Diving and more diving

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The last week I was diving almost every day. On monday, I was asked to go along with some people doing their Dive Master course (they had to do an exercise which consists in making a map of the sea bottom in a specific area). The name of the place was Oak Park, located near Cronulla Beach. There was a lot of swell which made it difficult to tie the bouys with flags to the bottom to mark the area for the map, so we got out of the water and headed to a place called Bass & Flinders and the sea conditions there were a lot better. We had time for one dive and it was sufficient for them to place the bouys and start their maps. After that we had something to eat and then headed back to the dive shop. Then, I went to meet some couchsurfing friends who were in Victoria Park, near the University of Sydney, for "lunch" at around 6 pm. And then we ended up in the international students' lounge in the university to chill out for a while. At around 8 I went back to Chatswood.

Tuesday, I went out diving again, with the same people and to the same site (Bass & Flinders). We did two dives in which I helped them do their underwater maps. At around 1 pm we had something to eat, went back to the water and we were done by 4 o'clock. From the dive shop I went to Redfern station and wandered around a suburb called Chippendale, which is really nice, close to the University of Sydney, with lots of cheap places to eat and close to 2 nice parks. I went there because I was looking for a specific house that had a room to rent. Apparently, the whole thing was a scam and I passed on it, so I still needed to find a place to stay during the duration of the scuba diving course. It was raining very hard and I went into a cafe nearby to get someting to eat and then went back home.

On wednesday, I had had a day off, so I slept until late and didn't really do much that day. I mostly studied for the course I was going to have during the week end. Very relaxed day.

Thursday I went diving to "Bare Island", in Congwong Bay, located near a place called La Perouse, which has a lot of historic milestones: it's actually very interesting, so I'll share the link to this place (it not only has historic milestones, but also a famous scene from the movie Mission Impossible II was shot here as well: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/La_Perouse,_New_South_Wales. A few other facts: it was also one of the favorite places american soldiers went to relax when they had their days off in Sydney during WWII and the first telegraphic station between Australia and New Zealand was positioned here. back to the topic in hand, I did 3 dives with a guy called Ryan, who's also doing the diving instructor course. I hadn't dived here and the place was quite nice, with a lot of fauna and nice corals as well. It has pretty shallow water and you don't go below 12 meters. We saw quite a lot of Blue Gropers, big blue fish that behave like puppies. They usually go near divers (you can literally hold them in your arms), looking for food: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_groper. After the dives, I went back home.

Friday morning, it was raining really hard again and I stayed home, mainly because I was expecting to hear from a person to rent a room and because I also had to study for the course the next day (and also prepare a few assignments). It wasn't really a good day to go out and I needed to rest; the diving, plus the 3 hours of transportation back and forth every day I went diving had me really tired.

Saturday morning, I went to the Instructor course and we had a pool session the whole morning and until 2 pm. There we had skills workshop and we had to "teach" 2 skill ourselves to the other members of the class. So we get evaluated according to how well we teach the others, if we figure out what specific problems they're having to achive the skill, etc. It's great practice. In the afternoon, we had a classroom session to until about 6 pm. Then I went back home, where Felipe and Isa had invited other chileans (all doing more or less the same thing as I am). The people invited were Daniela Andrade (26) and her belgian boyfriend, Bastian (24), Nicolas (29), a graphic designer who's working in construction, Rocío (27), physiotherapist who's working in the kitchen of a restaurant and María Paz Romo (30), bachelor in bussiness, who's working for a cleaning company. It was a lot of fun, they were all really nice people, but I was really tired, almost falling asleep in the chair and had to wait for them to leave at around midnight (early for chilean standards), because they had to catch the last train to get home. After that I went to bed. I had to prepare a few presentations for next day, but couldn't do it then. I had to wake up at 6 am the next morning.

Sunday morning I woke up early, took the train and worked on my assignments there, finishing them just in time. I got to the diving center and we headed to Bare island for a skill workshop at sea. Again, it was great practice and I'm learning a lot. After we were done, we had a classroom session again to until about 6 pm. Needless to say, I really needed to sleep. Good news: the instructor who's doing the course, Carl Fallon invited me to stay with him and his wife, Rachel, for a few weeks until there's a room available in the house the scuba diving center has for people that are doing their internship, so I finally have somewhere to stay for the time being. A few other things: The owner of the diving center "Abyss Scuba" is a person called Peter Letts, who's Rachel's father (she also works there), so it's a family bussiness http://www.abyss.com.au/.

On monday, I had another day off, so I slept until about 11 am. I didn't go out much that day, I only went out to get something for lunch. I stayed home and then at around 8 pm I had dinner with Felipe and Isa. We had barbecued chicken with salad and wine and a traditional french dessert that Isa's mother had sent from France: gallet des rois. The weather was really good and we had dinner outside. This was sort of like the "farewell dinner", because I was moving out the next morning. If you're reading this, I really want to thank you both again for having me for three weeks.

Tuesday morning I got up at 6 am, got all my things (2 bags) and went to the Artarmon train station. I got to the dive shop at around 7:30 and went to get something for breakfast nearby. That day I was scheduled to do 3 dives. I went to Bare Island again, with Ryan and another fellow named Craig (retired RAAF). We did three dives there. The weather conditions weren't the best: there was quite some wind and swell and the water was pretty turbid and greenish colored, so the visibility was from about 2 meters in some parts, to around 8 meters in others. Anyway, it was still a good day, we saw some blue gropers and other fishes, etc.

When we got back to the shop, Carl was expecting me to drive me to his house, which is located in Grays Point, near Gymea. It's right next to a national park, so it doesn't really feel like being in Sydney, it's more or less like being in th Blue Mountains. That evening, Carl and Rachel were celebrating their 3rd wedding aniversary, so they went out for dinner. I went to a shop nearby, bought a few things and made spaghetti with tomato sauce. I had that with chicken noodle soup and a couple of Guinness beers. Later that night, Rachel and Carl got back home and we stayed talking for a few hours, having a beer at first and then some Cognac.

Before finishing this post: First of all, saludos to my grandparents, all 4 of them (I've heard in numerous ocasions my 2 grandmothers are my biggest "blog fans". Second, Vale: if you read this, I'm still waiting for the photos from the airport. And last, but not least, feel free to leave comments after the posts, they're much appreciated (thanks mom & dad).

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Comments

[Daniel F. Arellano]

Daniel O. : I will be expecting the end of this post. I really enjoyed it, as usual, and I´m glad you are doing well

[maria cecilia]

entrete tu vida
...se nota que tienes 30, de solo leer ya estoy agotada!!!! de todas maneras se ve muy entretenida tu vida , entre buceo y amigos!!!! good life!!!!!cariños! Ojalá puedas sacar buenas fotos bajo el agua, las esperaremos!