IDC Countdown – 23 days to go!
OK – this article will start with somewhat of a confession. It isn’t actually 23 days until my IDC starts. In 23 days I will depart these shores for the beaches and seas of Koh Samui in Thailand. I then have 10 days there before my pre-IDC prep course starts and then the IDC proper. But for all intents and purposes, it all kicks off for me in 23 days. Right – now I’ve got that off my chest I feel a little less guilty! Onto business…
Firstly – my destination for the IDC. I’ll be taking my course with Planet Scuba (aka Samui International Diving School); a company which has at least 3 branches in Thailand. They seem pretty professional and one of my friends has just come back from a diving holiday with them and she gave me good reports. The course director is a guy called Camille Lemmens, who seems like a top bloke and has been helpful in all of his emails since I started contacting him about a year ago. Normally Thailand would be a place I avoid like the plague. It seems too“gap-year” to me: full of students who are going there for cheap alcohol, cheap stimulants and cheap women. This may be a broad generalisation, and I’m hoping my opinions will change vastly when I return from my trip. I usually prefer to go to more random places when I travel: last year a lot of the teachers here in Okinawa went to Thailand for their holidays, I went on a trip to North Korea!!! But more about that trip another time. I would have preferred to take the IDC here in Okinawa, but the only civilian-teaching course directors are Japanese speakers. I’ve got enough on my plate trying to pass the IDC without trying to do it in a foreign language!
I’m pretty lucky this week, as my students have tests, which gives me quite a bit of free time. So I’m reading diving articles (& writing some too) and then going back to my desk and reading through the Encyclopaedia of Recreational Diving. Today I’m revising the physiology stuff: bradycardia, carotid sinus reflex, DCS I and II etc. I think I’ll be ok at this section as long as I don’t get a mental block during the test. Tomorrow will probably be diving physics, and then during the weekend it’s back to my EFRi and gas blender manuals.
The weather really is beautiful at the moment, so I’m managing to get a couple of dives in after work too. Did a dive last night at Maeda, and will be doing 2 or 3 after work this evening. The visibility wasn’t great last night, but there were some huge shoals of fish. One of them must have had over 500 fish in it, each around 15-20cm long. They swam around me and even though the sun hadn’t gone down, everything suddenly went black for a short time. It was very cool, although slightly unnerving initially.
On my trip to Taiwan, I found out that China Airlines are really strict on their luggage weight limits. Or at least they are in Okinawa. I’m really going to be pushing all the weight limits for both check-in and carry-on luggage with all my gear and diving manuals that I’ve got to take. I can see myself wearing my BCD and fins as I go through passport control! But I’m going to use a bit of Hogen (Okinawan dialect) and try to sweet talk the check-in ladies if I have any problems. It’s surprising how far a little Japanese can get you. The annoying thing is that Bangkok Air have given me a 30kg allowance for my flights to and from Samui, yet my international flights only have a 20kg allowance. Ah well, I’ll cross (or jump off) that bridge when I come to it!
It’s all happening, and I’ve got so much to do before I depart. So with that in mind, I will depart once again and leave you all in peace. Thoughts, comments etc are always welcome on these articles I’m writing.
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