Crossing the Atlantic

The first day back on the ship I caught this 24 hour flu thats been going around to everyone. I ended up going to bed that night at 8PM and not waking up for 14 hours. I felt a lot better though. Unfortunately, being sick and all, I completely forgot about the time change and so I missed a bit of class. Since my roommate seems to always be asleep, i never really know what time it is. Some days i'll come back to the room multiple times, and each time he'll be sleeping, even on days we are in port!!! I don't understand how people do this. I can barely sleep at all, knowing that I'll only be in these places for a few days.

Anyway, I am better now, except for these rashes I have to find out about. Yesterday was a big day on the ship. Since we crossed the equator, they held a ceremony. It was almost like a right of passage. We were woken up bright an early and marched out to the pool deck. Hundreds of us lined up to have fish guts dumped on us and promptly be pushed into the ice cold pool. After getting out of the pool, we had to make a pledge to the sea gods and kiss a dead fish. The fish guts would NOT come out of hair.

Which brings me to the understanding of the following tradition. About 40 guys and 15 girls lined up to have their heads shaved. I had known about this part of the ceremony, but hadn't decided whether or not I would go through with it. In the heat of the moment, I decided to let it happen. 5 minutes later the hair was gone, thus I went from having my hair as long as it has ever been, to as short as it's ever been.

Luckily, I have a nice shaped head... or so I've been told. So far I've only gotten compliments that seem to be sincere, so I supposed I did the right thing. I kind of enjoyed it myself because it felt very cleansing to have it all shaved off. I don't think I'd ever do it again though. It's also nice to feel lighter, but I'm sure it's going to grown in like a chia pet. I also gotta find a some nice caps to wear... wouldn't want my head to turn bright read form the sun.