Diving & 1st Test. Today started out with me acting like an idiot or newbie diver. I forgot I was suppose to dive this morning. I ran back to my apartment to get my gear which meant I missed breakfast. I got on the boat and realized my personal regulator didn’t match up with the BCD provided by the school. I got frustrated and just got off the boat. I went into the office to “bitch” and they said “just grab a school regulator”. Wow, why didn’t I think of that. I grabbed one, got on the boat and realized my backpack with my money and other essentials was missing. I ran all over looking for it and was about to remove my gear from the boat when I realized it was mixed in with my gear. I was embarrassed for holding up the parade.

The boat left the dock when I realized I didn’t have a weight belt. I always use integrated weights so getting a belt was new to me. I found a belt on the boat but then had to ask for weights. One of the newbie divemasters running the dive was a bit nasty and said that I should have gotten them from the rental shop. I was pissed at the time as no one had told me how things are suppose to work. Anyway, I found some extra weights and got a belt ready. I was finally ready to go – looking like a complete idiot in front of the paying customers. Oh well.

I found a dive buddy. The guy was from Peru and was a recent divemaster graduate coming back to take advantage of lifetime free diving. We had a nice easy dive but found nothing special but it was nice to be in the water. I guess we did see a sting ray in the sand that just kept kicking up the sand. On the second dive we swam with a turtle for a long time which is a bit unusual. We also saw a Queen Angel and a French Angel.

I had a quick lunch of Baliadoras (not sure of the spelling or pronunciation). I mentioned them before.

I studied for about 30 minutes before meeting with the course director to go over the 1st 3 chapters of my Divemaster Manual. We watch a slide show and discussed the material and then took a test to my surprise. I got 18 of 20 on one and 19 of 20 on another. Two of the errors were simple reading errors caused by the dim light and small print and on the well worn test booklet.

I ran out to buy a quick case of beer and had it delivered to my apartment for a total of about $11.00. No too bad. I didn’t have any small bills to pay the entire bill so the guy just told me to come back tomorrow to settle up. I doubt that would happen very often. I stopped at the only ATM but it was out of money which I guess is pretty normal. I ran to one of the larger stores and stocked up on some essentials like detergent (as least I hope that’s what it is) and some dish soap and groceries. I’d like to save a few dollars and not eat every single meal out.

I then talked to Gerri again and that was fun as usual. It makes me sad that she sometimes get a little lonely but we both enjoy the phone calls.

Off to dinner and I finally got pizza at Mango restaurant. It was excellent and I brought half back for another meal.

It was too early for bed and I realized I hadn’t done the blog for today. I have to go to the dive shop restaurant called Barracuda to get onto the Internet. I’m having a beer and listening to some local talent singing and playing guitar. Actually kind of fun and a great way to pass the time while writing.

I'm finishing this up one day late so I'll finish up from last night. The Internet was down so I just stayed and had some more beers. Wow, I was out of it. Got home and slept for about 3 hours and then woke up wide awake.