Sea Stories and Traditions...

So last night was really fun with a whole lot of interesting stories for me to share with you.  First of all we crossed the equator last night at 8:30 pm and blew our horn a couple of times for good fun.  Everyone was very excited, and oh yes our toilet and sink do spin in the opposite direction, we made sure to check.  They also put on a little show or basically story telling time last night about teachers and their previous sea stories and then they showed Pirates of the Caribbean.  It was great fun, now about the stories they told.

There was this one lady teacher who got up and talked first and NO ONE really knew who she was, but she talked for an HOUR!!! about NOTHING imparticular.  Her story wasn't funny, didn't have a significant meaning to ANYONE really but her, and it was the most boring story i've heard of in my LIFE.  She was the worst storyteller i have EVER heard.  So we were like about ready to poke our eyeballs out and she finally finished.  So then my very HILARIOUS business teacher went up and shared a few of his stories.  They had us all needing to pee ourselves, they were fantastic.  I will share my favorite with you in a moment.  So then after Professor Kaplan (my teacher) was finished this lady gets back on the mic and goes, i just want to tell everyone to remember that your on a ship and it's very dangerous.  Just think about all of those ships that sink every year.  Being on a ship is truely an adventure and everyone just needs to be careful because it's not all fun and games sometimes.  and i looked at my roommate Khaleelah and i was like WHAT???? is she REALLY decide to say that to a room full of people on a SHIP!!!! that be careful and think about all the ships that sink a year, omg is this woman insane!!!!  so we were just flabbergasted with this women and i will continue to talk about her for a long WHILE haha. 

So my teacher (Professor Kaplan) used to work on a ship in his early 20's.  He worked in the Perser's Office at the desk and he took care of the little odds and ends, with money and excursions, and visas and so on.  Well they had a fairly large populations of the older generation on one voyage so they were taking extra care of them.  Well this one lady hadn't come out of her room in about 3 days and they started to get worried about her.  So Mr. Kaplan had to call her room and make sure everything was ok.  So he called the room and said Mrs. Jones, i'm just calling to make sure everything is ok because we haven't really seen you at meals or anything .  And she said oh my stay is wonderful i'm having a great time, i just have one problem.  And he's like ok what is it...and she said well one door leads to the bathroom and the other door says Do Not Disturb!!!!! HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA     So apparently this woman had been living off of the fruit in her welcome basket for 3 DAYS!!!! I literally almost peed on myself when he told this story.... it was so funny, and i hope that you all enjoyed it as much as i did.

So moving right along, today is what you call NEPTUNE'S DAY!!!! on a ship.  Its when you pass the equator the room and elders who have passed and praised Neptune get to do mean things to you all day.  So they started off this morning by waking us all up at 7:30 banging on drums and shouting and knocking on all of our doors.  Then we went up and had breakfast and then were all called to the top deck.  Where 2 people who volunteered got their heads shaved.  And then anyone after that could get their heads shaved as well....and oh yes there were definitely some girls who did it as well.  They'll be crying in the morning i'm sure when they wake up with no hair.  So then after that we all got a turn (if we wanted) to have fish guts/disinfectant/soap (NASTY SMELL and TASTE....BELIEVE ME) poured over our heads, then we had to jump in the pool...get out kiss a dead fish and then kiss Queen Neptunes ring and they we were dubbed Shellbacks, which is what you become after passing the equator.  My daddy is a Golden Shellback because when he was in the Navy he passed the equator and the prime meridian at the same time, so now there are two shellbacks in my family.  And oh yes it was great fun, but we were ALL glad to come back to the room and take a shower.  I have a video of my going through the fish ceremony and i'm gonna try my hardest to get it on a blog so that everyone can enjoy it and watch it.  So PLEASE PLEASE write me back and tell me what you think.  I miss you all and will hopefully get to talk to you soon.