Last week / Rescue Diver / Weekend / Qatar / Flying the Heck Home.
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The Last Week
It's strange how quickly things come and go. In the beginning, it seemed like the end was so far off that it was never really something I had to even consider. As the days began winding down however it started looming more and more in the back of everything we did. Curieuse was a definite highlight and a great way to go into the last part of our trip. On Monday evening we said our first goodbyes to Jo and Doug who had to leave early for a family wedding. It was weird waking up on Tuesday without Jo's ever-present smile and Doug's griping about the porridge we have every day. I can't blame him though, I got sick of it too by the end. When you eat something that tastes like nothing for five weeks, your taste buds grow more than a little restless...
We continued with our survey dives and went to some new locations. It was exciting exploring new places and I got to dive with Duncan again who I have done about half of my dives with. On one of our dives we were given a parameter we had no way of achieving which was frustrating. We swam around trying to get the right depth but couldn't because it was too deep no matter where we went. But we got to see a horned ray and a parrot fish. We did four dives together over Monday and Tuesday.
I also did two dives with Lindsey, the head scientist, and we had an incredible time. On our first dive a school of 15 bumphead parrotfish (which are about 1 - 1.5 meters in length) swan by us. On the second dive, we ran into another 8 of the bumpheads this time one coming within arms reach of me. This was slightly terrifying as they have "beaks" designed to crush coral. I could only imagine what it would do to bone...
On Wednesday night we had a big farewell shindig. Pretty much we drank a lot of Takamaka (the local rum and vodka), watched a pretty nifty slideshow of all our pictures, and talked to the wee hours of the morning. All-in-all it was a pretty stellar time except that we all knew we were saying goodbye to one another -- so that sort of sucked.
Thursday morning we awoke to wonderful hangovers and having to clean the entire camp as some people were staying, some (like myself) were leaving, and others were arriving. After that was all done we went to the Waterfall Emma and I had gone to on our first week there and jumped off rocks, went swimming, and tried to catch crayfish. Naturally, it started to rain a little bit on the walk home.
Rescue Diver
After packing up all my belongings to go and saying goodbye to everyone at way-to-early in the morning, Duncan and I headed to the local dive shop to begin our Rescue Diver course. Think of it as a Wilderness First Aid course, except for Diving. Or maybe under-water life guarding. The course was F A N T A S T I C although incredibly tiring. Our instructor was a very flamboyant Seychellois guy named Tony who really knew his stuff. Basically, the first day we spent learning how to deal with someone freaking out in or under the water and having tow them to shore and removing all their equipment. Sounds fun. Was fun. Tons of work though.
The best way to help someone bigger than you who is freaking out on the surface is to, surprisingly, go underwater and grab their legs then shimmy up onto their tank and do what's called a knee-cradle to their tank. Then you inflate their BCD. I liked this method the best simply because you feel the most in control. In a different scenario, I totally got attacked by Tony and ended up swallowing a lot of water... In real life that would have been game over, so it's good to learn which technique suits you the best and to realize that if someone is really panicking and they cannot think, its best not to approach them and let them simply wear themselves out.
I spent day towing and hauling Duncan out of the water. Despite the fact that he is about 8 inches taller than me and heavier than me, I only dropped him once and part of it had to do with the fact I hurt my elbow. We learned about five or six different methods for hauling someone out of the water. If they are unconscious and you are giving rescue breaths you only have 30 seconds to get them out of the water. (I guess I should preface that by saying if you are towing an unconscious person who you cannot tell if they are breathing or not *hard to do in the water* you give 1 rescue breath every 5 seconds). This means you really have to haul ass. And then you have to do compressions... And doing this for, you know, two hours takes a bit out of you.
We also did search and rescue scenarios. The vis was crap so it was actually really good to do it in. I had fun doing that, for the most part. Except one of the methods we learned involved keeping one person in place with a reel and having the other person swim off. It's called the expanding circle method. It works well, but I really don't like being separated from my dive buddy (especially in bad vis...)
