Home and Malaysia

So I have neglected to write for quite some time. Anyway, I had a few more weeks left in Vanuatu doing the dive instructing and everything before my time was up. The last few weeks were amazing. I had three other instructors to help out so really I didn't have so much to do and practically all I did was lead dives, which I love. We had a few last fun game nights before I left and we had so much fun as also. Gotta hand it to Teneale, she knows how to have fun. Anyway, also I could not have asked for a better last dive in Vanuatu. One of the new instructors was finishing up a open water course and then the rest of us had nothing we had to do, so we only had fun dives. Anyway we overweighted ourselves and then played around on the bottom in a sandy patch. We took off our fins and ran around on the bottom and then played kung fu scuba. It is so much fun......exaggerated moves and tons of kicking and flying around. After a while of that we swam off to explore some of the areas of Twin Bommies that we hadn't been to. We then were starting to get low on air so as we headed back and started to do our safety stops of course a dugong showed up. It hanged out with us and swam around with us. It was great......oh and I forgot to mention that the entire dive was done with all of us wearing Santa hats for Christmas.
So I had spread the rumor that I was leaving Vanuatu and heading straight to the island of Gizo in the Solomon Islands. However, this was not true. It was my original plan but after thinking about it and realizing that I would hate myself for missing a truly amazing Christmas with my family I decided to recant and fly home. I made this decision about 2 and a half weeks before I was leaving. I was nervous about going home without any plans for afterwards but I knew God would be taking care of me. Of course the very next day after telling the people in Gizo I had to back out I got a promising email from one of my first choices for dive shops to work for. After a few emails and everything I had myself a job in the town of Semporna in the Sabah district of Malaysian Borneo. This was the one place I told myself I had to go see before I died so surely the Lord was looking out for me. Also, flights were reasonable so I was still going to be able to go home for Christmas and then fly to Borneo to start working in the new year.
So my flight home was uneventful. I flew to Auckland and had to spend 7 hours in the airport. When I first stepped into the terminal I got quite a shock. For some reason there was this really buff guy in his bright green budgie smugglers (tighty-whities) and then to top it off he was wearing a actual stuffed rams head on his own head. I guess it was to get attention for the shop he was standing in front of and yeah, he sure got the attention. Strange Kiwis. After Auckland, I flew into LAX and after arriving late I realized that I only had 30 minutes before my next plane left. And of course my other plane was on the complete other side of LAX and I had to go through security again. After literally running through the entire airport and waiting in the slowest security line I ran to my gate right as the lady was closing the door. I freaked, but then she looked at my ticket and told me I was on the next plane to Houston anyways and that I still had 30 minutes before I could board. Oops! So after Houston I finally got to Charleston at 11:30 at night and luckily I had an amazing friend kind enough to pick me up at the airport and drop me at home (Thanks Grant, I owe you). So now was the fun part of surprising mom and dad, because yes, they had no idea that I was even thinking of coming home.
So showing up to my house at 12:30 at night I lucked out seeing that the lights were still on and that at least my dad was awake. I went and knocked on the door and stood directly in front on the door so he couldn't see me. He came to the door and yelled “Who is it?” I didn't respond and just knocked again. He kept yelling and each time his voice got louder and slightly more angry (or was it more scared). Anyway I realized he was not going to open up so I popped my head around so he could see. He immediately went silent and his jaw dropped. Then he started yelling “What are YOU doing here?” He kept asking this and for some reason it sounded like he was really mad he was seeing me. I had to ask him to let me in and then he wouldn't quit asking why I was home. Finally he settled down and realized what was going on. Then he told me I had to go wake Mom and let her know. Luckily she had only gone to bed in the last 15 minutes so she was in the state of only being half asleep. He thought it would be best if I went into their room acting like him and just climb into their bed. I did and she hardly moved so I snuggled up to her and put my freezing cold feet on hers. I knew this would get a reaction and she just got mad and told my dad to go put the cat outside. I didn't move and so she told me “Steve, get your feet off of me!” I then told her that I wasn't Steve and all her response was was “Whoever you are get your feet off of me and leave me alone.” It was pretty funny and I just kept telling her I wasn't Steve until the reality of what I was saying clicked. She finally rolled over and looked and realized it was me. She was needless to say, quite surprised.
