careful there is a shark behind you!

SHARK!!!!!

Here we go. The beginning part of training was a power point and paperwork so needless to say it was pretty dry, but the instructor was funny so it made it more bareable. Let’s get to the water. Well I was part of group two, so we hit the water second but was able to watch group one. This was fun in itself, in the water you are treated like a celebrity, everyone waving and taking pictures of you in amazement that you are in the tank with sharks. Down there everyone thinks you’re an expert scuba diver, not first timers. It was fun to be on both sides of the glass.  Watching sharks swim right above them as if they were not there.

 Then came our turn. We get in the wet suit that everyone looks funny in, and that mask and the tank that is really heavy. O did I mention the weight belt that weighs about a quarter of your body weight. But in the water you can’t feel any of it. After a few training moves like breathing underwater, what to do if there is water in your mask, and what to do if the mouth piece thing comes out underwater; we start to head down into the real thing. I am the first! Backing down atop the tunnel with spectators underneath. Every few steps you must pop your ears because the pressure is so immense. When you reach the bottom your senses go into overloaded. I didn’t know what to look at first. To the left were mini dolphins, on the ground were shark teeth if I could find them and all around me were fish. When everyone got down we spent little time looking at the porpoise (mini dolphin). Then a few minutes looking for shark teeth, I was only able to find one. The hunt was very difficult with the rocks at the bottom being white. Then we went into the deepest part of the tank which is about 3 feet deeper than the rest, and is used to hand feed the sharks. But it is the closest to the glass where all the spectators are watching from. When we were under there we were not afraid at all of the six sharks swimming around. At times the sharks were within probably an arm’s reach. The day earlier I was thinking to myself that I was crazy. I will be swimming with sharks; do I have a death wish? And while I was in there it was more like a petting zoo. Except in this zoo if you pet the animals the dive would be ended because the instructor would kick not only you but every other diver out. One of the best parts was all the smiles that you put on the spectators faces. Not only the kids but the parents, everyone was taking photos, kids were pressing their hand against the glass and we would respond by putting our hand in theirs. We were complete strangers but in the moment we were like older siblings. The half hour under the water felt like ten minutes. As we exited and reached the pool that was knee depth they released the massive sea turtles and we were able pet those. What a great adventure.

 We had a great dinner of fresh seafood dinner. That is what happens when you are in a city on the Oceanside. After dinner we put 9 people in a Korean friend’s car. He drove us up a mountain in the center of the city. On the way there were short glimpses of the view, but they were just teasers for the real thing. Which, after we parked it was about a 10 minute walk up the rest of the mountain. When we reached the top, the view was priceless, seeing the city lights from that high is majestic. And with that group of people it was full of laughs. Some of which were at my disposal. Bridget and Bonggi went over onto the grass and onto a plywood board and were looking at the city. I went to run and scare them, but as I hit the wood I fell flat on my butt wiping them out like a little kid standing at the bottom of sledding hill. Everyone was ok. The way down the hill was very fun and somewhat dangerous. It was very icy my friend Hannie had ugg like boots with very bad traction so she was falling everywhere. Me and Bonggi ,the Korean friend, each grabbed an arm. At that point she just stopped walking and was just sliding down. So we started to run and as if she was wearing skis going down a mt. she just cruised down the path. We ended up stopping after a few minutes because if any of us had fallen it would have been very ugly. Instead it was just epic.

The rest of the weekend was filled with great eats, laughs, and great times. I met some great people and got to know the normal crew even better. It’s going to be sad as they start to leave in just a couple weeks. Luckily most of them are going back to Eastern. But for now I wait for the next weekend’s adventure. Who knows what in store? All I know is that I will be in Seoul.