On the ship...

Crossing the equator: Traditionally, Semester at Sea celebrates “Neptune Day” when the ship crosses the equator. Neptune Day is a day-long celebration that emulates an old sailor tradition of taking an oath, shaving your head, and doing something with fish guts. I am still unclear of the details but the big question here is… Are you going to shave your head? As a female, its somewhat difficult to imagine myself without any hair, but there are quite a few men on board who are adamantly sitting this one out. I am still up in the air about whether or not I will do it, but you should know that I am seriously considering it. Why be a part of something as big as this voyage and not go all out with it? (my answer is… I’ll be bald!) But really, I want to go all out and live it up. Technically, we crossed the equator for the first time Saturday, February 2. However, Neptune is being celebrated on February 14 to break up our long trip of crossing the Atlantic. We will be crossing the equator again after leaving Mauritius as we return to the Northern Hemisphere.
The Superbowl: Being that we are on a ship, we were unable to view the Superbowl in the traditional American way. However, some guys got together and were able to broadcast it over the internet for our audible pleasure. They asked people to sign a petition saying they would not use the internet during the hours of the game so that there would be enough signal to service the broadcast without any problems. It went fairly well and I’ve got our crowd on video, but we lost signal/connection at a few crucial moments. It was a very creative way to carry out a piece of our culture so many miles from home. Rumor has it that someone’s parents will be sending a tape of the game for our viewing pleasure sometime after Africa. In the end, some were upset and some were thrilled. To add my two cents in… especially not being able to see anything, it was very much a fourth quarter game!!!