Saturday, February 22, 2014
100
It's been just under a year now since I started diving. I definitely wasn't thrilled at first, but I'm glad I stuck with it and finished my open water certification, because my interest started to raise from there. This morning I completed my 100th dive! Definitely an achievement worth celebrating! To date, I've completed the open water, advanced open water, rescue, and enriched air courses, and am currently working on the deep and wreck courses along with my divemaster certification. All of this on top of being a full time student, club president, and doggy mom! I'm pretty busy as you can imagine, but I wouldn't have it any other way! I am so incredibly lucky and blessed to have all of the wonderful and amazing opportunities and I have made a lot of friends and received a lot of incredible mentorship in the last 11 months! http://www.ecodiveandtrek.com/
Monday, February 10, 2014
Four Months
Posted by a classmate, ironically on the four month mark today.
"I stood by your bed last night, I came to have a peep.
I could see that you were crying, You found it hard to sleep.
I whined to you softly as you brushed away a tear,
"It's me, I haven't left you, I'm well, I'm fine, I'm here."
I was close to you at breakfast, I watched you pour the tea,
You were thinking of the many times, your hands reached down to me.
I was with you at the shops today, Your arms were getting sore.
I longed to take your parcels, I wish I could do more.
I was with you at my grave today, You tend it with such care.
I want to re-assure you, that I'm not lying there.
I walked with you towards the house, as you fumbled for your key.
I gently put my paw on you, I smiled and said " it's me."
You looked so very tired, and sank into a chair.
I tried so hard to let you know, that I was standing there.
It's possible for me, to be so near you everyday.
To say to you with certainty, "I never went away."
You sat there very quietly, then smiled, I think you knew...
In the stillness of that evening, I was very close to you.
The day is over... I smile and watch you yawning
and say "good-night, God bless, I'll see you in the morning."
And when the time is right for you to cross the brief divide,
I'll rush across to greet you and we'll stand, side by side.
I have so many things to show you, there is so much for you to see.
Be patient, live your journey out...then come home to be with me."
Author ~ unknown
"I stood by your bed last night, I came to have a peep.
I could see that you were crying, You found it hard to sleep.
I whined to you softly as you brushed away a tear,
"It's me, I haven't left you, I'm well, I'm fine, I'm here."
I was close to you at breakfast, I watched you pour the tea,
You were thinking of the many times, your hands reached down to me.
I was with you at the shops today, Your arms were getting sore.
I longed to take your parcels, I wish I could do more.
I was with you at my grave today, You tend it with such care.
I want to re-assure you, that I'm not lying there.
I walked with you towards the house, as you fumbled for your key.
I gently put my paw on you, I smiled and said " it's me."
You looked so very tired, and sank into a chair.
I tried so hard to let you know, that I was standing there.
It's possible for me, to be so near you everyday.
To say to you with certainty, "I never went away."
You sat there very quietly, then smiled, I think you knew...
In the stillness of that evening, I was very close to you.
The day is over... I smile and watch you yawning
and say "good-night, God bless, I'll see you in the morning."
And when the time is right for you to cross the brief divide,
I'll rush across to greet you and we'll stand, side by side.
I have so many things to show you, there is so much for you to see.
Be patient, live your journey out...then come home to be with me."
Author ~ unknown
Sunday, February 9, 2014
Beginning My Divemaster Certification
Back last semester, one of my diving med school friends and I made a pact to work on and complete our divemaster certifications together. We both love to dive, and we both want to take diving to the next level. She is much more of an extrovert than I am so personality-wise it took me a little bit longer to come to this conclusion, but I am excited never the less!
We picked up our crewpacks last week and I am already through 4 of the 9 chapters in the course book. I still have another 150 pages left to read and A LOT of work ahead of me, but I am making a good start! It's still a bit of a foreign concept to me, but I am trying my best to imitate all of the divemaster "behaviors" that my many mentors have. Perhaps one of these days I won't look quite so clumsy (both symbolically and literally - I seem to be getting clumsier each time I get on that boat rather than the other way around...).
I won't give away any of the juicy details of the course just yet since I haven't really started, but I think you will be highly amused to learn that one of the skills that has to become second nature happens to be the mask clear/removal skill and doing a 400m swim without anything. Yeah...not so sure how that's going to work out. This time around I don't really have a choice, but I failed pretty miserably at working on getting over this phobia back in April and then again in September. Hmm. Step one happens to be remembering to breathe when I touch my mask/starting thinking about putting water on my face. Why can't I just live happily ever after with a nice plate of glass between my eyes and the water?? I don't think my instructor/mentor really realizes how truly deep seeded this fear is. I have chills and an increased respiratory rate just sitting here thinking about it! Oy!
We picked up our crewpacks last week and I am already through 4 of the 9 chapters in the course book. I still have another 150 pages left to read and A LOT of work ahead of me, but I am making a good start! It's still a bit of a foreign concept to me, but I am trying my best to imitate all of the divemaster "behaviors" that my many mentors have. Perhaps one of these days I won't look quite so clumsy (both symbolically and literally - I seem to be getting clumsier each time I get on that boat rather than the other way around...).
