Adaptability

Snapshot of the show.  Photo: www.thegrio.com

Don't you hate it when you try to support the arts while also planning a great night by putting a whole bunch into two tickets for a show and then someone changes your plans and makes it impossible to go?  Yeah, I do too.  I'm quite flustered about it but hopefully I'll be able to change the tickets (which were delivered today).  I need to get it together and do all I can to change the seats to another day.  Yes I'll be hit with a whole lot of talk about massive non-refundable fees and ultimately our seats will be way up in the nosebleeds instead of really close but I need to do what I can to make it still work out the best that it can.  I'll work on that a little bit tomorrow.  My hope is that I'm overreacting and it's not going to be an issue.  Time will tell.

I went to the grocery store tonight and was reminded how in Florida the baggers are trained to use as many bags as possible.  I left my reusable bag in my car and my 7 items were placed in 3 different bags.  I would have been happy with 1 but 2 seemed reasonable so I grabbed the bag that had one thing in it and moved it to another bag, gave her a warm smile, made a kind comment about saving some of her supply, and headed toward my car.

The dean and assistant dean of RSMAS seem to be trying to make a change to the diving program that could change my job considerably.  There haven't been enough meetings and nothing has been set in stone yet but if this new policy goes through, it would not be good, at least for a couple years.  More details will come once more has been decided and made public.

Thoughts and Plans

Being certified to dive with helium, teaching the college science diving course, getting trained to go cave diving, learning to dive on a rebreather, taking and then teaching the boating course, and diving in various locations around Florida and the Caribbean are all things that are potentially in my future.  All of these things have been presented to me as plans, not mere possibilities.  The prospect of these opportunities is what is keeping me very securely hooked into this position.  As I mentioned in a very recent post, I need regular stimulation in order to keep me satisfied.  If there was no promise of great excitement and benefit, I would be thinking about sending my resume out to distant corners of the earth and hopping on another plane.  I look back on my year of scuba instructing with a particular longing.  However, even if I went to do the same thing tomorrow, it wouldn't be the same.  I'm a different person now with different skills, experiences, and wisdom that I did not have last time.  It would lack a distinct thrill that it presented the first time around.
This topic is relevant because I was reminded today about a friend of mine who graduated this past spring from UM and landed a job on a liveaboard in Palau.  It is a country that has been on my list for 2 years but was too much of a risk to fly to without the promise of a job.  The internal monologue is simply the result of me reasoning with myself that it would be foolish to try repeating it.  Frankly there are some days that I really do wish I could be on a remote island with locals, fresh fish, and no worries in the world.  It usually happens when I'm sitting in rush hour traffic taking 40 minutes to drive the 10 minutes to get to my house from either campus.

Good ol' Sunshine State

Speaking of driving, I got my license plate changed today so now I'm pretty much a real Floridian.  I tried to get the plate that said Save Our Seas and had a shark on it but it turns out those cost about 80 bucks and then another 25/year to have.  No thank you.

On the job front, I'm very nearly official.  I'll keep the blog updated on my employment status which SHOULD change sometime around Monday.  Stay tuned!

Photo: http://www.15q.net/fl.html

Down the Only Road I've Ever Known

Moving back into college life has been a funny transition. I'm mixed in with tons of people who are as much as 5 years younger than I am. It's not really so much an issue except considering where I've been, what I've seen, the things I've done, and experiences I've had, the differences between me and a recent high school graduate are pretty huge. I don't consider myself high and mighty at all; I'm just trying to point out one of the ways college life is different for me now than it was during my 4 years at Denison. A friend of mine shared some words of wisdom with me recently, reminding me that this shouldn't be like Denison; there's no point in comparing the two because there is something unique to be taken away from both. If Miami was the same as Denison, what would I be getting out of it? There are great people here and I continue to make friends.

The only “complaint” that I have at the moment is that I'm not busy enough. I am very involved in the Christian scene on and off campus, have a lot of time invested into music, am taking 3 full Marine Science classes, going to ultimate frisbee when possible, and still manage to spend hours on the internet every night. I am still pursuing research/volunteer/lab/field/work opportunities for professors at the Marine Science campus and will keep posted what comes of that.