All in all the rescue course was super super fun. If you dive and have a chance to take it, I would. I mean, I would like to go on and work as a dive instructor for a short period of time, so doing it is required..but even if you are just diving with friends its good to know!
Weekend
The rest of the weekend was spent saying goodbye and having fun. After the rescue diver course, I met up with Emma and Allie. We then met up with all the ten-week GVI people at the Pirates Arm (restaurant) and Level 3 (night club). I had an amazing night but it was hard having to say goodbye...
After that, I packed up and got ready to go.
Anyways, maybe I will post the first page or two of what I write when I write it.
It's strange how quickly things come and go. In the beginning, it seemed like the end was so far off that it was never really something I had to even consider. As the days began winding down however it started looming more and more in the back of everything we did. Curieuse was a definite highlight and a great way to go into the last part of our trip. On Monday evening we said our first goodbyes to Jo and Doug who had to leave early for a family wedding. It was weird waking up on Tuesday without Jo's ever-present smile and Doug's griping about the porridge we have every day. I can't blame him though, I got sick of it too by the end. When you eat something that tastes like nothing for five weeks, your taste buds grow more than a little restless...
We continued with our survey dives and went to some new locations. It was exciting exploring new places and I got to dive with Duncan again who I have done about half of my dives with. On one of our dives we were given a parameter we had no way of achieving which was frustrating. We swam around trying to get the right depth but couldn't because it was too deep no matter where we went. But we got to see a horned ray and a parrot fish. We did four dives together over Monday and Tuesday.
I also did two dives with Lindsey, the head scientist, and we had an incredible time. On our first dive a school of 15 bumphead parrotfish (which are about 1 - 1.5 meters in length) swan by us. On the second dive, we ran into another 8 of the bumpheads this time one coming within arms reach of me. This was slightly terrifying as they have "beaks" designed to crush coral. I could only imagine what it would do to bone...
On Wednesday night we had a big farewell shindig. Pretty much we drank a lot of Takamaka (the local rum and vodka), watched a pretty nifty slideshow of all our pictures, and talked to the wee hours of the morning. All-in-all it was a pretty stellar time except that we all knew we were saying goodbye to one another -- so that sort of sucked.
Thursday morning we awoke to wonderful hangovers and having to clean the entire camp as some people were staying, some (like myself) were leaving, and others were arriving. After that was all done we went to the Waterfall Emma and I had gone to on our first week there and jumped off rocks, went swimming, and tried to catch crayfish. Naturally, it started to rain a little bit on the walk home.
Rescue Diver
After packing up all my belongings to go and saying goodbye to everyone at way-to-early in the morning, Duncan and I headed to the local dive shop to begin our Rescue Diver course. Think of it as a Wilderness First Aid course, except for Diving. Or maybe under-water life guarding. The course was F A N T A S T I C although incredibly tiring. Our instructor was a very flamboyant Seychellois guy named Tony who really knew his stuff. Basically, the first day we spent learning how to deal with someone freaking out in or under the water and having tow them to shore and removing all their equipment. Sounds fun. Was fun. Tons of work though.
The best way to help someone bigger than you who is freaking out on the surface is to, surprisingly, go underwater and grab their legs then shimmy up onto their tank and do what's called a knee-cradle to their tank. Then you inflate their BCD. I liked this method the best simply because you feel the most in control. In a different scenario, I totally got attacked by Tony and ended up swallowing a lot of water... In real life that would have been game over, so it's good to learn which technique suits you the best and to realize that if someone is really panicking and they cannot think, its best not to approach them and let them simply wear themselves out.
I spent day towing and hauling Duncan out of the water. Despite the fact that he is about 8 inches taller than me and heavier than me, I only dropped him once and part of it had to do with the fact I hurt my elbow. We learned about five or six different methods for hauling someone out of the water. If they are unconscious and you are giving rescue breaths you only have 30 seconds to get them out of the water. (I guess I should preface that by saying if you are towing an unconscious person who you cannot tell if they are breathing or not *hard to do in the water* you give 1 rescue breath every 5 seconds). This means you really have to haul ass. And then you have to do compressions... And doing this for, you know, two hours takes a bit out of you.
