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My new Job: Divemaster in the Bay Area California

August 17, 2016 / leslie wang

It’s been about a month since I left Iceland. I left the island not knowing what or where I would be going next. For now, I’ve decided to chill out with my family and take some time to catch up on everything I’ve been missing in the states. Besides eating In N’ Out everyday, I figured I better start diving again to work off all those burgers.

I yelped a few places around San Jose and found Any Water Sports. I went by one day just to rent some tanks. Everyone in the store was really attentive and friendly. Almost too helpful! There wasn’t a minute that went by where someone didn’t ask me if I needed something. At first, I didn’t know how to react. Then I gave in and engaged in the art of small talk. Refreshing. I know that sounds weird, but visit Iceland and try to small talk with anyone in a shop. Crickets. It doesn’t happen. I left the store feeling like they were a group of scuba nerds just hanging out. Good times.

After a few tank rentals, I spoke with the owner and expressed my interest in being a divemaster for the store. We had a really informal chat about the business and BOOM. I found a job!

Get Me-oowww out! My poor Cat on a Plane

August 10, 2016 / leslie wang

In returning to California, the first thing I had to do was pick up my cat and get her to San Jose to stay with me. I booked a Southwest flight for myself and also a one way pet fare ($95). Southwest is pretty chill about pets in the cabin. As of now the rule is that you must book ahead, and check in with the pet the day of travel. I didn’t even need to show them my vaccination page.

First Phase: The Car Ride in the Carrier

I decide to go to the airport extra early because I wasn’t sure of the shenanigans she was going to get into. I had put the carrier out by her favorite chill spot the day before. Jade didn’t seem to care about this one way or another. I pick up the cat and boom, drop her into the bag and quickly zip it up as she tries to shove her head out of the opening.

Once we got in the car, she started to let me know she was annoyed. Meow. Meow. Meow. So I let her out and had her sit in my lap.

Second Phase: The Airport and Security with my Feline Friend

Once we got to the airport, she was pretty good. Just a meow every now and again to let me know she was not feeling the airport. The check-in took about 2 minutes. Southwest Airlines took my money and put a tag on the carrier. Boom. End Checkin Process. So easy.

The security check was pretty fun. There was no line in security and I had TSA precheck so I didn’t need to take off my shoes. I grabbed the bag and took Jade out of the carrier and walked through. Then I had to stand there holding Jade as she looked puzzled. Her little body dangling down. Some lady said, ” wow, my cat would never be so chill,” I felt like we bonded of crazy cat lady life. Little did anyone know the trouble ahead of me.

Scuba Diving with the Imperial System versus the Metric System

August 7, 2016 / leslie wang

imperial metric scuba Coming back to America, I never realized the horrible pain of the Imperial measurement system. Not to knockdown my fellow Americans, but why do we measure stuff like this? WHY?

Ok, that was my rant. Now here is some useful information that I have been noting between diving in Europe, Asia and America.

What would a local recommend: My top spots and favorites to check out in Iceland!

July 28, 2016 / leslie wang

Since getting back to the States, people have been asking me if I had any recommendations for Iceland. And I do! I love Iceland. It’s a small town city with lots to do. Within the city, you can ride your bike everywhere while feeling safe and secure. Outside the city, you can drive in any direction for 1-2 hours and have plenty of activities to do.

I love you, Global Entry!

July 26, 2016 / leslie wang

southwest boarding tsa precheck

One item I invested in before I left my job was Global Entry. I was on the fence about it for a year. I wasn’t sure if it was worth my time and effort to spend $100. Global Entry is card that gets Americans a “front of the line” pass when coming from international flights and a “front of the line” pass going through security when flying domestically.

The application process is similar to a job security clearance screening. You will have to give information on your job, you previous addresses, income and other similar information. I had most of it already since I had to have it for my defense contracting job, so it wasn’t that inconvenient. If approved, the $100 fee is valid for 5 years. I was approved within a month and then kept checking the interview website for openings for a few days before I got my appointment. Within another week of the interview I got my shiny ID card.

