I'm Diving In ;)

What does a baboon and a tomato have in common?

6 new awesome friends
5 exhilirating dives
4 embarrassing tan lines
3 days of sun and rain
2 silly boat cannonballs
1 very toasted Eda
dozens of insults and loads of laughs later....


we became certified open water divers! wooot

To be entirely honest, I never thought I'd make it, due to my sheer lack of activity in general. And considering my lacklustre performances during PE classes throughout my academic career, if you'd predicted me scuba diving, I'd have given you a very strange look.

But having done it, the thrill doesn't come as much from the things that you see down below [not that it isn't exciting], but from having overcome a challenge which I wasn't confident of handling. So whether it was teaching an old dog [okok I'm not that old] new tricks and mastering new skills involved, or being sporty for once in my life [though I'll never be able to shed the nerd image] or conquering a childhood fear of the sea; its a serious sense of satisfaction. Not to mention roughing it out and going back to basics for 3 days [oh how my neck hurts from that hard pillow].

The rewards are indescribable. At the verge of sounding cliched, its really exciting to be able to experience an entirely alternate universe, such a surreal feeling. Even though we didn't get to "see much" as many other divers would put it, no turtles, stingrays, bumheads or triggerfish [thank goodness], the fact that we had the privilege of SEE-ing the underwater world, was quite a thrill in itself. I just hope that I'll never forget the sheer awesomeness of this simple fact, even after going for more dives. [anyone for more?]

That being said though, it was really God's grace [thanks for everyone's wee prayers as well] that I got to meet a bunch of really nice people on this dive. If not for them, my experience would have be completely different, and I would really not be -this- excited about diving. In fact, I'd go as far as to say that if I had a group of people I couldn't relate to as well as this fantastic bunch, I'd just stop trying to dive altogether.



So here's a fat shoutout of THANK YOU to Adam, Wan Ho, Kevin, Celine and my [extremely patient] buddy Kenneth for making my first diving trip so memorable and so excellent! I seriously wouldn't have survived without all of you. Honest.

Now that I've got my feet on more or less solid [not sandy] ground, and after feeling the boat rocking in my sleep, the next question is... anyone up for doing advanced? ;)