.JPG)
Hello everyone!
As usual, a lot has happened since my last entry. I have worked my way up the coast to Cairns, which is about as far up as you can go. I took a day trip further north to the Daintree national rainforest and to Cape Tribulation, and then came back to try to get a job.
Even before coming here (australia), I had set my sight on working on a dive boat. I based this goal on the fact that I didn't want to do a job here that I could do back home, and I wanted to find a job where I would be learning new things/skills.
Through a series of very fortunate events that made me question my skepticism regarding fate, I found myself talking to a director of a dive company about a Divemaster traineeship within 30 minutes of starting my job hunt. He explained that through their company you can work on the boat and in exchange they will take a part of your daily pay and put it towards all of your courses and materials to become a PADI Divemaster. In the end, you contribute about $5,000 from your pay towards your certification, as oppossed to the approximate $12,000 it would cost you to do it on your own dime.
For those of you who aren't familiar with scuba qualifications, PADI has a series of "tickets" or "cards" that you can achieve in the following order: Open Water, Advanced Open Water, Rescue Diver, Divemaster. I became Open Water certified in the Caribbean while working for Club Med, which turned me on to diving in the first place. Holding a Divemaster certification allows you to work on dive boats worldwide. While you cannot teach people how to dive, you can lead dives for certfied dovers, and have various other tasks and responsibilties on board the vessel. By doing the traineeship I will have access to my divemaster, plus 5 months of experience onboard a dive ship.
So, after speaking to Scotty at Down Under Dive, I was told to show up the next morning at 7 am for a 3 day unpaid trial period, which is standard for everyone who wants to work on the boat. Score- 30 min and I have a job set up. right? Well not exactly. I got to the boat, and there was another guy on trial working as well. Apparently they had up to 5 people on trial that week, and none of the crew knew how many spots were available. "2 at best" was what I was told, plus apparently some guy who had already finished his trail had slam dunked it. "So, what was I there for?" I thought. I decided to try my best anyway, just in case.
For 3 days I reported bright and early at 7 am, worked my butt off all day, put on my cheery face, and offered to go above and beyond so that they would like me and think I was a hard worker. My duty was to man the snorkel deck, and assist snorkelers in and out of the water. I was amazed at how many people have little or no snorkeling experience. Not to mention skills. Who knew. Any way, there were also a lot of other small but physically demanding tasks, like pull out fins and fit them to every passenger, hand out stinger suits to protect against jellysish, and then pack all that stuff up at the end of the day, wash out the tank room, and clean the boat upon return. ( I got stuck with toilets twice. Let me tell you people- if you ever get seasick, try to puke off the back of the boat and not into the sink, ok?) Moral of the story is, I worked really hard, because I REALLY wanted to prove that I was up for the job.
Turns out, they liked me and I got the job!
... but there are two major catches:
1) Not the end of the world, but they don't have room on the boat for me to start work till a week and a half from now. I am not good at sitting around doing nothing. in fact, i suck at it. But, I did convince them to give me some dive manuals tomorrow so i can start studying for the exams i will eventually have to take
2) More importantly: I technically get paid $140 a day. Woo! Not. I get taxed on the $140 @ 29%, leaving $99. From that, they take out $65 a day for PADI course and materials fees. What am I left with?! $34 a day. for 10.5 hours of work. Which sounds beyond shitty when you put it like that.
I have to move out of my apartment to make this work, into a sharehouse I found. They have a divers special for $75 a week, and I'm going to check that out tomorrow. Plus, its closer to town (taking the bus sucks ass- today, on sunday, when it only runs every 2 hours anyway, it drove right past me while I was waiting at the stop and it took me an hour to walk to town in 34 degree heat) I told my roommate I'm giving a weeks notice, but it was over the phone cause she has been house sitting at her parents house all week, and even though she said she understands, i think shes a bit peeved.
So, I will be living off $150 a week. If i pay $75 for rent and $40 for food and $15 for phone and internet, that leaves me with a grand total of $20 in my pocket. And who are we kidding, it will probably end up in my stomach in the form of more food or alcohol.
Basically, I can break even. Which, I guess when you think about it isn't half bad considering how expensive it is to do divemaster on your own dime ($12,000). And, I can apply to get my tax back when I leave. So maybe its not a crisis after all. It's just really really scary to commit to something as big as this.
Actually, I think the worst/scariest thing is coming up for stuff to do in the meantime. Now that I am money conscious, I don't want to buy anything, but it's hard to keep occupied without spending money. That, and I don't know many people here, and I am prone to lonely syndrome.
Ok, well now that I have laid it all out like that, it doesn't sound half bad. I have been a wreck these past few days since I found out I got the job. It's a nitty gritty job, with long hours and for crap pay, but it's doing something I really wanted to do on this trip, and in life, so I have been struggling big time with whether or not to do it. (especially since I haven't bought my return ticket yet, and its going to be hella expensive) But, I guess going into a little credit card debt never hurt anyone.
Hopefully I can come back to this when I get my next quarter life crisis/anxiety attack regarding this situation, aka tomorrow, and feel the same way.
So yeah, got the job I was wishing so badly for and worked so hard in my trial for, and my life has been one big ball of nervous, indecisive emotions ever since. And I haven't even started yet.
