Justin Bieber is everywhere

After a good breakfast at the hotel we were ready to set off to Malapascua island. A couple picked us up from the hotel and escorted us across the island of Cebu, it was a 3 hour car ride to the dock on the north east side of the island. Luckily this couple was very nice and had lots to say which made the trip go fast. We learned lots of interesting information from and about them. Turns out they are moving to Vancouver Canada in a couple months (that will be a bit of a climate change). He is going to be a physical therapist for dogs, I am not sure what she is going to do but she was telling us how she used to work as a baby nurse for wealthy families in NY. She would live in their house in the baby's room for up to 16 weeks, until the baby was sleep trained (I immediately asked her how she felt about Hawaii). Her sister also has a vey interesting job, she works at a school in the Philippines that is for Korean children to learn english. The parents send their children, ranging in age from kindergarten to high school, to the Philippines for a 6 month course. It sounds like there are a few Korean teachers that will come along with the real young children otherwise it is 2 Filipino teachers to about 50 students. The teachers it seems are in charge of the students 24/7 (Jeff asked if they had these schools in other countries/languages, already planning a 6 month break from children we don't have yet). We talked about many other intersting subjects to make travel time pass quickly.

Finally we reached the boat that would take us on the 30 minute trip to Malapascua. I was not aware my balance would be tested as I "walked the plank" (a narrow board about 7 feet long) from shore onto the boat while holding my heavy bag over one shoulder. Maybe this is why they go bare foot, sandals definitely did not help my balance but luckily the crew lended me a hand to help across. As we were waiting in the boat for supplies to be loaded there were some local children jumping in the water and hanging on the boat. It seemed they were trying to get as close to us as they could, then started speaking english but the only words that came out were "give me money", "just one peso" and "Justin Bieber". When the boat shoved off it became very apparent this was not a usual boat. It consisted of a long skinny boat with giant bamboo outriggers on each side, most of the beams and some of the walking areas were constructed of bamboo as well. The bamboo was tied together with nylon rope then the outriggers were tensioned with wire. Jeff found it very interesting that when it was time to start the engine they had 3 guys grab ahold of a rope with several knots tied in it and on 3 they gave it a giant YANK to pull start the inboard diesel engine. After the engine was running they controlled speed by pulling on another rope hooked to the throttle. The person in charge of steering the boat sat towards the back and controlled the ruder via another long piece of bamboo. Not exactly the modern mechanics that Jeff is accustomed to. Regardless, it was a smooth and pleasant boat ride on a calm ocean of very blue water.

We arrived on the beach in front of the dive shop and after a short introduction of the operations manager it seemed as though they were not quite sure what to do with us. For us this is quite usual when we travel out of the country even with many attempts to confirm our reservations prior to arrival. After a brief discussion, we were led to our room followed by three workers carrying our luggage. I do not know how they determined who got the short straw but one of them had to carry our big, heavy bag versus the smaller carry-on sizes. They may bave been speaking Filipino but it was obvious they were talking about how heavy the bag was. Through the varying zig zag dirt paths we reached our building. We were greeted in our room by 2 friendly lizards both of which still had their tails. The room can be explained as simple, there is a bed, two bambo end tables, one hand woven attempt at a dresser, two lights and one fan mounted on the wall. Around the corner from our room is a locked door that leads into the common area. This consists of a small couch, 2 chairs, TV, stereo, and an unused kitchenette with spices (I already know where the pepper is) and little else. There are 3 bathrooms around the building that were all missing the same thing... toliet paper. We had about 3 hours before our welcome dinner to get acquinted with the area and seek out toliet paper. There are several small shops around the village that sell around 20 items, some stores are a little bigger. Therefore it was not hard to find toliet paper, cookies, and water. A few Ipad games later and off to the restaurant we went.

As we waited in the bar area before dinner we met a couple of fellow divemaster interns. Rick was one of the first people who really started talking with us along with Peter who was a little less chatty. It was very interesting to learn some insight on the dive master program from both of them. Peter has almost completed the dive master internship and although Rick is just starting his dive master training, he compeleted all of the book work prior to arriving and was quite knowledgeable about the process. Rick is also a kite surfing instructor, coincidence, I think not. We learned a little more about kite surfing this evening and hope to continue to learn more as the month goes on. I also found it quite unique that while Rick was here, his wife is in California learning to be a yoga instructor. Her program sounds very intense, just staying in the hot room (42 degrees C and 50% humidity) alone would be a struggle let alone trying to keep balance in the ridiculous poses. Besides this, there is also hours of meditation, reading, and watching India movies until 2:30 in the morning. Yet little time to sleep since they have to be back in the heat room by 6 AM for more yoga. Rick along with the others agreed he picked the better internship.

Then it was time to move into the dinning area and order our meals. Jeff and I had not eaten since breakfast at 9AM and were not shy at all to be the first to order and receive our food. The welcome meal is complimentary and consists of 3 courses, I chose the fish cakes, fajitas, and bruschetta. All eyes were on us as we devoured the fish cakes. The bruschetta came last and was suggested by the other divers as they probably knew by the third course I would be full. I ate one and then offered the rest up to the group, who did not hessitate at the gesture. All the members of the table were given a dice which can be traded for a free drink. During dinner we met several of the staff dive instructors, along with other interns from varying levels of dive experience and certifications. These introductions were not in the formal sense as one might expect during a "welcome" dinner. It was more like everyone showed up knowing they would get a least one free drink and if they happened to sit close enough to us then they introduced themselves and moved on. This wasn't the case with everyone but it definitely was not as welcoming as one would assume. When we get to know some of these people better we will be sure to "formulate" proper names and update accordingly. Most of group are from Europe and we were definitely a minority. The only other person from the US that we have met was actually born in the Philippines but grew up in New York. After a couple beers and many stories later it was time for us to take off to bed.

After dinner we still did not know much about what the month would entail but were told to meet for orientation the following day at 0930. We will see what tomorrow brings.