I'm in what country? Doing what now? Without unlimited broadband internet access?!
Some things that happened this week:
- Dropped my external hard drive with all my GoPro footage and TV shows. ($90, sentimental value, and hundreds of hours of entertainment)
- Scuba mask fell off my gear and shattered on the concrete ($85). It's a bit leaky now.
- Dive computer was not sealed correctly and flooded on my second dive. Dead. ($270)
- Failed some tests.
- The sun came back out.
- Fell asleep in the sun.
- Lost trivia night
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| Just a tad leaky |
- Went scuba diving - which, to be fair, we do every day but it's still awesome every time.
- Split a coconut with a machete and drank its goodness.
- Passed some tests
- Won quote of the day
- 16 of us, plus 10 villagers pushed a big ass boat onto the beach
- Saw a Sea Turtle
- Went for a night snorkel. Super cool.
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| Boat Push. Great for the calves. |
Jokes and tragedies aside, it's still amazing here and I'm starting to figure out the routine.
Here's a general overview of what my weekly life looks like here on base.
Monday-Friday:
Early morning:
Team America - myself and our other American - go for a run/workout with our British ally, in which we conquer our fitness like champions. 5k runs, hill repeats, circuit workouts - all are conquered.
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| Our Gym |
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| Our Olympic Barbell |
Breakfast:
Breakfast is at 7am which also serves as our wake-up call. Breakfast usually consists of hard boiled eggs, toast, plain oatmeal made with water, and a banana.
Ways to spice up watery oatmeal:
- Avoid it and eat cereal instead
- Add maple syrup
- Dump in loads of sugar
- Add bananas
- Add mangos
- Try not to think about doing the exact same thing tomorrow morning.
Milk is a rare commodity around here, and can only be bought on an individual basis on special occasions. Cereal is a treat, even plain corn flakes.
AM:
After breakfast we clean up, get our chores done, and ready our dive equipment for the day. First dive is usually at 9-10am, and ranges anywhere from 30 mins to an hour.
If we aren't diving, it likely means we are in the classroom learning to identify fish/coral. Monday we started our first written test of 50 questions on substrates and hard corals, and a score of 90% was needed to pass. I failed with an 86%, an 88%, then passed with a 95%. You see, my brain is used to operating on sweet American air with extra Freedom in it, and it just hadn't adapted to the less democratic Filipino air yet.
Lunch:
Lunch is typically served at 12 noon and we eat it. Fried chicken and rice is a good bet, with some steamed vegetables.
PM:
See AM, add a few hours, and you've got it.
Only major difference: Beer fridge opens at 5pm.
Dinner:
Dinner is served at 1800 hou- ... No, no. 6pm. America.
Fish, mussels, fried chicken, pork, chow mein, veggie option, etc. It's a bit random each time, but always a good showing. Quite good.
After dinner announcements are made, we nominate and vote for the fish sighting of the day, Dick of the Day, and Quote of the Day.
Dick of the Day is exatly what it sounds like.
Evening:
This is usually free time. Here are common evening activities:
- Arguing with the British about how to properly pronounce/spell the same word in English because... well because America.
- Playing with puppies. We got a new puppy named Coral, and she's roughly 4 weeks old. She's an adorable little trouble maker, and holds her own wrestling against our other dog, Shrimp.
- Shrimp is about 15 pounds, and we don't know his breed. He is spoiled rotten, as he has 16 different people to entertain and feed him their dinner scraps.
- Coral is similarly spoiled, with 16 people fawning over her disgustingly cute puppy antics. See the video below.
- Studying marine biology stuff.
- Reading.
- Sleep.
Saturday:
Saturday is like the weekdays, except for the evenings. Since we don't dive on Sunday, Saturday night is our night to get twattered (cool British word for shitfaced).
First we play an intensely competitive trivia game that often ends with hurt feelings and a few insults.
Then we walk to a karaoke bar which consists of a hut, benches, karaoke machine, and a pool table. And bottles of rum for said twattering.
It's a great time for everyone to unwind and let loose a little bit, and inevitably sing along to a Red Hot Chili Peppers song or two. Good stuff.
Sunday:
Sunday is just like any other Sunday I'd spend in the US - hungover. Since we don't dive on Sundays, our Saturday nights often drag into Sunday mornings.
Wake up, scrounge up some food, somehow end up back in bed, rinse and repeat.
I tell myself I will get my personal chores done on Sunday - laundry, personal hygiene, eating, you know the drill - but somehow most of my task list gets replaced by
Monty Python and the Holy Grail, napping, and writing blogs about how I don't do my chores.
My neck beard is getting out of control. I swore I'd trim it but I don't have a mirror and...yeah, see above.
Sundays are quite nice because we don't have any planned work/activities, so we get the day to ourselves.
Go for a snorkel, take a trip into town, catch up on some reading, etc, do as you please. It provides a nice break for everyone to decompress and detox, quite literally.
When you dive multiple days in a row, you need a day to let the nitrogen levels in your blood drop back down so you don't reach unhealthy levels and essentially poison yourself. Yep, I'm basically living a life of danger and adventure.
We are left to our own devices for food on Sundays, which can actually be quite cool. Groups of volunteers often band together, pull out their secret stash of goodies, and make some pretty great food. (As I write this, one of our leaders has sat down next to me with mashed potatoes, veggies, and chicken made with a red wine sauce. My choice of corn flakes is starting to look a bit weak).
Sunday night is movie night, where we bring out some cushions and project a movie on the wall. This week's choice was Wreck it Ralph.
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| Movie Night |
Lessons Learned:
- Marine Biology is incredibly interesting.
- Marine Biology is not easy to jump into with a Business degree.
- Marine Biology is difficult.
- Marine Biology will probably not be my career.
- Hard Drives are not frisbees.
- Pepsi is better than Coke.
- Bottled Pepsi is better than bottled Coke.
- Foreigners pay more attention to American politics than we do. Kinda embarrassing.
Anyone with specific questions, suggestions for making watery oatmeal better, or anything in between, feel free to leave a comment or leave me a message on Facebook.
Cheers mates.
Hogs Wild
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