Post Fengshen, Iran, and Crewdson

There's not much to do when it rains but to catch up on journaling.

Because of the close proximity of the typhoon Fengshen, last night was really rainy and windy. I woke up in the morning and made some pancakes because I’m out of oatmeal. They turned out good and are simple to make. The storm last night knocked out the power in my area. I wrote my journal on my computer until the battery died. The battery isn’t lasting all that long anymore. I checked the condition of it and my computer says to “Check Battery.” This usually means I need a new one. I can’t just walk down to the local Apple store.

Since I couldn’t really do anything in my room that required electricity, I walked to El Galleon where they have a generator. The Internet is still down at the resort from the modem having water damage. All I could do then was to journal and read the ten issues of JPG Magazine I downloaded off their website. As much as I love going on my computer, sometimes for no reason, I hate being on it for too long; it’s really draining and almost a little depressing.

For lunch, I at a sandwich and watched the news. I found out that a ferry in the Philippines has capsized which had 800 people aboard and there are people that were killed. When I got my vaccinations for the Philippines in the US, my doctor said there’s not much to worry about in terms of disease, but the biggest hazard, according to a US government warning, was actually ferry accidents! Hopefully, after this tragedy, they will be smarter about safety.

Maziar concerned about things back home.

I spent the evening at the Point bar with Maziar and the Asia Divers crew. Maziar has been in a lot of contact with his mom in Iran and I can tell something was concerning him. He told me that he must prematurely quit his Divemaster class and go back to Iran soon because of US/Isreali tensions, and Iran is now considered a “war zone.” The tensions between the countries has to do with Iran having a nuclear program, which Maziar believes, will be used in weapons and for terrorism.

Maziar has made it clear to me that the intent of the people of Iran are quite different from the actions of their government. Even in a democracy like in the US, this seems to be the case also; how many people really agree with what the president is doing? Maziar told me that when the US was attacked on Sept. 11th, the people of Iran held candles out in mourning of the US casualties. In response to this, the Iranian government attacked their own people for doing this. Governments suck.

After Point bar, I went home and cooked rice and eggs for dinner. While eating, I watched my favorite station out here—The National Geographic Channel. At 10 PM, I watched “Genius of Photography” which was okay. Coincidentally, the show first talked about a photographer that I just read about in issue 15 of JPG Magazine—Gregory Crewdson.

Crewdson creates a staged scene like a movie set and takes a picture of it with his large format 8x10 camera. Interestingly, he’s more of a director than a photographer because his director of photography takes the picture. Each of his pictures sells for $80,000 to $100,000 each and he sells 10 of them. Damn, I can do this.

- jason

Typhoon Fengshen

Outer clouds from the typhoon ominously roll in.

While walking to El Galleon my landlord told me the typhoon was signal 2. What does that mean? At El Galleon, I talked to some people about the typhoon and found out that signal 2 was the strength of the typhoon on a scale of 5. Pete painted a grim picture of the typhoon by saying the last similar one ripped roofs off, took weeks for water to come back and months to get electricity back up an running. Oh great, am I going to be stuck in my room for days doing nothing? Should I ration up on water and food?

I decided to spend the day getting ready for the typhoon. The dive shop was closing after two dives and a lot of businesses were closing early. I bought six liters of water, filled up my “shower” bucket with water, charged batteries, and went on the Internet. On the Internet, I found out that the typhoon was upgraded in strength to a signal 3. Internet was down at El Galleon because their modem had water damage from the rains.

I went to lunch at Club Mabuhay because I wanted some hot Korean food; the perfect kind of food for a rainy day. I ate bulgogi, the soup, and all the side dishes. While eating, I saw my friend, “Bob”, name changed for privacy, walk in a staggered manner towards my direction. He didn’t look good—he was noticeably thinner, hasn’t shaved in a while, paler. I pretended I didn’t notice him because he didn’t look like he wanted me to notice him. He went past me, into a market, and then left with at least 6 beers. The last time I encountered him he had 6-8 beers in a bag too.

After lunch, I saw Maziar and told him to meet met later at the Full Moon bar to have a beer while the typhoon came in. It was scheduled to hit Puerto Galera at about 4 PM which was only a couple hours away. Maziar agreed to hang out after lunch. When I was taking pictures around Full Moon, Grace came up to me and agreed to hang out with me at Full Moon to witness the arrival of the typhoon. Jacob walked by and also joined us.

