Scuba Day 2

This time when Jack came to pick us up we didn't stand there stupidly.  The first part of the morning we got lectured by the guy from the ProDive shop about all the different dive spots and types of diving in the world.  He asked each of us where we were from, and then told us about cool diving spots in those places, but when he got to me and Ben he bluntly admitted there is really no diving to be done in Boston. That's probably true, as I couldn't exactly picture myself diving in the murky harbor.  So it was initially discouraging knowing I've spent all this time and money getting certified when I will never be able to use the license, but then I realized this is just another excuse for me to go to some cool places on vacation.

One of the clever things they did the second day was let us try on fancy equipment.  We wore fancy booties and split fins that are much more comfortable and efficient than the standard rental equipment, and masks that fit better.  The mask seems to be very important, and many experienced divers carry a good one with them whenever they travel because it really doesn't take up much space.  Jack gave me large one, but it was still not big enough to fit my enormous nasal extremity, so I ended up with a pretty squished nose.  The trick was, we would not get any of this equipment on the boat, so they took us to the shop to try to convince us to buy all their gear in special "packages."  I felt this was a bit slimy, as they just expected us to take their word that they were giving us good prices, when I know fully that everything in Australia is overpriced to begin with, so I decided just to stick with the rental equipment.  I must admit, the rental fins get pretty painful after many dives, and the mask squished my nose considerably, so if I do this a lot more I will consider nicer stuff.

With just the fancy fins and masks on we got some lessons on skin diving, which is basically snorkeling where you can actually dive down for as long as you can hold your breath.  That was fun, but you have to descend quickly which hurt my ears because I didn't have enough time to equalize.  The split fins are really nice; you exert much less energy, which is important when you need to conserve air.

After skin diving we put our gear back on for the last few exercises, which included another dive to the bottom where we played around with arm wrestling (very hard underwater), doing flips, and blowing bubble rings.  We also practiced slowly exhaling, a skill we'd need to use for CESAs (controlled emergency surface ascents, for when you run out of air and your buddy is not close by).  That was the last of the "confined water" (a.k.a. pool) skills, so we dried off and headed back into the classroom.

In the last video module we learned how plan dives using a chart that tells you how much nitrogen you have in your system after repetitive dives in order to avoid nitrogen sickness.  Then we had the exam--50 questions with up to an hour.  You can get up to twelve wrong and still pass, and many of the questions were repeats from the quizzes, so it was pretty much a breeze.  Somehow I still managed to get three wrong--probably because I didn't check my answers--which Ben proceeded to rub in my face.  We were able to leave early.

On the way back to our hostel Ben and I stocked up on tuna to eat with our matzo in case there was nothing for us on the boat.  We're taking a very early night because the liveaboard departs very early tomorrow morning, and we don't want to be tired for our first ever ocean dive... stay tuned.

Second Seder

The second seder started at a much more reasonable time, so Ben and I had time to hang out in Cairns beforehand, and also enough time to catch a bus to the outskirts of town to the hotel/resort where the Chabadniks were staying.  We were just about on time, which is good because we were the only guests (surprise).  We helped set the table, including making sure each of us (two rabbis, two yeshiva students, Ben, and yours truly) had three whole pieces of cardboard (shmura matzo) and all the other accoutrements.  I don't think they were exactly prepared for extra guests at their place since were sort of invited ourselves at the last minute, so there were only four haggadas, but we managed by sharing.

This seder was interesting because everyone sort of did their own thing.  Instead of group chanting, we all sort of said our own blessings and were at slightly different places, of course waiting for each other at convenient points like hand washing.  One custom I liked in particular is that each person had his own [makeshift] seder plate, which meant Ben and I were free to use whatever items we were used to (potato, lettuce, onion, egg, etc.)  The meal was something I'd never had at a seder, too--fried chicken nuggets, french fries (chips), mashed potatoes, Israeli salad, and avocado--tasty, but not your traditional brisket or meat balls.

We had some pretty interesting conversations throughout the meal.  I consider myself relatively knowledgeable about the goings-on at a seder, but the Chabad perspective was new.  To be honest, often it just seemed like the rabbi would quote any interpretation he liked (often forgetting exactly who said it), and then somehow relate to it by saying "that's the Chabad way," or "that's really what Chabad is about." I must admit I didn't always follow exactly, and resorted a couple of times to a pensive chin scratch or a nod.