The Truth will set you free- Overstaying a Visa

July 22, 2016 / leslie wang

map-of-the-schengen-area-svg_orig

Key:Blue area are countries within Schengen and Orange Areas are “to be added” countries. Grey Countries are not part of this treaty. (Map from Wikipedia)

This map would have been useful to me before I started traveling. Whoops. When I took a leave of absence, I flew to Finland, then Holland, then to Africa, then to Madrid, then to France before settling down to Iceland.

When I had planned my Iceland Divemaster program, I checked the Icelandic immigration website and found that I could stay in the country on Tourist Visa for 90 days. This worked for me because I was paying for the Divemaster program and I was not working. I didn’t need any special visa. Once I got to Iceland I met a lot of tourists. One couple in particular told me of their one year sabbatical and how it was hard to get around the Schengen area. Huh? That’s when I felt a deep lump forming in my belly. I went home and googled “Schengen.” Oh to my stupid American surprise that I found this map.

Divemaster Project Completion: Big Crack in Davidsgja, Pingvellier National Park Map

July 19, 2016 / leslie wang

I channeled my old “worker bee self” and used powerpoint to do my divemaster mapping project. As promised, here is the final submittal I gave to Dive.Is to satisfy my divemaster training requirement.

If anyone sees any errors, please comment down below!

Takeaways from the Divemaster Program

July 17, 2016 / leslie wang

Wow. There are so many things that I want to say that I don’t know where to start.

First, the divemaster program was completely the opposite of what I expected. I imagined myself having tons of time for myself, doing yoga, discover iceland, everything except for Diving. (haha) Other PADI programs like advanced Open water, Deep Diver, and Rescue focus on your own development and improvement on diving.

The divemaster course is a big transition from being that vacationer diver to a full time diver that takes cares of others. Yes- you can still enjoy a dive and point out cute little crabs, but its not the main focus of the dive anymore. Instead, you are to focus on helping other divers, give them guidance, and if necessary, save their life. I guess I wasn’t prepared for that BIG transition.

During my three months in Iceland, I was able to dive for fun and dive for work. My fun dives brought back the relaxation and fun in diving. My work dives made me a better leader and stronger person.

I’m done! Well Kinda…

July 12, 2016 / leslie wang

divemaster collage iceland Yay! I’m done! Well kinda… I finished all my internship hours yesterday. These three months in Iceland have really flown by. There were definitely days where I missed America, but there were many more days hat I was really happy to be learning something new and be in a new environment.

For the last week- it’s been a real rush to finish my program. On July 4th- a fellow DMT and I took our final exams. The exam consisted of 120 questions. At lest half of the questions were easy things that were was or watched in the DVD and Divemaster manual. About 20 of the questions- I really just guessed on. I had read the manual but didn’t memorize these little details. The good part is that after the exam we went over each wrong answer, so now I know what I didn’t know.For example, if a diver comes out of the water with bright red lips, what does that? Carbon Monoxide poisoning! ( I didn’t know that prior to the exam, but now I will never forget!)

Over the weekend we did our Divemaster workshops. The discover scuba pool session was pretty fun. Patrik was able to find a real student for us. (Thanks Deb!) We all then watched him conduct a DSD and then did our simulated sessions. This practice made it easy when we went to the open water. Continue reading

Divemaster Mapping Project Day

July 7, 2016 / leslie wang

davidsgja 2 davidsgja 1

We planned to one person stay at depth of the “Big Crack”, another person holding the measuring tape, and then another person using the measuring tape. We would measure the width of the crack and then also use a buoy to mark every 20 meters. We practiced a couple times on how everything would play out in the water.

The water at Davidsgja was about 6-8 deg.C. A nice warm up from Silfra. The visibility was about 15 meters. I think the visibility at the bottom of the crack (approximately 160 meters from our starting point) was about 20-30 meters. Very Beautiful.

We had a couple of hiccups during the task. For one, the diveshop didn’t have a measuring tape, so we had created our own from a line and some electrical tape. This made measuring easy to spot the 1 meter tags, but difficult when trying to reel the line back in. Consequently, it took us longer to measure out 20 meter increments. We also had to split the task into two separate dives because of the length of the task.

Nerdy Cat Scuba Travels