my first leap

I’ve just had delicious Spagetti Bolognese – part of my low-key package. It doesn’t have last night’s party scene, it’s a bar for the locals as well, that went on til around midnight so if you can’t sleep with the noise of a party downstairs, this is not the place for you. You have many choices along the seafront. Maggie’s is right on the seafront, cross the road and you step onto the beach. Jog or sit there at sunset or sunrise and you may be privy to a spectacular view of colours.

I come back to two more roommates, two guys with an accent I can’t figure out after asking them how long they’re staying for. So my assumption that it’s a girls’ dorm is in fact a mixed dorm. Oh well. Another backpacker etiquette is if you do stay in an all girls dorm, you should really ask permission if you bring a guy back for the night, some people do not appreciate it. I guess it’s like having normal housemates; asking is always good. I’ve stayed in a mixed dorm before in Nice. There’s really no difference except you may feel a little more comfortable changing in the bathroom – though this also avoids you making noise to wake the enemy only applicable whilst at war and in the army. I find I don’t need the torch/clock as the curtains are so thin, enough light comes through so you can see your way around without switching on the light.

I can see why Maggie’s Beach House is not everyone’s cup of tea. Also, you know how places have an aura to them. The Green Tortoise had a good friendly one. Here, people who work here are friendly but there’s this atmosphere among the guests (from different parts of the world) of ‘I’d prefer to keep myself to myself’ so you’re pretty lucky to get a smile back from someone coming the opposite way. Maybe that’s why it’s up for sale. Who knows. If I wasn’t being kept busy here, I wouldn’t stay long. And there are lots to do here. Horse-ride, bike ride, treking, swimming, diving, snorkeling etc. Lots.

I’ve been given a manual and homework to do for tomorrow so I’m off to find a lit area to read the first 3 chapters. I wonder when I’d feel so comfortable with diving that I don’t have that feeling of having an exam coupled with feeling like I’ve just been asked to put my head in a cow’s arse and not breath for 2 hours! I will let you know when I get comfortable I guess.

Oh, I find out 2 hours free internet means just that and not 2 hours a day. Did I not make that clear in my other posting? No, because only now I am clear.

I couldn’t sleep. I kept waking up and checking the time from 4am onwards. And the alarm never got to go off.

I was picked up at 8.45am. I was expecting a bus but there was this truck – a 3 seater – and faded markings that obviously once read ‘Pleasure Divers’. The girl at the wheel is pretty sporty brunette and we glance at each other for a while before I approached and she asked me my name. She tells me to get in. I ask ‘Is it only me?’ and she replies ‘Yes, from here.’

We drive, we chat, we arrive at this shop-like, office-like, den-like place. I complete some forms so that if I die, they’re not responsible. Then I meet another fellow beginner-diver. And of course, like a perfect person, I never asked her name though she’s my life-saving, reliable, sane partner.

We watch some cheesy American videos introducing us to diving. Then Nina (our instructor) comes in and say some more and then tests us. Me and my partner get a couple of answers wrong, the same answer like we copied each other. That either says we think alike which is a good thing or a bad though I don’t know why it would be bad.

Then we do a swimming test – swimming 12 laps up and down the outdoor pool at the back and float for 10 mins. We pass and we happily join my partner’s boyfriend for some hostel kitchen made sandwiches much better than the one single limp weak one in the shop. 

After lunch, we get into the pool with our sting suits, and wet suit on top. We learn how to put the machines together and then we clumsily (me more than my partner) try to put on our flippers in water and try to stay balance at the same time.

I’m lucky that my partner has done some diving before so she sailed through. Me, it was weird. Everyone knows how to breathe through their mouth and their nose and both at different times. If you’re a jogger, you tend to breathe through your mouth – and you know how crap I am at that. Now you’re supposed to just breathe through your mouth! It takes some getting used to. And I kept getting water in my goggles so when we learnt how to blow water out of your goggles while under water, I kept doing that and ended up changing goggles because it felt like it was going in all the time. The Darth Vader sound of you breathing is something you’ve got to get used to. And when it stops, you’ve got to remember to keep on breathing. Holding your breath can kill you. Funnily enough, you get used to the machine and when you’re asked to breath without machine or goggle, it sounds like a crazy feat though when you rationally think about it, you do this mission all the time when swimming with nothing. My flipper fell off at one point. I got so cold I was shaking uncontrollably that I was given another body suit inside. My poor partner shivered away while I got it on. My advice? Take it slowly. Don’t let the instructor rush you or someone else who has done this before rush you. I think they forget the first weird feeling of breathing just through your mouth and remembering to breath and trusting the machine. If you let them rush you, you rush yourself and you can get a little too hyper and breath too quickly – not good. You’ve got to get used to others watching you. I had only 2 people. On some courses, it could be up to a dozen or so. And when people are watching you, you’re tempted to rush and get it over and done with. This is what I do. When it’s my turn I pretend it’s just me there, taking my time doing it at my calm pace and you’ve got to ignore the rest. This is your body and the machine and it’s up to you to synchronise them together. Don’t worry about the others and if you can’t go through it the first time, don’t push it, go to the surface and try again. Apologise if you want, but hey, who gives a shit about other bodies. You have just one responsibility and that is to you and your body – no one else can do that for you. Only you know where you’re body is at and only you can make it happen. And believe or not, you can. Everyone does it at their pace and I’m going to take it at my pace.

So, after, I get back to the hostel. I find someone asleep at 5pm so I do the army creeping action trying to make no noise. And I leave for a jog thinking if people sleep over 24 hours, when do I get to prepare my stuff the normal non-army way. I shrug it off feeling positive I can handle it when I need to. I jog and the cackle stops me – the birds are seagulls! I jog and a beautiful stallion captures my attention – no, not of the male species, but a horse and it comes close to me while I stand quite happy just staring at it, it chomps it’s mouth my way and I try to stroke it but as it swings it’s head to me so I can touch it more, it’s close snowy grey head excites me that I step back with a giggle. I enquire about horse-riding at the Bush and Beach Rides place. I’ve never ridden a horse and the stallion has tempted me.

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