"actually, the answer is you die"

remember the french couple that alex and i got to talk to? ahem, i guess more like i attempted to talk to, at dinner the other night?

well alex and i had just finished our dinner at morava, one of the nicer bars in sairee beach. we went to chabba for our before-bed drink when we ran into the french couple. we sat with them, learning a bit about them and their travels. the man showed us many pictures of his diving with his underwater camera... shark videos and beautiful pictures of the blue spotted stingray.

this is partially what finally convinced me. i wanted to dive right then and there.

they bought us another round of wine and we discussed our world travels. they invited us to dinner with them and though we weren't hungry at all, we thought we'd go for some drinks to return the favor. we arrived at a beautiful restaurant on the beach much farther down than we had been before. in a mock canoe filled with ice, they had fresh fish of all sorts, including lobster, tiger prawns and crab. the couple picked prawn for their dinner, and though alex and i were still full, we each got crab.

ah why not.

we got a bottle of wine for the four of us and ate by candlelit dinner (what else?), talking about everything. they were so fascinated by us, by the lack of arrogance when they were expecting much more, and mostly, the reason why they haven't seen more americans.

let me put it this way: gone for a month, they were both on vacation from work. vacation in france starts at about 5 weeks a year.

hence why americans dont travel.

..

as we finished dinner tonight, alex and i saw a basket of candies next to the doorway. of course, i reached for them as an after-dinner palette cleanser / i just love sweets. as i did, the receptionist pointed to the brown ones and said "coffee! coffee!!" well, her excitement spread to me, and had i thought about it a bit more thoroughly, i probably would have realized that coffee-flavored hard candy probably wasn't a good idea. i grabbed it anyway, and expecting it to be chewy, i bit down. it crumbled to pieces.

and the flavor was awful.

a-yex... ahh-yex, get it outt of my mouph.

..

so i've started my certification. the first few hours were spent watching endless movies on the theory of diving. i've already explained a good bit to you, but my instructor, ayelet, is much more thorough. at the end of each chapter, we do a knowledge review before taking the end-of-chapter quiz. still, with as many questions as she asks, each answer i give seems to be the same.

"nowww, we could do the cesa ascent in this situation, but why would we want to try to do the normal ascent anyway?"

"because if you don't, you die."

"actually, rachel, this one is very safe..."

"no. you die. that's always the answer ayelet. you die. otherwise i'll forget and do it wrong, then i'll die."

"rachel, you're not going to die."

"ok. ill breathe. but if i do it wrong, i'll die."

"rachel, you don't always die in diving, there are many ways to prevent and fix..."

"you die."

"okay. you die."

ayelet lets me think what i want. it's probably safer this way anyway.

..

and i'm off to bed for the night. i've got an early morning, diving at chumpon and hopefully seeing sharks. :)






Y rae. racho. d.