Happiness is Sabang

Ok, no bad news for this post! I'm here, safe and settled, and even have my luggage now. The porter brought it right to my hotel room on Wednesday, and I got to go diving that afternoon. It's been about 90F-105F everyday, so the water feels sooo nice. My little room is right on the pool, and the ocean is just another 30 feet away. I've been waking up at 6 every morning and walking down the road to buy fresh bread and juice. I'm finding the people here to be very kind and friendly, especially first thing in the morning; full of smiles and "good morning Allison" ...How they all learned my name is beyond me.

I'm certainly already feeling more like a local than a tourist. I meet my instructor, Pete, by the pool around 8. From that point on its been different everyday. Some mornings I have a lecture, sometimes we go diving. I just finished with my first open water scuba student, Morten from Denmark. It was so odd having to demonstrate skills underwater and attempt to teach him how to dive (with Pete of course), loads of fun though. My lovely nickname is "the dive slave," from the other guys at the shop; Mick the divemaster, and Neal the other instructor. I'm doing alot of grunt work, but still getting to dive alot and have fun. Everybody from our diveshop, and many of the other diveshops in Sabang, all head over to Broadway Bar at 4 for Happy Hour. The local beer, San Mig Light, is a bargain 25 pesos (aboout 50 cents) a bottle, so everyone drinks up, chats and just hangs out. Music plays, fans blow, and you have to drink fast to keep your beer from getting warm. Its not a bad life here.