How Many Do You Count?

So I stopped this section of my post since being in the great barrier because every day the count was zero. Literally. Except that on my dive boat, one of the instructors was black, by way of France, by way of North Africa-somewhere. Really crazy guy. and I don't mean crazy like a fox. I mean crazy like a crazy person.

but back to the dive boat situation. If you're a diving enthusiast, I highly recommend living on a boat.
A. you get to dive about 5 times a day
B. if you're traveling alone, it's a great way to meet other people, and
C. it's kind of awesome to tell people you lived on a dive boat.
D. you have people to go drink with in town after a Cyclone cuts your trip short. good times.

The name of my boat was called Ocean Quest, which is run through Divers Den Dive Center. They are an unbelievably professional company and the staff is great and really personable. Most are relatively young and come from all over the world. It's also cheaper than doing day dive trips where you only dive twice and pay $200/day. Kind of a rip off.

I give them *** 1/2 out of ****.

Get To Know An Australian...by way of New Zealand

So this is Awesome Paul. Formerly known as Cool Paul, I changed his name after he officially certified me. He's from New Zealand and hates it when I jokingly call him Australian. I kept doing it until he only half-jokingly threatened not to certify me unless I paid him $100 Australian Dollars. which is roughly $7 US dollars. He's been a dive instructor for like 15 years which is coincidentally the age of his son. which if my math is correct means he had his son when he was 12. He was a really cool instructor and sits around making fun of people all day. which of course is why we got along. He's thinking of starting his own dive instructing company in New Zealand which is smart since New Zealand is inhabited mostly by sheep. So very low competition. Say hello to Paul.

Unrelatedly, how come no one ever told me how large my head is to the rest of my body? Now I understand why people always say I have such tiny ears. Which apparently is a nice way of saying you have a massive head.

When life hands you lemons

make lemonade. and then throw it back in the face of the person until they give you the oranges you asked for in the first place. Basically what I'm trying to say is that even though my dive trip got cut half a day short, i'm now back on land at a hotel with wireless internet. so every cyclone cloud has a silver lining. Now I can show you some of the pictures from the reef.
Unfortunately the picture of the shark didn't come out well.

toto i dont think we're in Kansas anymore

So it's still raining out in the great barrier. And by raining I mean we just got word that cyclone Ellie was 100km away from us last night. Therefore we are now speeding back towards shore for obvious safety reasons. In case you don't deal in metrics, 100km is extremely close which means it was no more than 2 hours away from the boat. It sucks because we don't get to do any dives today. But plus side is that I didn't have to get up for my 630am dive.

Australia why do you hate me so much right now!?!? What did I ever do to you. Stop raining, I promise I'll be good....sigh

20 meters under the sea

Last night I finished my first night dive ever. I don't know if there are words to describe the experience and any ones that I choose would be hopelessly inadequate. It felt like being in a move or floating in space. Neither of which I've done but imagine that's what it'd be like.

Unfortunately there were no sharks out tonight which I was pretty pissed about but I'm heading to the whitsunday islands in 2 days so I hope to see them there.

I have a little less than
2 weeks left on my trip with so much more today. Should be able to send underwater photos soon.

Mamasaymamasahmamamakusah

So new people have arrived on our boat to stay the night. 38 of them to be exact. No they're not pirates but they frighten me nonetheless. Only 3 of us are staying on from last night. It's like being at summer camp when you stay a week longer then your friends. So when the new kids show up they seem a lot less cool and awesome. Yeah that's what this is like. Except that we're not going to be roasting marshmallows over a fire or practice archery.

thar she blooows!!!

So I've just emerged from the depths of the ocean and am now a fully certified diver. Aaand I have 4 more dives left. I have an underwater camera and should be able to send out photos tomorrow. Don't know how good the photos will be on the night dive tonight but there were plenty of sharks yesterday so should be able to get some good photos of them for you.

Downside is that the weather is terrible. The boat's been rocking violently since last night. The water on the nightstand flew off in the middle of the night and I woke up in a puddle of water. The first thought was that I had wet the bed. Then I remembered that I'm not a 6month old baby. I also came close to falling of the bed. Twice. Luckily the seasickness tablets have helped throughout the day. For now. Snarf snarf.