Cruiseboats and Great Days

Cruise boat days can be the worst. Last week was about to do me in but luckily I, along with the help of Leanne and Pete and everyone else at the dive shop, managed to pull through. The morning out was perfectly fine. In fact I thought it was going to be the best cruise boat day yet. However in the afternoon that was a different story. It started off alright, however I knew that that was not going to last. We usually leave the dock at about 1:45 and that day I was supposed to be back at the docks at 4:15. Let me break things down for you. It takes about 25 to 30 minutes to get to the dive site. Then we have to get the certified divers in at one dive site and then move to another to do the intros. This takes 15 minutes or so. Once we are moored up, we get two or three groups of four divers in the water with gear and this can take anywhere from 25 to 40 minutes. Of course on this day it took a good 40 minutes. I then have to account for the 10 minutes to get everyone back on board and then the 30 minutes to get back to the dock. That means I had about 30 to 35 minutes to get through four skills and then a dive. The dive alone takes about 30 minutes and then sometimes the skills can take 5 to 15 minutes depending on if the person is stupid enough to inhale water through their nose. On this day I had stupid divers that took 15 minutes. That meant they had 15 minutes in the water which of course was not going to make them happy.
The site we went to is not my favorite. In fact, I hate it. It is a crappy reef that I always manage to get lost on. However on this day I did not mind and just hopped in the water hoping for all the best. Once my petrified divers were down things went alright. We had a good dive, and when my dive watch hit 25 minutes I knew I needed to find the boat so we could stay on schedule. However, I realized I had no idea where I was and I had no idea where the boat was. I insist that I was to intently focused on my divers making sure that they were not getting in trouble, and therefore I lost my sense of direction. After looking for the mooring for another 10 minutes I decided to surface and swim back to the boat. I knew at this point I would be behind schedule, but there is a small safety margin that I knew would keep me safe. However, destiny had other plans and as I was breaking down gear I noticed thick black smoke coming from the cover of one of the engines. I told George and when he looked smoke came pouring out. Not good. Turns out one of the engines was blown and we could only run on one engine. On top of this we were fighting the current, which ended pushing us into the wrong side of the harbor. By this time I was freaking out because I knew we would not make it, and therefore these cruisers were going to be spending the night in Vila on Nautilus's bill. I could just see my head being chopped off. I called the shop to fill them in and luckily after some intense conversations they decided to send the faster (not broken) fishing boat out to pick up the people and bring them in. Luckily everything worked out, and I only got a small lecture. Of course, turns out that the cruise was not going to be leaving at the time we were told, but a whole hour later, meaning all the stress and rush was not necessary.
This weeks cruise boat was just as interesting, but it went much better. The morning launch went off without a hitch and I was mostly worried about the afternoon one because Leanne was leaving for Oz (Australia) and leaving me in charge of everything. We got everyone on board and left and then I started on getting all the papers correctly filled in. Of course there was one person that had done no paperwork before coming so I had to walk him through it all. As my luck would be, the man was older and from Brazil. He understood not a word of English so I ended up somehow gesturing to him what he needed to put in each box. It was the worst game of charades I have ever played. Then on top of that I decided to fill out what I could for him and he thanked me by placing his arm around me and hugging me. This was no normal hug, for one I was standing up filling out his paperwork, also he refused to release me, and then whenever I tried to shift away from him he grabbed me hard and pulled me closer into the side of him. Of course when I tried to ask him to let me go he didn't understand a thing and instead thought if he pulled me closer he could understand what I was saying. I just ended up blaming the weirdness on the culture differences and tried to think nothing of it. Luckily for me, he was not in my group of intro divers. That was really the only interesting thing that happened on that cruise ship and thankfully we made it back to the dock in time.
Back down underwater not much has been happening. The most interesting thing that has happened recently is that the giant titan triggerfish are breeding and laying eggs. During this time they get very aggressive and territorial and will fight anything that gets in their way. If you have never seen these fish they are really dorky looking. They have big black bug eyes, a big overbite and some of the biggest buck teeth you have ever seen. Whenever I first saw these guys I wondered if their teeth could do some damaged so I Googled it. Turns out they have been known to go after scuba divers and I saw pictures of people that had had their lips literally ripped off by these fish. Not pretty. Anyway I happened to be having a fun dive and I saw a huge one of these fish. For some reason it did not swim away like they normally do and it actually started eyeballing me. I of course took notice and suddenly it turned on me and charged. And I mean FAST. It truly wanted a piece of me. Luckily I reacted fast and flipped my fin up and straight into it's face. This stopped it and it turned away from me and warily watched me. I kept going on my way watching it and it tried to charge me one more time. After that I quickly finned away.
Today was the sort of day that really makes me grateful about where and what I am doing. It started like any normal day, great weather blue skies and tons of sun. We had four people going out with us this morning and luckily I talked the boss into letting us go to Mele Bay, which has reefs that are completely different from what we normally dive on. The first dive was fun, saw some really amazing nudibranchs, a huge painted reef lobster (bone white with neon purple markings), a moray eel, and tons of different fish. The next dive was really neat. For one I didn't lost and have to pop up to see where the boat was (like the previous dive). Then on top of that we saw a huge turtle and also a blue spotted reef ray. Then on this site there are literally fields of sea anemones that cover the sea floor. And all throughout these sea anemones are all sorts of different species of clownfish. It was so amazing to be hovering over all this and have all these clownfish surround you. Pretty special. When we got back we ended up having the afternoon off. I got to chat with my family and also my second family (you know who you are). Then I decided to go to my favorite beach on Erakor and bake and read in the sun. It was a great afternoon and then to top it off I decided to walk to the best Asian food restaurant Pi Ha's (I think that is how you spell it). I had a huge meal for all of 13 dollars (US). Then I found out that they were celebrating their two year anniversary so I got a discount off of that too. My day really couldn't get much better. Hopefully my last few weeks here in Vanuatu will be filled with more days like today.

Diving with Others

Okay, so I just need to write about everything that is going on. I have had several long days back to back and I am just slightly on edge. It has been great to have lots to do and be back in the water after a few days out. However, whenever you are not feeling 100% and having to do everything to get the boat, clients, and everything else ready, it gets to be to much. Also I find it hard to deal with stupid, new, bad, and annoying divers. Luckily, I haven't really let my frustration be shown, and I try to remind myself how grateful I should be and that things could be WAY worse. So please don't think that I am ungrateful or complaining.

Yesterday I started an open water course. Of course he showed up with only two of his knowledge review worksheets filled out, so I had to take the next hour and a half to explain everything and go over the other three worksheets. He was not off on the right foot to becoming my friend. Those worksheets are for you to understand.......I already know that stuff by heart, so please don't make me answer all those questions. Then we hopped in the pool, and he wasn't terrible with all the skills. He had a hard time with mask skills. He was able to do them, but just before completing them, he would quit and shoot to the surface. I was slightly frustrated because he was not telling me what was wrong, or why he was not completing the skills fully. Anyway, we only got through half the stuff we should have because I had to quit early to do a night dive.

I, for one, HATE night dives. I was trying to be optimistic for this one since I was doing a night diving course. It is not the fact that they are done at night, but the fact that I never see anything, and they are a complete pain in the butt to lead and watch after others. Also you get back to the dock late, and then have to clean up everything. They always make for a long day. Anyway, there were no problems with that dive. It was just really boring, and the most I saw was a crab. I could even tell the other divers were disappointed and that made me feel even worse.

Then today I started another open water course. This one was better since they had already done all the knowledge reviews and book work online. All we had to do was go through the pool sessions in the morning. After the pool session, we had a break and then this afternoon we were going out for his (and yesterday's student) first dive. This morning's student also was bringing his 14 year old daughter to do an intro dive, which is the same thing as the first open water dive. Of course once in the water, we had trouble with equalizing and we spent 15 minutes on the descent line. That is never fun, because once down on the seafloor everyone has only half a tank left of air. After 10 minutes of swimming bouancy issues arise, and two of my divers are on the surface. One is the girl and she decides to give up and swim back to the boat. The other was the father and so I take him back down. As I was sorting this out, my other diver somehow forgot about his bouancy so now I was trying to get two new divers back down in open water. Luckily we got back down and we proceeded to continue the dive. Okay, so my biggest peeve with diving has to do with the fact that we are in an OCEAN of water. That means there is tons of room to move, so I don't understand why all my divers have to swim right next to, behind or on top of me. I can't even turn in any directions because then I will run into them. I always feel like a cow being herded in a direction I don't want to go. NOT fun! So after my two divers ran me off my course they decided to not pay attention to my direction and they ended up both going 180 degrees away from me. I decided not to give chase and just watch them to see how long it would take for them to realize they were not following anyone, and were essentially lost. Not nice, but lesson learned. After 4 minutes of wandering like lost sheep I decided to rap on my tank to get their attention and call them back. So yeah, rapping on the tank (no matter how hard) did not get their attention. I was making so much noise that literally all the fish had fled the area I was in. Finally, I saw them realize I was gone, and that something (me) was making a TON of noise. We got back on track and I managed to check their air. After I checked their air once, they became paranoid about me knowing their air pressure. I really couldn't even look at them without them checking their air pressure and telling me. It brought me to the point where I wouldn't even look back to see where they were because I didn't want to know their air pressure. Finally I decided to take them back to the boat and we made it back to the boat and everyone (but me) had smiles on their face. I can't wait to finish both their courses.....I am sure I will have some moments of exasperation.

