February 8--Neptune Day

On the schedule that the students got before the term started, today was referred to as something like "Procedural Protocol Day." This was a ruse, designed to hide from them that fact that today we would be celebrating (if that's the word) Neptune Day, the day we cross the equator. (Actually, we crossed the equator back in Brazil, while on the Amazon, but nevermind.) Traditionally, this is a day of revelry, when the "pollywogs" like us who have never crossed the Equator before get initiated by the "shellbacks" who have. Neptune Day, in one form or another, is a tradition that goes back a long way, and I suppose it got fairly rough in, say the British Navy in the 18th century.

It's hard to keep something like this a secret; the students knew that this was coming, but apparently most didn't know exactly what was going to happen. On our ship, Neptune Day took the form of having some of the crew march through this ship banging drums to wake everyone up at 730, followed by a ceremony at the Pool Deck, where students (and a few others) had their heads dowsed with green slimy fluid (symbolizing, I think, fish guts) before jumping into the pool.

A fair number of the students, male and female, went on to get their heads shaved. This has particularly fascinated Maeve, who is just one step beyond a shaved-head look herself.  

Though it seems like the undergraduate students enjoyed themselves, none of us participated, and Aidan and Maeve passed harsh judgements: 

Aidan:  "it was gruesome." 

Maeve: "It was scary."  

A fellow faculty member, who shall remain unnamed, : "It turns out that you actually can see too many women in bikinis."  And too many male scalps, too.  We hope that they've got good sun hats for when we get to Ghana next week.

Unnamed students getting dowsed with something green and disgusting for Neptune Day