Day 57
Sunday
Today was the big day. Scuba Diving!!
All three of us were absolutely buzzing!
To start off the experience.. we had to get kitted out and watch a short video, before making our way to the beach, which explained more about scuba diving, the hand signals, the risks, procedures and so and so on.
Upon arrival at the beach and on the boat.. we slipped into our wet suits, got our tanks on and headed into the water for a lesson in shallow water. Scuba diving is quite complicated and risky if you don't do it correctly. But soon enough, we had the hang of it.
We set sail towards a shipwreck to do our first dive. You get off the boat by, rolling backwards off of the side of the boat, knees tucked into your chest and hands on your mask. Afterwards, as a group, you make your way towards a rope that is tied to an anchor on the sea floor and the boat, which you slowly descend down into the water. Every few 'steps' you takedown this rope, you have to pinch your nose and blow out to equalise your ears, because of the pressure in the water. (Just like in a plane when your ears pop.) Everyone's ears take different amounts of time to equalise and get use to the pressure, so it was no surprise to me that I had to go down the rope slightly slower than people. It's all linked to congestion and how your nasal and sinus conditions are. Believe it or not.. You can't do scuba diving if you have a cold. Fun fact right there. After breaking my nose a couple years back, I don't think it helped my ears to equalise, my sinuses and congestion are atrocious.
But once we were down there, it was AMAZING! One of the most beautiful sights you will ever see, honestly. It's like a scene out of finding nemo, all kinds of fishes everywhere, beautifully coloured coral, rocks, shells and even lost items that were on the shipwreck. For example, the telephone that they used on the shipwreck was still there! Our snorkel that we lost a few days back wasn't though. Typical! We saw a stingray (a type of fish that killed Steve Irwin) a small squid and thousands of fishes, but no turtles! Gutting.
We came back to the boat, all with lots to say and just big smiling faces! What an experience.
Our second dive wasn't as good though, if I'm honest. It was still awesome but the current was crazy under water and it was quite difficult to swim in. I think the fish could sense that too, because there was not as much as the first dive, very few in comparison! The dive had to be ended slightly earlier because of the current as it got quite dangerous.
What an amazing experience though, during my gap year I've done Paddel Boarding,Canoeing,Surfing,Shark Cage diving,Jet Ski'ing and now Scuba Diving! Only thing to tick off now is Water Ski'ing! Hopefully one of the boys will do that with me.
We arrived back to shore to a big welcome of horrible weather, a huge storm of rain had hit! Just our luck! We stayed in the water though and made the most of the remainder of the day.
This will definitely be a day I'll remember for a long, long time!
All the best
Luke
Monday, 30 June 2014
Day 56
Day 56
Saturday
There was no Saturday morning session today which was a god send. A well needed lie in was appreciated.
The Brazil game was on during the day and what a nuts game that was!! My host family, the holders, have been huge World Cup fanatics watching every game and fully getting involved in the celebrations and everything! Their reactions to people missing/scoring penalties were priceless! I'm glad Brazil are still in the world cup though!
After the game, I went to collect Evan from Bathsheba with Renaldo (the guy who has been helping me out with coaching). It's a long old trek to where Aran and Evan reside so I wasn't massively confident that I would know how to get there by myself, plus it was getting dark and Barbados roads looks totally different at night, I don't think they've heard of street lights out here.
Aran's mum and dad have come to the island so he's been catching up with them and spending the last few days in their company. So Evan has had a taste of what it's been like to be me recently! LONELY!
Evan came to my house tonight which was nice! We got some dinner in, his favourite.. Chefette, played some FIFA and watched some TV on his laptop! A nice chilled night, exactly what the doctor ordered before tomorrow's big event of Scuba Diving!!!
All the best
Luke
Day 55
Day 55
Friday.
Just the one session today!
