that's instructor kate to you......
so i did it. after two of the longest days ever, i finished with literally a squeel and a little dance marking the end of my presentation and the beginning of a career de buceo. i shook gary's hand (examiner gary) and relished in my mid to high 90s marks for a moment before getting him to sign my 100th dive which i coincidentally made as my exam dive. on that dive i must say, while performing my skills (if a mistake is made in the open water portion, there are no make ups) i was bitten by a crab-like crustacean, a fact of which i had to hide although it sent pains up and down my leg for the remainder of the dive.
i also must note that i was put in the "spanish group" because my course directors told gary that i spoke perfect spanish. luckily i got by and even picked up some terminology which will help me if i get into diving here in mexico.
we celebrated as a team, dining on italian and wine, and after a night of dancing and drinks which seemed very foreign to our bodies due to the prohibition we had put ourselves on, i made it home to bed.
unfortunately, and not surprisingly i missed my 620am boat and had to catch the 200 which got me into san pedro sula (aka most dangerous city in honduras) after nightfall, not something i was looking forward to. since my flight was early in the morning, i decided to fend for myself at the well guarded airport where i set up shop for the evening. i had a few panic attacks, with shady cab drivers and a confusion as to when my flight left as well an unconfirmed connection in mexico, but i made it home safe and sound.
its good to have my things unpacked and now i get to take a breath and start making lesson plans for my 8 and 9 year olds for monday morning. i don't stop do i? i think i will definitely miss doing my diving everyday, but i'll never lose that experience and i'll be able to pick it up again. as my mom has reminded me of my plan to work art contracts in the nice months in canada and do contract work in the south doing diving in the highseasons in the winter months. not a bad idea.
ps. come to mexico for certification, you'll be in good hands.
love,
k
finished the mock, onto the real deal.....
so over the past two days i have recieved good responses to my mock IE that i have finished. i had my open water demo which proved to be difficult in demonstrating surface skills in choppy water (soon to be a lot choppier as we get the backlash from hurricane dean, supposedly on monday). but my rescue skills and decents went off without a hitch scoring a 4.6 out of 5 and my theory exams did not drop below 90% in all areas with a few 100%s, i was happy and exhausted. after recieving an average of 98% today as a sum up, i feel prepared and ready for the last step, the IE. i'm going to be sorry to go because i've enjoyed diving so much, but utila is not the place where i want to begin my career because of the fact there is not much aquatic life and the island is not exactly a place where i can see myself being culturally or intellectually fufilled. it has been a rewarding experience and i'm glad to say that i think the IE will not be a problem. soon i will be making my way back to mexico to begin lesson planning for my grade 4s. luckily, this has been a learning experience in the art of teaching as well and i will take back a lot of my techniques and apply them to teaching english.
two days of rest and relaxation, i will dive four times to make my 100th dive the one of the IE, how momentus. i hope to explore and take some pictures since after the IE i will be boarding a boat hours after to make my way back to san pedro to catch a plane back to my mexican home the following day.
whirlwind, but pretty usual for my life.
off to take a well deserved nap.
in a week i'll be exam-ing....
so my other micro teaching example, on valves went very well as well as my no mask breathing, i averaged about a 4.6 out of five and i practiced any other skills with which i had troubles. the good thing is, i keep thinking one day at a time, but keep a little eye on what's coming so that i'm prepared. i finally had some time to myself made dinner and had a great convo with my mom, using up two phone cards, but feeling the reconnection to canada a great relief which promoted a great night's sleep. yesterday i had similar success. after being the translator for the group as we went to go get our medical forms signed by the spanish doctor, i was put into the spanish group (and felt wonderful about my comprehension of the briefings as well as instructions, i think i may have impressed myself more than the boys) and we went out to do our open water skills. luckily my knot knowledge proved strong and i completed both my bowline and my sheetbend proficiently, dad you'd be proud. i also performed my skills very well, my one problem was that i didn't catch a problem, not because of my own negligence but because my "student" couldn't perform the problem correctly. otherwise, i would have had perfect. pretty great for a days work. we packed up and headed home where i used my marlin from the night before to make a yummy stirfry and settled into a night of endulgence of television watching and knot practice.
