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.

Parents in Dubrovnik

My bus ride from Split to Dubrovnik, was long and hot. I had to run to the bus stop so by the time I was on board, I was drenched in sweat. Then, I of course stupidly sat on the side that was constantly in the sun. To top it off, I believe my air conditioning was broken. The ride was 5 hours long and it seemed even longer, because of course the prettiest girl in the bus terminal sat herself next to me. I looked and smelled (I think) like a mess. It was embarrassing to say the least.
I finally arrived at the Dubrovnik bus terminal, which I found out was a 45 minute hike away from the historic section. I ended up trekking over to this place, and then I had to contend with finding my apartment in the maze of streets. I searched for about 15 minutes in the street I thought it was on and finally sat myself down outside the door I thought it was. I was digging in my backpack for my laptop to check my directions when this rather large man (reminded me of the fiddler on the roof) came bursting out the door asking if I was Erik. I was so happy to find someone who knew my name. I moved into my room and showered and freshened up. I then went out to explore the city.
Dubrovnik (the old section) is an amazing place. I got lost in the streets and circled the walls about three times. Every time I went down the same street though, I would see something different. I think my favorite thing about the city, was the ice cream parlors. They seemed to be everywhere, and over my time there I managed to try I believe 6 of the shops. I finally decided that it was time to chose which restaurant to eat at. There was many different restaurants and a lot of them offered the same type of food. I didn't want to eat at one of the tourist trap restaurants, so I decided to go to outskirts or the wall and find a small place that wasn't packed with tourists. I finally found one to my liking, and ended up enjoying a great seafood pasta dish, with a salad and white wine. It was a great start to my “holiday” from the dive shop.
The next day was more or less the same. Exploring and wondering around, only this time I explored outside the city walls. I found a nice little park on the top of the sea cliffs and it had amazing views of the old town and the sea. I spent some time there, then went to the other side of the old town. There was a beach on that side and so I stayed there and relaxed for about 2 hours. It was pretty packed, and people were everywhere. At one point I looked over to my right, and this group of 3 pretty girls of course, decided to tan topless. There was a typical European culture shock moment for me, and fortunately I was able to act quite nonchalant. It moments like these when you remember how far from home you really are. I then went around the city some more after resting at my room and taking a shower. I was passing this busy restaurant that was shoved into a small street when I realized that I had read a good review about it somewhere. I decided to try and eat there, and I actually got the last table. The food was Bosnian along with what seemed to be Turkish. It was really good and pretty cheap. I ended up getting this pastry that was stuffed with veal and mushroom, with this really creamy gravy. It was really amazing. I ended the meal with some house made lemon liquor and baklava. It was a great meal and I thought that I wouldn't be able to have a better meal in Dubrovnik.
The next morning finally arrived and I couldn't wait to see Mom and Dad. I went straight out of the city gates to wait at the docks for them. I could see their cruise ship loading up the transfer boats and I thought for sure they would be on the first one. I ended up having to wait for three different boats. I got so excited with each boat that came in, and then let down when they didn't get off. However, when they did arrive it was obvious. No sooner had it rounded the city wall when I unmistakably recognized my mom, and I could see her straining her neck to try and find me. It took no more than 3 seconds for her to spot me. It was pretty funny. It was so amazing to see them there in Dubrovnik and I had a bit of trouble getting over that fact. We ended up making our way to a place I knew did breakfast so we could sit and chat.
Afterwards we made our way to get our tickets to walk on top of the city walls. It was really packed but it was really fun and neat to share that experience with my parents. The walls were a really long walk so afterwards dad was a little tired so we ended up sitting down and resting. We decided we wanted to go sit on the beach so dad went back to the ship to get their suits and some lunch and mom and I went to some sites. We went to the monastery and then this old church. They were both really small, and I think at the church mom and I somehow joined a group of German tourists. Supposedly we were supposed to pay but we sneaked in and went around the church with them. We didn't mean to, it just happened that way. We then met up with dad, grabbed our 2 ice cream for the day and headed to the beach. We sat and talked, had lunch and really just enjoyed the sun along with each other. We stayed for a while but we soon had to head back to the Old Town because it was getting closer to their boarding time. We sat at a cafe and had drinks and then mom and I decided to walk around and left dad to people watch. Time went by fast and soon we were heading to the docks for them to board the last departing boat bound for their boat. I have no idea how many times we said goodbye and all of us had a hard time. As their boat was leaving, I had to pull myself together and get my mind to focus on something besides them leaving. I decided to march back to the bus station and buy my ticket for the next day. It took me an hour and a half to do that and by the time I got back to the Old Town it was getting late. I decided to try something different for dinner since it was going to be a while until I would have the opportunity to have something good. I ended up walking around looking at all the menus and I finally found one that looked good. Actually, it kinda found me. I thought I had turned up an alley and I was just about to turn around when this guy ran out of a doorway and offered to show me a menu. I almost said no, because he was dressed really nice and here I was with my camera and swimsuit. I decided to just look and then I saw that they had fixed menu with 5 courses. He proceeded to try and sell me on the fact that they had an outdoor terrace that was very romantic and beautiful. Haha.......he obviously did not take in account that I was completely alone. I gave in and decided to have some fun so he walked me upstairs and showed my this really gorgeous restaurant set-up. Everything was draped in white cloth with lights everywhere. There was even a fountain in the middle of everything. I waited for someone to get me a table (there were tons), and when they did finally seat me it was nowhere near the other customers. There were maybe three other tables filled and they were all in one corner of the terrace. I, of course, was sat in the completely opposite corner which was just slightly shadowed. I guess they wanted no one to notice me.
Well, I finally ordered the seafood five course menu, along with a glass of wine. Before the actual meal came out I was given a glass of champagne along with strawberries. Yeah, it was this kind of restaurant. Then the first course came, which was homemade cream cheese with pumpkin oil and toasted pumpkin seeds. I really dislike cream cheese, but this was different, and really good. As soon as I had finished my next course came out immediately. I was a little annoyed that they were rushing me so I just tried to slow down and enjoy everything. The next course was a salad with prawns. Nothing real special, but delicious none the less. The were still really rushing me and by this time my waiter didn't even care for me. He sent the bus boy to give me my dishes, while he waited all the other tables. It was pretty funny because I noticed he spent lots of time at the other tables and explained everything they were eating, while I was having my food thrown at me by the bus boy. I decided I would try to play with the situation, so I dug in my backpack, got a notebook out along with a pencil and made “notes” everytime I put in my mouth. I really tried to make it look like I was tasting everything and making note about it as I went. I knew this was noticed immediately because my waiter finally came over and tried to make up for his bad behavior before. I started to get time between courses and everything I was eating was explained to me down to the ingredients. It was great......and I highly suggest this technique if you get bad service in a nice restaurant. The next courses were homemade pasta with a pepper cream sauce with prawns, then I had the main course of sea bream on green risotto with langosteen. It was amazing. The last course was desert which was ice cream with pumpkin oil, toasted pumpkin seeds and a brittle of some sorts. It was truly a great meal that I will remember for a long time.
The next day I spent some time sitting around the city at different cafes. I then slowly made my way to the bus station and found the right bus. I ended up sleeping through most of the 5 hour bus journey and there were luckily no incidents. I made it back to Vela Luka and I was slightly sad that my holiday was over and that I was going to have to go back to work at the dive shop the next day.

