Instructor Development Course

Hello again everyone!

It's been ages since my last post... life here is pretty hectic and i barely have the time to get some sleep, let alone blogging! :-P

These past few weeks have been extra full because of my Instructor Development Course, which finally finished yesterday... now we have a couple days to train for Specialty Courses (Deep Diving, Night Diving, etc) and then finally it will all be over on the 20th with our final exam! I'm not too worried about it; I'm confident Andy (our Course Director) taught us well and everyone will pass without any major problem.

Now i just cant wait to start teaching! :-D

I have another 5 weeks to go here in the Maldives and unfortunately I still haven't found anything certain for later on. I did a couple interviews for  marine biologist positions in two different resorts here but in both cases someone with more experience or with a higher education came along and swept the place away from under my nose :-(  The more i try this the more i get the feeling that I'll have to revisit the idea of a PhD somewhere.

 Alternatively I could just take a break for a while, get a job as an Instructor somewhere and do that while I wait for the right opportunity as a biologist to come along, which seems like the only option for now. Tourism in the Maldives is entering low season now (June to August) and the Dive Shop is pretty much fully staffed at the moment; the manager said we could talk about a possible short term contract after I pass my Instructor Examination but I'm trying not to get my hopes up. Luckily though there's the whole rest of the world to go to and this new qualification has opened a lot more doors for me so the situation is not that bad after all.

For the moment I'll just have take things one at a time as they come.. first let's get the Instructor Examination out of the way... then I'll worry about the job. Who knows, maybe something completely unexpected might turn up.

Maldivian Life

Hello everyone!



I finally have a day off from work and I've been postponing blogging for way too long already...

It's been almost 3 weeks since i got here and I've definitely started to have a routine now... as you can guess, the dive shop is pretty busy every day, lunch breaks are barely enough to get some lunch and take care of a couple things like laundry etc before having to go back to work, and the evenings wither down to a couple hours free time after dinner and a quick workout at the gym. It's a busy life, but really satisfying; I go to bed exhausted but even though i barely get 6-7 hours sleep, i'm always happy to start a new day. Guests who come diving are generally the more easy-going ones, they're almost always very pleasant and make the days fly by without even noticing it.
The resort itself is high end to say the least... expensive and luxurious like advertised on the website but the whole operation behind the scenes, in the staff area, seems like a big happy family... everyone is always happy, sociable and really fun to be with.
The dive shop is nothing like I've ever seen before: big, organized, functional and just a really nice place to work in. All my colleagues are friendly and always happy to help out with anything, which makes a work day turn almost into a day out diving with friends.

There's really not much else to tell, I've been working since day one and i still haven't had the chance to visit the guest-side of the island yet (apart from the dive area of course). On top of that this seems to be a really busy period of the year so the resort isn't really comfortable with staff personnel walking around taking photos as if they were paying guests. I'll have to wait for things to settle down a little bit before i can explore it properly and take some shots. The staff side is obviously less luxurious, or better, not at all. It's still really pleasant to live in, with almost every commodity anyone could ask for: almost 24h buffet cafeteria, bar, gym, staff beach (with kayaks, windsurfs, etc), soccer-volleyball-basketball-badminton fields, laundromat,  internet cafe, island-wide wi-fi, etc. Surely I won't get bored on my time off.

Speaking of which, I think i'll go enjoy some sun at the beach... i need to even out the tan marks i got from my wetsuit. :-P

34kg

So it's my last day in Cambodia. This time around my bags weigh 32kg, and that's scuba equipment included. I'd definitely say my life has become lighter :-P
So much has happened in these past 3 months and i simply cannot sum it up in one post.  Suffice it to say that it's probably been the best time of my life and i couldn't be happier that i came.
I've learned so much, met so many great people and who knows, maybe even found a job!
I'm excited about going back home for Christmas and seeing my friends and family again, but i'm even more excited about whats to come after that. 2014 is going to be an epic year!
But lets take things one  at a time... first of all, flight tonight. Then i'll have to find a way to pay for everything i want to do in the coming months... meh.
I'll definitely blog less when i'm back home, but i'll try to keep you all updated on what i plan to do and where i want to go once i figure it out for myself.
Photo gallery has been updated by the way, you can find all of my photos of Cambodia there. Unfortunately the videos are a bit too big (and numerous) to be uploaded so i'll just have to show them to you in person if you're interested.

See you all real soon!