today is a rare day where no presentations are performed and we are simply sponges absorbing the content for our three presentations tomorrow. one of my classmates who has recently dropped out of the program, due to a little case of malaria, is preparing a dinner for a couple of us. don't worry, i know how malaria is transmitted and i'm keeping the bugspray flowing. also dengay, another sickness transmitted through mosquitos, is rampid on the island, the bone cracking sickness they call it. luckily, my time in mexico has built me a strong immunity and so far so good, not a lot of bugs like me and i'm just needing to hold on one week without succumbing to some unfortunate illness. it is enough to create paranoia, but i prefer to think of myself as one who has been through enough in the past month and a half that it would just be cruel and unusual punishment for anything else to happen to me during this stressful time.
wish me luck. love to all.
feeling more and more like an instructor.....
so yesterday we went over teaching practices and today we put them into practice. i stood in front of my peers and taught them the fundamental principles of buoyancy and the weight of water. i felt really comfortable with the presentation, i love presenting topics using aids like whiteboards or pieces of equipment, plus, physics is meant to be taught in a classroom so it was a great topic to jump in with. i was cool calm and comfortable and got the best mark in the class. after lunch my confidence was taken down a notch when i performed my demonstration in confined water, the CESA. anyone that knows scuba and a controlled emergency swimming ascent can think of how annoying and time consuming they are to do not only to teach. we are given surprise problems to catch but instead of being given two i was given three, one more than the rest, also i had the hardest skill. my director said because i was doing so well he needed to trip me up so i keep pushing myself and don't loose motivation but regardless, no one likes a "1". next time it won't happen again, i guess that's the point. tomorrow we go through it again, now with different skills to teach and demonstrate but i am just taking it one day at a time.
grocery shopping with my 5 dollars and then practice practice practice.
hope to hear from you guys soon.
a need for speed.....
so yesterday we started the IDC, we were retested on five of our divemaster exams and i passed all with flying colours, upping my confidence (since the tests are considered one of the hardest parts) and reminding me that i can do this. after a homecooked meal and a late night visit from the recently certified DM's, i got to sleep after a pep-talk from a much calmer recent grad of the idc program who told me just to take it one day at a time, seems to be a popular idea.
today was a bit more stressful. in the morning we went through ways in which to teach and then after a brief break where i practiced spanish with the group i'd been put into, we went over our 18 skills. i performed them all very well but need to work on my speed, i seem to run through them very quickly and need to remember to do them slow and steady so as to teach rather than show.
tonight i prepare some notes for my presentations, go over my skills and visualize mistakes and then get some sleep. tomorrow i may attempt the night dive but i'm kind of liking this apartment business and just chillin'out and doing my work.
thanks to my dutch housemate i have the use of freeinternet for a couple days before she moves out so i'll try to update as much as possible.
love to all,
k
one more day as a free woman.....
so yesterday i dove thrice and today i did four, i am one, burnt, tired, hungry puppy. speaking of which i saw a dalmation puppy and it almost made me cry but i think its a sign that i have my little friend pulling for me. im taking any sign i can at this point. the dives were getting better yesterday we went to a wreck adn then i saw a moray eel and some cool arrow crabs. but today was sweet, maybe because they were my last fun dives for awhile, but we saw some juvinile fish i had never seen before like my fave, the cow fish. and then we saw a tiny ray, about the size of a saucer, which buried itself in the sand almost playing and putting on a show. very sweet. i really love being in the water and im glad the dives went so well, reminding me what im working so hard for. i got a bit scared because one of the newly crowned instructors basically broke me down and made me feel as thought i couldnt do it, not that i wasnt capable but just that it was soooo difficult. psht. whatever, i know im motivated, i mean i did all that training in turks and now have come to a point where i get to show how good i really am. whew pep talk a la kate. anyways i start tomorrow, i have to wake up at my usual 6am to start standing in line to get a medical then rush to get passport photos and then im ready and set to get in there. i have 11 dives before i can qualify for the exam in 10days so i will need to get those in at somepoint. i just am going to settle into my little apartment for the night, buy myself some food with my last remaining limperas and hope that the bank will be able to help me tomorrow. fingers crossed. if anyone wants to try my on my phone, please do its a crazy number but you will find it is worth it to talk to yours truly. 01150432970560. i have so much more to tell about the island but basically it is poor, and im glad i{m doing this course here because it is not the ideal place to dive on a vacation. take note.
