Week 1

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Hey all!

So, one week has already passed for me here in paradise and I must say.... it sure beats a Michigan winter!!

I arrived at 7am Raro time on Monday the 27 of December and was greeted by my boss Steve. He gave me the lowdown on my fellow interns and our awesome instructors on the drive to the house. After I was dropped off I had lots of time to unpack and take a much needed shower!

The house is great, it has 3 bedrooms and a nice full living room and kitchen that open up onto our front porch. The view consists of the lush green mountaintops and palm trees... not too shabby!

After getting settled into my room, my flatmate Sara from Colorado was nice enough to have me hop on her scooter and took me for a tour around the whole island, stopping to get some much needed groceries as well!

Later that afteroon my two other flatmates Tim (from Germany) and his girlfriend Lucille (from France) invited me out for drinks to celebrate Lucille's birthday. It was a great time lounging in the poolside bar and getting to know everyone!

Tuesday was my first day on the job and I got thrown right into diving. I was still completely jet lagged and had a massice headache but I was not about to turn down a chance to dive so I kitted up and hopped on the boat. Decent dives but the visibility was pretty crap..... and I felt pretty crappy..... but it was still better than wading through snow!

The rest of the week I spent mostly on our dive boat with the other intern Tim and our instructor Tom taking groups out and learning the job of boatman. I really enjoy being out on the boat actually, you can plug in your ipod to the stereo and just relax while everyone is down for a dive.

I definitely have had the occasional "Holy shit, what am I doing here?!!!" thoughts pass through my mind, but only briefly and usually only when Im missing home, friends and family. I have a feeling the next 17 weeks are going to fly by though and soon you will be reading how I want nothing more than to stay.

Its a bit hard at the moment though because everyone I live and work with is in a relationship so being the only single one is sort of a bummer in that their perrogative isnt really to go out and meet new people. They have also all been here so long that they know everyone, but that makes it a bit harder on me to get to know other fun people living on Raro. The flip side is, I have worked so much even in my first week that I havent had much time to go out or do anything social anyway, especially geting over the time change.

New years was great here in the South PAcific, though extremely wet. We had a huge storm front push through New Years Eve with significant winds and buckets of rain. We celebrated with a great BBQ at the shop though and drinks and fireworks down at a local bar called Sails. Good times were had until the wee hours of the morning and everything, including our shop, was closed the next day.

New Years Day I woke up to gorgeous weather and wandered over to our neighbor Paul's house. He let me borrow his adorable horse Alwin, and I went for a nice long bareback ride on the beach. It really doesnt get much better than that! Afterwards, Tim lent me his scooter and I took a nice long drive around the island soaking in the sun and scenery. The weather turned right as I got back but Tim and Lucille bought all the ingredients for massive making of pizza and along with Tom and Courtney (the other instructor, and yes its very confusing!) we all ate until we couldnt anymore and watched movies all afternoon with the rain pounding outside.

Today is Day 8 for me on Raro and I got to dive again. This time I felt great and the vis was terrific! We ran across some great fish and even a turtle.

Other than my standard work schedule of 8am-6pm Mon-Sat.... life is pretty slow. And I love it. I wake up, shower, eat breakfast, don my bikini, go to work, hop on a boat, float in the sea, meet fun new people from all over the globe, and return to it all the next day. Life is good....... and I refuse to take it for granted!


Love you all,
will try to keep up as much as possible!

Court

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Comments

[Karin]

SOOOOO JEALOUS!!!
I can't be happier for you....and more jealous for me!!!! It sounds beautiful, and I'm sure (knowing YOU), there will be plenty of people for you to hang out with soon!!! Keep the blogs coming - describe everything- I want to be there.........