I won't give away any of the juicy details of the course just yet since I haven't really started, but I think you will be highly amused to learn that one of the skills that has to become second nature happens to be the mask clear/removal skill and doing a 400m swim without anything. Yeah...not so sure how that's going to work out. This time around I don't really have a choice, but I failed pretty miserably at working on getting over this phobia back in April and then again in September. Hmm. Step one happens to be remembering to breathe when I touch my mask/starting thinking about putting water on my face. Why can't I just live happily ever after with a nice plate of glass between my eyes and the water?? I don't think my instructor/mentor really realizes how truly deep seeded this fear is. I have chills and an increased respiratory rate just sitting here thinking about it! Oy!
Seahorses!!!
I may or may not have ever mentioned my slight obsession with seahorses before. It's been a goal of mine to see one while diving here for quite a long time now. They are on the rarer side when it comes to critters, but they're not so rare that they are hardly ever seen here. My problem is that I'm usually just not on the boat. Darn school getting in the way of my seahorses!
This January, just days after I had returned to the island, I had the pleasure of not only seeing my first seahorse, but finding him myself!!! There was lots of squealing and dancing going on underwater. I was very excited - and I also got to put my new rattle to good use to call back the rest of the group because you had better believe I wasn't leaving my new friend behind! I was meandering along contemplating how it was possible that I could be cold in the Caribbean in a 7mm wetsuit, when BAM!! My eyes alerted me to something of interest. It took me a good minute to confirm and believe what I was seeing, because I was definitely in a bit of shock! Next up was picture taking - had to have photographic proof of my finding! As it turns out, a seahorse has never been spotted in that location! I was so very pleased with my find, they are just beautiful and amazing creatures!
There also happens to be a pair of seahorses at one of the local wrecks currently. The male is massively pregnant, and they have been seen hanging out together and apart on the corals next to the wreck. I have seen them twice at night and five times during the day. It never gets old, it never gets less special! I could sit there and bask in their presence forever. I've sort of taken to doing that more or less when we end up at that site. Much to our amusement, we are apparently the only dive shop that knows their actual location so they've had customers from other shops come by and do a dive just to go see them! I am pleased to know my little friends are helping out my bigger friends!
I am going to be a very sad individual the day that I go back and they are gone because they have moved on, but until then, I shall take every dive I can get to go and visit them! They are so graceful and gentle in all their movements. They hold onto the corals with their tails and sway with the current or duck their heads to hide out of the way. Who wouldn't love such an amazing animal?! Yes, I am well aware that 8 seahorse visits in 3 weeks/<30 dives probably qualifies me as majorly obsessed, but hey, it certainly could be worse, right?
This January, just days after I had returned to the island, I had the pleasure of not only seeing my first seahorse, but finding him myself!!! There was lots of squealing and dancing going on underwater. I was very excited - and I also got to put my new rattle to good use to call back the rest of the group because you had better believe I wasn't leaving my new friend behind! I was meandering along contemplating how it was possible that I could be cold in the Caribbean in a 7mm wetsuit, when BAM!! My eyes alerted me to something of interest. It took me a good minute to confirm and believe what I was seeing, because I was definitely in a bit of shock! Next up was picture taking - had to have photographic proof of my finding! As it turns out, a seahorse has never been spotted in that location! I was so very pleased with my find, they are just beautiful and amazing creatures!
There also happens to be a pair of seahorses at one of the local wrecks currently. The male is massively pregnant, and they have been seen hanging out together and apart on the corals next to the wreck. I have seen them twice at night and five times during the day. It never gets old, it never gets less special! I could sit there and bask in their presence forever. I've sort of taken to doing that more or less when we end up at that site. Much to our amusement, we are apparently the only dive shop that knows their actual location so they've had customers from other shops come by and do a dive just to go see them! I am pleased to know my little friends are helping out my bigger friends!
I am going to be a very sad individual the day that I go back and they are gone because they have moved on, but until then, I shall take every dive I can get to go and visit them! They are so graceful and gentle in all their movements. They hold onto the corals with their tails and sway with the current or duck their heads to hide out of the way. Who wouldn't love such an amazing animal?! Yes, I am well aware that 8 seahorse visits in 3 weeks/<30 dives probably qualifies me as majorly obsessed, but hey, it certainly could be worse, right?
Back to School...Three Weeks Ago!
Eeek! It has been such a long time since I posted! Oopsies! Time is absolutely flying by these days at school. It's wonderful and awful all at the same time. On one hand, I'm tired of school and studying and all that jazz, but yet I am going to really miss this gorgeous country and all the SCUBA diving here! I simply don't know what I'm going to do with myself come May!
I came back nearly a week early to enjoy Grenada and ended up spending it all either diving or taking care of new student commitments for SVECCS and VCA. Not a bad way to spend your winter break! The spring temperatures and humidity levels are amazing. It is just gorgeous outside (unless it's rained in the last five minutes, and then the humidity is absurdly oppressive). At night it's almost chilly out with the sun gone and the gentle breeze blowing, I love it! Sampson is adjusting well to the climate too. He get's hot if he goes out to run, but other than that he's enjoying his days as a Caribbean dog. He enjoys going for walks on the beach but he HATES the water. He is completely terrified of it. It's pretty funny!
