Greetings Pollywogs!

10.28.12

Let's go back to 10.12.12! It is on this day that the Fall 2012
Semester at Sea shipboard community became Emerald Shellbacks!

To start off, everyone is a "Pollywog," ie: someone who has not crossed
the equator via ship! Those who have already crossed are called
Shellbacks! On our voyage, we had some shellbacks (some who had been on
a previous SAS trip!), and it was really cool because a lot of the crew
got to participate with us! They were the Shellback Army, and we, as
pollywogs had to rise early for the festivities. Dean John and Dean Lisa
were King Neptune and Queen Minerva! It was really funny because they
both were dressed up, and DJ had green body paint allllllll over. I got
a picture and I can't wait to upload them! I e-mailed a few to Dr. M,
who also had DJ as her dean when she sailed, and she said that he hadn't
changed much in 12 years!! Though she said he didn't look as green on
her voyage! :P

We, the Fall 2012 shipboard community, awaited our fates on the 7th deck
by the pool. It was there where we saw 4 trashcans full of "fish
guts." They weren't really fish guts, it some green slime that to this
day, I still don't know what it was made from! (Though I'm hoping I
figure it out before the end of this voyage!

Well, once you get the fish guts dumped on you, you then jump into the
pool and swim across! After that, we had to kiss a fish (a real one!!)
as well as King Neptune's ring! Then we got salt spread over our head
and shoulders, to which we had then become shellbacks ourselves! I
hopped in with Danielle, since we're roomies! :) But it was awesome to
see everyone go as well, and even some of the new crew members got the
same treatment! The Staff Captain was the one who dumped the guts on
them. Afterwards, if people wanted, they could shave their heads from
the "Royal Barber"...I didn't though, I still have all my hair! There
were maybe 3 or 4 girls who shaved their heads completely, a lot of guys
did it (though most of their hair has already grown out) and then some
girls shaved part of their head too. Owen, the little 2 year old got
his head shave into a Mohawk first, and then all the way off...so cute!

Now, I mentioned earlier that we became "Emerald Shellbacks." Now what
does this mean exactly? It means that we crossed the equator at the
Prime Meridian! So we were at the exact center of the world for a few
minutes!! We had a latitude and longitude of 0,0 degrees! It's also
out of the way by a couple degrees, so most ships don't go through
there, and it's an extremely rare title! :)

I can't wait to upload pictures, you'll all love them!

Love your Emerald Shellback,
SH