As for this weekend, I'm headed off to Campus Crusade's Fall Retreat. I'm not sure what the schedule looks like while we're there or what we'll be doing but I hope to come away cleansed and refreshed from the inside out.

Life has been having clear ups and downs but overall I still believe I'm where I need to be doing what I need to be doing.

Make Yourself at Home

I'm finally settling into life here in the farthest Southeastern corner of our grand country. I'm getting a feel for the area, becoming acquainted with classes, slowly making friends, working my way into the nearby dive shop's staff, and really getting into a groove. The University of Miami is a great place to be.

The big question still remains: will I stay here beyond December? At this point, I cannot answer. As I've said, everything is going well, but there are little things that I do notice. I often equate my time here to the 2 months I spent in Hawaii. The school here is a far better fit for me, hands down. However, the city has little on Oahu (I say Oahu instead of Honolulu b/c Miami is about the size of the whole island). It took me until 23 years of age to determine that island life is indeed different than anywhere else. Everyone is very high-strung here in Miami whereas island life is completely worry-free. It's still early, but my instincts tell me that I belong on an island.

Everything still seems to be going my way so I have no real complaints. I'm having serious struggles in the very high-caliber orchestra which is having its first concert this weekend. It comes not three weeks after classes began but it is going to be the highest quality performance I've ever been a part of.

Ultimately I guess my time in Miami is going to teach me how to be a real-world adult. I have an unofficial part-time job, I'm essentially a full-time student (living off campus and not being a real undergrad makes it nothing like my time at Denison), and I am completely responsible for myself. Those things alone aren't much of a big deal, but combine them and throw them into downtown Miami and it feels like the most "real-world" life I've ever lived.

Big City Life

Since moving out of the house back in high school, I've been to and lived in a wide variety of places. Each location is unique in specific ways. My very first impression of Miami was back in June when I came for a quick visit. I was blown away by how vast the city spread and by how gorgeous the UM campus was. It wasn't until I drove down from Ohio that I realized how utterly crazy the driving is here: it is absolute madness. The average speed limit is at least 10mph over what the posted sign says, with some cars swerving into small openings at about 90. That would be fair enough, but then you get the old people who insist on driving under the speed limit in any lane they choose and it breaks up the flow entirely.  It's not simply the speed variations that makes driving overwhelmingly stressful, but it's also the sheer number of cars on the road. It appears as if every hour is rush hour and I have a mild panic attack every time I try to change lanes because I'm certain that someone will be swooping into my new lane from the other side or maybe a car will shoot in out of nowhere.  What's more is that Miamians rarely use turn signals here so you never know where anyone is going to go.  It's been too long since I drove through the Bronx to be able to compare NYC to Miami, but all I can say is that trying to drive, attempting to find parking, and navigating the streets (even with gps) is one of the most stressful things I've ever done in my life. If I don't get used to the aggressive and non-courteous drivers, I'm going to go nuts.

Over the course of the week that I've been here, I have been extremely productive and everything really has gone my way. Here is my entire to-do list copied right from my notebook (with necessary elaborations since “Joe” wouldn't make much sense to anyone for instance). Everything here is what has already been completed:

-Find the library to use internet
-Talk to the viola professor about schedule
-Find where to get a parking permit
-Call Rafael about housing
-Call Taylor (high school connection now living in Miami) to touch base
-Choose a bank to open an account with
-Email Dr. DiResta about changing lab time
-Find marine student frosh orientation and sit in on the introduction
-Figure out health insurance
-Find an ASE certified mechanic
-Talk to UM about housing options both temporary and long-term
-Call King Automotive and schedule a time to leave car
-Open Bank of America bank account
-Email Dr. McNeill about adding geology
-Call dive shop for potential employment
-Call Taylor to meet up
-Email Joe who I met in St. Maarten and lives in southern Florida
-Figure out a meal plan
-Put money on student ID card
-Schedule a meeting with marine science secretary
-Turn in tutoring application
-Email Dr. Olson about working in his lab
-Pick up parking permit
-Figure out something for temporary housing until I can move in with Rafael
-Formally add the geology class
-Find classrooms for each class
-Call UPS about package delivery
-Call Andrew about package delivery

Many of these tasks involved a lot of driving or walking thus it took me a few days to get all of this done. That being said, sometimes I could take care of several things in one place. Anyway, for anyone interested, that's what I've been doing here.