We also did search and rescue scenarios. The vis was crap so it was actually really good to do it in. I had fun doing that, for the most part. Except one of the methods we learned involved keeping one person in place with a reel and having the other person swim off. It's called the expanding circle method. It works well, but I really don't like being separated from my dive buddy (especially in bad vis...)
All in all the rescue course was super super fun. If you dive and have a chance to take it, I would. I mean, I would like to go on and work as a dive instructor for a short period of time, so doing it is required..but even if you are just diving with friends its good to know!
Weekend
The rest of the weekend was spent saying goodbye and having fun. After the rescue diver course, I met up with Emma and Allie. We then met up with all the ten-week GVI people at the Pirates Arm (restaurant) and Level 3 (night club). I had an amazing night but it was hard having to say goodbye...
After that, I packed up and got ready to go.
Qatar
After waking up at 5:30 am and flying for a ways I arrived in Qatar. I checked around and learned getting into the country cost $40. I figured what the hell, I have 8 hours, why not. Wow. Talk about an amazing place. First of all, everyone there was super friendly. Second of all, talk about a drop dead gorgeous city. For a long time I didn't understand what it was that made it so intriguing, and then it hit me: all there were were skyscrapers. There were no other buildings. Just skyscrapers shooting up out of the earth like giant blades of grass. On top of that, each building was incredibly unique. Nothing was "just a building" but everything had a visual aspect, an artistic aspect if you will, to it. These buildings were more than just about homing people or homing jobs, it was about creating an atmosphere that was enjoyable to be in.
Then, on top of that, there was a ton of construction no matter which way you looked. It was sort of terrifying how much could be being built all at once and more than a little intimidating. I visited the Islamic Art Museum (just built) and looked at some cool calligraphy done of pages in the Kor'an and your usual vases, bowls, and paintings.... I also was taken by this cab driver to the sites he thought I should see which included the "pearl of Doha" which are these group of skyscrapers (hotels? apartments?) that are being built out in the water around in a circle shape. I'm not sure how to describe it. Google Image it. I also went to see some other neat buildings being built as well as two popular malls -- one which had a river going through it which you could take a paddle boat down if you so choose, and the other which had an ice rink on the bottom floor.
These people knew how to live it up, that much was clear...
Flying Home
While flying home was relatively easy (albeit long) it was more than a little nerve wracking. We had pretty bad turbulence on 3 of my 7 flights. One of my flights was severally delayed because bird guts were found near the engine. Another flight had problems with the landing gear so we had to circle around again.
Very inspiring stuff.
But I made it. Not only that I got to chill in some cool places Doha being one, Bangkok the other... (actually I just went to a hotel, worked-out, slept, showered, and got a massage...tough life, right?)
I left on Monday for the airport at 5:30 Seychellois time and arrived back in Falmouth at about 1:00 on Wednesday afternoon. Between those times I was on 3 continents, 6 countries, and had a grand total of seven flights. When I say all this out loud it sounds terrifying, but truthfully flying the much wasn't so bad. True, I didn't sleep a lot... I have a hard time sleeping on planes for one thing and the other is I set my watch to Hometown time and would only sleep at the appropriate times. (which always happened to be when I wasn't in the air...)
I watched a couple movies (all girly ones) and read a couple books. (Carl Hiaassen, John Steinback, and some Brazillian guy... Paulo something or other...)
Debriefing
I feel like it's important to say that I really got a lot out of both of these experiences. They were completely opposite from one another but proved very complimentary. I feel like I was able to sort out part of my life (aka the immediate future) which has never been a particular speciality of mine as well as come to some pretty solid realizations about who I am and how I want to live my life. While I don't feel particularly inclined to share that with you ( a girl has to keep some secrets ) I just thought it was important to say that I came away with something that I didn't have before. But even that is wrong -- because I think, whatever it is, has always been there waiting to surface. Like dinosaur bones slowly being excavatued by careful, calculating archeologists.