School is back in full swing and often busier than ever! My life is currently full of morning classes, afternoon rotations, and evening meetings. We only have 4 "real" classes this term, but unfortunately the scheduling people weren't feeling terribly kind when they made it so we have a lot of 2-3 hour blocks of the same class. Shoot me. We're also stuck in this awful, tiny little classroom due to some administrative disagreements and errors. I could go on and on forever about how I feel about this, but I will spare you. Just know that I don't think it's a coincidence that I had a migraine on Friday for the first time in over a year since I moved from a poorly managed climate to a more regular and clean environment (my dorm was full of mold due to AC issues whereas my apartment is not - they used to keep our old classroom at -10F at all times so no mold grew in that whereas this new classroom has a long history of being poorly controlled climate and insect-wise).
We are about to start week three of our clinical rotations. I started with ER medicine during week 2 and moved into clinical pathology last week. Next up is pathology, which happens to probably be my least favorite subject in veterinary school. Right behind large animal surgery and theriogenology of course. Some rotations are more time demanding than others. Right now we have a lot of little assignments, quizzes, and presentations to do for these classes. Not very exciting if you ask me. My two ER shifts were pretty busy but nothing we couldn't manage. Clinical pathology was a nice change of pace last week and I enjoy dealing with blood work and clinical samples. I have no enthusiasm for being in the necropsy suite coming up. Ew. The other clinical rotations I have yet to complete include ambulatory medicine (where we go out to various Grenada farms and provide preventative health care to people's farm animals), small animal medicine, and small animal surgery and anesthesia. These three will all be on the more time consuming side of life as they all have a reputation for going late in the afternoon and carry fun presentation assignments.
I have of course been doing lots of diving so far this term. So far I've logged more than 20 dives since arriving back (I'm almost at 100 dives total!) and have been diligently working on a wreck specialty class and a deep specialty class. I also very recently started my divemaster certification, but more on that later. The diving weather has been lovely and I have enjoyed seeing some new critters this year! Very, very exciting! Of course as always still diving with my dear friends at Eco Dive and Trek (http://www.ecodiveandtrek.com/).
I promise to get back into blogging more regularly - I just needed to start back up again!
I came back nearly a week early to enjoy Grenada and ended up spending it all either diving or taking care of new student commitments for SVECCS and VCA. Not a bad way to spend your winter break! The spring temperatures and humidity levels are amazing. It is just gorgeous outside (unless it's rained in the last five minutes, and then the humidity is absurdly oppressive). At night it's almost chilly out with the sun gone and the gentle breeze blowing, I love it! Sampson is adjusting well to the climate too. He get's hot if he goes out to run, but other than that he's enjoying his days as a Caribbean dog. He enjoys going for walks on the beach but he HATES the water. He is completely terrified of it. It's pretty funny!
School is back in full swing and often busier than ever! My life is currently full of morning classes, afternoon rotations, and evening meetings. We only have 4 "real" classes this term, but unfortunately the scheduling people weren't feeling terribly kind when they made it so we have a lot of 2-3 hour blocks of the same class. Shoot me. We're also stuck in this awful, tiny little classroom due to some administrative disagreements and errors. I could go on and on forever about how I feel about this, but I will spare you. Just know that I don't think it's a coincidence that I had a migraine on Friday for the first time in over a year since I moved from a poorly managed climate to a more regular and clean environment (my dorm was full of mold due to AC issues whereas my apartment is not - they used to keep our old classroom at -10F at all times so no mold grew in that whereas this new classroom has a long history of being poorly controlled climate and insect-wise).
We are about to start week three of our clinical rotations. I started with ER medicine during week 2 and moved into clinical pathology last week. Next up is pathology, which happens to probably be my least favorite subject in veterinary school. Right behind large animal surgery and theriogenology of course. Some rotations are more time demanding than others. Right now we have a lot of little assignments, quizzes, and presentations to do for these classes. Not very exciting if you ask me. My two ER shifts were pretty busy but nothing we couldn't manage. Clinical pathology was a nice change of pace last week and I enjoy dealing with blood work and clinical samples. I have no enthusiasm for being in the necropsy suite coming up. Ew. The other clinical rotations I have yet to complete include ambulatory medicine (where we go out to various Grenada farms and provide preventative health care to people's farm animals), small animal medicine, and small animal surgery and anesthesia. These three will all be on the more time consuming side of life as they all have a reputation for going late in the afternoon and carry fun presentation assignments.
I have of course been doing lots of diving so far this term. So far I've logged more than 20 dives since arriving back (I'm almost at 100 dives total!) and have been diligently working on a wreck specialty class and a deep specialty class. I also very recently started my divemaster certification, but more on that later. The diving weather has been lovely and I have enjoyed seeing some new critters this year! Very, very exciting! Of course as always still diving with my dear friends at Eco Dive and Trek (http://www.ecodiveandtrek.com/).
I promise to get back into blogging more regularly - I just needed to start back up again!
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