Day 176! Today was a fairly uneventful day. Lots of rest, which was desperately needed… and then I had a 3.5 hour class to take for my dive master! But hopefully I’ll start feeling better soon and maybe the good weather will come back as well.

I went to bed on the earlier side last night and desperately needed it.

I woke up this morning tired, congested, and had a slight sore throat. Thankfully I had Tylenol and fluids to get me through the day. I went over to Taco Shack and got myself a muesli bowl and had a breakfast of champions: fruit with yogurt, banana mango smoothie, and electrolytes.

After finishing, I immediately went back to my room and fell asleep again.

As much as I could, I was using today as a rest day. I slept for a couple hours and then woke up to write some blog posts that I had missed! Life’s gotten really hectic out here and I’m trying to find that balance of taking care of my health while also keeping up with the other things I love like, blog posting, guitar, reading, etc.

After writing some more I fell back asleep. But not for long because I had some dive reading to do and lunch to eat!

Today Kit, Sina, and I were taking the React Right course and there was 120 pages of information and lots of tests to cover before the course. So I made my way through the material as quickly as possible and wrapped up the tests before class!

(We had found out we were taking it the night before… so not a ton of time especially with everything else going on!)

At 3pm, we all piled into the classroom, along with an advanced diver Nia. I actually assisted her certification the other day! Nia was taking the course for her marine biology major back home in Wales.

Over the next 3 and a half hours, we covered just about everything there is to know about reacting to emergency situations. This included CPR, first aid, using oxygen, tourniquets, drowning, etc. It was a long course, but a very engaging and beneficial one!

I thoroughly enjoyed it, as some of it was a refresher from my mental health first aid training I did back in college.

Now, this training leads into another training called stress and rescue. This includes two days of class and intense diving. We take these real life emergency situations and put our knowledge to the test in the water (at a safe depth).

I’ve heard stories of how intense these days are and hopefully I’m feeling better for it tomorrow because I’d love to do it with Kit and share the experience. However… I’m not going to push myself if I’m still feeling sick and there will be time to do it another day. We will see tomorrow!

I’ve also heard though that these two days really help people to overcome the stress and anxiety of diving. While also teaching them how to react calmly under intense and extreme situations.

After a long course, Kit and I went to Mama Tam’s for dinner.

It was nice to just have dinner the two of us and chat about how we were both doing, the things going on around the island, and just hang out. I really enjoy his company and I’m glad I decided to go through this journey with him!

After dinner, I went home, finished catching up on my blog posts, and then going right to bed!

I am starting to feel better… Hopefully I’ll be ready for tomorrow, if not it might just be another day of sleeping!

– Elie