In terms of the university, I'm in love. Granted I've only gone to 2 classes, but by and large this place is spectacular. The campus is stunning with very clean, new, and modern facilities, the orchestra sounds professional not to mention it has 12 violas, a gorgeous pond surrounded by palm trees, incredibly friendly and helpful faculty and staff, gardens scattered across campus (I have a thing for tropical flora), and school spirit is at a whole new level. If I leave after one semester (which is still a possibility), it is going to be for something truly incredible. The only thing I have to watch out for is not to be razzle-dazzled by the things listed above; I'm here to check out the school for marine science, not gardens and ponds.

I feel as if I'm right where I'm supposed to be. Sure I have obstacles like housing. Sure I can only laugh about being in classes where everyone's age is 5 less than mine. Sure I get super stressed out every time I get behind the wheel. However, I really believe I'm right where God wants me to be. This was the only school I applied to and the only doors that have closed in my face have been nothing more than sliding doors with motion sensors. I have the strong feeling that I am exactly where I need to be and the amount of comfort that it gives me is astounding.

Settling In

Believe it or not, things have actually been going my way since I've been on the island. I ran into an unexpectedly rough start when the airlines lost my guitar. Otherwise I made it safely to the crew house and got settled in. The island seems to be very Americanized. I've been living for 4 months where left is right and right is wrong so now I'm dancing with everyone on the sidewalk trying to get out of their way since I want to stay left and they want to walk on their right. Looking left before crossing streets is also proving to be difficult too but I'm a quick re-learner and I haven't caused any accidents yet. English is the most widely used language, American chains abound (ACE, McDonalds, Subway, Baskin Robbins, KFC, etc etc etc), and the thing that tops it all off is that the US dollar is the most widely used currency here.

3 Caribbean reef sharks looking for a snack

Thanks to a distant connection, I got in touch with Dive Safaris and was able to go with them on a dive in search of sharks. Boy was that ever a success! We found 5 (out of many) sharks that apparently hang out at a particular reef on a regular basis. I thought to myself that if this dive was any indication on what was to come, I have found the right place to dive. As it turns out, St Maarten does not have the best diving. After several days of diving (for work and for fun), I can equate it to the diving on the Gili Islands. There are some redeeming traits such as wrecks, sharks, stingrays, and barracudas, but by and large it's nothing compared to the pristine diving I found in the Philippines.

The crew house I'm in is expensive but the money from the part-time work at the dive center is juuust enough to cover it plus food. They keep me very busy there. In other words, I keep myself very busy there by helping fill tanks, set up gear, wash equipment, carry tanks, etc. The more I help out, the more chance I have to be the first one in line for work there. The people I'm living with are a different breed. I can't really explain them, but maybe I'll be around them enough for a story or two to come up.

The only other thing on my mind is that I'm reeeeeeaaaaaly thinking of going for the STCW95. This is the most basic qualification that is usually required by all boats, sailing or motor. My dream has always been to work as a dive instructor on a sailboat and this seems to be the next step to see that dream come true. I have to look into it a bit more, but I really would like to pursue it.

Unemployment and Silly Complaints

Alright. Forget about what I had to say before. Guitars, language barriers, teaching guys from Jakarta, forget it. Maybe I'll throw it back in someday, but it pales in weight to what I have to say now.

Lionfish

I have been diving with a particular dive resort since I got a call to do a one-time job (teaching guys from Jakarta) at the end of November. They are the only dive shop that actually let me volunteer around the shop and keep an eye on customers in exchange for regular diving and so I naturally stuck with them. I had finally found my place on Gili Trawangan: great staff, fun to be around and hang out with on a regular basis. They have never pressured me into drinking, and thus I actually enjoyed going out with them. They are really the only ones I can call friends on the island: Donna, Sebastian, Marcus, John, and Rhiannon. I forget how much I said before, but I was not happy a few weeks ago when I was sitting around idly waiting for work. During the past two weeks I have been having an incredible time. Even without an income, I was thoroughly enjoying myself every day, diving up to 3 times per day like in the Philippines.