Okay so now a funny dive story. I was supposed to be diving with these two certified divers on the outside of Pango Point. This dive site is right on the outside of the island and it can get rough so we have to enter the water by doing a giant stride off the front of the boat. It can be a little nerve racking for the new or inexperienced diver. Anyway, my two divers were a couple and he was experience but the lady was new and very nervous. She said that she was going to have problems and that I would have to help her. Of course I did not want to hear this because usually this means that terrible problems can happen. Even worse, this particular site is not forgiving for when problems occur. Anyway, I talked to her and told her exactly how things would happen. We got to the dive site and I decided to get my guys in the water first. I got both of them in (she did a very nice giant stride off the front) and both were feeling better since getting into the water. I hopped in and after checking with them we decided to drop down. The husband was fine and had no problems and went straight down. He did not care about his wife and left her at the surface. She of course was having trouble going down....not because she didn't have enough weights, but because she was afraid to go under. I grabbed her hand and coaxed her down. Her mask just got underwater when she FREAKED. She jerked upwards and spat out her regulator and was fighting to keep her head up. I was slightly uneasy with this and asked her to calm down and tell me what her problem was. Her response was “I couldn't equalize.” I almost started laughing and told her quite condescendingly and sarcastically that “Well......you have to be underwater to equalize.” You should have seen her face when I told her this. She was so shocked I would be so uncaring and she quickly shouted at me to “Shut up!” It was priceless! I put my regulator back in and dropped down. Her only option was to follow. Afterwards she had no problems, and she only had confidence issues so I held her hand through half the dive. After the dive, and back on the boat, I apologized for my sarcasm and she just laughed and told me that was the best thing I could have done. She told me it just showed her how stupid she was being. It turned out that they were a great couple and enjoyed diving with me so much that they signed up to come diving with me the next day. She was still lacking confidence on her last dive, and so her husband went to hold her hand. However, she swam to my side and grabbed my hand. I could tell that he was not happy with this, and even when she let go of my hand, he quickly picked it up and wouldn't let her drop his hand. It was pretty funny.

There really are so many other stories I could tell. Tomorrow we have a busy day with cruise boat people and they always turn out some good stories. I promise to write more often and let you all know what is going on her in Vanuatu.

Stupidity

Okay, so I just looked back and realized how very little I have told you about my amazing experiences here in Vanuatu. I am really mad at myself right now. So much does go on here, and it all just kinda clumps together to form one big memory. I could have sworn that I have related most of the stories that go on but really I have said so little.
Lets see......I shall start with some of the diving stories. Open water diving students are always good at providing a few good stories. My last student was this middle aged lady that was so excited to start diving. She was pretty good in the water but then she forgot some of the basics when trying to complete underwater navigation. We started the exercise on the bottom of the dive site (12m down) and as she started navigating she forgot about her buoyancy and started drifting to the surface. I couldn't stop her and have her drop back down so I just emptied my jacket to make myself as negatively buoyant as possible. I then grabbed onto her BCD and tried to act as a weight. She took no notice, and so here I was hanging upside down underneath my student who was navigating a line. I felt like a remora fish hitching a free ride. My attempt really didn't work to well and we ended the exercise in about 4 meters of water. It then took a good 5 minutes for her to get back down to depth. I am sure it would have been quite amusing to see me curled up in a ball hanging from my students BCD.
Another good story comes from when I was leading two new divers from Asia. They were a bit nervous and not to sure about scuba diving still. We dropped down onto the dive site and started to enjoy ourselves. They stayed quite close to me (to close to where I was kicking them...annoying!) and they started to act a bit more confident. We were coming to the end of the dive and we came around the side of a huge coral head. Underneath at the bottom of the coral head there was a 3 meter leapord shark. It was gorgeous and we were probably less than 2 meters from it. I turned to my students to make sure they saw it (it was VERY hard to miss) and they were just staring at me. I pointed to the shark to show them and they refused to look at it. It was so strange, here I was freaking out because I have always wanted to see one of these sharks and they weren't even going to look at the thing. I wasn't sure they knew what it was so I decided to give them the shark sign. Yeah.....that wasn't the best move. I gave the sign and pointed to it and both of the diver's eyes got huge. I was surprised that niether one of them tried to shoot for the surface. Luckily the shark swam off so my divers calmed down a bit. After the dive on the surface I tried to figure out what they thought it was or what they were thinking, but they were just nonplused and really didn't say much about it. They were some of the strangest divers I have taken diving.
A fun dive that I did happened with a large group. We were doing a drift dive, and I was chosen to lead it since Chelsea refused to lead it (her navigation skills are not to the standard of mine...haha). We had about 7 divers and then the 3 instructors, and I was not excited to have the responsiblity of getting 9 people back to the boat on a drift dive. I was religiously following my compass and feeling good about everything and sudden I hear a frantic tapping on one of the divers tanks. It ended up being Chelsea trying to get attention (like always) and she was pointing to a hige dugong appearing from the right. It was headed straight for one of the divers and he had no idea he was about to have a collision. I quickly got his attention and pointed at the dugong. It was a little late and as he turned his head he got a huge whump on the head from the dugong. His reaction was priceless, as it should be. If I was bumped by a 4 meter animal underwater I would freak just a bit too. Anyway the dugong just joined our group and come up to people to be scratched and socialize. It ended up following us for the majority of the time, which ended up getting me very upset. Of course, everyone was focused on the dugong and had no interest in where I was leading them. They totally disregarded me and refused to follow me. I ended up angerly beating my tank to try to get their attention and of course that didn't help. It was like trying to herd a bunch of cats, it was not happening. Anyway, finally I got Chelseas and Logans help and we managed to cohearse everyone back on track. I ended up getting us directly back to the boat and everyone had an amazing dive. I have to admit that it was one of the top ten dives I have done here.
The other day I had a different kind of dive. Some people might say that I had a 45 minute underwater date with a 46 year old married lady. Haha......yeah anyway she was an intro diver and she was really excited. However as soon as she hit the water that excitment became nervousness. I could tell she was not confident at all and very unsure of everything. We started to swim off and she just blanked out and started drifting to the surface. I grabbed her hand and pulled her down. I could tell as soon as she realized I was down there with her (physical contact) she calmed down a bit. That being I just decided to hold her hand the entire dive. She was fine with that and ended up having one of the best times of her life (her words). At one point of the dive I loosened my grip to see if she would release to dive on her own, but that just made her tighten her grip. Needless to say, after 45 minutes my hand was quite sore and tired. She ended up doing another dive and she luckily had enough confidence to swim on her own for that one. It is times like that, that being an instructor is so rewarding.
I know there are other good diving stories but it is late here and that is all my brain can think of at the moment. I will write more soon, and I will also write about life on land here. It is an amazing place, filled with some amazing people. Though I must admit that I miss all the amazing people back home in the States.

Effects of Port Vila and Friends

I hardly know where to begin. So much has happened in the past three weeks. However in my brain all I can think about is all the diving I have done, and really there is only so much you can say about that. Great, I hope that doesn't make me sound like I am getting bored or spoiled with the diving here. It is great and each dive is always different. I can't say enough good things about it.

So recently we had this real interesting guy, Pete, come stay at the place and dive with us for 10 days. He has had quite the life and has so many experiences and stories that are completely different from any I will ever have. This is mostly because he is a quadriplegic. He had a terrible water skiing accident when he was younger and was paralyzed with limited use of his arms. However, he is an amazing person, and just seeing him live his life like everyone else was really eye opening. He has been scuba diving for quite some time, and in fact he did his 300^th dive while he was here. Of course, things are a bit different for him but that does not stop him. When I first heard about Pete and that he was coming I was slightly nervous. I didn't want to offend him in anyway, and yet I did not want act like I wasn't going to help at all. However, upon meeting him all my nerves were put rest. After learning the drill and figuring out what I could do to help it was quite easy and Pete of course always had remarks or jokes which all had us laughing. It was really great to dive with him and made me appreciate how easy I have it. He also proved that if you love something enough, nothing should stop you.