The rabbi who threw out the questions was much more talkative than the other.  Ben and I weren't sure if he was upset/uncomfortable, or just quiet/shy.  Nevertheless, he was an interesting guy, as we learned he is from Brazil (Rio, I think) and speaks many languages: Portugese, Spanish, English, Hebrew, Yiddish, etc.  Also, it was surprising to learn he was only in his mid-twenties, as the full beard made him seem much older.  The two yeshiva students--one a native of Sydney, the other from New Orleans--were studying at a yeshiva in St Kilda in Melbourne.  Surprisingly, we had a lot in common with them.  They were pretty cool--borderline fratty, I might say.  Who knew yeshiva kids are normal people after all?

In all, this second seder was a mixture of mildly awkward yet pleasant new experiences.  Ben and I walked the half hour home back to our hostel, preparing for yet another long day in the pool and the classroom.

Scuba Day 1

We got picked up at our hostel at 8:25 in the morning.  There was a slight mixup with the pickup: we were waiting outside and the van from Pro Dive came.  The driver, who turned out to be our instructor also, asked if we were going diving, and we said yes but not with Pro Dive.  I booked through a different company called "The Scuba Center," and they neglected to tell me they were just a booking agent and that I was actually going on the Pro Dive course and boat.  That's interesting, because Pro Dive told us they were sold out.  Anyways, we got it sorted out and hopped in the van and drove the short distance to the learning center.

After we filled out all the registration forms and signed our precious lives away, the the first half of the day was classroom learning.  Basically we would watch a section of video, then our instructor would review it and add things, and then we would take a little quiz.  It was surprisingly interesting, probably because we were so excited to actually try it all in the water.  We learned a bunch of procedures, and all the underwater hand signals we would need to communicate without talking.  Almost everything was intuitive and straightforward, but you have to learn it because there is very little margin of error when you're essentially breathing from a big bottle 18 meters below the surface (the maximum depth for our PADI open water certification).  There's a lot of stress on not coming up too fast to avoid lung over-expansion or decompression sickness.

Our instructor's name was Jack.  He's a really cool guy; only 26 years old, so we could really relate to him.  He's only been diving for three years, but he really knows his stuff.  He called me and Ben "the Boston boys."  Our group had a running joke that Ben and I were a gay couple because we bicker like we're married, and gay marriage is legal in Massachusetts.  It was all in good fun, of course.

In the classroom there were nine of us, but our group in the pool was only four because the other five would be on a different dive boat with another company.  Jack told us it was rare for him to have such a small group, and that meant we might get to do some extra little things.  The other two people were David, a 48-year-old self-proclaimed bucket lister from Sydney, and Ivo, a twenty-something Dutch guy.  They were both very nice people, and we formed a tight group by the end of the trip.

After lunch (a disappointing salad was all I could eat), it was pool time!  Before we got in, we learned how to set up the equipment.  We would end up repeating this set up and check procedure numerous times before we were certified.  For the non-scuba savvy, here's how it goes:

1. Strap the tank firmly to the BCD (buoyancy compensation device: basically a vest that can be filled with air or emptied to achieve neutral buoyancy underwater, and to serve as a life jacket on the surface; it can be filled manually or with air from the tank)
2. Attach the first stage to the tank (the first stage is basically a splitter valve that reduces the tank pressure to much more usable values for breathing; it just screws lightly on the tank, and pressure does the rest to hold it together)
3. The first stage has four hoses coming from it: two are "second stage" regulators (a.k.a. the thing you breathe from), one for you and one for a buddy if he runs out of air, one attaches to the BCD just like an air compressor fitting, and one has a pressure gauge on it to tell how much air you have left.  In the ocean, the gauge would be supplemented by a dive computer and a compass.
4. After routing the hoses to their appropriate spot, the equipment is ready and you can turn on the air.  Before you put it on, you have to strap on a weight belt (3 kg for me) that makes it easier to descend and become neutral down there (better to be heavy because you can always add air to your BCD).
5. You put on the whole gizmo like a backpack, with a buddy's help.  After cinching everything up, you do a buddy check to make sure your buddy has put his weight belt on with a right handed release, so it can be easily removed in an emergency, and to make sure his regulators and BCD are functioning properly.  The acronym to remember the check is BWRAF (BCD, weights, releases, air, final checks), which I remembered with the lovely politically-correct phrase "Bangkok women really are fellas."

BCDs, what a beautiful sight

Not relevant; just a fun shot

Finally, we put on masks, snorkels, and fins.  Strapped up like underwater astronauts, we were ready to get in the pool.  Jack had us inflate our BCDs fully and then fall in backwards from a step to prove that they really would make us float.  The gear is heavy and uncomfortable on land, but it's actually surprisingly comfortable in the water.  For the next few hours, we practiced a bunch of skills: mask clearing, to purge water if the mask leaks; removing and replacing the regulator, achieving neutral buoyancy; and the most fun, out-of-air situations, where you breathe from your buddy's second regulator.  There were a bunch more exercises that I can't remember off hand; it was a really busy day in the pool.  By the end of the day we took our first trip down the to bottom of the pool.  It was only 5 meters, but you still got the feeling of being under high pressure and you have to equalize your ears so they don't hurt (essentially the reverse of "popping" your ears, you just pinch your nose and blow gently against it).  We practiced everything a second time under there.