So anyway I had a few days in Charleston before the rest of the family arrived. I let Sarah know I was home on the phone by answering Mom's phone when she called. Then to surprise Janine I hid in her closet with a hideous mask on and then attacked her when she came into the room. She jumped and then told me to quit because of course she thought it was Dad. I took off the mask and she went straight into waterworks mode. It was quite special. Anyway, Christmas was amazing and I got to meet my two new amazing nephews and managed to spend some great family time with the rest of the nephews and family. We had some fun family game nights playing Mad Gab and there were several hilarious moments with my sisters and mom impersonating Scarlet O'Hare's servant girls. Priceless! Also I stuffed myself with some amazing home cooked Mexican food along with the typical American Christmas feast. So worth going home for. However, my time went way to fast and soon I back at the airport flying halfway around the world again to Malaysia.
I left early in the morning on December 31st and didn't arrive in Malaysia until the mid morning of January 2nd'. Needless to say I was quite jet lagged when I got here. I flew into the town of Tuwau which was about an hours drive from where I needed to be. The dive shop had told me they may be able to pick me up or have a transfer available but I might just have to get a bus there or something. Anyway I walked off the plane as a zombie and everyone noticed. I was instantly mobbed by taxi people and bus people trying to give me a ride and after quickly looking for someone with a sign for me I picked a taxi guy that told me he could take me straight to my new scuba store. I only paid about 18 dollars for hour and 15 minute ride in a 8 seater van all by myself. So really not a bad deal. I arrived at the shop and the people there acted like they had no idea that one of their new instructors named Erik was to arrive today. It kinda worried me a while and after a few calls things were straightened out and they realized that I was supposed to be there. I was treated to lunch and then shown around and then shown the several different living conditions I could have. They were really pushing the living conditions that I had to pay for and it started to worry me about the living situation I was counting on.....the free one. I finally was taken to the free living quarters and they were quite dreadful. My room was a concrete room with no windows, no working lights, no fan, no furniture, with just a broken down mattress thrown on the middle of the dusty floor with a cover on it that looked like it had never been washed. I tried to stay positive and say that I could deal with it. I just really wanted to lay down and sleep for a while but first I had to get the mattress cover clean. Turns out that the washing machine was definitely and infinitely broken. The last straw came when I went to the kitchen for some water and there was none I could drink and then also on the counter was a half eaten whole fried fish that look petrified since it had been sitting out for who knows how long. I told them to please take me to one of the inns and I would pay for a few nights there just so I could get some decent sleep. I went to sleep that night wondering what in the world I had gotten myself into. Nothing was working out how I thought it should have been.
Luckily the next day I was able to tag along with this one instructor doing an Advanced course. He was going to Sibuan island which is the island they do all their course work at. They told me to get used to it because it was going to be my office and that it was truly the worse island to dive on around here. Haha! Was I surprised by that comment when I hit the water. The diving there was incredible I thought and I saw so many things in just the three dives I did there. I saw so many eels, a crazy cool pipefish, three turtles, stone fish, huge lionfish, snake eels, scorpion fish, so many true clownfish, and then huge schools of the most beautiful reef fish. And then I can't even explain all the corals, sponges and other amazing things down there. Anyway, actually before we got to the dive site we had a 40 minute boat ride and about halfway there one of the boat engines dies. They then stopped to check it out, and that of course killed the other motor. So anyway we were just floating out in the middle of the waterway with no way to contact the dive shop or anyone. We managed to flag down a passing boat and we sent one of the boat hands back to the mainland to get a new boat. We ended up just floating around for roughly and hour and a half before a new boat came and we moved onto that boat. We left other people to tend to the broken boat. Of course this had me thinking this was normal and that didn't help me in the area of what I thought I had gotten myself into. So after getting back and everything I was stoked because I had just had three amazing dives. Later that night I was told that I would be starting my teaching the next day with one other instructor. The hook was that we had 6 Russian students doing their Open Water training and none of them spoke English and of course neither one of us instructors spoke Russian. We had one translator that frankly scared me. It was going to be an interesting experience. I did not get that much sleep the night before because I was thinking about everything and truly wondering what I was doing in this position.