So we have had several cruise boat days which are always different from the norm. For one we only do two dives during the day, which is nice, and necessary (“beware the Bends”) considering half the time we are racing up and down the water column chasing runaway intro divers. As you can tell these intro divers from the cruises cause a bit of stress, but I always try to look at it as a learning experience. Then you have the ones that go blank once they are on the bottom and you literally have to physically make contact with them to get their attention. Those are also the ones that think they know where they are going and if you don't watch them closely you will soon have a missing diver on your hands. Luckily that has not happened, and that is only because you can easily spot those divers. Another fun category of intro divers that I have encountered are the “handicapped” swimmers. I don't mean physically handicapped, but mentally handicapped. It is for these people that PADI includes a small section about how to swim underwater. Yes, I know that swimming underwater is not hard, and you should see the faces I get when I try to explain it. I have even gotten a few laughs from people when I try to explain. And yes, usually it are these people that look simply stupid trying to swim underwater. For example, there are countless people who have no idea why they are staying on the surface when we are trying to go down. Of course, if these people would stop frantically kicking their fins when they have their head above water they would see they would have no problem going down. Another group of bad swimmers are the dog paddlers. Okay, so they do get around, however they look ridiculous and also they go through a full tank in about 15 minutes. Then you have the ones that get to the bottom and start swimming, only with their bodies pointed slightly up so within 30 kicks they are halfway to the surface, meaning I have to jet upwards to get them to come back down. It is not fun to do this and then have your dive computer freak out and lock you out for the rest of the dive. Another group are the divers that freeze as they go to the descend, so their legs flare out and they end up in a sitting position with their legs straight out. Of course they do not pay attention to where they are and end up sitting on the person's head just below them. This causes a mess, because no one wants a butt or aluminum tank slamming down on top of their head. Okay, so now you probably think that I hate intro dives, which is wrong. There are of course the people I just described but then the majority are perfectly capable divers, who are so much fun to dive with. It takes me back to when I first started diving and each and every fish was something to stare at with awe. It is so much fun to watch these peoples faces light up and actually see smiles behind those obnoxious regulators. One of the coolest intro dives I did happened the other week. I had three people, one guy and then a brother and sister, and they were pretty good underwater. What was neat was that as we were heading to the boat I looked behind to check on them. Instead of my three divers I had two huge white behemoths rocket past me. No they weren't fat, underwater streakers, but huge dugongs. There was two of them and they ended up hanging around us for a while. What was great was the reaction from the other divers. They freaked! I must admit that when I first saw them they scared me a bit.......not too much fun to realize that you are not the biggest fish in the sea, so yes my bladder might have failed me for a second.

Anyway, whenever we are not diving we are either cleaning (rarely), exploring, or resting up. The evenings can be quite fun. Unfortunately for me, we concocted a new drink that is dangerously good. We get a bottle of vodka and place 5 vanilla beans in it and allow it to sit for a few days. Then we mix it with dry ginger ale and man, is it good. Everyone here at the shop knows that I am a lightweight when it comes to drinking and also that I rarely drank before I got here. They of course thought it was so great how I got slightly buzzed after 2 or 3 drinks. However, I never go overboard and I definitely know when to stop and have no problem doing so. Usually on Thursday nights we have the most fun. We invite all our friends (3 people) to come join us at the shop and enjoy drinks and a mean game of cards. We have had some violent games of bullsh**, presidents and a**holes, and spoons. The other night was quite fun because we taught Leanne (the boss) bullsh** and she had quite a bit of fun with that game. Luckily for us our neighbors are pretty far away and so the obscenities screamed at the top of our lungs did not bug them. Let me just say that these crazy nights are far and few between and if any photos appear from them don't think I am toasted, just a little looser than normal.

Well, I could talk about everything else around here that goes on, but then I would have nothing to blog about in the future. I also should say that I am starting to look for my next place so I will let everyone know about anything that might come up.

Times of Diving

So I really can't believe that I am on my fourth week of being in Vanuatu. That is so crazy to me. I am still getting used to things here, especially since it is so much more laid back than Croatia. Not laid back in a bad way where the diving is unsafe. It is just a much warmer, fun environment. I feel guilty if I ever say that this is my work. So there are three instructors working here, including me, then we have the two bosses, Leanne works with the scuba stuff and Pete runs the fishing charters. Then we have several different Ni-Vanuatu staff that do an amazing job at making things so much easier for us. There is George who often skippers the boat, Jim who skippers and also works as a DM, then we have Wendy who cleans up after us (she does our laundry!) and makes amazing cakes, there are several others too that fill tanks, do maintenance around here, and run the fishing boats. It really is a great group of people around here. It took a while to get used to their sense of humor (if you can call it that) and also all the dynamic personalities. The first week I just sat around trying to take it all in, not take offense to anything, and try to blend in. It was pretty obvious though, that I was the newbie from America that really wasn't used to the Aussie and Kiwi ways.
So most every day we are diving, in the morning we have two dives and in the afternoon we have one. We finish up most of the time around 5 or so and then have the rest of the day to ourselves. We trade of days cooking for the group so sometimes we have to get right onto making dinner. After dinner we might go to the movies at the outdoor cafe, or we might just play a mean game of cards. There are slight variations of how the days go, it all depends on if you have students, intro students, or just certified divers. We get a good mix of everything so you never get bored. Also Wednesdays are when the cruise ship comes in, and we only cater to the cruise ship on that day. We get to sleep in on these days, and we only do one dive in the morning and one in the afternoon.
The diving here is amazing. You have such a great variety of dive sites. We have wrecks with good visibility, wrecks with wreck quality vis., plane wrecks, reefs, bommies, a cavern, and just about everything else. The sea life here is astounding too. Coming from the barren Adriatic sea, this is like the Sea of Eden. Life is everywhere it seems, and I have such a hard time focusing on one thing. I swear that my head is constantly swiveling everywhere trying to take in everything. I think I am just starting to get used to it, but hopefully this is not a sign that I am getting bored of it. That would be terrible. Most of the life here is small, the biggest things I have seen here are turtles, a ray from far away, and cuttlefish that might be as long as my forearm. I have to say that the cuttlefish are my favorite animals. They are amazing and really fearless. Plus if you get real close you can see their skin constantly changing color. It is really spectacular. I love the look of new divers faces when you show them a cuttlefish. It is as if they have found an alien, and I must say that that is a good description of a cuttlefish.....very alienlike. Had you asked me what my favorite animal would be a week ago I might have said the "friendly" clownfish, but one dive quickly changed that. So of course groups of clownfish live in anemones, and they are very protective of their babies. These babies are tiny and to really see them you have to get close to the anemone. Often times when you get to close the adults come out and swim in front of your face and chase your hand. It seems all harmless and fun, but really they are trying to chase you off. Most divers just think they are curious. Anyway, on this one dive I had one intro student and I was showing her the clownfish and there little babies. There was one adult that did not like me and kept biting my regulator. Just as I was turning away to leave I felt something slam against my forehead and rip out a chunk of hair. I of course screamed into my regulator and looked to see this clownfish retreat back to his anemone with a lock of hair in it's mouth. I looked at my intro student so see if she had see this and she was laughing her head off. I have to admit it was quite funny.
So really that has been my only run in with the sea life. I have seen some amazing things, and I even got to swim with dugongs. Those things are amazing. Also just the other day I ran into a sea snake and actually petted it. It didn't seem to mind and now I can saw I played with one of the most poisonous snakes in the world.
So also with the diving, I am still learning the different dive sites and how to navigate around them. I am fine with just about all of them except for this one area with three of our sites. The place is called Konanda, and it consists of a wreck, reef and wall. It should be easy, and I can do the wreck just fine. However, going from the wreck to reef, staying of the reef, and finding the boat is not very easy for me. I always get turned around, and I think I have only been able to find the boat 2 or 3 times out of the 6 or 7 times I have been on it. Not good, and much to my embarrassment. I think it is just that the reef looks much the same and also I just found out that the wall doesn't run parallel to the main island. So hopefully, I will be able to get around it next time. I also finally got to do the dive on Star of Russia which is a old clipper ship that was made by the same company that made the Titanic. It is a gorgeous wooden ship that is the picturesque wreck dive. It lies in about 36 metres of water and so the bottom time is quite short. One of the best parts is "falling" to the bottom and flying through the schools of batfish that swirl around the mooring line. There is nothing like it. Another wreck I got to do that was neat was the airplane wreck of the Tasmine. It lies at about 40 metres and is covered in silt. It is a little eerie to dive to that depth and have this plane loom out of the gloom. To make it spookier, there are hardly any signs of life on it. Maybe a few fish that lurk in the shadows. Also since I have been here I have only done 2 night dives. The first one I was just tagging along and the second one I was actually leading. The night dives are fun cause you do see lots of different things, but I just think it is not worth the stress and everything else. When I was leading I did start freaking out because I had no idea where I was and my compass was just spinning aimlessly around. Luckily, I realized (thank the Lord) that I was going in the opposite direction that I should be and after backtracking I found myself directly under the boat. I had never been so relieved. That dive though we saw 4 turtles (amazing) and also some crazy looking slipper lobsters.
Back on land though, we do get some time off so I have been able to explore. My first day off I went to a small island called Hideaway Island. It is home to the only underwater working post office, and if I was fun I would have sent postcards from it. However, I did not feel like snorkeling out there and was lazy and just laid on the beach. I paid for my laziness by getting burned badly. Luckily it turned brown over the next two days but then my skin started peeling. Not pretty.......but I guess it could have been worse. On my next day off I went to a different island resort called Erakor. That island is gorgeous with some amazing beaches. I marched to the end of the island and had a small 12 metre beach all to myself. I did not see a single person that whole day. All I did was bake in the sun and read my book. It was a perfect day. I got to go back there recently with Chelsea, and we hit up the market beforehand and packed a small picnic. That was such a good idea, and we had a really nice afternoon relaxing on the beach. It is times like this that I have to remind myself that I am not on vacation and that I am actually working in such a amazing place.
So I have lots more to talk about but I will save it for later and hopefully I will not wait so long to blog again. Will is going to be leaving us in another week and a half and we will be getting two new instructors that Chelsea and I will have to train. Should be fun and I am sure I will have some stories to tell.

