Scuba and Goals

First off, I've added pictures to Picasa from when my mom visited. Be sure to check them out!

Now onto business. I finished my scuba certification course yesterday! Now I'm a scuba diver for life. The UCT underwater club, of which I'm a member, held an open water dive course so I signed up. Along with nine other students I got certified to dive up to 18m anywhere in the world. How cool is that?? We had two evenings of classroom instruction before getting in the water. Last Saturday I spent the entire day in a freezing outdoor pool on UCT's campus. We got to the club at 6:30AM and took a nice little swim in the pool before learning how to set up our gear. There were a bunch of skills we had to learn how to do before the end of the day, and we spent a few good hours in the pool. Sunday we met a little later in the morning and drove out to Windmill Beach in Simon's Town, about thirty minutes out of Cape Town, and did our first sea dive. It was so different! For one thing, the salt water tasted gross, as always. The visibility was really low, which was unfortunate, but I was so thrilled to actually be scuba diving in the ocean that I didn't really mind. In our first sea dive of the day (we did two that Sunday) we completed a few skills, then had a nice snack. For our second dive we got to swim around a little bit. That was really fun. It was the first time any of us got to stretch our legs and see what diving was really like. For the training dives we all kneel around in a circle and practice our skills, such as removing and replacing our masks underwater, sharing air with our buddy, etc., under heavy supervision so we stay safe. After two days of that, swimming around, even in murky water, was really fun. Once we got out of our gear and warmed up we went to this fish 'n' chips place in Kalk Bay called Kalky's. I'd never had fish 'n' chips before and I thought they were DELICIOUS. Maybe it was just because I was starving, but it hit the spot. We were all packing it in. Once we were done with lunch we took our exams and all of us passed. Yesterday (Tuesday) we didn't have school so we did our last dive. We went to a beach with a shipwreck not too far from shore to do our dives. It was so cold at the bottom! One guy said he was trying to use up all the air in his cylinder so he could get out of the water. Like on Sunday, the second dive was all about fun and we got to swim all around the wreck. It was so cool! There were sea creatures everywhere and little colorful invertebrates stuck all over the remains of the ship. I'm hooked on diving for sure. We went to a restaurant called Dixie's for a congratulatory drink after the dive. I'm so glad I signed up for the class. I wanted to try scuba out, but I had no idea how much I would enjoy it! It's like a completely new world has been opened to me and I'm so excited to start exploring.

Remember before I even left for South Africa I made a list of goals I hoped to fulfill on my trip? At the end I'll do a grand tally but I wanted to do an update to see where I stand. I thought this was a good time considering scuba was such a huge goal and I've just crossed it off.
1. Climb Table Mountain

2. Learn about South African wine

3. Learn to scuba dive
4. Cage Dive
5. Go on safari/go to Kruger

6. Travel to another African country
7. Visit Robben Island
8. Watch a soccer game. This will happen June 11, 2010. Uruguay v. France. Greenpoint Stadium in Cape Town. WORLD CUP!
9. Learn some Xhosa. Meh, not really happening, but I can make many more clicks than before I left!
10. Try traditional South African food

11. Go whale watching. The whale season starts in June.
12. See penguins
13. Go to Kirstenbosch
14. Learn about South African art. I'm in the process of learning about South African art in my sacred art class.

15. Make friends with South Africans
16. Volunteer
17. Drive along the Garden Route

Maybe I should start adding to the list? I haven't got many left on the first one. But I'll save that for another post. Here are some things on the horizon:

Classes end May 12 (HOORAY), leaving me one week before my first exam. The oppotunities for travel in the week are endless. It looks like I'll be spending that week in Namibia traveling to the Fish River Canyon, the Skeleton Coast, and the Namib Desert. After finals, I plan on spending five days in Mozambique, where I'll be able to practice my new scuba skills. Possible trips to Malawi or Madagascar have been floating around, but I do have to pick and choose and Namibia and Mozambique are definitely top of my list. Starting June 11th is the World Cup, and I cannot wait to see what this place will be like.

-Sarah