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

Marine Protection Program

Hello everyone,

Small post just to keep you up to date... today David and I took our fish, invertebrates and coral identification tests.. we passed. Tomorrow we'll probably do the practical part of the exam, but I won’t start worrying about it until we’re actually in the water… After that we’ll be finally ready to start surveying the area. Data will be abundant to say the least and I’m really curious as to how it will be sorted… too bad the Project Scientist isn't here so I’ll have to keep all my questions probably until October… In the meanwhile I've come up with a new coding system for all the data which should make it statistically easier to analyse (I think).  Another thing that I’ll have to put on hold for a while…
My Divemaster course also started today… Fia greeted me this morning with a huge box full of manuals and materials to start studying ASAP (and there go my 2 extra kg in my bag). Burned through the first 2 chapters this morning but after lunch I fell asleep like a log in the dive house so I didn't get much more done… I’m slowly taking all my swim tests as well, one per day, which include 15 min static swimming with hands out of the water, 800m snorkel swimming (just fins, no hands), complete scuba equipment exchange underwater, 100m tow of an unconscious diver to shore, etc…
The occasional internet connection that I managed to get on my phone decided to die completely today and I really can’t figure out if it’s a network problem or if there’s something wrong with my phone (which also doesn't charge the battery at times)…
The weather has been kind in the past 3 or 4 days… no rain at all… it’s been sunny but also very windy so at times the waves were just too strong to dive properly (which often also resulted in poor visibility)… but at least I've got a nice tan now :-P