Getting to Vanuatu

So I believe I left off in Paris, and not being able to catch my right flight. I spent the rest of the weekend just eating pastries and reading in the park. Finally it was Tuesday and I hightailed it to the airport. I got to the front desk and was praying that there would be no problems. Of course that was not possible and they told me they did not have me as a ticketed passenger on the plane. I had to go through the whole story and luckily they believed me and just put me on the plane. The trip to Shanghai was uneventful, and once I landed I had to go through customs. No one spoke English it seemed and I had no idea what was going on. They kept asking for my boarding pass for Sydney and I tried to tell them that I was not issued one because there was such a long delay and the people in Paris were not able to check me in on the flight to Sydney. They did not understand and everytime I opened my mouth it seemed to make them longer. This one really rude Chinese guy spent forever on the phone, and every ten seconds look at me hold up his finger and make sure that I saw him roll his eyes. It made me so mad. I wanted to jump the counter and choke him. I think he just got fed up with me and ended up stamping my passport without really knowing if I was going to be leaving his country. Trust me buddy, I did not want to stay in your country if they all acted like you. Anyway, I stood around looking for my bags to put in the transfer area. However, when I collected them and took them to the transfer area, I was once again told I was not ticketed for the flight to Sydney. I would then have to go to the main airport and check in with the airline and explain everything to them. I was not having a good flight experience. I went to the airline counter and explained everything and they just handed me a ticket without any questions. I finally got to the boarding area and realized that I had a 12 hour layover. That was fine though, I just slept, watched movies and read. The flight to Sydney was fine, but when we landed we were an hour behind schedule, and unfortunately that only left me with 40 minutes to catch my plane to Vanuatu. Yeah right! As luck would have it, my plane pulled up to the gate right next to my plane flying to Vanuatu and I got to watch it pull away. Such fun, because I knew that was the last and only flight flying to Vanuatu that day. I went through customs with no problems and then went to talk to the Air Vanuatu people. They were very nice and everything, but they informed me that Travelocity had booked my flight but not charged it so I didn't have a ticket. That meant that they could do nothing for me because technically I had not paid for a ticket. I needed to talk to Travelocity and get them to buy me a ticket for the next day. They also told me to talk to the airline company that I came in on because they should take care of any expenses I had that night because it was late. I went to talk to them first and I was told there that they were not responsible because my connection was less than 2 hours. Of course! I then went to call Travelocity and I thought about getting some Australian dollars to make the call, but then I thought that it would be to expensive since I would have to exchange all my money in Vanuatu. I ended up using my debit card, which turned out to be stupid. The call to Travelocity did nothing, and just made me more frustrated. I ended up talking to some Indian guy that could not speak above a whisper. I ended up shouting for him to speak louder for two minutes until I realized that he was telling me that my card was not charged so it would be best for me to buy a whole new ticket. I hung up mad, and went back to the Air Vanuatu people telling them to point me in the direction of their ticketing office. Luckily the next day ticket was only $40 dollars more than my original ticket. I finally had it figured out, but now I had 24 hours to kill in the airport because unfortunately I no extra money to spend the night in the city. I found a comfortable place, and went to sleep. Around 11pm I was told that the airport was closing for 5 hours and that I would have to relocate to the overnight holding area. I got there and of course they had the most uncomfortable chairs. They then pulled down these bars and literally locked us in this holding area. Just a little creepy. To make matters worse, the entire 5 hours the floor waxer and buffer decided to drive up and down the hall outside so it was impossible to sleep. Quite miserable.
The next day, I got to my plane and had no problems flying to Vanuatu. I was a little nervous though, because I was a day late and I was not able to get hold of the dive shop and let them know. Once at the airport I found the transfer place I was supposed to take the day before and explained everything. They knew who I was and told me to go hop in the van and they would take me. I made it to the dive shop finally, and was greeted by everyone. There were the owners, Leanne and Pete, and then the two other instructors Will and Chelsea. They were super nice and had no problems that I was late. I could tell I as going to like it here. I settled into my own room. Yes! I actually had my own room. Then I just looked around. The dive shop is just off the main road of Port Vila and then the living area for staff and the owners is between that and the boats. We were right on the water, with a gorgeous view of the bay with the extinct volcano top supporting the island resort across the water.
The next day I actually got to go diving. We did three dives that day, and the water was amazing. The reefs were healthy and so full of life. On the first day I saw sea snakes, pipefish, cuttlefish, and all sorts of other reef fish. I was going to have no problem getting used to this. Over the week I got used to the way things were run and everything was so much more laid back than the place in Croatia. I had a student on my third day, and that was fine. I was making three dives a day, so each night I went to bed early and was so tired. We started work at 7, left the dock by 8 15, did two dives, got back around 11 30, had a break till 1 30 and then we usually go out for one more dive. We usually are done for the day by 5 30 or earlier. It is really great.
So after about 5 days they started letting me lead small groups around and I was having no trouble finding my way around. Then once I had 4 guys and I could tell this one guy was going to give me trouble. We were about 26 minutes into the dive and everything was going well. I had just checked on everyone and they were all happy and following me. Then after about a minute of swimming I looked behind me and started counting. For some reason, I only had 3 people following me. I looked all around in the crystal clear water and of course could not find the 4th. No one knew where he was so we looked around for one minute and then ascended, just like we are supposed to. However after 2 minutes on the surface there was no sign of him. I was freaking out just a little at this point. We were at the boat and I had gotten everyone else out and the second group had just surfaced. Luckily they had picked him up somewhere. After we got out I asked what happened and he apologized saying that he dives better alone because he chases after fish. Aaahhh! I wanted to scream at him that there are fish everywhere and why would he chase fish.....they just swim away faster. Oh well, it all worked out.
There haven't been any other real disasters, except maybe for a natural disaster. Of course the island is part of the Ring of Fire and I learned first hand what this means. We were diving and just coming up to the boat, when there was this super loud sound. It sounded like a jet was taking off underwater. Everyone grabbed on to each other and plugged their ears. It hurt your head it was so loud. It was over in 10 seconds, but everyone was looking around for the power boat that supposedly took off overhead. There was one lady in the group that looked so scared. I thought for she she would bolt to the surface. Once we were out of the water I asked the captain if there were any boats around. He laughed and said that it was probably an earthquake. Supposedly we have them quite often and there have already been two since I have been here. I was asking Chelsea about them and she said that often you can see the shockwaves travel through the water. Crazy! Not much else though to report. It is awesome diving here and I already love it here. I promise to update more whenever something interesting happens, and I will also try getting photos out.

