Change of plans

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Tuesday evening, María Paz Romo and I met with Vicky Fanta and Daniela Andrade. I knew Vicky from before, but couldn't remember Daniela, even though we were in the same school. By coincidence, her father taught a class I had in the Naval Polytechnic Academy in 2007 when I was studying to get my electronic engineering degree. Both went with their respective boyfriends, a chilean who works in the film making industry and a Belgium who works as a "roofer" (makes roofs in construction sites, nothing to do with roofies in case someone's wandering). They've been here for a while and, María Paz and I wanted to see how their overall experience has been. They're all living in Manly, so that in itself is a good thing. We met in a pub in Manly (big place) and 3 of us had a plate called "surf and turf", steak with prawns and mashed potatos. It was very nice meeting them, had a good time there and then at 10, María Paz and I headed back to the city; for this we had to take the ferry, which arrives at Circular Quay. Then she took a bus home and I took the train. It was nearly midnight when I recieved a phone call from Isa (I was only about 5 minutes by foot to the house), telling me that she had to go pick up two New Zealand schoolgirls who were flying from Spain to New Zealand (they had spent 3 months learning spanish there). They had to wait for some hours at the airport for their flight from Australia to New Zealand. Somehow, apparently there's usually a curfew in the airport and they couldn't stay in the airport for that period of time. Right after I got back home, Isa was leaving. I cleared up my things from the room I'm staying in and cleaned up the bathroom a bit. While we were waiting for Isa to arrive with the girls, Felipe told me he had just been given the news that he had been accepted in a job he was applying to. I was "obligued" to celebrate the good news and accompanied him with a few drinks. While we were chatting, Isa arrived and we stayed for another hour or so talking with the girls. At about 1:30 everyone was tired and Felipe had to drive Isa and the girls to the airport at 6:30. I slept on the floor in the living room (first actual "backpacker" experience I've had so far). Everyone started functioning at around 6 again. We had breakfast, everyone left, I took a shower and went to sleep until 1 o'clock. A few hours later I went to get something to eat near the Chatswood train station, went back home and stayed there the rest of the day. I had some problems with the application for the "Australian Business Number" because the people in charge of processing it said that I hadn't provided enough information, so I had to make a few calls and I waited the rest of the day without getting an answer back.

Tuesday morning, I woke up early to get to a class at 9:30 I booked for in "Infront Staffing" (Clarence St., near Druitt S). This was a safety class oriented for people who want to get the "Green Card", to be able to work in construction. This class is failproof (people with basic skills pass this), but nevertheless I had to sit and listen to the person in charge of the class to until 4:30. The class was taught by a person who has been in the business for over 20 years and runs a small company with his sons. Considering how boring the topic was, he managed to make it somewhat interesting and entertaining (group work, a few jokes, etc.). It wasn't that bad considering I learned something different.

After the class was over, I stayed around the CBD and at about 8 I went to the Courthouse Hotel in Newtown for the couchsurfing meeting that is held there every two weeks. Again, had a lot of fun, met some new people and saw others that I've been seeing more often, so I guess I'm going to keep on going to them.

Friday, I went to "Abyss Scuba", a dive center in Sydney (specifically in Ramsgate in the Kogarah area), to speak with one of the persons in charge and see about an instructor development course (IDC) in April, talk about the costs, etc. Turns out, this center is one of the best (if not the best in Australia) with a vast collection of PADI awards to back this up. As you may have read in the previous posts I wrote, I was trying to see about getting a job in construction. I hadn't heard about this anymore from the person that talked to me about this possibility, so I took the decision on the spot at the dive shop, to start an IDC program as soon as possible (the next course was actually starting the next day). I signed up for a program that includes the IDC, 40+ dives in various enviroments, get 5 diving specialties (so I can become a Master Scuba Diver Trainer), an internship with the diving center in order to get experience as an instructor after finishing the course, and work as part of the diving staff on a luxury yacht in some very exclusive destinations (can't remember if it's one or two trips). So far, so good. I'm making a very big investment and as soon as I can get a job in diving, I expect to recover this and more. Keeping my fingers crossed, otherwise I'm really going to have to be ingenious if I want to keep on travelling. Getting back to this post, I started doing the e-learning for the course right there in the shop, got signed up for the course, bought an entire scuba diving equipment (I'm going to need it if I want to find a job in the industry afterwards) and made the first payment. Somehow, at the shop, while I was trying on the wetsuit, I sat on my iphone and broke the screen, so I finished the e-learning studying early and then went to a mall to get the screen replaced. Then I went back to Chatswood (where I'm still staying), bought dinner and continued studying until late. Then went to bed.

Saturday morning, I had to be at the diving center at 8am (I checked the trains and bus schedules the previous night) and left home at about 6:30. I have to take two trains and a bus to get to the dive center. Considering it was the weekend, I had little possibility of train and bus combinations. I took the first train in Chatswood to get to Town Hall station and I had 2 minutes to the on the train to Rockda, leto take the bus to Ramsgate. Turns out the train left 2 minutes late from Chatswood and I lost the connection to Rockdale at Town Hall station, so had to wait for the next one. Still, I had just enough time to get on the bus to Ramsgate and get at 8am there. But of course when I got to Rockdale, I took the wrong bus. I had to walk to the dive center and got there 10 minutes late for the very first day of the course. Not a very good start; all the students and the Course Director where already at a coffee shop. The course started with everyone introducing themselves. In all, we're 7 students; 4 australians: Martin, Daniel, Ryan and Kane, 1 bulgarian: Adrian, 1 Canadian: Reigh, and myself. The instructor is Carl Fallon and has an irish assitant who just finished her IDC, Neve.

The day was very intensive, with the class having ended at around 6pm, with short breaks in between and about 30 minutes for lunch. After 2 months of not having had to wake up for work, I've become spoiled and lazy and need to get back on track fast as far as waking up, going to class, etc. By the end of the day I was exhausted and when I finally got home, I had something to eat and went to bed.

Sunday morning was a bit hectic. I had set the phone to ring at 5:40, to wake up with sufficient time to shower and take the train to Town Hall. But I fell asleep and woke up at 6:15. I had to take the train at 6:27 (there was no margin for error, because not many trains pass on Sunday morning). I was out of the house in literally 5 minutes, ran all the way to the station, bought the ticket in about 10 seconds (again, literally) and ran to the train, which I managed to get on when they were (again, again literally), closing the doors. Close call. From then on, I got to the other train on time, took the correct bus this time and got there at 7:30. Only good thing was that the sunrise was really spectacular and really enjoyed it from the train (while catching my breath). This day, was optional for the IDC program, but proved very worthwhile going to. We spent most of the day in a swimming pool practicing diving skills and exercices in a demonstrative way, the same way as it is shown to people who are learning to dive. We did this, plus a few rescue techniques as well. All of this we had learned in previous courses, but it's totally different when you have to demonstrate and teach others, so it was actually a very good reminder of the exercicies and a good practice for what we'll be doing in the next weeks. Besides that, it was a good opportunity to start getting accustomed to my new diving gear. After the pool session, we headed back to the shop to do a physics review (applied to diving of course). In all, it was an excellent day to start preparing for the IDC. I went back home, bought some food on the way, wrote part of this post, saw a couple of TV shows and went to bed. Of course now I'm not going out so much; for now "carrete" is pretty much over (chilean slang: to party, go bar-hopping, etc.). The lessons, diving and the train/bus rides are enough for the day.

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