Yesterday we woke up to the sound of flutes playing distantly down the hall only to hear them come closer along with the beating of drums. This signals that Neptune Day has begun. All the crew are dressed up with funny hats and their faces painted. Brittney somehow scrambled to the door and got a video of it so I will post it if I ever can. We got dressed and went up to the deck to have breakfast, and then went to the top deck where the pool is for the festivities. I was wearing my bathing suit and tanktop as I knew what was to come. The captain shaved two kid's heads because they won a raffle to have him do it and everyone was cheering. Students of Service raised $600 so a Learning Life Coordinator (LLC, sort of like an RA or Resident Associate back home) shaved his head as well as one of my professors. All of the money will be going to a charity at the end of the trip. So next we went over and waited in line to have fish juice/guts dumped on our head and then we had to jump in the pool. Then we had to kiss a fish! I promptly wiped that off. It was a lot of fun though anyways and everyone was really excited. My roommate Savannah shaved her head! Well actually she has a mohawk but it looks really cute. My other roommate Rebecca was really sick yesterday but we took care of her along with the medical center and she's feeling much better today. I did a few drawings of the ocean later on for my art class which was relaxing although I was on deck with 200 screaming kids, the pool, and loud music. It was fun even though I was just sitting at my table drawing. Last night we had our first cultural pre-port. We were taught a little bit about the language (Portuguese...very similar to Spanish so hopefully I will be able to get around with that), and they showed us different foods and popular dishes, as well as the music and dance of the area. Tonight we have a logistics pre-port so we can figure out where to go and how to get around. I actually have meetings from 8-11 tonight for that, then Students of Service, and then the Amabassador's Intercultural committee. I think we are sleeping on deck tonight because it is really popular to wake up for the sunrise arriving into port. We will be in Brazil very soon! Tomorrow we plan on just wandering around Salvador, getting a good meal, I want to get a few trinkets, and then getting a good night's sleep. I have to be ready to leave for the Amazon trip at 4:30am! ..That would be 3:30 for most of you guys! I just checked out a book from the library titled Voices from the Amazon which should be an interesting read for the 7 hour flight to Manaus.
Alright well I will try to post tomorrow about my first day in Brazil, wish us luck!