Instructor Exam

I finally can call myself a PADI scuba instructor! I will start from the beginning. The IE was going to be held in a town called Selce, which is in the north or Croatia really close to the Italian border. We took the early ferry into Split and from there we had to drive around 4 hours following the coast the entire way. It was amazing to see how the scenery changed so drastically. It was completely different from the rocky hilly land of Vela Luka. Instead it was really green, with really large mountains. We even drove through evergreen forests that slightly reminded me of Colorado. It was really gorgeous.
We eventually arrived in Selce, and found the place we were staying at. We then went straight to the place where the IE was going to take place. All the paper work and exams were going to be in this hotel, and all the diving was of course over at the dive shop. We all gathered at the hotel and met the rest of the candidates. There were four from Germany (and only spoke German), two Croatians, then the three of us (two from Poland and then me). Everyone was real nice, but you could tell they were nervous. We had a short orientation and then it was time to take the first set of exams. There were 5 total, ranging from equipment, skills, physics, and more. We had exactly and hour and a half to finish it which was more than enough time. I finished early and when I left the room I was in for a surprise. As soon as went out of the testing room I was bombarded by people in charge of running the IE. Supposedly my physical I had back in October was not valid in Europe because my papers only had the doctors signature and not his official stamp. They were afraid that I wouldn't be able to complete the IE unless I got that doctors stamp put on it. I had no idea what to do, and I highly doubted that my doctor even had a stamp. The people in charge finally realized it might be easier to get me to see one of their doctors and get a quick physical in. They ended up calling people and asking for favors. They eventually got me in for the next day to have a doctor take a quick look at me.
The next day we started with classroom presentations. We had the night before to prepare for them, so giving them was quite easy. We all did real well and all passed. Then I had to go to the doctor for my physical. I of course had no idea what was going on, and the person who took me spoke limited English. They ushered me into a room and soon this old doctor came in. There was no talking of course and he poked, prodded, and listened to everything. Then he had me lay down and he started connecting wires to my wrists and ankles. Then he placed about 8 suction cup devices on my chest. At this point I was about ready to bolt, because I had no idea what was happening. Luckily, nothing happened, I wasn't shocked or anything. I checked out with perfect health and we went back to finish up the exam.
In the afternoon, we had to do our skill assessment and our confined water teaching session. For the skills we had to demonstrate how to hover, perform the controlled emergency swimming ascent (CESA), regulator recovery and clearing, on surface BCD removal and replacement, and mask removal and replacement. There were no real problems, and I believe that I had the highest scores out of all my group. The in water teaching went really well, I managed to find the problems given to my “students” and correct them. We then gave the debriefing and were done for the day.
The next morning all we had left was the open water teaching sessions. I was really nervous for some reason, and I started freaking out. My briefing was really bad, and after that I was afraid to go in the water. However, once underwater my nerves calmed and I was able to pass with no problems. After this I had finally become a Open Water Scuba Instructor. I couldn't believe that I had finally accomplished what I came to Croatia for.

We quickly packed up the car and drove insanely fast back to Split to catch the evening ferry. We arrived with plenty of time, which I was slightly disappointed. I was hoping to drop them at the ferry and then be on my own to enjoy my evening. I was not going back to Vela Luka because I was going to go to Dubrovnik to meet up with my parents for one day. I was so excited to see them.