It was my last session at BCC. Those 5 weeks have gone so fast!! It's been an amazing experience though, everything Shaz,Evan,Aran and I have learnt over the last year was passed onto the students and you could see that in their practical exam, when they were asked to coach. My last session was spent assessing the students and grading their practical exam. The scores ranged from 9-19/20. On average, the majority got around 15. When leaving, the class had collectively bought some presents for us 4 gappers. They bought us a beer each and bought me a personal present of dairy milk because I said I could improve their exam marks and be bribed with chocolate. I think they took it a bit too serious!!
Weather's been quite crapy over the last couple days! It's been chucking it down with rain!
All the best
Luke
Friday.
Just the one session today!
It was my last session at BCC. Those 5 weeks have gone so fast!! It's been an amazing experience though, everything Shaz,Evan,Aran and I have learnt over the last year was passed onto the students and you could see that in their practical exam, when they were asked to coach. My last session was spent assessing the students and grading their practical exam. The scores ranged from 9-19/20. On average, the majority got around 15. When leaving, the class had collectively bought some presents for us 4 gappers. They bought us a beer each and bought me a personal present of dairy milk because I said I could improve their exam marks and be bribed with chocolate. I think they took it a bit too serious!!
Weather's been quite crapy over the last couple days! It's been chucking it down with rain!
All the best
Luke
Day 54
Day 54
Thursday.
No session today unfortunately. A lot of schools are suffering from the post exam blues, where basically no students come into school because all they'll do is watch films, play cards or play football outside. Similar to England in a way, that's what we use to do after exams.
Over the last week or so I've been spending a lot of time with my household family's son, Najee. He's 15 but looks about 30! (Badboys film reference there.) We went to the beach today, Mullins beach of course. Najee told me he's never been there, despite it being a 5 minute drive down the road!! I couldn't believe it! My tan is quite strong at the minute so it was nice to top it up!
Early start tomorrow, Mr Small and I have a lot of practical examination marking to do. Fun fun fun
All the best
Luke
Thursday.
No session today unfortunately. A lot of schools are suffering from the post exam blues, where basically no students come into school because all they'll do is watch films, play cards or play football outside. Similar to England in a way, that's what we use to do after exams.
Over the last week or so I've been spending a lot of time with my household family's son, Najee. He's 15 but looks about 30! (Badboys film reference there.) We went to the beach today, Mullins beach of course. Najee told me he's never been there, despite it being a 5 minute drive down the road!! I couldn't believe it! My tan is quite strong at the minute so it was nice to top it up!
Early start tomorrow, Mr Small and I have a lot of practical examination marking to do. Fun fun fun
All the best
Luke
Thursday, 26 June 2014
Day 53
Day 53
Wednesday
2 out of 4 sessions were on today which wasn't too bad!
My first session was at Parkinson's memorial school. Which is a class of around 15-20 girls, ages from 14-16 I think. The session went really well, ten times better than last week. I think our first session with them was a bit difficult because they wanted to challenge us seeing as we were new. However this week, weirdly, the "want to learn" level was turned up a very decent amount. Renaldo offered his help, just like he did on Monday, so it was great to have an extra pair of hands in my session and it certainly made the lesson go easier and smoother for everyone. The session kind of reminded me of my days of teaching in highbury fields girls school. During those sessions, Leo (my ex coaching partner) and I would get asked alllll sorts of questions and some girls would be just be fascinated by us and some would not hesitate to criticise us. Today was no different, infact when I turned up, one girl asked me "do you think you look good in a cap?" To which I replied "I'm not wearing it to look good, it's for the sun. Do I not look good?".. Which she bluntly said "well, you don't look good sir." Nice one, cheers! Without getting into detail, girls at that age are a tad hormonal and they get a bit excited when a teenage boy comes to teach them football. As long as they learn, have fun and the session goes to plan.. I'm happy!!
I had a big gap in between my next session. So I just chillaxed, skyped a few people and had a nice cold shower.. Which believe me was much needed! It's quite humid out here at the minute.
