I Have a Shaved Head-- Sort Of...

February 13, 2008: Day 22

Hello all,

I had forgotten to mention that I have decided against shaving my head— for the last time :-P It all happens tomorrow, and Caitlin's shaving her head at 9:30 am! She's crazy, but in a very good way. Anyway, today was good and laid-back... I slept in til 11 and skipped Global Studies, although I am kind of sad that I had, because it was a very interesting topic: HIV and AIDS. Michael told me that SAS is giving all of us 100 extra internet minutes, oh my goodness! That's so awesome! It's apparently because a lot of people weren't logging out properly and it was due to a glitch in the system or something like that, so they're making it up to us! That's over an hour you guys!!! Yay!!! Anyway, last night was sooo awesome because we have a ballroom dancing club to which I belong and we had our first dance session last night!!! It was soooo much fun, and I'm super excited that I get to dance while on ship, and come home and dazzle you all with my mad dancing skills I will have picked up :-P We learned the Hustle, which is a nightclub dance with two people—it's not the "do the Hustle" dance, it's different. I have no idea why it's called the Hustle as well... Anywho, so that was fantastic. We also changed our soccer team name (thank God) to "No One Goes Down South Without My Permission," because we wanted to do something that everyone on the ship would get, and here's the story behind it—We were having pre-port for Brazil, and Kenn Gaither was talking to us about using money belts. Well, he had one that was on a string and attached to his belt buckle and went in his pants, and he showed it to us, and then said, very seriously, "No one goes down south without my permission." It was hilarious. So, we're going to be awesome and use his adage to our benefit—our opponents will be laughing so hard to whole time that we will win! haha :-) Let's see... Caitlin, Teneya, Catherine, me, and Michael (and someone else—we haven't decided who yet) are getting a villa in Mauritius together and we've started planning that, so that's cool—the one we really have our eyes on looks super nice and it's only $30-$50 a person per night—crazy, no? I had lunch with Caitlin and Teneya, and then I went to drawing class and we did cloud drawings with a model, which was fun. Then, since Teneya and I were dates for the dance tonight, we decided to go all out and "go out" for dinner together as well, lol, and we went to the fancy dining room, and Caitlin and Catherine came, too... Then, we all got ready together for the dance in Caitlin's room, and I did my makeup so amazingly awesomely that Jess would have been super proud of me if she saw it :-) I will post photos on Facebook eventually... I miss being able to do that whenever I want. Anyway, the dance was lots of fun—Caitlin was a jungle cat without ears lol, Teneya was a forest and so was Catherine, and I was a pretty butterfly and I made my own wings and antennae!!! There were some seriously awesome costumes tonight—one guy wore his sleeping bag and was a caterpillar (I really wanted my picture with him—butterfly +caterpillar= awesome!), I saw a jellyfish, a couple of cows, sharks, lots of cats, a one-eyed one-horned flying purple people eater, some random ones like Tiger Woods and hunters, and a Playboy bunny... ugh. So, it was pretty fun, and lots of people had already gotten mohawks and might shave the rest off tomorrow, so that's cool. Well, I'd better get to bed... they're apparently waking us up at 7 am tomorrow, but I wouldn't be surprised if it's even earlier than that—yuck. Much love to you all my dears!

Michelle

February 14, 2008: Day 23

Hello all,

Happy Valentine's Day to you all! Today was Neptune Day, which is supposed to be when we cross the Equator but for some reason we did it today. It involves getting awoken at 7:30 am by banging and clanging from the crew's pots and pans, with the occasional drum and harmonica that's played horribly off-tune. Then, we all congregate up on the 7^th deck aft by the pool. Today is a nasty day, by the way—the ugliest I've seen it yet. The waters are so violent that we've had to duct tape our drawers shut, and slamming into walls is the norm while walking somewhere. Several objects have fallen off our desks. Anyway, when we all went up to the 7^th deck, King Neptune (aka Kenn Gaither) and Queen (?? Starts with an "M"—played by professor Widdows) were there, and demanded that we show our loyalty to him by 1. Getting dumped in fish guts and then jumping into the freezing cold pool 2. Kissing dead fishes and 3. Getting down on your knees and kissing King Neptune's ring. I did all of this, mmmhmmmm. Then, everyone went to shave heads... Teneya and I cut Caitlin's hair off, and I buzzed it—you can see her skin and everything, it's really cool. She looks good. Then, we went down to shower because we still smelled like fish guts... This whole time I wanted to shave my head, too, but I wouldn't want to do a total buzz cut where you can see my scalp. So, I showered, and then called Alex to see if he would still like me if I did it... The best words I've ever heard him say were in answer to my question, would you still like me?: "I would like you just the same," and if he would still think I am beautiful? He said yes. Just hearing that made me want to do it, to kind of commemorate such awesome words. So, I did. Teneya got first cut and Caitlin and her cut it short enough—then, they used the biggest buzz attachment they have, and now I have a pixie cut! I didn't cry or anything! My hair is much longer than everyone else's—I'm not that hardcore. Anyway, I'm looking forward to wearing lots of scarves—that'll be really cute. As for the rest of the day, I'm going to take a nap, watch a movie, maybe do some homework, and do the "Single's Awareness" thing tonight with Teneya, Caitlin, and a bunch of other girls—may I reiterate that I'm just going for free ice cream cake and cookies, and especially to hang out with my friends—not to pretend that I'm single :-P. Then, we're going to gather some more people (co-ed) for Truth or Dare and Hide-and-Seek. What fun!!! :-D

**Update**:

So, as it turns out, it is very, very difficult to look feminine when one has ridiculously short hair like mine—no amount of makeup, pink, and dresses can remedy it—one just plain and simple looks at least a little like a boy. I think that even if I were to walk around in a bikini people would still be confused :-P Anyway, I've gotten some attention for my haircut, but not nearly as much as those like Caitlin who were hardcore enough to go all out and shave to the scalp. Some people even took a razor to their hair so that they have no hair whatsoever. I am the only person I know of who just used the biggest shaver attachment—everyone either did it all out or didn't at all, which I found surprising. I imagined more people would be more like me, so I'm unique in a unique situation—something I had not envisioned. That's fine, though... I just can't wait to buy a whole bunch of super cute head scarves in South Africa—that will help me not looking very feminine. I've seen some funny looks and heard comments from people (which is ridiculous—you'd think they didn't know why people did it... This ship is small enough for people to realize that), but the majority of people have been kind and encouraging (and not just to me—to Caitlin and everyone else, too). It will be interesting going to class tomorrow—every class is going to be taken up with 15 minutes of talking about the festivities of today, I imagine. We just played Truth or Dare, which was pretty fun, and had awesome ice cream cake and cookies, compliments of Teneya :-D I need to figure out a way to pay her back... hmmm. The ship has been pitching and rolling so badly that I for the first time feel a little bit nauseous, and food was actually sliding across tables at meals today... And I hear that we're headed into a storm, so I made sure to get some seasickness medicine because my vision has been a little confused and I want to be able to get some sleep tonight. Luckily, I don't feel out-of-sorts enough to be physically sick, but who knows how long that could continue... But back to my hair—it's about one inch long and sticks up on its own, and looks kind of odd as far as the color goes because some of my roots had grown out from highlighting, but not entirely in some parts, so it looks a little patched, haha... I put on my hoodie earlier and my hood stayed on, and it felt like it was sticking to my head! What an unusual sensation! But all in all, I don't regret doing it, but I can't wait for my hair to grow back! :-)

Before (Teneya, Caitlin—after head shaving—and me)...

After!...

Much Love,

Michelle

(hopefully those photos show up!)