Moving the boats out to the other side of the island.

In the middle of the rain.

Between 3:45 and 4 PM, the weather turned bad very quickly; rain and wind intensified, and the sea was angry. Distant islands and mountains I used to see 15 minutes before became occluded by the thick layers of rain approaching us. When the thick rain fell on us, it was intense but not disastrous. Then, just as fast as it approached us, the rain and wind stopped. Was that it? Maybe that was just he outer ring of the typhoon. It was a little disappointing and only lasted two beers.

Fireworks celebration in Sabang.

Not much was happening at Full Moon so we all went to Point bar. There, I met a women from Denmark who’s been a dive instructor for less than a year. It was interesting talking with her about her first certifications and the growing pains. She definitely felt it was wise to do an internship after the IE. At the bar, people were saying that the recent heavy rain was just a prelude to the actual typhoon. I decided to leave the bar and go home before it was too late.

Shortly after I got home, it started raining again. For dinner, I cooked some rice with some canned corned beef. The corned beef looked awful. I’ve used the same brand, Argentine, and I don’t remember it looking and tasting that bad. It looked like beef that was dyed its red color. It was very disappointing. I got lazy and watched TV and then fell asleep.

- jason

Rain Journaling Geckos

Swimmers take a respite on the pontoon.

Oatmeal and coffee for breakfast. It’s monotonous, I know, but I don’t mind it. At least I’ll have really low cholesterol plus its really cheap. At 9 AM, I met up with Grace at the El Galleon bar to give her a physics exam. She did fine on it as there were no major problems she had.

Going out for a dive at Asia Divers.

Someone mentioned that a typhoon was approaching us and may hit Puerto Galera. I’ve never experienced a typhoon before and so was a little excited to be in one. It happened to start raining right before I wanted to go home and cook lunch. I was a little disappointed it rained because I wanted save money by cooking lunch. I had to settle for an over priced lunch at the old El Galleon.

Maziar cleans his new mask with toothpaste.

Maziar bought a new mask and practiced his Divemaster skills in the pool by himself.

Gecko poop.

Because of the rain, I ended up hanging out at El Galleon bar pretty much all day. The weather was very humid and sticky and was uncomfortable to work in. It’s quite boring to be here in the rain because there’s nothing really to do. I ended up journaling all day which was good because I needed to catch up. After about four journal entries though I start getting bored. Maybe it’s just being in front of the computer that long. While journaling, a gecko pooped on my laptop screen. Probably a sign I should do something else.

A tiny praying mantis at the Point bar.

In the evening, I went to Point bar. At the bar, a tiny praying mantis walked between me and my beer. It was one of the coolest things I’ve seen here that wasn’t underwater—it was the highlight of my day. I had it walk on my hand, then on a bartender’s hand, then back on my hand. I looked for an insect to catch to feed it but couldn’t find one. It ran so much I couldn’t keep it on my hand so I let it run on the bar. I followed it running down the bar, it jumped on some straws, and then I was startled to see it eaten by a gecko. That’s life.


- jason

Divemaster Exam Question Oops!

Maziar working on his photos of the day.

I woke up at 10 AM and was late to give Grace her part of her Divemaster exam. Oh well, we’re on island Filipino time. I was really tired from the night before. While Grace did some of her exams, I actually brushed up on my Divemaster knowledge so I can answer any questions for Grace if she got any questions wrong.

The was a question on the Decompression Theory and RDP part of the exam that Grace got wrong and I couldn’t figure out despite doing it over and over. I believed there was something wrong with the exam or the answer sheet; sometimes there are errors in either. I decided to wait for Alli to come back and ask her about it later.

When Alli came by to figure out the question, she found out that nothing was wrong with the answer sheet nor the quiz. Turns out the question was a trick question and the answer was an exception to some rule I forgot about. Oops. I was so focused on working it out traditionally that I forgot the exception.

Later in the evening, I hung out with Maziar at El Galleon until about 7 PM. Then, we went up to the Point bar to eat the BBQ they always have on Thursdays. I had a nice BBQ chicken leg with an all you can eat salad. It was good.


- jason

Rescue Assessment Discos

I'm now labeled a light beer.

Did rescue assessment with Grace in the morning with Divemaster Eric playing the role as the unconscious victim underwater. It went well. She really didn’t have any problems because she has done the exercise so many times. The biggest problem was finding Eric when he went underwater to play the unconscious diver. That was really scary for me because I’m responsible for him.