My next session was at BCC, where they were taking their practical exam. The class were split into two groups (one being marked by me and Aran and the other by Mr Small and Evan) and each coach would focus on whatever skill they liked, teaching around 10 participants. We were marking there performance out of 20. We had some good scores across the board in all fairness, lowest was 10 and the highest was 17. The rest being 13/14's. Mr Small and I will carry the examination on Friday.
The session finished at 6 because of a badminton tournament in the hall. So Aran, Evan and I made the most of our time by heading to the drive thru cinema to watch Transformers. Which was a very average film. It was two and a half hours long and I have to say all of us were so confused by the end. It was good up until an hour and a half but after that it was a blur. As trampy as this may sound, we mutually decided that one person should get into the boot to save us some dollars, so that when you drive through the entrance the ticket man only see's two of you. It worked!! Well played Evan for volunteering to get in the boot.
A nice way to cap of a good day!!
All the best
Luke
Wednesday
2 out of 4 sessions were on today which wasn't too bad!
My first session was at Parkinson's memorial school. Which is a class of around 15-20 girls, ages from 14-16 I think. The session went really well, ten times better than last week. I think our first session with them was a bit difficult because they wanted to challenge us seeing as we were new. However this week, weirdly, the "want to learn" level was turned up a very decent amount. Renaldo offered his help, just like he did on Monday, so it was great to have an extra pair of hands in my session and it certainly made the lesson go easier and smoother for everyone. The session kind of reminded me of my days of teaching in highbury fields girls school. During those sessions, Leo (my ex coaching partner) and I would get asked alllll sorts of questions and some girls would be just be fascinated by us and some would not hesitate to criticise us. Today was no different, infact when I turned up, one girl asked me "do you think you look good in a cap?" To which I replied "I'm not wearing it to look good, it's for the sun. Do I not look good?".. Which she bluntly said "well, you don't look good sir." Nice one, cheers! Without getting into detail, girls at that age are a tad hormonal and they get a bit excited when a teenage boy comes to teach them football. As long as they learn, have fun and the session goes to plan.. I'm happy!!
I had a big gap in between my next session. So I just chillaxed, skyped a few people and had a nice cold shower.. Which believe me was much needed! It's quite humid out here at the minute.
My next session was at BCC, where they were taking their practical exam. The class were split into two groups (one being marked by me and Aran and the other by Mr Small and Evan) and each coach would focus on whatever skill they liked, teaching around 10 participants. We were marking there performance out of 20. We had some good scores across the board in all fairness, lowest was 10 and the highest was 17. The rest being 13/14's. Mr Small and I will carry the examination on Friday.
The session finished at 6 because of a badminton tournament in the hall. So Aran, Evan and I made the most of our time by heading to the drive thru cinema to watch Transformers. Which was a very average film. It was two and a half hours long and I have to say all of us were so confused by the end. It was good up until an hour and a half but after that it was a blur. As trampy as this may sound, we mutually decided that one person should get into the boot to save us some dollars, so that when you drive through the entrance the ticket man only see's two of you. It worked!! Well played Evan for volunteering to get in the boot.
A nice way to cap of a good day!!
All the best
Luke
Day 52
Day 52
Tuesday.
My first session was on today! St Michaels have always been good with attendance and punctuality so I had high hopes that my session would be on.. I was not wrong!!
However, I had a short number turn up this week.. Only 4. On the rare occasion, there is another group on the field.. Today would be one of them rare occasions. I approached the teacher to ask if he would like to combine groups and I would take a session for them all, saving him some work.
I was hit with the return of "you're coming to St Michael's wearing that hat!?". Me, rather naively, replied "oh should it be a Manchester United cap?". However, he wasn't talking about what brand or team it was.. He was talking about how I was wearing it. He started going nuts saying you should set an example etc. So I replied so "I'm a bad person because I wear my hat backwards? I wear it backwards to protect my neck!!" And he was like you're a bad role model la la la. He asked "shall I go get the principal" And I said "feel free, I've told you the reasons why I wear my hat like that and plus this is my uniform, it's arsenal branded. Go get her!" He didn't. It just annoyed me because number 1 he's not my manager and shouldn't tell me what to wear and 2 he shouldn't speak to me like that, acting up in front of his class and 3 I was coming over to do him a favour to save him some work. He's just a member of staff, a cricket coach to be precise and he's trying to tell me what to wear. 6 months I've been working abroad wearing hats and he's the first to EVER mention it. Twat. (Excuse my French and my rant.)
