Happiness is Good News to go with the Bad

Hi all! I'm still having a wonderful time and really enjoying myself here in Sabang. The "Bad" news happened this past Monday night, when I awoke to something biting me right between my eyes. No one's really sure what it is, the general consensus around the beach is that it must have been a cockroach... but I prefer to think it was a vicious spider or scorpion or anything but a cockroach :) Anyway, my face and right hand swelled up like a basketball (pictures here, be warned that they're not for the faint of heart!) Eyes swelled shut, fat lips, lump on my forehead, What a mess! Pete brought me a doctor and she pumped me full of hydrocordisone and antihistamine injections. This is all not nearly as dramatic as it probably sounds, and I was fine within a few days. The eyes stayed puffy for a bit, but today I look like this again!


Now the good news is that, well, other then my basketball face, everything has been wonderful. I just moved up the road to Sanindeagan Village, and into this adorable little apartment. I have a kitchen and living room with TV, my own bathroom, etc. for 300 pesos/night (about $7). It's just a 5 min motorcycle ride from the Big Apple, and our DiveMaster at the shop, Mick, lives next door to me. We usually end the night with a small group of people drinking on my cozy balcony and enjoying the warm night. Its just up from the ocean, so I get a nice breeze through the house. I sleep with the windows open and can hear the bugs chirping and get dry lightening at night... and wake up to the roosters crowing and kids playing at 6am. Can't complain one bit.



My class/internship class is also going very well. Pete is hard, but he really knows his stuff; he's had about 12,000 dives, and has been certified for longer than I've been alive. Sources say I have the best instructor on the beach. It's been strange making the transition from a guest diver to someone that leads and teaches the guests at the resort. Like I said, Pete is really tough, but I'm learning so much from him. We certified two new divers yesterday... They got the "golden snorkel" to celebrate. The golden snorkel is basically a snorkel with a funnel attached to the top, and depending on the class you complete, certain drinks are poured down it that have to be chugged. I had the honor of pouring a beer into the funnel for the new divers to drink... I made it extra foamy and swirled it a bit for them :) The boys at the shop are already planning for my golden snorkel after I finish my DM, ugh!

In short, all is well. Emma arrives in about 2 weeks, and I can't wait to show her around. Then off to Palau with Jeremy. Fingers crossed the cockroaches stay away from me.

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.

Happiness is a Working Phone Number

Well, I know I gave alot of you my phone number here before I left. Unfortunately the company that gave me the number, well they don't get very good service on this Island. I bought a new SIM card, so here's my new number:

011-910-938-4799

Happiness sleeping after a 24 hour flight

So I have arrived, in one piece no less! My luggage on the other hand, was sadly not so lucky. It was still in San Francisco last time I checked, but hopefully arriving soon. I made my way through Singapore and got a seat on my next stand-by flight to Manila. I got stuck in the middle, but eh, it was only 3 hours. I sailed through immigration, and made my way to my hotel with my carry-on, a complimentary overnight pack from Singapore Airlines and 2,200 pesos of compensation. I checked into the lovely Lotus Garden Hotel... slightly out of my budget, but nearly completely covered with the aforementioned "compensation." There was a nice mall around the corner, and great restaurants everywhere... But I didn't get to see any of it before passing out for the night. Let me tell you, it's unbelievable just how sore your butt can actually get from sitting for so long! The shower felt amazing, and laying flat never felt so heavenly!

I woke up about 6am and have adjusted to the time here without a problem. Manila itself is, well, a giant city; 15 million people packed in tight, slightly dirty, and filled with hussle and bustle. The people here are very friendly though, and not in a I'm-scheming-to-find-a-way-to-separate-you-from-your-money kind of way. I must have heard "good morning m'am" from 30 different people. They actually stopped to stare at me everywhere... Apparently I'm very "exotic" ...hey I'm not complaining! There's certainly not very many white people around, and those that I've seen are all 60-something old men with filippina women.

I was having breakfast when my 7:30 bus arrived... at 7am. The bell staff all came running for me, and I jumped onto a colorful Jeepney to take me to the port in Batangas. The front of the Jeepney looks exactly like my jeep, it's just attached to a giant schoolbus. It was a 3 hour ride to the port and bumpy as hell... ahh, just like my jeep at home! Even on the ride people were still staring and waving from their cars, too odd! After I got to Batangas I took a tiny outrigger boat for the 1 hour ride to Sabang Beach in Puerto Galera. The water is beautiful here, and as hot as it is, I just wanted to jump in... but wet jeans and no swimsuit would be a bad idea I suppose :)

Having no luggage actually worked out for me, as I was able to walk around the town and visit all of the dive shops and places to stay without lugging my big ol' bag. I picked out the Big Apple Dive Resort, right on the beach with great instructors... and the pool is beautiful too. I went exploring a bit and this really is a tiny place. No ATMs, just a strip of dive shops, restaurants and tiny stores about half a mile long. Can't wait to get to diving, and swimming for pete's sake, it's hot here! As for now, I'm dying in my jeans, but enjoying it all and studying my butt off for my class.

Happiness is Flying Stand-By

Just a quick hello from Hong Kong... I landed about 15 minutes ago, and will re-boarding in an hour for Singapore. This was the longest of my 3 flights... about 14 hours. It went by very quickly; I popped 2 benadryls as we were taking off and was out before I knew what hit me. I had quite a fiasco trying to board my plane in San Francisco, apparently my ticket was automatically canceled because of a US Airways error made, and the flight was fully booked. Singapore Airlines couldn't help me, I was told that I had to take it up with US Airways. I called them and they couldn't help me either because I'm traveling on a paper ticket and they can't pull that up on their computer system. They told me I had to see a US Airways ticket agent in person, except it was midnight and there was no agents to be had until 6am (plus my flight was supposed to be at 2am!). The poor men at Singapore Air finally took pity on me after I started crying and put me on stand-by... I even ended up getting a window seat so I can't complain. I'm still on stand-by for Singapore to Mania, but I'm keeping my fingers crossed. I really thought that I was going to be headed back to Santa Rosa on the 3am Airporter :)