Clownfish in anemones

After going to Singapore and buying my camera, I have been taking pictures on every dive. Some of them are turning out very well and I am quite pleased with the purchase. I told the staff that I would donate some of my best pictures for the website as a further payment for them allowing me to dive. What's more is that I discovered I could make money selling pictures! After one dive, I sold 51 pictures for $20 to 5 Irish girls, then about 80 pictures for $30 to a really cool Dutch woman (I was essentially her personal guide for all 7 or so dives she did with us). As I was editing another 60 pictures for an English couple, Rhiannon came to me and told me the freelance videographer was a bit upset that I was selling pictures. She goes on dives with students (as opposed to certified divers coming for a few fun dives) and takes video. She then edits and sells the video to them. Because she doesn't do pictures and doesn't come on fun dives, Rhiannon and I thought it would be fine if I offered to sell pictures to certified divers. The videographer is freelance so she works elsewhere anyway. As it turns out, she is put off by me selling pictures. Apparently she can (but doesn't) go on fun dives and takes video for customers. If they don't want video, she reluctantly freezes the video and copies still images from it and adds them on the end of the dvd. Regardless of how I feel about that, that's the way it is, that's the way she feels, and there's no negotiating and thus no more selling pictures (which was turning out to be a very promising source of income - $50/week is nearly enough to live on).

I humbly accepted that nothing was going to change her mind and said goodbye to my short-lived photography position without putting up a fight. I was just getting back in the routine of diving and not taking pictures until yesterday immediately after unloading from the morning dive; Sebastian came to me and told me that he had some bad news. As it turns out, the 23-year-old Russian who owns and operates the small dive resort with his boyfriend decided that he doesn't like me diving there. Since I am not going to be there for the 2 weeks of high season (family is coming!), he doesn't want to be wasting tanks of air for me to go diving in low season. Ultimately he told Sebastian to tell me to stop diving. Realizing nothing I did could change their minds, I pretty much said “okay, no worries” straight away but felt quite distraught. It felt like I had been fired.

Blue spotted stingray

Back into unemployment I fell. No selling pictures, no guiding, no teaching, no income, and not even any diving. I have been banished from the water and can only dive if I get a call from a dive center overrun with customers. I figured it was not too much of a problem and today I made another round to all of the dive centers here hoping that one may need an instructor, a guide, or even just a volunteer. Alas, most of them seemed tired of seeing me and some answered my question even before it was asked: “sorry, we'll call you if it gets too busy.” So here I am on this beautiful paradise unable to do the ONE thing I came here to do, whether I get paid or not. Ironic, isn't it.

I have always been one to find the humor in irony no matter how unfortunate its outcomes. However, I've never been in a situation of this sort of irony. Allow me to lay everything out on the table: I have little money, no income, few friends, no one to really talk to, and I can't even do the one thing that I came to this island to do, the thing that really makes me happy.

Sea turtle.  Hawksbill or green, I'm never sure

And finally I have arrived at the heart of this update – the reason I said the other updates don't matter. Here I am living on this gorgeous tropical island with an abundant crowd of interesting tourists and locals, surrounded by palm trees and warm ocean water, I'm wearing shorts and t-shirts every day, spending an average of $1.40 on lunch and $5 on dinner, able to read, snorkel, play guitar, ride my bike, wander around, hang out, meet people, swim, etc. whenever the heck I want. Through all of this, I have the audacity to complain?! I need to seriously reconsider what is important in life if I have the nerve to say that I'm upset while living in a place like this. One of the great things about traveling alone to such distant and foreign lands is that I can learn a lot about myself. After seeing myself get down about this unemployment situation, I don't like what I've learned. It's a powerful life experience to be unemployed and not able to get work regardless of my efforts, but I'm being ridiculous. It took me an entire day and night before I was able to see how stupid my complaints were, and even then it was only because I was talking about it online and realized how dumb it all sounded. It's true, the frustration is real. However, I now have as many responsibilities as any tourist on this island and I'm only poisoning my mind if I don't allow myself to enjoy it as much as they are.