Lots on Paris

So I had a few more days in Rome until it was time to head to Paris. I was pretty tired of the huge city and the mobs of tourists by then, so I decided to take it easy and just relax. I thought the best way to do this was to go to different parks and read and just take in the sights. I went to the zoo one day, and it was fun and everything. I didn't spend to much time there, but just sat down and read my book. The next day was more of same, only I sat down in front of the Coliseum, watching the masses of tourist go in and out. At night I would hit up my favorite gelato places and they grew to know me. I had several great meals too, but the gelato was the highlight. My favorite flavor had to be the sage raspberry. It was so good.
On the second to last day in Rome I decided it was time for me to go get my train ticket to Paris. I got there and had no idea where to go for help. I used the automated machine to help me but it just told me to go to the ticket office. The line for the ticket office had to be the longest line so I stood in that line for an hour and a half. Once I got help I found out that all the trains were booked to Paris for the next two days. Of course I was not happy with this but then the lady found a spot on the train the next day. What a relief that was. Afterwards I just wandered around and went to a few churches. The next day I was all packed, and thankfully my hostel allowed me to leave my bags with them for the day until I needed to get on my train. I wandered, and found a great place to sit and read by the Coliseum. Soon enough it was time to go to the train station and head to Paris.
The train ride was long but uneventful. I managed to sleep just about the entire way, which surprised me because I had quite an eclectic group of passengers in my cabin. I somehow lucked out and was assigned to the top bunk which was the best place, since people didn't climb up and down over you. The next morning I woke up just outside of Paris, and when we got to the station I had no idea what to do or wear to go. I had an idea where I was but how to get to the hostel was another question entirely. I walked for a while in the direction I thought I needed to go. Paris was not making a good impression on me that first hour. The city stank of pigeons and urine. In fact, one of the first Parisians I saw was a homeless man weeing in the street. Obviously I was not in the best places of Paris. Also when I broke down to get a taxi no one would take me, even when they were parked and waiting for a passenger. The first cab told me to go to a different cab and when I got to the window of that cab he sped off without anyone in there. I went back to the original cab and forced him to take me. I think they knew I was an American and they didn't like the looks of me.
The hotel that I finally got to was pretty nice for me. I actually had my own room and bathroom.......what luxury! I actually couldn't check in when I first got there so I just sat in this gorgeous garden outside this church nearby and read up on the city. After checking in and getting settled I decided to go explore. I found a great English bookstore and ended up buying a Fodor's travel guide for Paris. I then found my way to the front of Notre-Dame, and sat down to study up on Paris. I couldn't believe how many people were there at Notre-Dame. There seemed to be way more tourists than there were at any of the Roman tourist sites. Also those nasty pigeons were everywhere, and people were feeding them and allowing them to use them as living statues. I really hate those rats with wings. I stayed for a while and then decided to treat myself to a nice dinner. I consulted my Fodor's and found the closet restaurant that sounded good. Of course when I got there I found that they did not open for another hour and a half so I decided to walk to my second choice. I got there to only find that they were closed for the month of August. On to the third choice, where I found that they to were on vacation for the month of August. After the fifth try at finding a restaurant I realized that my first choice was now open so I went back and managed to get a table. The food there was amazing. I had a starter of foi gras, and then suckling pig for the main dish. I felt bad about ordering a baby piglet, but once I tried the first bite, those feelings vanished. It was really good. For dessert I had a gingerbread souffle with currant soup. I thought of my brother in law Jeremy because on our cruise several years ago he couldn't get enough of the fruit soups.
The next day I wandered around. I made it to the Eiffel Tower, but the lines were really long to go up into the tower, so I just kept walking. I then made it to the Arc de Triomphe. I spent some time there, but then headed to the more modern part of the city which was quite a bit further away than I thought. It was neat though, with all the large modern buildings. There was this one huge building that mimic the Arc de Triomphe but was quite a bit bigger. It was the centerpiece of the area. Of course, there was tons of modern sculpture around the square with some really neat fountains. It was neat to explore and see all the crazy things there. My favorite part was the giant thumb sticking out of the ground.
I hiked my way back down to the historical old section of Paris and found out that on Friday nights the Louve was open late and free, so I went there for a little while. In retrospect this was the best time to go, because it really wasn't so crowded (I didn't think so at the time). I rushed around not really taking my time because I was planning on coming back in the next few days. I saw all the big attractions, like Mona Lisa and everything else, but after two hours I was tired and not wanting to burn myself out on the museums I left. I tried to find a good restaurant in Fodor's but the one I chose was closed for August so I just went to the nearest cafe. It was pretty good and they actually had a really neat idea. My main dish was a lamb shank with a green bean salad all with a mustard cream sauce. However, when the dish came out I got no cream sauces just a big scoop of ice cream. They had frozen the sauce into and ice cream. It was pretty neat and was really good everything.
On Saturday I had planned to go to the Musee Orsay. It was said to be a really nice museum with a great collection. It really did have some amazing pieces that even I remember from my art history class. Monet, Pissaro, Manet, Renoir, Degas, Van Gogh, and on and on. Rooms filled with there masterpieces. It wasn't a huge museum and they packed the people in. After about 2 and a half hours I was tired of being pushed around and jostled by tourists having to get so close to certain paintings they couldn't even make out what they were looking at. Afterwards, I just wandered around, which is one of the best things to do in Paris. It brought me to several pastry shops and everytime I see one I have to see how good their croissants look.
Sunday brought rain, but I just put on my raincoat and went about my tourist business. I decided to really go to Notre-Dame and check it out from the inside. There was a long line to get in, but I waited patiently. I of course had forgotten it was Sunday and that they still had services there but it didn't matter to the tourists. They still were allowed to come and go and snap photographs. It is funny that such a big tourist attraction is still in use for what it was built for and that they have no problem just working around all the tourists. I couldn't go to a church that had strangers walking around shoving their cameras in every nook and cranny. It would be to distracting. However, Notre-Dame is beautiful and it was neat to be there when the organs were being played and the choir singing. Really, it is the only way to experience a cathedral like that. I then just kept wandering around the city. I made it to the Centre Georges Pompidou, which is there modern art museum/performance center. I didn't go to the exhibits though, I was having to watch my money. I had just heard you had to see the building because it was built to appear inside out. You could see all the air ducts and pipes and everything on the outside instead of being contained inside the walls. Really a different type of building you have to see.
Monday brought more rain, but that was fine because I was planning on spending the entire day at the Louve. I got there pretty early, and not 15 minutes after I got in line, everyone showed up. It didn't take long for the line to wrap around the building, and that building is huge. I really lucked out on timing my arrival there. The museum was packed, and I thought for sure there would be certain corners you could find where no one else would be. But man, was I wrong. People were everywhere, and crawling around like ants in an ant farm. That place is huge, with so many different corridors, halls, and huge galleries. The map really didn't help, and at times it confused me even more. Needless to say, I forgot about the map and just wandered around. After quite a long time, I think 8 hours with an hour and a half reading break, I decided to try to find the exit. I followed the signs, up and down and all around, but it still took me 45 minutes to get out of the place. Needless to say I got back to my hotel exhausted.