The next morning I arrived to the dive shop and was really not sure what to do. I stood around waiting for the other instructor to show and the students. Finally they arrived and then the translator showed up. Anyway her name was Elke, and she was definitely Russian by blood. She stalked (and I mean stalked) up to me and didn't even introduce herself. She just demanded to know my age and of course her demeanor got to me so I lied and told her 23. I had no idea why I did that but that was the first thing to pop out of my mouth. She then demanded to know how long I had been teaching and when I told her 6 months she was clearly not impressed. Ahhh......this was going to be a rough course! I guess I should also describe to you Elke, because then you will see why I was a little intimidated. In a few words she was Heidi on steroids. And the Heidi I mean was the little girl in the Swiss Alps chasing sheep. Elke was a very strong looking girl, that was tall, blond hair pulled back into pigtails and then to make things even more interesting she did not shave her legs or underarms. Then of course she stalked around with a Sasquatch demeanor. Of course, over the course of the day she took a liking to me and decided to try and be friends and when she started asking about any possible girlfriends things went quickly from strange to just awkward. Oh well, she will only be here a week more I think. Hopefully it will pass quickly. So the course went really well and actually we didn't have to translate to much and were able to teach it in sign language. I somehow got stuck with the most nervous unsure diver while Jim (the other instructor) got all the easy good students. Oh well, I seem to be really good with that type of diver. However, after being behind with the skills and getting her (the nervous diver) caught up with the others she decided that she was only a good confident diver when she was holding my hand. That meant the rest of the day when we were underwater she would not let go of my hand. Luckily on the last dive of the day we had made some progress because she let go of my hand for about 10 minutes.
The next day was a little better, and we got all the students through their skills and they actually were pretty good divers.Nothing much exciting or anything. When I got back to the shop that day, I was immediately thrown from one course into my next course. I had to get my three new students through their dive theory and exams. Yay! Luckily though, they did speak English and were somehow able to understand my American dialect. Over the next two days I got them through their course and was able to make three new friends. I am proud to say that they actually became way better divers with my guidance. That is the one thing I love about teaching, seeing the changes you make in someone's diving ability.
So, another interesting thing about this place is the food. There is tons of it around here and it is all strange, interesting and sometimes good. Plus it is super cheap so it is fun to try new things. One of my first meals, I was by myself and I went to this one small restaurant. I sat down and the waiter came over. I didn't know what I wanted so I just asked for some water at the time. She looks at me and asks "chicken or seafood?" I just wanted water at the time but I went with it and ordered seafood. I had obviously ordered my dinner because she walked back to the kitchen. A short time later I had an amazing platter of Asian noodles before me with seafood and vegetables. It was so good, and then it had also come with this really good orange juice that had to have been just squeezed. And all of it was for about 3 dollars. Also along the food subject is the stores. I went into the largest supermarket and got lost in there among all the aisle of strange and interesting things I have never heard of. One thing that really surprised me was the Pringles aisle. They had so many different types of Pringles and some that I never suspected existed. Some of the flavors that comes to mind was the blueberry and hazelnut, shrimp, soft shelled crab (why not just crab?), seaweed, and also something like lemon and sesame seed. I don't think I will try any of those flavors.
Well, this is extremely long, and I am sorry for no pictures. I have yet to get out my camera and it is only because I have been so busy getting settled in. Hopefully things will start to settle and I will finally not feel so much like Alice in Wonderland. I have offically realized that I am no longer anywhere near the United States.