After the rescue exercise, Grace and I ate lunch at McJims where I had the Tasilog. Food was good, moderate portions and very cheap.

In the afternoon we were going to do a Divemaster course Equipment Exchange evaluation with instructor Alli but she got busy with another group of divers. A large group of other instructors wanted to go riding in dirt buggies and so she took them out. I didn’t mind, it just meant I could have a free day.

Disco dancer goofing around.

Maziar's new girlish hairstyle.

Evening I spent at the Point bar with Maziar at 6:30 PM. We went there for just a few beers but ended up eating there too. Afterwards we went into Sabang and hung out at a couple discos and I finally got back to my room by 3 AM.

- jason

Nitrox Cheeseburger Steaks

Low tide boating.

I went to El Galleon this morning to see if Warren could meet up to finish up my Enriched Air Instructor course. He was out on a dive. So, I just hung around El Galleon reviewing some material for the course. Later, I had to do a classroom teaching presentation, a “role model” demonstration of planning a dive with nitrox, and an open water briefing and demonstration on analyzing a tank blend. It’s all stuff I learned during the IDC. For some reason, I was still slightly nervous about doing them.

The almost famous 30 peso hamburger from McJims.

For lunch, I went back to McJims and had a cheeseburger. I was craving a burger for some reason. The burger was small but was only 30 pesos. It was tasty though. I think I could have probably eaten four of them. After lunch, I met up with Warren at the dive shop to do some of my coursework.

The first thing I did was brief and demonstrate how to analyze a tanks gas blend. I used an oxygen analyzer to measure the amount of oxygen in the tank and then recorded that on the tank and in a log. The next thing I had to do was to plan two dives using different dive tables. This took a little more thinking but really it’s just following a table and writing down numbers. Overall, things were going smoothly.

Later in the evening, I met up with Warren again to do my classroom teaching presentation. It felt like doing a classroom presentation during the IDC; same setup and just Warren and I. Generally, the presentation went well and that was it for the course. I was relieved to be done with coursework.

Shooting pool at La Laguna Beach Club with Greg.

It was Greg’s last night before he traveled back to Cebu so Warren, Grace, and I decided to all hang out. We went to La Laguna Beach Resort to eat dinner and shoot some pool. We shot a few games of pool between all of us. I got lucky and beat Greg for the first time. He is usually the king at pool.

Greg and Grace get excited about the steaks. Good beef is hard to find in Philippines.

For dinner, Greg, Warren and I ordered imported Australian steaks. I got a New York cut which turned out to be one of the best steaks I’ve had in Philippines. It was seasoned very nicely though all our steaks were overcooked; I ordered mine rare and it came medium. I was so full after eating my steak it made me sleepy so I went home and went straight to bed.


- jason

Skills, Class, and Sassoon

A blurry photo of burnt rice from the night before.

In the morning I officially evaluated Grace on her 20 divemaster skills in the pool. This is something I was evaluated on in my IDC just a little over a week ago. Half a month ago I could barely do these skills well until my IDC but now I’m evaluating someone on them. How crazy is that?

After the skill evaluations I ate lunch at McJims where I ate a fried rice special for 60 pesos. I realized I can eat four of these meals for the price of one meal at El Galleon. I’ve been spending a lot (relatively) on food and need to start saving a little more. More McJims to come.

At 1 PM I met up with Warren to do my Enriched Air (Nitrox) Instructor course. We met in the classroom, and he did his lectures. The course should only take half a day but we ran out of time to do the more practical exercises. Being in the classroom and having to do homework again reminded me of the IDC. It was the same feeling of going back to school after a nice summer vacation.

Boats in the sunset in front of Asia Divers.

As usual, I went to the Point bar for a happy hour drink. After that, I went home and watched some TV. I watched “Making the Cut” about Vidal Sassoon hair stylist academy. I guess you can make a reality show on anything by adding some drama, but I was most interested in seeing my old home town of Santa Monica.

The show takes place near 3rd St. Promenade right next to where I used to eat lunch frequently. Seeing the surrounding area on TV brought me a little back to my home town. There’s slight coincidences I have with the show too—I’ve eaten at the Hooters next to the academy, I knew someone who got a free haircut there, and we used to get phone calls at my last job at Sassoon Film Design for haircut appointments. The show became a small glimpse of what’s going around my old lunch time stomping ground.


- jason