Tuesday I took it nice and slow, and realized that the slower you moved in the city and the less structure you had to your day, the better the day seemed. I went around wandering to the different parks and found small little stores that were interesting. I went to grab a bite to eat at this one hidden restaurant that Fodor's informed me of. It had obviously changed hands to an Indian family since the book was printed, but the name had not changed. It was a really interesting restaurant tucked away on a dark street. It seemed to not really be restaurant but more of a set of movie for a restaurant. It was decorated so strangely, it seemed to come out of a book. However, the food was really good Indian food and I had the best chai latte I have ever had there. Even better than the one I make.
That night I had gotten a ticket to go to the movie premier of Salt. It was going to be one of those red carpet events and even the star, Angelina Jolie, was supposed to make an appearance. I got there early and already people where everywhere waiting to catch a glimpse of the star. I stood there waiting for some time, but then decided to escape the mayhem and go inside and try to get a good seat. I ended up sitting in the balcony only a several rows up. The theater was amazing and really gorgeous. It almost felt like you were outside because they had plants everywhere and the ceiling was painted to look like the sky and it had those star lights in it. They had the screen showing what was happening outside, and it was really funny when the stars started showing up. There were quite a few screams when the true star showed up. Kinda funny. Angelina came in to the theater, got on stage, said a few words about how hard they worked on the movie and how much she loves Paris, and then she left. It was pretty neat though, and it was really a pretty interesting movie. I was afraid at first it was going to be in French, but I lucked out and all the French people had to read subtitles.
On Wednesday, I decided to go to Versailles. They had a metro train that went out there so I made my way to the closest station. On the way to the station I noticed tons of large white vans in this one area and people running all around. I took no notice, but then when I was suddenly in the middle of a crowd of people straight from the 1930's my interest peaked. It appeared that I had wandered into a movie set area, and all the extras were making there way to the set. I later found that they were filming Martin Scorsese's newest film “The Invention of Hugo Cabaret”. It is a big movie, that has Jude Law in it and Ben Kingsley, and it is actually Scorsese's first film in 3D. When I finally made it to the next metro station it was closed, and so was the next station. I ended up walking for an hour till I made it to the station that was open that would take me there. It was a long trip out there, but it was quite nice to sit down. Once I got there, there were more tourists there than any of the other places I had visited. It was mayhem. I immediately got in line to get my ticket, because I knew it was going to take a while. It was fun to people watch there because there were so many different people. There was one crazy looking lady with her kids that kept attracting my attention. She was wear animal print, had short bright purple hair, what looked to be a hot pink bird wing stuck in her hair, and then a matching pink boa tossed over her shoulder. I forgot to mention that she had the hue of fully ripe orange due to all the self tanner she used. She was one hot mess! All throughout the palace and also in the gardens I kept running into her. I tried to snap a picture of her without her knowledge, but they came out good enough to do her justice. It was very entertaining.
The palace though was really enthralling. Massive, and way over the top. It was hard to imagine a royal family, along with all the other counts and dukes and so forth, living in such a place. After touring the palace, I went to the gardens, which were just as amazing. The gardens were massive and they were immaculately cared for. I wandered around and after about a mile I made it to the country palaces. These were used just by the royal family when they wanted to escape, but they were still opulent and large. The gardens here were just as amazing, but what was insane was that Marie Antoinette had several architects build her a countryside village for her to enjoy. It include a picturesque watermill, farm, gardens, barn, and so on. It seemed to have jumped out of the pages of a fairytale. All the animals were there, including swans and rabbits, and the buildings were complete with the thatched roofs. It was something to see.
As the day was getting later I decided to head back to the city. I got on the metro with no problems and made it back. It was getting dark so I decided it would be a prime time to watch them light up the Eiffel Tower. I really hadn't spent much time in the city at night when all the monuments and buildings were lit up. It really is a different place at night.
On Thursday, which was supposed to be my last full day, I ran around trying to do the last few tourist things I really wanted to do. The biggest thing I had to do was the underground crypts. I had heard they were really neat and could not be missed. I got to the entrance and the line to get in was so long. I ended up waiting an hour and forty-five minutes before I got inside to buy my ticket. However, it was worth the wait and the crypts were amazing. They seemed to go on and on forever, and the bones of all the people were stacked everywhere. After entering room and room full of bones and skulls I could not imagine the number of people buried under there. It was really something to think about and after a while I began to think I was never going to get out, and that was why there were so many skeletons down there. It seemed quite easy to get lost down there. I made it out though, and I am sure that no one really get lost. I then just wandered around and tried to make the most of my last night in Paris.
On Friday, I was anxious about leaving, so I packed up and went downstairs to see if the hotel could keep my bags till I had to leave. They had no problems with that so I went to grab my last croissant and read in on of the parks. My plane didn't leave till 9 that night but I wanted to make sure I got there with plenty of time. I ended up getting my bags at 2 and getting on the metro to the airport at 3. It look a full hour to get to the airport, but even then I was there to early to check in. Of course, with all my bags I had quite a bit of trouble on the metro and the the gate that lets you out of the metro station smashed one of bags and went not let go. It took me several minutes to make it release my bag, and all that time people were staring and laughing at me, while the line behind me grew in size with impatient people. I just tried to laugh it off. Once outside the area where I was going to check I settled into a seat and started reading on of my books. I was deeply engrossed in my book when out of the corner of my eye I saw a white rabbit hopping around freely. It went under a cart and so I wasn't even sure if I had seen it correctly. I stared for a while, and then it came out again. There was not mistaking that there was a random white rabbit hopping around the airport. I was looking around for some sort of answer, and I thought maybe it was a publicity stunt for Alice in Wonderland, however, no one else seemed to care or even see the rabbit. I thought maybe I was going insane. But then after some time, it hopped away and later I saw it in a crate of some rich Chinese lady. It was one of the strangest things I have seen.
Finally 2 hours before my flight I was able to check it. The line was long and by the time I got up there I only had 20 minutes before they finished checking people in. They checked my passport and then suddenly asked for my visa. I wasn't sure what they were talking about and so I told them. They called several people over and they all were talking in French so of course I had no idea what they were talking about. It began to not look good and I began to realize that I was not going to get on my flight. They eventually told me I could not go to Australia until I had a visa from the Australian embassy. I had no idea I was supposed to, and they told me I had to wait to go there and fill out a form for the visa. Of course it was Friday and they were closed and wouldn't be open till Monday. The people were really helpful and told me what I had to do. I was mostly worried about having to buy another flight, but they were nice enough to change it to Tuesday without any fees. The Lord really blessed me. By then though, it was 8:30pm and I had no idea where to go. I had no hotel, and I really didn't want to go back into Paris with all my bags. I got on my computer and tried to find a closer hostel, but then I just ended up calling my old hotel. They had no problem putting me back up and so I started my trip back to my hotel. It seemed to take forever, and when I got there I was so weary. It had not been a fun day.
On Saturday, I researched about the visa and found that I could get it online. It took me a total of 15 minutes to get it. I wish I would have know that the other night because then I could have gotten it online and still boarded my plane. Oh well though, just a few more nights in Paris. I spent the whole day at the Luxembourg Gardens reading. It was a gorgeous day, and I was content with my good book and a warm baguette in the other hand. I had a good lunch at my favorite restaurant and then I went back to the park to read. Today, or Sunday, I did the same thing. So far that is my favorite thing to do in Paris. Just sit in the park reading, eating baguettes and people watching.
By the way, congratulations to my sister Janine and my brother in law Drew. They just had there first baby today. Welcome to the world baby Ari. I can't wait to meet you. Love from Paris

Roaming in Rome

Saturday morning I was in a hurry because I had gotten a ticket to go on the tour of the crypts beneath St. Peter's Basilica. These were not the tombs of the last popes but of the burials that were there before the Basilica. I was quite excited about this because it was so last minute and I was told you usually have to book months in advance. They only allow about 200 people down there a day, and I was one of the lucky few. Anyway, my tour started at 9:15, but I had to leave my room at 7:30 just to have plenty of time to get there and also time to get through security. It took me a good hour and 15 minutes to get to the Vatican, and then I had to go through security and check my bag. I was afraid I wasn't going to make the tour, but thank the Lord the lines were not long. I hustled my way to the place I was supposed to be, but before I got there I was apprehended by the Swiss Guards. I actually was not allowed to enter the area I was supposed be at until 10 minutes before the time. I therefore had to wait outside the gates, and then I realized the few other people waiting there with the same ticket I had. I went to approach the friendliest most American looking bunch, and started to ask if they were on the Sacvi Tour, when suddenly I found a hand in my face. Before I could complete what I was saying the lady had put her hand up and told me harshly, “No, we do not want anything”. She then realized what I was saying and tried to laugh it off, saying she thought I was a local trying to sell her something. After this encounter with her, I realized that this was the short, round, annoying lady that manages to be on every tour. She was the one always asking questions, making jokes, laughing at everything, and just putting a slight damper on everything. I of course, somehow managed to have this lady next to my side the entire tour. I really could not get away from here. If I was in the front there she was, and if I fell back to get away, soon she was by my side. She even went as far as questioning why I was there and whether I should be. She preceded to tell me about her wonderful daughter who was going to be the world's best archaeologist. It was because of this daughter that they deserved the right to be on the tour, so what was mine? I just told “cause I could.” She could tell by then I was just slightly annoyed with her.
Anyway, they tour was amazing, and I really got a could picture of how the area of St. Peter's was before it was constructed. Our guide told us about why they believed St. Peter was buried there and all about the findings during the excavation. It was really something. One of the funniest moments was when we went to the first level below St. Peter's and these kids above us could see us through the grates in the floor. They got really excited and started asking us if we saw dead people down there. We ended the tour in the crypt of the popes. Afterwards I walked around and found myself in a line. I had no idea what it was for but just went with the flow. It turned out to be the line to go up into the basilica. I paid my fee and started climbing. We got to go up on the inside of the dome and look down into St. Peters. Then we went outside and climbed to the cupola. The staircases were tiny and very steep. At one point this Spanish couple in front of me came to complete stop and they started arguing. It appeared that she was afraid of heights and that she refused to go any further. Of course he was yelling at her to keep going and that there was no going back. And really there wasn't. She broke down into tears, and that got him even more upset. It was slightly humorous, because she was this tiny girl, and this huge fat guy was pouring down sweat from climbing yelling at her. I made it to the top of the cupola with no more incidents, and the views from there were amazing. Definitely one of the highlights, however it was rather packed up there. Once back down on the ground floor I went inside the basilica and toured around. It was amazing, but I was really into the people watching there. There was so many different people and they all acted differently since some of them were just tourists while others had made a pilgrimage to there.
I then went on to the Vatican Museum after a while in the basilica. The museum was enormous, and it was hard to take it all in. After the first hour and a half, I found myself not really taking it all in, and just glancing around. I tried to slow myself down and really look, but your mind just gets so overloaded, and there really is to much to take it. I also did quite a bit of people watching there, and I always watching the faces of people first entering a room. The first thing they did, was to always look up to the ceiling to see if it was the Sistene Chapel. Quite a few of them would look quickly and move on to the next room searching for Michelangelo's masterpiece. When I reached that room, it was obvious where you were. The room is amazing, and packed with people- all looking straight up. The ceiling is quite impressive, and the more you look, the more impressive it becomes. I finally found a seat and just sat down to take it all in.
After the museum, I was starving, so I walked around trying to find one of the restaurants that was recommended by my book. Of course all three of the ones I tried was closed, so I ended just finding one that looked alright, and that was open. I had an amazing dish of pasta stuffed with cheese and pears, covered in a cream sauce along with a carrot cream sauce. I had really lucked out on the restaurant choice. Afterwards I finally found the little gelato place I had been trying to find. They had several strange flavors, and I had to try them all. I ended up having cheese and cherry, fig with almond and cheese, and lavender peach. I know they sound really strange, but they were delicious with only slight hints of the different flavors. I decided to call it a day, because I was so tired and went back to my hostel.
The next day I was going to try to do some more museums. I was going to go to the Musei Capitoline, and on the way there I stopped at the Monument of the Unknown Italian Soldier. It is a massive monument and it houses the museum dedicated to Italian military. I spent a little time there and then went on the the Musei Capitoline. The museum was really great, and I got so confused with the layout. They have an underground tunnel that connects the two buildings, and I got mixed up thinking I was in one, when I was really in the other. I spent a good deal of time just wandering around trying to figure out where exactly I was. After the museum I tried to make my way to the church with the Statue of Truth. However, when I got there the line to get in wrapped around the building and there was no way I was going to wait in line to stick my hand into some statues mouth. Maybe next time. I decided to go grap something to eat on the other side of the Tiber river, in the more Bohemian neighborhood of Trastevere. I found the place that supposedly has the best Napoli style pizza in Rome, and it was good. The pizza there has a paper thin crust that reminded me a communion wafer. I then just wandered around looking around and ended up going in a huge loop. I finally got to one of the churches I really wanted to go to and I was really happy I did. The church was amazing, and the entire back of the church was made of mosaics showing the life of Mary. They were magnificent.
I then made my way back to my new favorite gelato place from the other day, and I tried raspberry sage. This was the best flavor I had tried. I continued to just walk around looking around, and ended up on the shopping street with all the designer labels. It was insane to look at all the people going in and out of the stores. At the LV shop they had a line to go in because there was a bouncer at the door with a velvet rope. You had to be let in by him to actually get inside the store. Absolutely craziness! I then went to the different piazzas, like the Pantheon and Colosseum to people watch. At Trevi Fountain the funniest thing happened. I was on the ballisters overlooking the left side of the fountain. There were people all around and I was just watching the people at the base of the fountain going through the ritual of throwing the coins over their shoulder. This group of old people come up to the left side of me and they were obviously Americans. Really loud and not caring what is going on around them. They were going to perform the ritual of the coin throwing from the ballisters and hopefully make the coins into the fountain. The men went first and had no problems. Then the first of the ladies was supposed to go. She of course had so many questions about what she was supposed to do, and the men were very sharp with her and slightly annoyed. She finally told them she made her first wish and that she was ready. The men impatiently told her to just throw the coin then. She chucked it over her shoulder and instead of throwing it up she threw it down, straight into the side of this guy's head below us. The old men with the lady started laughing and told her to go again. This whole process was repeated 5 times with different ladies, and they all hit different people right upside the head hard. It was hilarious because the victims had no idea where the coins were being chucked from, and they would look around rubbing their head. I was bursting out with laugher and of course several victims spotted me thinking I was the culprit. I quickly pointed out the ladies next to me that were taking up aim again. I hung around a little longer and then went to the Colosseum to watch the sunset. After the sunset at the Colosseum I tried to go back to my place a different route, which took me two hours out of my way. I ended up in the section of the city due to me getting turned around, but luckily I realized it and backtracked. I was a little worried at one point, but it all worked out and I got back safely, and not to late.

