Working Internet Calling Vilma

Rain leaked into Genesis and soaked some papers.

I spent the most of the morning writing in my journal. All my free time I have I'm trying to devote to writing in my journal and catching up. A daily journal is hard to keep up to date because if you just miss one day you're already behind. It's nice though, because you get to look back on your days and take note of the subtle things that one would normally forget. For the remainder of the morning, I reviewed some PADI standards for Kenny's Open Water course.

By noon, Kenny and I went to Genesis because he needed to do some exams and his second Open Water dive at 1 PM. The dive was a nice dive at the Sanctuary where we saw mackerel, a school of jacks, and a school of yellow fin barracuda among other things. After we cleaned up and i debriefed him on his dive, we went to Coco Vida to get on the Internet.

My mom told me that my credit card company has been trying to get a hold of me and they say it’s important. They sent me a letter and gave me a collect phone number to call. To prevent having my credit card put on hold, I decided to call my credit card company using the Internet based calling technology Skype.

I have to say, calling using Skype was easy and exciting to use. Skype simplifies calling internationally by providing all the country codes and weird symbols when you dial; I’ve never really understood calling internationally. Calling rates are also very cheap, and paying for calls is as simple as just crediting your Skype account. Skype has made something so difficult to do here in the Philippines—calling—a lot easier. I couldn’t be more excited. Damn, I sound like a Skype advertisement. Ok, I digress.

So, I called my credit card company’s fraud protection service. They were concerned about some purchases I made in Puerto Galera at Asia Divers and El Galleon Resort. I wish I could tell them that I didn’t make the purchases because they were relatively expensive—diving, courses, and costs for all the food I ate at El Galleon during my stay. While its good that credit card companies try to protect their customers from fraud, it’s a little bit of a hassle to continually tell them you’re abroad and that the transactions are normal. They’re like a parent that worries too much.

Palm trees near my house at sunset.

Kerstin and Kimoko at Oops bar.

For dinner, I went to Oops bar with Kerstin, Kimoko, Sander and Kenny. Besides my usual reasons for going to Oops—eating and happy hour—I wanted to say goodbye to Vilma because it was her last night living in Alona Beach—tomorrow she’s moving to Tagbilaran because she’s expecting a baby soon. It’s sad to see her go but life moves on.

San Miguel Beer (SMB)

Vilma and I on her last night at Oops for a while.

- jason