Back in Alex

I'm back!

Dahab was great, but Alexandria was calling our names, so we came back earlier than planned, ready for more adventures. So I'll be posting stuff about Dahab as I remember it, and here's what I have for now:

I love diving. Not as much as some, but enough that I started and in about three weeks went from the Open Water course (the beginner course) through the Rescue Diver course. It's hard to describe how much fun rescue diving is, but I'll try. Basically, you manhandle people in the water. I went through various scenarios where people acted unconscious or like they were drowning. The best is when someone panics at the surface. They push back their mask, spit out their regulator, and commence to go nuts. So I have to try to calm them, and if they are too panicked, I pull my dump valves so all the air leaves my jacket and I sink. Then I swim underneath them, always trying to get behind them. After that, I rise and at the last meter I fill my jacket with air from the cylinder so that I shoot to the top and over them from behind them. I then grab their inflator and try to inflate them so they'll float before they grab at me and take off my mask or knock my reg out of my mouth. One time my buddy Mido actually got on me and pushed me under and held me there (pretty realistic of a drowning person who is panicking) so I had to find my reg underwater and dump my air again, and do it all over again. So much fun. Another fun one is where someone panics and tries to shoot to the top from an unsafe depth at an unsafe speed, and you have to grab onto them and do what it takes to slow them down. I was able to grab someone's deflator and hold it down so he couldn't inflate himself to the top, and when he calmed down we started to ascend. He then panicked again and I had to koala him and just hold onto him to slow him down before I could grab his deflator again. So basically being a rescue diver is like being an underwater ninja commando. There isn't a feeling like it in the world. However, I only have 12 dives under my belt, so I still have so much to do.

Oh, right, so I get back to Alex and the price of my room jumps from $5 a day to $12 a day, which is prohibitively expensive. I went to get my bags from Liz, and she tells me about a guy named Michael who is looking for a roommate. I call, and the next thing I know, I'm spending the night in my awesome new apartment that is going to cost me only $150 per month before utilities. That's Heavenly Father taking care of my needs before I even knew I had them. I love those kind of blessings. I have hot water, a washer, and we're getting internet. No A/C. but I needed a blanket last night and had to turn off the fan, so I'm not worried about that. And Michael's pretty cool and already knows the area really well, and I'm right on the tram line to school, so no more arguing with cab drivers to get to and from school.

Alright, more to come, and hopefully soon some pictures.