Roma!

Well I can't believe that it has been three months since I left the States. And it was finally time for me to say goodbye to Vela Luka and all the amazing people I met there. I know in the past posts that I have sounded like I didn't like it there, but that was the stress talking and really the last month was fun and very educational. Well, my last day was officially August 2nd and I was going to leave on the 3rd. I could have taken the early morning ferry to Split on the 3rd but decided not to since Bobby wanted me to help on that morning and also because I didn't want to spent a full day lugging my three bags around a city. I was going to take the 1:30 ferry and get there 4 hours before my ferry to Ancona left. By about 11:30 that morning I still had not packed fully and I was running around like mad. I made the ferry though, along with my three bags, which must have weighed what I think 40kgs would weigh (I would say 70 lbs). It was not fun lugging them around and I was not looking forward to navigating Rome with them to find my hostel.
The ferry to Split was uneventful, but I was paranoid about my bags, and I would start to nod off and then jolt awake thinking someone was going to be rifling through my stuff. By the time I reached Rome though, I was over this thought and leaving my bags in random places whenever. In Split I immediately went to buy my ticket to Ancona, and managed to do this with some difficulty. I still hadn't managed much Croatian and was mostly using my hands and simple words to communicate. The teller was agitated but she got me the right ticket. I then sat down and waited for the time to board.
After some time, we were able to board even thought we still had two hours until launch time. The ferry was huge and tons of people where going on it. Customs was no problem and they only slightly paused at my photo, laughed and then said “bambino” or something to that degree. The picture was only 6 years ago, but I do not look the same. Anyway, I showed them my ticket on board and it turns out that I only had a deck ticket. This meant that I could either sit in the bar and spent money or go outside. Now this ferry went all night and there was no way I was going to sleep out on the deck. It was looking a little stormy so I waited on the very top deck until everyone disappeared into the bowels of the ship. I then quickly took my belongings and snuck into one of the seating rooms. I found a back row of chairs unoccupied, and quickly settled in to look like I belonged there. I watched TV on my laptop and then tried to get some rest. I finally realized the most comfortable position was on the floor in front of the seats. Not the best place to sleep but at least I managed to fall asleep. I woke up at about 5 in the morning and it was another 2 hours until we reached Ancona. It was raining of course, but it stopped as soon as we got off. I went through customs, and no problems, just another lady murmuring “bambino”, I then had to make my way to the train station, which according to my map was within walking distance. Of course it was a bit longer and by the time I made it there my shoulders were about to fall off due to the weight of my bags. The next train to Rome was in 5 minutes, and they would not let me on it, but I didn't care because I was in not rush. The next train was in three hours or 11 in the morning, meaning I would still get there with plenty of daylight to find my hostel and way around. I spent my time watching the trains come and go, while snacking on some croissants. The train finally came and I quickly found the perfect seat, with the best window view. As luck would have it though, we had assigned seats and it turned out that my seat was the only one in the car that didn't have a window at all. I refused to move, and luckily no one tried to make me. Everytime we came into a new town and people got on, I pretended to be sleeping just to make people think twice about making me evacuate their seat. The Italian countryside was beautiful, and enjoyed riding through all the little towns. We even went through the town of Spoleto, which made me think back fondly on Charleston. It was smaller than I thought, and you can see why Charleston's festival is bigger than theirs now.
The train arrived in Rome, in a huge train terminal. I was a bit intimidated about finding my way around, but I quickly pulled my shoulders back, and marched out of the train acting like I knew exactly where I was heading. That was my plan this whole trip, never allow anyone to think that you don't know where you are or that you aren't sure you are supposed to be there. So far it has worked wonders. Within 10 minutes I found the address my hostel was supposed to be at, but there was no sign, and the names on the apartment numbers were nothing that I thought could be the hostel. There was another hostel by a different name and I tried it but there was no answer. I tried to ask this one resident of the apartments but they quickly dismissed me. I was starting to get a little worried because I was certain that I was in the right place, but nothing was working the way the internet said it would work in to check in. I thankfully had printed out all the information beforehand, and I quickly made my way to a pay phone and called up the number. It turned out that I was in the right place and everything, but they used the hostel owner's name and not the hostel's name for the call button. I was quickly sorted out and I was shown my room. It was an apartment with four bedrooms, two baths, a kitchen and a small eating area. I had one of the rooms, three Italian girls had another, a small Spanish family had another, and some guy was in the other room. Hardly anyone is ever in, because it is Rome, and there is so much better things to do than stay in your room.
I settled in and then went out to explore. The first thing I hit up was the Coliseum, which was amazing. I spent some time walking around there taking pictures and then walked all around the perimeter of the Roman Forum. I then just walked around with no purpose, ended up crossing the river and then making it all the way to St. Peter's square. I then walked back into the heart of Rome, saw the Pantheon along with the Trevi Fountain. I then decided to try and get a decent meal and went to the closet place that looked good. The food where I ate was great but the service was lacking. My waiter was not to happy with just one person taking up one of his tables. Also, halfway through my meal, I realized that the strange smell I kept getting wafts of was not of the city streets, but the dirty diaper beneath my table. Oh well, I got it sorted out, and then went on to enjoy my food. I had a white sauce lasagna, with porcini mushrooms and black truffles. It was amazing. I then walked around a bit more and then realized I had 7 nights to explore everything in Rome. I didn't have to do it all in one night.
The next day went out with the idea of going to some museums. On my way I decided to stop in on this one church. It was massive and ornately decorated. I moved to the front of the church and then I realized how crowded it was. It was then I realized that they were having some sort of ritual (for lack of better word) which was a pretty big deal. With all the crowds and cameras (there were several TV station cameras set up) I thought the Pope was about to walk in. He didn't though, but some guy dressed like he was the pope's apprentice walked by and everyone was looking at him for direction. After a little while I decided to head out and get out of the way.
Back to the museums......So I decided to start with the one further away from the city which was the Modern Art Museum. They listed that they had Degas, Monet, and Van Gogh there, so I was thinking modern, in Rome, was a bit older than my interpretation of modern. Turns out I was wrong, and they only had one painting of each of the artists I wanted to see. The rest was modern art, which in some ways I can appreciate but after a while......you know. I did get to see the signed urinal I learned about in my college sculpture class though. That museum was a long walk out of the center of Rome, and as I made my way back I got lost in Rome's version of Central Park. I finally made my way out, got my bearings together, and then headed for the next tourist spot I wanted see.
I was excited about this next one, because I had heard of it a while ago, but then forgot about it. Luckily one of the tourist sites I had looked at a week ago mentioned it and so I quickly added it to my plans. It was the crypt of the monks. I don't know the real name, but the crypt was filled with the bones of the monks and the walls were decorated with there bones. It was a bit different, and a bit morbid, but I enjoyed it. It turned out to be not as big of a deal as I thought it would be but it was definitely worth seeing. They even had some mummified monks that were still in their robes just standing around....which was a bit creepy.