Rain, Rain, Rain

I apologize for the lack of visuals but I suppose it's about time for an update anyway. I am unable to convey the mood that is set by the gray cloudy gloom that I have been experiencing for the past 6-7 days and which is expected to linger for another week or so. I can't convey the feeling, but try to imagine not seeing the sun at all, waking up to rain every other morning, and seeing drizzle scattered throughout the day every day for a week. The gloom dissuades me from being active and naturally hinders optimism. With that in mind, it's difficult for even me to be blind to the little day to day downers. Please allow one post that's not filled with smiles, flowers, butterflies, and kittens.

I work from 8am until about 4pm all seven days of the week. Of course it's not as difficult as doing Physics 7 days a week, but it's not a walk in the park either. That being said, if I'm not working there really is little to do here. I have little urge to go to the shooting range, no desire to visit the discos or hang around prostitutes, and going to the bars to sip coke listening to the same songs over and over while engulfed in a cloud of cigarette smoke gets old pretty quickly.

The dive sites still hold their charm but my requests to explore and search for new sites are always to no avail. The beach holds no refuge as it is completely submerged during high tide and filled with litter and stray dogs during low tide. I continue to visit the same restaurants and cafes every day due to the fact that I've been to nearly every one of them in Sabang. I have been craving a traditional deep-dish pepperoni pizza for over a week but I am forced to cope. The decision to cook for myself leads to difficulties of its own. I lack access to both an oven and microwave so everything that I cook is done over one single gas burner with heavily used cookware. These limitations combined with the lack in grocery selection causes my meals to regularly be at a low standard.

I have yet to find an individual who shares my sense of humor or my has similar interests, interests which exclude both prostitution and binge drinking. Fellow Americans are few and far between, and the few who are under the age of 30 are guaranteed to be here for no more than 5 days. Regardless, the ones I do find often don't relieve my feeling of being an outsider; an American man yesterday insisted that I speak as if I'm from Scandinavia after learning I have residence in Ohio.

My job search is determined to make me go crazy. On one hand it gives me something to do that does not involve going to a bar. On the other hand it is unspeakably discouraging. To date, I've sent out 30 emails to dive resorts in Indonesia (for November through late January) as well as Seychelles, Mauritius, Madagascar, Maldives, Zanzibar, and Reunion Island (for late January until May). The response count is up to 11. 8 responses were negative, 2 are very unlikely, and the other is a freelance opportunity for a location I'm not thrilled about. For every email I send, I dig through the internet for resorts in the regions of interest and scour their website to determine if a) they appear reputable and b) to find something special about the resort that I like. After doing that, I write an email from scratch geared toward the particular resort and why I am interested in working with them specifically. The only redeeming thing about the job search is the realization of my lack of limitations. Assuming I am able to find a job, I can move to any tropical coastal location in the world (well, Cuba might be difficult).

Those who know me will not be surprised to hear me say that within every difficulty there is something to be gained. My appreciation for the amenities of life back home has grown. I am learning to improvise and make due with what is presented to me. Who I am and what I like is becoming more evident as time goes on – I am getting to know myself more. Although there are a lot of great things happening while I'm here and it's nice to focus on those and overlook everything else, there is an important lesson that must not be forgotten. One's level of happiness is a state of mind that is based on experiences. In other words, it's the downs in life that make the ups so much more enjoyable. Put even more simply, life with no struggle is hardly life at all. Because of this, I am content with my discontent and happy to grow from every struggle. In a strange way, even bad days can be good.

Well, I'm off to a bar to hang out for a while before making myself a simple dinner.

Real Dive Instructor

I'm including random pictures just to liven things up a bit. I don't like when I update this blog sans visuals – it gets way too boring.

