PICTURES FROM MY TRIP AROUND THE WORLD: #59

Location: Crossing the Equator

When you cross the equator by ship, people go fucking bananas. The day you cross, all the Shellbacks, or people have already crossed, initiate the Pollywogs, the people who haven’t. Until that moment happens though, you have no idea what the fuck a Shellback or a Pollywog is. No one ever talks about it. You’re just sitting at lunch when one day the ship’s announcer says, “Hey we’re crossing the Equator” and dozens of people dressed in black yelling “Pollywogs!” jump out. They blow whistles, bang drums and force you up to the deck. They then (in this order):

1. Pour this pancake batter crap, that looked and smelled like vomit, over you.
2. Hose you down with a fucking firehouse.
3. Make you kiss a giant dead fish.
4. Make you kiss the kiss the ring of King Neptune.
5. Paints an “S” on your forehead (for Shellback).
6. And make you jump in the pool.

Funny this was the night before we had a shipwide mandatory health meeting. We had a gastrointestinal (diharrea!) outbreak on board, so we had a long lecture about washing our hands, covering our mouths when we cough and touching elbows rather than shaking hands. And here the next day they made everyone make out with a dead fish. I’m just glad we never had a flu outbreak, because then they probably would have made us fuck a dolphin.