lots of love. wish me luck.
kate
not exactly what i expected but finding corners to cut.....
so after my last post i got in the shuttle and was taken to downtown san pedro which may very well be the most violent city in all of honduras. i borded a bus, guarded by armed guards, and journeyed to la ceiba. i put my bag in a cabbies car and realized that i had nothing less than 20bucks USD to give him, i needed change. after running into a grocery store i panicked while in line realizing i had left my bag in a random cabbies car unattended. luckily good ol' oscar was there waiting for me to take me to my boat. damned canadian trusting good nature causing panic attacks. the boat ride was beautiful as i left the dock i looked back to see huge mountains dusted by clouds and covered in lush forest. ahead lay my sanctuary. however, around me was a different atmosphere. i came to utila the day before sun jam being the biggest party in all of central america, not only drawing rowdy drugged and drunk crowds but also huge problems for people needing to find accomodation. luckily, i thought ahead. i settled into my dormstyle room and chatted up my roommates who are also divers and awed by my seniority and my much younger age.
i thought why not try on a early saturday morning to sneak onto a boat, and sneak is what i did. i went as DM for two dives where we did specialty courses for advanced students, and i taught a navigation portion of one of the dives. the water was clear and beautiful, not a lot to see in comparasion to turks but it was only my first couple dives. one sea cucumber, a lobster, garden eels and a scorpian fish. great to use the new equipment and great to be under the water (especially during the rainstorm that turned sunjam to rainjam rather quickly). i picked my materials and signed up for three dives on monday to start my intensive catch up to make my 100 dive mark by the 21st of august.
i've been making friends but realizing quickly this is not really a vacation, though to be enjoyed, but much more focused on the work involved and the goal i am to reach at the end.
i have a cell but only my mom has the number and will give it out to any who dare try me on my little isla. i also move into my negotiated apartment i think on thursday if it is still there for 150bucks for 2 weeks, kitchen and all. still settling but this is only day two and i have already had 2 dives and recieved all my books (adding about 70lbs to my load on the way back).
sorry if i'm not making it sound like paradise, it is great, but i'm just in a really realistic mode, i'll start feeling peaceful once the banks let me access money and i get some more dives under my belt.
love to all.
k
ps. uncle rob, if you read this, i'll totally certify you, and you can work at my dive shop any day.
so i made it.
after an eventful morning in mexico i made it on the plane and flew off to mexico city and then onto san pedro sula. i think i need to give myself more credit as a traveller because i put myself into massive panic mode thinking i forgot both my camera and log books (the latter being integral to my entry to the idc program) but a huge sigh of relief was made when i ravaged my bags and found both, exactly where i had put them. first, the room. i not only had a room, i had four. that´s right, i had a suite, for 40 bucks. i definitely laughed as my little porter had to go over a list of at least 90odd check areas for the suite before i could settle in. and yes, i took a picture of said list to document the hilarity. i then found myself in a bit of a time warp. in mexico it was 10pm however in honduras (where i would have expected the same or later) it was 9pm. i am still perplexed but at least i´m gaining time rather than losing it. this morning, i dined on my free cornflakes and fruit and am now off on my taxi ride to el centro to find a bus to la ceiba (a four hour bus ride) to find my ferry at 4pm to utila. and then i will be home. so to speak. i feel really nervous but i know i am prepared but just need some time to settle i think that´s my issue right now, i don´t feel very settled. to be truthful, i haven´t felt entirely settled for awhile but i think it is only due to the fact that i am in an extremely transitory time in my life. continuing to challenge myself in apparently every way. even when dear oscar last night, my cabbie, told me how brave i was to come by myself to a strange country and not be completely comfortable with the language to do a course like scuba, i thought to myself, i guess this is kind of big. my friends and family continue to support me and tell me how proud they are of me which means the world. i love you all, and i´ll let you know how my journey pans out.
ciao. besos.