When I'm not using my computer, experiencing familiarity (of life back home) is quite difficult. The spaghetti sauce is not very good, the pizzas aren't made properly or with normal pepperoni, supermarkets are unheard of, the only form of private transportation is the motorbike, I haven't seen a microwave in nearly a month, I have to flush with a bucket, there are no fields, taking a boat for an hour is the only way to see a mall or fast-food chain, if you order soup from a cafe and ask for it to go then you will get it in a plastic bag, and the the milk has waaaaay too much sugar in it. As a result, it's the little things that give me comfort. It's seeing an American movie on my tv, wearing my Denison hat, finding that quarter in the bottom of my backpack, and discovering there's a place that sells a tiny selection of American candy bars. Life back home is becoming more distant as familiar things are so uncommon.

More often than not, I find myself to be the only American in a given group of people - the only person from all of North and South America for that matter. It's therefore exciting when I can recognize something from the states. It took much longer for this to happen in South Africa since I was surrounded by Americans all the time, but I feel as if my American pride grows when I leave. So often I feel like the American representative being the only one around.

I finally got my Nitrox certification. Once I dive 16 more times on Nitrox and certify 25 students for any level of scuba diving, I'll be able to give Nitrox certifications. Unfortunately, that might take a while. However I'm already on my way.

I finished my very first open water certification on the 31st! My student Sonja is an 18-year-old from Alaska and lucky for me, she was very comfortable underwater and her buoyancy control was great. She loved playing around with the fish and really seemed to have had a great time learning how to dive. Thanks to Sonja I'm off to a great start! It's also nice that I'll be getting about a hundred dollars for certifying her. An entire month of rent!

Renaud is a rescue diver from France learning a bit of technical diving while he's here. He's a really great guy and his birthday was a few days ago. To celebrate, we had a great Mexican group dinner. Excellent food for an excellent guy.

On a dive earlier that day, I accidentally and unknowingly knocked Maria's regulator and mask off causing her to panic. In trying to get a hold of my regulator, she climbed over my back and tried to rip my mask off (keep in mind I had no idea she was missing reg or mask). After about 10 seconds of wrestling, Mark saw what was going on and gave her a regulator and I finally got a chance to clear my mask to see Mark and Maria together moving toward the surface. Renaud and I grabbed her mask and surfaced together. Happy birthday, Renaud.

I've been going through some serious job searches and it's killing me. My afternoons (whenever I'm not diving) are completely taken up by sitting in front of the computer going through dive shop after dive shop, and writing email after email. I start from scratch on each one because I mention how the particular operation looks particularly appealing. So far I've sent out at least 12 emails and my only response has been negative, which is better than no response at all. I've been searching not only for jobs in and around Bali (including Lombok and Komodo Island as well), but also searching for an offer after I leave Indonesia. I will consider any offer from Andaman Islands, Tanzania, Zanzibar, Pemba, Comoros, Maldives, Reunion, Mauritius, Madagascar, and Seychelles (preference in reverse order).

With so many options, I would like to have some sort of concrete communication before buying a plane ticket. I'm afraid that if I don't have any connections before going, I won't be able to find a job. My worries are popping up now because there appears to be a less dense population of dive centers in these locations than are in Philippines and Bali, so if I exhaust my options, I have to buy a ticket to another country to start over. Not only are there fewer dive centers, but they are generally wealthier areas with fancier resorts and more expensive housing so looking around for a job for the first couple weeks I'm there won't be such a bright idea anymore. Plus my French is not at a level of fluency and 5 of those countries have French as a national language.

Speaking of French, there's a really awesome guy who showed up a few days ago named Tomi. He is 22, nearly my height, has long dark scraggly hair, several vintage-style bracelets, a ring, and pan-African colored slippers (this is what the world calls flip flops – they have me doing it too). Anyway he is actually from Montreal and has come to the Philippines to do his divemaster certification before he moves on to Australia. I will probably mention him more because he is a really interesting guy with fewer plans than I have and is a great diving buddy because he has so much fun underwater.

I feel like I should mention something about school starting without me but I'm tired of writing and you're probably excited that the end of the post is in sight. It is weird that classes are starting but I'm so far removed from it right now that I can't fully comprehend it anyway. I hope you enjoyed the random pictures and until next time, don't forget to wear sunscreen.