Scuba diving is REALLY FUN.  (As if I needed another expensive hobby.)  There's something really cool about breathing under the water.  And, as we would see soon on the reef, there is an entirely new world under the ocean that most people will never get to experience.  A big part of it is being really calm, because that way you conserve air and can stay under longer.

After class Ben and I walked around Cairns a bit and went for a swim in the big pool by the beach.  I think it's because it was low tide, but the beach was really far out and there was gunk all over, so everyone just swam in the shallow pool instead.  There was some duo playing bad folk music over the PA to complete the vacation feel.

Tonight is the second seder.  Ben and I are going to the Chabadniks' private seder at their hotel, which should be an interesting experience.  Details to come...

First Seder

The flight was uneventful (which is, of course, always a good thing).  I must say, for $250 one way I sort of expected my flight to come with at least a beverage, but I was wrong, so it's a good thing I filled a nalgene.  Interestingly, even though we're in metric land and they weighed my baggage in kilos, the pilot still announced our cruising altitude in feet (36,000 of them).  Is that just an international convention in the airline industry? Anyway, the three hours flew by (pun intended) because I spent the whole time finishing my last essay.

Ben was waiting for me at baggage claim.  My suitcase was the third one out (they must know I'm important), but we had to wait until all the lesser mortals got their bags because we all shared a shuttle into the city.  When I stepped outside, it felt strangely appropriate for passover because the air was hot and thick, just like stepping out of the terminal at West Palm.  "Wow, this feels like Florida," Ben and I agreed.  In fact, Carins sort of reminds me of a miniature Miami, with palm trees and a large pedestrian-only section in the middle (midrachov, as they say in Tel Aviv).  After dropping our stuff off at the Corona Backpackers, we jumped into nicer clothes and rushed to the hotel where the Chabad seder is.

Well, we were even later than we expected.  The seder started at 5:30 (way too early, in my humble opinion), so they were cleaning up when we got there.  Still, we thought it would be a good idea to introduce ourselves to the rabbis, who are extremely nice people (not surprising).  We asked if we could at least say kiddush, and then...

People started piling food and soup and wine and matzo on our table!  Eat, drink, take your time, they told us (sometimes in Hebrew; there were a bunch of Israelis there, and Ben and I agreed that hearing the Hebrew felt really comforting.)  We actually ended up doing an entire seder for ourselves.  Despite the rabbis insisting we did not have to rush, we did the whole thing start-to-finish in about an hour.  To make a long story short (see what I did there?) it was a really unique experience.  I guess you could say this was my first time leading a seder.  Granted, a two-person seder in an hour is not ideal—the rabbis in Bnei Brak probably wouldn't have finished a paragraph in the span of our whole seder—but given the circumstances it worked out pretty well.

So tomorrow night we are going to where the Chabadniks are staying for their private seder, which they're trying to start at a much more reasonable 8:00.  I must say, when you combine the warm hospitality of a Chabadnik with the cheer of an Australian you end up with a pretty darn nice person.  Ben and I are really looking forward to tomorrow night.

Anyway, tomorrow morning is our first day of scuba lessons in the pool.  (I know, it's not exactly shul... insert grief here.)  Can't wait!  Stay tuned.

Vacation Departure Day

I was so excited last night I could barely sleep.  Vacation is here!

Right now I’m sitting in the rather spartan JetStar domestic terminal at the Melbourne airport waiting for my flight to be called for Cairns.  I must say, air travel in Australia is vastly more pleasant than in the states.  First of all, everyone in the airport is nice and cheerful; unlike American airline employees, these people seem to realize they actually don’t have the worst jobs in the world.  For instance, I was two kilos over my 15 kg checked baggage limit, and the woman at the counter saved me $30 by telling me to move stuff into my carry-on, and waited patiently while I shuffled my beach towel and two boxes of matzo from my duffel into my backpack.  (To be honest, it doesn’t make any sense to me to have to do that since it all ends up weighing down the plane the same, but I appreciated her advice nonetheless.)  She wished me a nice flight and I want on my way.

Then there was security, which took all of one minute.  They basically asked me if I had any aerosols, slid my bag and laptop through the machine, and I was off.  I didn’t even have to take off my shoes.  Oddly, I have not been asked for my passport once, which is actually a bit disconcerting.  Still, It’s nice to not be treated like a terrorist at the airport.