I then headed to this gelato place that I had read had the best gelato. Turns out the book was right and it was amazing. The first two flavors I had were fig and then honey. I had them together and it was good. After spending some time at Trevi fountain, I went back for some more and had ginger with cinnamon. That is so far my favorite flavor. I kept exploring and then wound up back at the hostel. After a short break I went out to grab dinner at a small place I had read about. The service was so much better than the last place, but the food was not as good. I had just regular lasagna, and I guess I should have ordered better. I then went to try a different gelato place, which was know for it truffle ice cream. It was a scoop of their dark chocolate ice cream, rolled in chocolate chips, then frozen hard and served with whipped cream. Inside there was a cherry. It was really nice, but I thought the previous ice cream shop had them beat. I went back to the hostel and decided to try and get a good nights sleep for the next day.
The next morning I tried to get an early start. I got out of the room by 9 and went to the corner cafe for my pastry and cappuccino. Afterwards I decided to hit the Roman Forum and Coliseum. I spent about 6 hours at both these sites and went over every inch of them. I made sure not to miss anything, and I throughly enjoyed it all. In the gardens of the Roman Forum, I found a pear tree that had fruit and I of quickly had a free snack, making sure no one was around to yell at me. It was the typical tourist thing and nothing much to report about these two sites. They truly are amazing, and it blows my mind to think how old they are, and yet they are still in goo enough condition for me to walk under, over, and all around them. Also to think about all the history they have seen. It was simply mind boggling.
The rest of the day I decided I had to go shopping. I was on a mission to find pants since the next day I was to got to the Vatican and you can't enter without all of your legs being covered. It was quite fun to shop around, and I found a great shop with neat clothes that was closing down. They had all these really nice European designers at 80 percent off and I found a great pair of pants but of course they were to big. I then found this other store that was having a good sale. They had several pairs I liked, but they were only 20 percent off. They had a pair of red jeans/ pants I liked at 50 percent off, but I wasn't so sure about the red. I ended up just getting them since they were so much cheaper, and also because they were quite comfortable. Also I could be like my Mom in the fact that when she snuck into the Vatican she was in a bright orange dress. It would be hard to lose me in these red pants just like my mom in her orange dress. I forgot to mention that at this other store that was banging out Euro dance music, this one salesgirl was trying to help me choose, but she was having a hard time, since she was mostly dancing around me holding some jeans in my face. That was quite interesting. I didn't spent much time there. The shopping streets I was on was a lot of fun to walk around on. You see so many different people, from everywhere.
It is fun just to stop and look at all of the people around you. Of course they had shops for everything, and I had to stop in on some of the sunglass stores. They had some great sunnies and I had a hard time putting them back on the shelf. Haha.....if only. I then went for a late lunch/early dinner. I went to this one place that was cheap and it turned out to be pretty good. I had pizza (which pales in comparison to Pizza Alfa) along with this amazing bread and olive oil. Afterwards, I was about to ask for the check when this large, round Italian guys comes over with a huge slice of watermelon. He just put his hand on my head, ruffled my hair, and placed the melon in front of me. I wasn't sure what to do. It turned out he was the owner of the place, and he really enjoys American college students. He was super nice to me and chatted with me. He also gave me a glass, not a shot, of really good lemoncello. I left there only 7 euros poorer and my stomach was bloated. I was going to call it a day, but on my way back I noticed a wine bar with free wifi, so I stopped in and had a glass of wine, just so I could use the internet. Internet in Rome is really hard to come by and I have been having a hard time finding it. So I know these posts are long, but it is only because I can't post everyday. So I apologize now.

By the way......Congratulations are in order for my sister and brother-in-law! They added their third boy to their family on August 6th. Luke Samek......I can't wait to meet you!

Last Days in Vela Luka

So I have been back in Vela Luka for a while now, and I have been working hard ever since then. I was doing divemaster work mostly, because I was working on clearing up an insurance problem. Supposedly I only had recreational diving insurance and I was supposed to have professional diving insurance. Marjolein of course was not happy and was asking everyday if I had gotten my insurance. I had no idea what insurance I needed, and everytime I wasn't working I was trying to figure it out. I would ask her for help and she would get a little annoyed and tell me to get on the Padi website. I finally just bought insurance through Padi and it turned out I had to wait a week and a half for my request to be processed. This was way to long for Marjolein, and she had some choice words for me about how I was supposed to be her instructor and not her divemaster. I got equally mad telling her if she had helped when I asked we would not have any problems. This made her back off a bit. Turns out I bought this type of insurance that was way more expensive than I needed, and Marjolein knew this. Needless to say, I can not wait to say goodbye to her.
However, she was leaving for two weeks, so luckily this gave me a break from her for quite some time. My insurance finally went through, and I was immediately put on course work. I had no idea what I was doing, and I was quite uncomfortable teaching people how to scuba dive. After doing several sections of the scuba diving course, I finally felt a bit more confident and Bobby gave me the task of certifying this German/Italian kid. He was taking the course with his father and older brother. They had taken the course before, just 5 years ago, so they were taking it again to refresh themselves. The father and older brother spoke some English, but the kid didn't understand a word I was saying. Luckily though, we do not use words underwater and somehow we were able to make our way through the course. The family was brilliant, and I really enjoyed spending time with them. I even made friends with the mom and she was so sweet. She ended up telling me all about the history of the small northern Italian town they were from, and why they only spoke German. It was great fun getting to know them. After my first certification, I was given more course work and this time it was with these two Dutch boys. They were quite funny and they had this vision of how an American guy should be. They thought I was all about booze, and getting trashed everynight, just the typical stuff they see in American movies. I was quick to set them straight of how it really was.
It is really a lot of fun teaching scuba, much more so than I thought it would be. Meeting new people from all over, and getting to know them a little is probably the best part. But then when you have a student that is having trouble and you help them get past it, they get really excited and happy, and that is the greatest feeling. There was one lady that was sitting on the bottom, and it was time to flood the mask and clear it. Her eyes filled with fear when I gave the sign to proceed. She flooded her mask and you could see how uncomfortable she was. I grabbed her arm so she wouldn't bolt to the surface and it took her 3 minutes to do what most people can do in 10 seconds. She finally got it and I was so happy for her. Afterwards she was so appreciative of how patient I was and how I had her helped her through it.
Besides teaching and work, I have been trying to secure a job for when I leave Croatia. I sent out around 100 CV's and maybe got 25 responses, with only 3 or 4 being promising. One of the places was in Vanuatu, which excited me the most. My goal was to eventually end up in the South Pacific, and Vanuatu is in the middle of that. We wrote back and forth and finally I took the job. It was going to be for 3 to 4 months and they wanted me to be there 3 weeks after I finished in Croatia. This was perfect because I wanted some time to travel around Europe. I set to work trying to plan everything, getting flights, hotels, plans and everything. It was a lot harder than I thought it would be, and flights were so expensive. I finally found a flight from Paris, France to Sydney, Australia for a reasonable price, and I bought it. The only problem now was how to get to Paris, and also I needed a flight from Sydney to Vanuatu. I decided that I am going take a ferry from Vela Luka to Ancona, Italy, and in the same day take the train from Ancona to Rome. I will stay in Rome for 7 nights and then take the train from Rome to Paris. I will have 10 nights there, and then I will fly to Sydney. I leave Paris on the 20th of August and arrive in Sydney on the 22nd. It is going to be a total of 28 hours of traveling. I am going to be so jet lagged. I then believe I will have about three nights in Sydney, and then a three hour flight to Vanuatu. That is the plan now, but for some reason I think things might change a little. I just hope that my money lasts till then. Haha......Well, I start the journey on Tuesday morning, the 3rd, and I will be sure to fill everyone in on what goes wrong. Please keep me in your prayers.