Sabang at Last

I was very tense as I watched one of Bong's friends carry my backpack with my dive computer, my laptop, and my camera against my better judgment. I was watching him like a hawk as we pushed our way through the crowds unsure of what I would do in my overheated exhausted state if he were to bolt. We finally made our way to the friend's car and after stuffing my bags in the back were forced to jam 4 people in three seats in the back. Along the way I told stories of life back home while we feasted upon fruit that Bong bought at a roadside market. I was concerned for only a moment when I saw the fruit stand crawling with ants but then remembered the phrase “when in Rome…” and proceeded without second thoughts. Though packed like sardines in the back seat of a vehicle pitching back and forth, we managed to share plenty of laughs. All the while I couldn’t keep myself from glancing out the windows and commenting on the beautiful landscapes. As far as my eyes could see there was green until it met the overcast sky. I saw fields, forests, jungles, and everything in between. If the Philippines has an excess of any one thing, it’s palm trees.

As much as I enjoyed the scenery and company, eventually the car rolled to a stop at which point I was to take a jeepney (I’ll talk about them at some point later) to Sabang while they continued. We said our goodbyes and I hopped into the back of the jeepney that would quickly fill beyond capacity before dropping me off near my resort. Stepping onto the streets of Sabang for the first time and my first impression was one of utter confusion. Without knowing where I was going I allowed a local to take one of my bags and show me the way and boy was I glad I did. I followed him a hundred yards down a narrow street (which I later learn is the main road) lined with wall to wall stores set just behind a sidewalk that blended right into the road on either side. He made a left turn and we walked carefully avoiding the puddles down an alley with smaller stores and food stands. Several twists and a few turns later I followed him up the stairs to the smiling faces of Captain Gregg’s Dive Resort that led me to my room shown here.

The moment I was alone, I closed my door and let the bed catch me as I fell in a swirl of exhaustion and relief. Finally in a bed, I was able to completely drop my guard and catch a refreshing and much needed breath of air. The relaxation did not last very long, but it was precisely what I needed.

WOW.

And I'm not talking about World of Warcraft.

Let's establish a few basic things:

Am I here? Yes. I'm on my bed in Puerto Galera, more or less my final destination.
Are there difficulties? Yes.
Was Manila crazy? No, thanks to the Fajardo family. They seriously saved me in Manila. The hospitality and friendliness they showed surpassed any 5-star hotel.
Is it wet? Every day the sky is covered with clouds. I have yet to see a single patch of blue sky.
Is it beautiful? It is remarkably gorgeous here, particularly in Mindoro.
Am I going through culture shock? Yes.
Am I tired? I'm exhausted.
Are there any other white people there? Hardly. I see maybe 2-5 per day.
Is the food good? It is, but you don't want to know what it is.
Am I in over my head? You bet I am. I would classify this as "way over my head."
Is it fun? Well, in my twisted sense of the word, yes. I suppose I am having fun.

I have a zillion things to say but I don't know how. It pains me that not matter how hard I try, my linguistic skills will not be able to convey my experience. Sure I will try, but I'm a little bit on overload right now. Leaving the comfort of the Fajardo house and stepping out completely on my own going to Puerto Galera was like stepping into another world. Details will come, maybe after dinner and a cold shower before I go to bed. I'll see what I can do. As for now, just know that at this very moment I am very much out of my comfort zone and the internet is the only thing that's familiar.

Let the Sunshine In

That is where I am sitting right now.
6am: the sun has just risen on the other side of the house, filling this valley with brilliant sunlight. After two days I've decided there really is something magical about this island. People here are happy, considerate and patient. I noticed this particularly when I drove to the dive shop yesterday. A 20-minute drive took nearly an hour since I have no experience with the roads...yet. Making quick lane changes to avoid getting lost gave the Hawaiians a chance to show their true colors and they were nothing but pleasant. A sort of character that is so perfectly captured by the cheerful rainbow on every license plate I see.
I don't have a solid plan for today yet so I'm thinking of going to the beach. It may be weird since going to the beach is usually not a one-man operation. However I'm sure there will be no problem having a great time there: it is Hawaii after all.