Congratulations, Heleme.





   I feel like I have only good news to share with you people!

Just after writing my last entry wondering why I still haven't tried scuba diving and actually knowing that money has always been the only reason why I haven't done it. Well. Yesterday I finally did it.

We went to interview a terribly lucky group of "problem" school kids (aged 13-14) who spent their morning scuba diving - part of the school principal's masterplan. The whole idea is that these kids with problems at school can spend half of their holidays at school getting more personal help and different kinds of assignments and at the end of this successful week they will all do something special together as a way to thank and encourage them to do well at school. This time it was scuba diving and even we (journalist I work with and I) got to join, for free - INSANE! I felt like I had to hide my excitement a bit as my "boss" was so calm and cool about it... I on the other hand, just wanted to jump around because I was so happy :)

The beginning of the trip was mostly just listening to our guides (good-looking French scuba diver men ;) I liiiiiiike) and after the trip we did the interviews.

On the boat we saw lots of spinner dolphins (amazing) and the diving itself, well, it is again something that I can't describe here. Underwater life <3 So beautiful. We were under the water for about 20 minutes but it felt way too short.  When we had to come out I really would've just preferred staying under the water for the rest of the day.

I am also happy to inform that my ears did quite well. Those who don't know, I've always had problems with my ears when I'm flying but there's no real medical condition I have so it was safe to go and try. Anyhow, I was a bit scared because I thought it would've been horrible to go under just to realise that I'm not able to do scuba diving. Following the instructions and occasionally doing "the Valsalva maneuver": you close your mouth, pinch your nostrils closed and gently blow through your nose I was able to equalise and my ears didn't hurt anymore.  The breathing itself was very easy but balancing yourself with the heavy tank on your back was a little bit trickier. At the end of the trip we were all very happy and I felt really overwhelmed. Even we got our certificates of our first-ever scuba dive.

Only three weeks left and then Outi will be here - exciting but also sad as it means I only have 3 more weeks at work.

Trying to be a bit more creative and study this weekend. Wish me luck ;)

xxx E