From India to South Africa, we had a 2 week stretch with a 1 day stop halfway in Mauritius. Because we were on the ship for so long, SAS decided to load in a bunch of events on the ship so we could all be entertained. Trust me, it can get quite boring on here if you don't try to make it exciting. I downloaded How I Met Your Mother before I went on this voyage, and my roommate Aishwarya and I are now halfway through season 7 (UPDATE: We have now finished all 9 seasons. So productive, I know).
NEPTUNE DAY
So we first had Neptune Day between India and Mauritius. This was a huge celebration because we crossed the equator into the Southern Hemisphere where I've never been before! Early in the morning the staff woke us all up as they marched down the halls banging drums and pots and pans or whatever they were banging. Then an announcement came on telling us all to put on our swimsuits and make our way on up to the pool deck within the next 30 minutes.
Everyone gathered around up at the pool deck and the Captain was dressed as Poseidon and announced the whole ritual we would have to do to turn from Pollywogs (people who haven't crossed the equator) into Shellbacks (people who have). After waiting a while for everyone to go through the ritual, it was finally my turn along with a few other friends. We stood in the shallow water as a guy poured "fish guts" onto us. It was really just this slimy green stuff that turned the pool green. We then all jumped in the pool, got out, kissed a nice juicy dead fish (Mitchi completely freaked out), kissed Poseidon's ring, then got "knighted" into being a Shellback. It was definitely a fun process and I recorded the whole thing on my GoPro!
After you officially become a shellback, you are encouraged to go over to the shaving station and shave your hair. It's some weird tradition…don't ask. A ton of people shaved their entire head, and even some brave girls did also! Even more girls decided to shave a lot of one side of their head, so everyone was walking around looking like intense hip-hop dancers or something (my old hip hop teacher shaved one side of her head). I really enjoyed watching everyone get their head shaves and right before they stopped, Aishwarya and I impulsively decided to shave our heads since so many other girls had done it and it would be a freeing experience. So we sat down and let them shave it all off!
JUST KIDDING! But, we did decide to make a little braid on one side of our head and shave it off. If I leave my hair down, you can't tell at all. But you can definitely see it when my hair is up. It was a fun impulse decision, even though that place on our head is going through the awkward stages of hair growing. I've been dying my hair for so long, it's nice to see new hair grow with a completely fresh start, and I never plan on dying that specific section ever again.
As people were getting their hair shaved off, there was a mini dance party going on too. Now I know some people may think that that is SAS every day, but I promise you, this is a legit college. Sometimes I forget I am on a boat and get caught up in school work, and then I have to just look out my window and try to soak it in that I live on a freaking ship.
MAURITIUS
This was our first stop in Africa! Mauritius is a beautiful African island to the East of Madagascar, but we were only there for one day. To get off in Mauritius, we were required to travel through SAS either with a field lab for class or a field program. This is a newer policy because some previous SAS students would go off and get drunk and rowdy. So I signed up for a field program the second they came out so I could get a nice and relaxing one: "Paradise Island".
We got on a bus and drove for over an hour across many fields to the other side of the island. It was absolutely beautiful and a perfect sunny day. There were also really cool mountains on the island that just looked unreal. When we got to our destination, we got into speed boats that were crazy fun. The water was a beautiful blue and crystal clear and it really was paradise. We made our way into this river-like place that had trees on both sides and I felt like I was in the Amazon Rainforest. I looked over and there was a tree full of sleeping bats that were out in the broad daylight. We kept cruisin' and then saw monkeys running around in one tree. MONKEYS! We kept going and I had no idea when we were going to reach "Paradise Island", and we all of a sudden came to a dead-end that was a mini waterfall. It was really pretty but I really had to pee by this time, so I wanted to make it to paradise already. We left then cruised for about 10 more minutes to a small island with many trees and lots of tourists.
I ran straight to the bathroom then put my stuff down and sat down for lunch. It was some basic lunch I usually get, with fish and rice (I ain't complaining though). There was an open bar so I got some tropical drink after lunch and relaxed in paradise. It was very hot so I hung out in the water a lot and found many starfish and tried not to step on the many sea urchins. The day consisted of taking random GoPro videos with Oswaldo and wandering around the beach with Scout. I bought my good ole' keychain and was all set for Mauritius. We only had about 2 hours on the island sadly then headed back to the ship.
Mauritius was a much-needed break from being on the ship for a week. Especially after traveling so much, people start getting anxious to get off the ship after being on the ship for anything over 3 days. Which is why we needed to be entertained with…..
SEA OLYMPICS
We all got broken up into different "seas" with different colors when we first started the voyage that were based on where our cabin was located. I am in the Adriatic Sea and our color is purple, and there are about 6 other seas and colors that include Arabian, Baltic, Caribbean, Bering, "Sealebrities" (adults and kids), and the Red sea (there might even be a yellow sea…I don't know). There were random events around the ship all day and we were all competing against each other to win so we could get a dance party and I think pizza and ice cream or something. I didn't compete in anything because I guess I was on another planet and didn't know when the sign-up sheets were out. But it was definitely entertaining to watch some of the events like the pull-up competition, wet t-shirt relay, synchronized swimming (absolutely hilarious), jeopardy (it got heated), and lip sync! It was a very entertaining day and a great study break.
This was one of the three major long stretches of the voyage, and stopping in Mauritius really helped us all not go too crazy. The first was from Hawaii to Japan and the third is what I will be finishing up today (Namibia all the way up to Morocco in 13 days. We dock in Morocco tomorrow! Yes, I know I am way behind on this blog, oh well).
PICTURES
1-A waiver we signed on Neptune day. Kidding, it was actually a Shellback certification thing that I now have a fancy certificate for
2-The beautiful slimy green water of Neptune Day
3-My amazingly cool Social Media and Global Change teacher shaving a girl's head
4-Aishwarya and I covering our horror of what we had just done to our beautiful hair with a smile
5-We have these for each port we dock in. It makes me happy
6-Being welcomed to Mauritius
7-The speedboat to Paradise Island
8-Going through the "Amazon Rainforest" approaching the waterfall
9-Paradise Island!
10-Me holding a starfish I found
11-Where I ate lunch under a tiki hut thingy
12-Driving back to the ship a storm started rollin' in
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