no diving for a month, augh!

I had a great first week of August, and then I was asked to stay at Montra (the luxury resort) full-time for the rest of the month... which means no diving! More on that later. Fun stuff first.

A couple of Thai kids, Kay and John, that had booked with us at the TDEX expo in BKK came to do their open water course and they remembered me and we ended up hanging out lots.  It's hard when I become good friends with visitors and have a blast for a few days and then they leave (me) because their vacation is over. :T  Guess I'll have to get used to it.

I was (luckily) assigned to "dry cover" on the boat during their first open water dives.  Dry cover is needed when we have passengers or snorkelers aboard the boat (we normally only have dive students and instructors) and it's a job most of the dive staff tries to avoid because you generally sit on the boat and watch snorkelers, or you can lead them, but that's not nearly as fun when everybody else gets to dive, haha.  Luckily for me, the 3 snorkelers didn't show up, so I was only responsible for Kay's mom, who is very nice.  I ended up being the unofficial photographer for Sascha's whole open water (OW) group (including Kay and John) above water, and on the second dive I took Kay's mom snorkeling a bit.  Not too boring at all, for doing dry cover at least.

L-R: Adam, me, Kay, June, John (Sascha's OW students) on the boat

stylish rain jacket, no?

The first night, we (Sascha, Kay, John, Kay's mom, me) all had dinner together (it was nice to eat food NOT from the resort's restaurant, for a change) and then it started pouring (monsoon season!) which gave me the opportunity to use the rain jacket the boss sent me -- head to toe camouflage (definitely not what I requested, but I wasn't going to complain because I had no other option) hahahhahaha.

The next day I took the day off to go kayaking and snorkeling with Martina (one of the freelance dive instructors) in Shark Bay.  Didn't see any sharks, but we had a blast taking silly underwater pics.

Martina towing the boat to the other side of the bay

Yes, I know I resemble an oreo. (dark extremities, white middle) ... I'm working on it.

Martina's superman pose looked like she was revving an engine, so I took the liberty of photoshopping a motorcycle in.

It was a much-needed day off.  Martina is, unfortunately, leaving to go home to Denmark next month, and I am very sad.  A few other dive staff are leaving (it's the nature of the job; island life is not permanent) and it sucks.  One of y'all need to visit me, stat, because I'm lonely! :P

That night, I invited Martina to join us (Kay, etc) for dinner, and we had MEXICAN FOOD at "El Gringo" that was not bad at all!  Not enough cheese, and somewhat sweet salsa, but the fajitas I had were still pretty tasty.  Much better than the crap I had in Bangkok.  Very exciting (but a little pricey).

Martina, me, John at El Gringo

We then went to Diza Bar and Lotus Bar that night, and had fun playing sand pictionary, doing cartwheels, and watching the fire dancers.

L-R: John, me, Emilia (another one of Sascha's OW students), Kay, Sascha at Diza Bar

stole Kay's hat for the night

Fisherman's pants are the comfiest things in the world.

long exposure pic, to capture the fire dancer in the background

Very fun.  I was sad when they left the next day.  And then I was double sad to receive the email asking me to work at Montra for the rest of the month, and resume diving/start my DMT (dive master training) next month.  There are many customers at Montra this month, and they want me to sell diving, help with customer service (we're understaffed at Montra, currently) and do a lot of translation and website-text-writing.  I understand that it is part of my job, and it'll be good experience, but I was just getting used to the "biking everyday and diving every few days" lifestyle, and all the staff I've become friends with are at Coral Grand.  Now I am doing a lot of office work at a quiet resort rather than a busy dive resort.  sigh. Versatile. I am versatile, yes. yes. The staff here are plenty nice, and it's only 20 more days.  I'll be fine.

I had a mini breakdown on the 8th because I was skyping Connie's wedding (thanks to Steven and David Barta for helping with that) and I got to see the ceremony (sort of) but then the internet or skype decided to hate me and cut me off tons during the reception.  I would get a few minutes of skype time, and then half an hour or so of pacing around in my room, trying to re-connect and wondering if the people on the other side were trying or had given up.  This happened the whole night (well, morning, for me.  Did I mention I had woken up at 5 am for this?) and it was draining and I SO wanted to be there, or at least virtually there... Conflicting feeling of happiness for Connie and Darren and then anguish and wanting to be there.  The laws of physics should really bend to my will, methinks.  I had gotten my hopes up that I'd get to see the whole reception and chat with people a lot more than I was able to.  I even forgot to take a screenshot, augh!  I hope somebody snapped a quick pic, as evidence of my brief virtual attendance, hah.  I should be grateful that I got to see the ceremony, though, and got to see Connie and Darren during the reception for a few minutes, looking absolutely beautiful and dashing, respectively.  The wedding looked like such fun!

After it ended I sat there almost crying from frustration (OK, maybe actually crying. a little bit.) and friend-sick-ness but then I skyped with Rie, and it made me feel better.  Thanks, Rie! So much love. I'm still working against the homesickness, and being at Montra doesn't help because I'm a lot less busy here than I was at Coral Grand.

Hopefully the next time I update will be cheerier! I will have to take a pic of my bike!

Thanks to Hadley, Trang, Jowene and Rie for being loyal readers and commenters :D