Apologies first for not keeping up with this blog very well. I feel as though this is the first weekend I have had to sit down and wrap my head around the events in my life. These past couple of weeks have been filled with school work, grad school work, volleyball tournaments, and scuba certification classes. While I am thrilled I have accomplished so much in such a short time, I need a break! ASAP!
School here is moving along as usual. In celebration of Halloween (and we are probably one of the only schools in Taiwan who celebrate it because we are an American school) the Student Council sponsored a scary movie night. I never thought I would be in charge of/chaperone a night where over 100 teenagers get together at school, turn all the lights off and watch The Ring and Paranormal Activity, but I did. The whole time I was thinking "This would never fly in the states," and "I hope I don't scream out loud!" :) Other than that event, school has been just like school everywhere else...too much work and not enough time to complete it all.
Last weekend I took my Volleyball girls to our tournament at another American school just on the outskirts of Kaohsiung. I am proud to say my 6th graders got a solid 4th place out of 4 teams. They are amazing, I know...they were more worried with having time to play on the playground than hitting the ball. Just imagine orange cones with arms...that would be 75% of my team. Oh well...my competitive spirit had to be suppressed. Softball is coming up next, these girls, from what I have been told are natural athletes, which will be a welcome change.
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| Keith and Zach at the dive center |
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| The Hostel |
Now on to the good stuff. Over the past 3 weekends I have been going down to Kenting getting my scuba certification. I am now officially open water certified! I can go diving anywhere in the world, but as my mother told me, "Don't go diving in Australia right now, they are having problems with sharks." It took 3 LONG days to accomplish this. I completed the course with Zach and Keith, no one else wanted to come along, I don't understand why this was the coolest thing I have done so far in my life. We started the first day diving in the pool at the center. There we just got comfortable with the equipment, skills, strategies and survival techniques incase something were to go wrong.
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| The Scuba site |
We spent the night in a hostel at the dive center, which was my first hostel experience. Different yet, tons of fun. The next day we took our first dive in the ocean. It was amazing. There is a whole new world (thanks Little Mermaid) down there. The reefs and fish were mind blowing. I knew this is something I wanted to do for the rest of my life. After cleaning the equipment, we headed back to Kaohsiung on a diving high ready to get our last dives in the next weekend. The last dives went flawlessly, our instructor even told us we were his best students! Now I have my PADI card and can go diving wherever I want (except Australia because mom says so) . While it was a lot of work, it was such a great accomplishment.
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| All the equipment |
Now I am about to put on my swim suit and my flippy floppies and head to the beach. It is a beautiful, sunny day that can simply not be wasted.
Now on to the good stuff. Over the past 3 weekends I have been going down to Kenting getting my scuba certification. I am now officially open water certified! I can go diving anywhere in the world, but as my mother told me, "Don't go diving in Australia right now, they are having problems with sharks." It took 3 LONG days to accomplish this. I completed the course with Zach and Keith, no one else wanted to come along, I don't understand why this was the coolest thing I have done so far in my life. We started the first day diving in the pool at the center. There we just got comfortable with the equipment, skills, strategies and survival techniques incase something were to go wrong. 
We spent the night in a hostel at the dive center, which was my first hostel experience. Different yet, tons of fun. The next day we took our first dive in the ocean. It was amazing. There is a whole new world (thanks Little Mermaid) down there. The reefs and fish were mind blowing. I knew this is something I wanted to do for the rest of my life. After cleaning the equipment, we headed back to Kaohsiung on a diving high ready to get our last dives in the next weekend. The last dives went flawlessly, our instructor even told us we were his best students! Now I have my PADI card and can go diving wherever I want (except Australia because mom says so) . While it was a lot of work, it was such a great accomplishment. 
LOVE it, and love you. how fun!!
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