Longitude, this 4^th day of September in the year 2008 on Semester at Sea!

Cancer – Chamberlain Neptune – Rex”

So just in case I never get a diploma from Dartmouth, I’ll always have the sharks and dolphins and whales to fall back on as an alumni support network.