Ben’s flight lands an hour before mine, so he should be waiting for me at the airport in Cairns.  We’ll have to rush to the hostel and then straight to the seder, and then our adventure begins!

Have a happy Passover or Easter or whatever you’re celebrating this week!  I’ll do my best to post whenever I have internet, but don’t hold your breath.

Melbourne Comedy Festival

Yeah, I know, I'm supposed to be writing my papers.  But I got an invite (and a free ticket--who could pass that up?) to a comedy performance tonight, part of the Melbourne International Comedy Festival that's going on right now, so I went.  All part of the "try everything" game.  The guy's name was Andrew McClelland, and his show was called "One Man Stand."  My friend Ariel (from my Welcome group) took a comedy workshop with him last week, and he got four free tickets out of it, so he invited me to tag along.  It's always good to have a laugh when you're supposed to be hard at work.

The "One Man Stand" consisted of a series of short acts of "different" comedians, all played by Andrew.  Irish, "bogan" (a sort of halfway-derogatory 'white trash' term), fat American capitalist, Richard Dawkins, etc.;  some were better than others, but I was smiling through the whole thing regardless.  My favorite was one where he impersonated a soviet communist comedian--it's funnier than it sounds.  The gig went on for about an hour; unfortunately, a lot of the Australian history/pop culture references went over my head, but I could stil tell they were funny (so I laughed).  The performance was in the Council Chambers at Melbourne Town Hall, which was pretty cool because I got to sit in a big leather politician-style chair.

There are a few big international names here, like Wanda Sykes, but I won't be around to see any of them.  Oh well, that's what YouTube is for.

If I had more time I would have written a shorter letter...

3,300 words, 31 footnotes--done.  I finally finished my Science and Society paper.  It was supposed to be 2,000 words, but by the time I had collected all my sources I had so much to say.  When I asked the professor how much outside research she was expecting, she told me 'nine sources should suffice' (for a midterm!), all the while insisting this was not a research paper.  As the saying goes, "if I had more time I would have written a shorter letter."  (I tell students this at the writing center all the time.)  In the end I think I scraped together a halfway decent paper, although I'm a bit nervous because I'm still not quite sure what she's expecting.

Long story short, this paper was a bitch, especially considering I still have a 1000-word paper and a group poster project to finish in the next four days.  I wrote about the integration of science, industry, and entrepreneurship and how that transformed science from being an academic "calling" to a "job" or a business."  Now that's all pretty boring, I admit, but it did get me really excited about the prospect of someday starting my own engineering business.

So, coincidentally, now that it's time to choose courses for next semester at Princeton, I've decided to enroll in a 400-level entrepreneurship class called (...surprise!...) "High-Tech Entrepreneurship," which introduces the methods of forming a business plan and giving birth to a high-tech startup.  Now if only I had a clever idea I'd be well on my way to becoming a millionaire...

The other classes I'm taking next semester are statistics (probably not all that exciting, but tremendously useful), Engineering Design for Sustainable Development (designing LEED and such--shouldn't be too revolutionary for me), and Engineering in the Modern World (the engineering history class I've always wanted to take but could never fit into my schedule; I might elect pass/fail if the other classes end up being very time consuming).  I know I'm only halfway through my semester here, but I'm already getting excited for next year!  (Again, reaching one of my goals for this Australian adventure.)

So, T-minus four days until I fly up to Cairns for passover and scuba diving.  The seder is confirmed, 5-day scuba course is booked, hostel is reserved, campervan is hired; all is looking good.  Well, except we have no idea where we're going...

Many pictures and stories to come.  Things to look forward to:

• Scuba diving, of course.  The 5-day program includes two days learning in a pool, then a three-day/two-night live-aboard trip on a 30-something person boat where we finish our PADI open water certification with four training dives then have five more pleasure dives, including one at night!  Each dive is about a half hour, I think, so it's going to be a ton of fun.  Yes, you should be jealous.
• Ben and I attempting to drive 1,500 miles in a campervan (basically a minivan with a bed instead of back seats and a kitchenette instead of a trunk) on the LEFT side of the road.  And I'll have to get used to shifting with my left hand; the clutch is still on the same side, but shifter will be on the left.  Might take some getting used to.  Hopefully we'll bring the van back with some clutch left. (I don't think Ben has driven stick before, although he's pretty mechanical like me so I anticipate he'll pick it up quickly.)  I'm going to be the one to drive off the lot, so hopefully I don't stall and make us look like fools.  Again, you should be jealous.
• Many beaches, cliffs, sights, islands... Byron bay, Fraser island, to name a few.  We still have to figure that part out.  For [not] the last time, you should be jealous.
• Possibly best spring break ever.