A-diving TIME!!

One thing I've taken away from Korea is the "________ time": "have a funny time," "it's a tasty time," "winey time," "dancey time." This list goes on; make it what you want. So there's your explanation for the title.

Now to tell you about the diving time. I went diving with my friends Jessica and Travis, and my new buddy Pete. Pete is probably in his early or mid-sixties. He's a cool dude and local with a few jaunts off the island. Basically covered head to toe in tattoos, tribal and the like. He's a retired judge. (The things they keep under their robes.) Honorable Pete also jokes that he was the first and original Dead Head. A real interesting guy and very generous when it comes to sharing the wonders of the open sea. (I did forget to ask him about diving over the Mariana Trench, so I'll try and remember that when I see him this week for another dive.)

Honorable Pete picked Trav, Jess and me up in front of the loading dock at work and we headed over to MDA dive shop to rent BCs and regs ($14/person = not too shabby for a super cool diving time). Then we headed out to the Atlantis something-or-other harbor with its rusty casing graveyard for the abandoned rigs of yesteryear. Jumping the waves out to sea with the sun beaming bright on our faces we smiled like fools from the sheer joy of the moment and the excitement about what lie below and ahead of us.

We couldn't dive the first spot because there was some sort of Marine Corps rifle-shooting operation going on on the cliff to the left so we back-back-backed it up to a spot called Blue Hole. 

(That's me on the left, falling down the hole like Alice. I got a little excited, laughing and spinning to the effects of nitrogen narcosis, and felt the pull of the electric blue as I passed the 130ft mark, but Honorable Pete jangled me back to reality. When diving, the leader or master, or what you will, has some sort of metal that he or she will click against their tank to get other divers' attention. Nitrogen narcosis becomes more common after diving past the 100ft/30m mark. The amount of nitrogen absorbed in the body is similar to the effects of drinking one martini [for every 50ft] on an empty stomach and NN is sometimes dubbed the "martini effect." The euphoria of diving in clear, warm water can be traded for paranoia and panic in murky, cold water; the danger increases as the diver descends, and while divers can learn to recognize and navigate through the effects, there is no way to gain tolerance. The effects are reversed upon ascending as the gas particles stop freaking out on the body. Dive safe!)

We were right off the rock of Guam, and the jutting cliffs above the sea gave way to a sloping shore underneath. It was like a dusty desert plain - this is always what I think about when diving. The wet, wild west. The gaping blue hole emerged from the midst of the sandy, coral desert and we descended into the neon glow. It was really surreal and I kept waiting for the rocking chairs and cuckoo clocks as the expired air bubbled above our heads. After I was called out of my nitrogen narcosis we swam around, took pictures, floated nearby as Honorable Pete clanged a rock trying to call sharks, and looked at an eel before Trav and I had to ascend early because we were wearing half lungs (tanks) as opposed to full.

All in all it was magical, and oh so nice to not have to wear a wet suit for the water was warm and wonderful. My first dive on Guam, and hopefully not my last. Planning a night dive (I'm going to vomit) this week, and I would really like to do some wreck dives as Guam is on the map for that kind of stuff.

PS - my brosefs, Alex (28) and Jake (18) are currently at the LCD Soundsystem concert in NYC. The last one. And I'm listening to (occasionally watching) it on pfork and feeling excited for them, but also insanely jealous. How awesome, right? America, I'm excited to go back to your live shows among other things.