Rin: Today was international talk like a pirate day. So to celebrate, UAF's honor program had festivities including a treasure hunt. Borg and I both wanted to do it even before we realized this was a great opportunity to task. We dressed in our pirate gear and went out in search of treasure lead by our useless map and cryptic list of clues.

Borg: I was so looking forward to this! Rin made an good partner, but in the end we also had to join up with people who had cars because we were tired from walking all over campus. x_x But we figured out a lot of the clues on our own! Yay! The clues were as follows:

1. Hie ye to the Axis of Metropolis for to take the heading on voyages yet unknown from this spot may ye know the count of fathoms to Madrid or the days the crow may take to fly from the Newgate prison o' London.

The first one was very far away and we walked for about 15 minutes before we found it. Unfortunately we could not find the single letter or number that was meant to be our prize so we moved on to clue number two.

*Rin lays down on her bed, mutters something about cheeseburgers, and falls asleep. Borg takes over explaining the proof*

2. The Jolly Roger's Shanty
O' he be our captain on land, space, and sea!
O' he be our captain with a Harrrrrvarrrrd Degree!
he be our Captain 'cause this school ain't free!

he may be our captain but don't be askin' meeee!
To tell him his driveway has new graffiti.
Arrr!

This clue was pretty straightforward. The chancellor of our college lives on campus, so we walked to his house and sure enough there was a huge number 8 drawn in chalk on his driveway. Yay!

3. Here we hoist the Banners O' our many allied ports. Find them all around ye!
Once there, cast ye about for the golden pyramid, though it be cracked and weathered. Read first its curse and then seek its secrets.

This one was also fairly easy. There is a spot on campus with a large circle of flags from all different countries. Near it was some sort of yellow painted pyramid, and on it was some more pirate jargon and an arrow. We followed the arrow and eventually realised it was pointing to another monument, on which a number was outlined in chalk. Yay.

4. Fire! Fire! Fire! There be actual fire! Wait, are ye sure they trust us with fire? I be likin' the fire and starin' at the fire and dancin' round the fire and cookin' me hot dogs on the fire and oh, wait, this fire be intermittent.

For this one we decided the best place to start would be the campus fire station. We didn't see any signs or clues, but we did see a fireman who we asked about the clue. he told us that the clue probably referred to the "eternal fire" (yet another sculpture-type thing) outside the commons. We found the sculpture and that was that! Easy.

5. Ye need not imagine the sound of horns and drums, the words of poets long dead, or the twisted shapes born of minds kept too long in dark chambers. Stray not into their vast halls or behind the great curtains, but carry ye straight and down, down, down as far as ye may go. Find ye a place wit hwild colors and shapes and half-forgotten whispers that have grown fer years as barnacles on the underside of a ship. There a message awaits ye, if yer courage Fail Not.

This one was so obvious to me it didn't require thinking. All of the music, art, and drama classes are in the same complex on campus and down, down all the stairs is my favourite place to learn: the theater department. Which has heavily graffittied walls. Down we went and lo and behold, there was a giant letter Z with the five A's of pirate speak pointing at it! My favourite sign was the one that said "This be subtle, matey!"

6. Are you a PIRATE? LONELY? CONFUSED?
Seek ye the most mediocre tavern in all the land! Seek ye the signs of other seekers!

.....XD This was my favourite clue of them all. The title was a reference to a banner that was hung up by a Christian ministry team on Monday promoting their new Anti-Gay counseling and their special Ex-Gay speaker. It read "Gay? Lonely? Confused?" My friends in GSA and I had been protesting it earlier this week...so Rin and I walked to the banner, which was near the pub, and started searching the bulletin boards until we found the next clue. :)

7. "The power of taxation shall never be surrendered," say the honored signatories. (And what are we Pirate few but a tax on the cowardly and bloated?)

This one was a bit tricky. With some help we figured out that this is a line from the U.S. constitution, which I remembered seeing a copy of in Signer's Hall. We went to Signer's and bam, clue.

8. Lock eyes with that scaly tyrant king if ye could (No eyepatch has he but sockets bare), steady yerself from fright and look earthwards.

Rin immediately thought of the Jolly Roger, which I agreed with. But another pirate asked us to consider the latin for tyrant king. And we were like HOLY CRAP WHAT KIND OF NERDS ARE WE??? because when I was little, I wanted to be a paleontologist. And somehow it had slipped my mind that tyrant lizard king means TYRANNOSAURUS FREAKING REX. Apparently I had fail-sauce for breakfast. So we found a T-rex (not, sadly, a real one) and got our last clue.

Because of the confusion the first clue caused (aka it wasn't there!!) and because we didn't have a car to go conveniently whizzing around campus, we didn't win the treasure hunt. But we did get a booby prize, some pirate bandannas, and the satisfaction of a treasure hunt well done. Best of all, I got to keep the map. :D The pirate festivities are continuing on into the night, with a dance later on. I'm making Rin go as my sexy pirate wench/dance partner once she wakes up from her post-pirate sushi nap. Good times will be had by all.

And we're sorry for the lack of pictures, we were too excited to remember the camera at most clues. :P