8th Prep Class/1st Scuba Class

Hello everyone!
So class this week was kind of boring. We had a guest speaker come and talk to us about how to avoid culture shock and what we should do in order to adapt to life in a different country. After his talk our professor talked to us a little about what is coming up in the next couple of weeks. Also, we are going to get our host families a small present, so we are supposed to come up with ideas. Class ended a good thirty minutes early so the scuba diving group could get up to Desert Scuba and buy gear for class. After I bought my super awesome snorkel, fins, mask, and booties package, we were off to scuba! When we first pulled up to the place we were all very worried, it looked like a run-down neighborhood, without a pool in sight, did he bring us there to kill us?! Myron, our instructor told us to grab our BCDs and tanks and get moving! After a short walk through weeds and someone's backyard we came to a very long shed, or so I though! Inside was a perfect scuba diving training pool! We all got changed and waited with great anticipation for the lesson to start. First Myron taught us how to assemble our gear. We learned how to hook up the tank, check compression, make sure our regulators were working, and how to inflate our BCDs. When we learned how to set everything up we all jumped in the pool for a test on our ability to float and swim adequately. Finally after that it was time to get our actual scuba gear on! My scuba buddy is a girl named Janelle Gibbs, and she is awesome (both at scuba and in general)! We practiced kneeling on the bottom of the pool, finding our regulators when they get kicked out, flushing our masks underwater if they leak, and going back and forth between regulators and snorkels! It was so much fun, I am really excited for all of my scuba adventures on the Great Barrier Reef in Brisbane and on the reefs in Fiji! I'll tell you one thing though, after three hours in a pool I was looking like I would have to use an iron on my hands, and my bed was definitely calling! I love you all, hope you enjoyed the update! New Zealand is getting really close now, we are down to about 74 days!