That was the main excitement of the day. My next two sessions were cancelled!
I met up with the boys in the evening to go to the cinema to watch edge of tomorrow which was an awesome film, very clever. It had Tom Cruise as the main actor with Emily Blunt (I think!).
After the cinema we headed to St Lawrence's gap for a couple drinks. We went to a reggae lounge and then some Karaoke bar which was quite funny! We got speaking to some girls who were from Pensylvania and we got their numbers so we'll probably see them over the weekend. I know exactly what you're thinking.. "Players."
All the best
Luke
Tuesday.
My first session was on today! St Michaels have always been good with attendance and punctuality so I had high hopes that my session would be on.. I was not wrong!!
However, I had a short number turn up this week.. Only 4. On the rare occasion, there is another group on the field.. Today would be one of them rare occasions. I approached the teacher to ask if he would like to combine groups and I would take a session for them all, saving him some work.
I was hit with the return of "you're coming to St Michael's wearing that hat!?". Me, rather naively, replied "oh should it be a Manchester United cap?". However, he wasn't talking about what brand or team it was.. He was talking about how I was wearing it. He started going nuts saying you should set an example etc. So I replied so "I'm a bad person because I wear my hat backwards? I wear it backwards to protect my neck!!" And he was like you're a bad role model la la la. He asked "shall I go get the principal" And I said "feel free, I've told you the reasons why I wear my hat like that and plus this is my uniform, it's arsenal branded. Go get her!" He didn't. It just annoyed me because number 1 he's not my manager and shouldn't tell me what to wear and 2 he shouldn't speak to me like that, acting up in front of his class and 3 I was coming over to do him a favour to save him some work. He's just a member of staff, a cricket coach to be precise and he's trying to tell me what to wear. 6 months I've been working abroad wearing hats and he's the first to EVER mention it. Twat. (Excuse my French and my rant.)
That was the main excitement of the day. My next two sessions were cancelled!
I met up with the boys in the evening to go to the cinema to watch edge of tomorrow which was an awesome film, very clever. It had Tom Cruise as the main actor with Emily Blunt (I think!).
After the cinema we headed to St Lawrence's gap for a couple drinks. We went to a reggae lounge and then some Karaoke bar which was quite funny! We got speaking to some girls who were from Pensylvania and we got their numbers so we'll probably see them over the weekend. I know exactly what you're thinking.. "Players."
All the best
Luke
Wednesday, 25 June 2014
Day 51
Day 51
Monday.
Today was the start of my penultimate working week. Although, it didn't really go to plan. I had 3 sessions scheduled for today, all of which was cancelled on arrival! How annoying!! I spent the hours from 9-11 travelling around and finding out whether my sessions were on, which was kind of a waste of time in the end. In one of my sessions, the ministry of education turned up to asses the school in my session. However the session was cancelled, which looked bad on the school.. Not me! Thankfully.
I spent the rest of my day watching the World Cup and Skyping!
Boring day really!!
All the best
Luke
Monday.
Today was the start of my penultimate working week. Although, it didn't really go to plan. I had 3 sessions scheduled for today, all of which was cancelled on arrival! How annoying!! I spent the hours from 9-11 travelling around and finding out whether my sessions were on, which was kind of a waste of time in the end. In one of my sessions, the ministry of education turned up to asses the school in my session. However the session was cancelled, which looked bad on the school.. Not me! Thankfully.
I spent the rest of my day watching the World Cup and Skyping!
Boring day really!!
All the best
Luke
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)