In the end, I feel like I learned (somehow) that it's okay to go off and pursue my own personnal ambitions even if they aren't noble, or world-changing. What matters is they are world-changing to me; that they inspire me. And I think that if I don't follow my own heart and my own desires, I won't be of any use to anyone because I will always be thinking "what if."
The Future
So while my trip is over I think I am still going to post on this blog because its nice being able to write down (however horribly, and unimaginatively I do it) my adventures and let people know what it is I do with my time. I can't be certain how often I will write. Once a week? Twice a month? Who knows. I guess time will tell... It will also have to take a back-seat to my attempts at novel-writing which have, so far, proved unsuccessful. But I'm going back at it with a vengeance!After waking up at 5:30 am and flying for a ways I arrived in Qatar. I checked around and learned getting into the country cost $40. I figured what the hell, I have 8 hours, why not. Wow. Talk about an amazing place. First of all, everyone there was super friendly. Second of all, talk about a drop dead gorgeous city. For a long time I didn't understand what it was that made it so intriguing, and then it hit me: all there were were skyscrapers. There were no other buildings. Just skyscrapers shooting up out of the earth like giant blades of grass. On top of that, each building was incredibly unique. Nothing was "just a building" but everything had a visual aspect, an artistic aspect if you will, to it. These buildings were more than just about homing people or homing jobs, it was about creating an atmosphere that was enjoyable to be in.
Then, on top of that, there was a ton of construction no matter which way you looked. It was sort of terrifying how much could be being built all at once and more than a little intimidating. I visited the Islamic Art Museum (just built) and looked at some cool calligraphy done of pages in the Kor'an and your usual vases, bowls, and paintings.... I also was taken by this cab driver to the sites he thought I should see which included the "pearl of Doha" which are these group of skyscrapers (hotels? apartments?) that are being built out in the water around in a circle shape. I'm not sure how to describe it. Google Image it. I also went to see some other neat buildings being built as well as two popular malls -- one which had a river going through it which you could take a paddle boat down if you so choose, and the other which had an ice rink on the bottom floor.
These people knew how to live it up, that much was clear...
Flying Home
While flying home was relatively easy (albeit long) it was more than a little nerve wracking. We had pretty bad turbulence on 3 of my 7 flights. One of my flights was severally delayed because bird guts were found near the engine. Another flight had problems with the landing gear so we had to circle around again.
Very inspiring stuff.
But I made it. Not only that I got to chill in some cool places Doha being one, Bangkok the other... (actually I just went to a hotel, worked-out, slept, showered, and got a massage...tough life, right?)
I left on Monday for the airport at 5:30 Seychellois time and arrived back in Falmouth at about 1:00 on Wednesday afternoon. Between those times I was on 3 continents, 6 countries, and had a grand total of seven flights. When I say all this out loud it sounds terrifying, but truthfully flying the much wasn't so bad. True, I didn't sleep a lot... I have a hard time sleeping on planes for one thing and the other is I set my watch to Hometown time and would only sleep at the appropriate times. (which always happened to be when I wasn't in the air...)
I watched a couple movies (all girly ones) and read a couple books. (Carl Hiaassen, John Steinback, and some Brazillian guy... Paulo something or other...)
Debriefing
I feel like it's important to say that I really got a lot out of both of these experiences. They were completely opposite from one another but proved very complimentary. I feel like I was able to sort out part of my life (aka the immediate future) which has never been a particular speciality of mine as well as come to some pretty solid realizations about who I am and how I want to live my life. While I don't feel particularly inclined to share that with you ( a girl has to keep some secrets ) I just thought it was important to say that I came away with something that I didn't have before. But even that is wrong -- because I think, whatever it is, has always been there waiting to surface. Like dinosaur bones slowly being excavatued by careful, calculating archeologists.
In the end, I feel like I learned (somehow) that it's okay to go off and pursue my own personnal ambitions even if they aren't noble, or world-changing. What matters is they are world-changing to me; that they inspire me. And I think that if I don't follow my own heart and my own desires, I won't be of any use to anyone because I will always be thinking "what if."
The Future
Anyways, maybe I will post the first page or two of what I write when I write it.
