Giddyup

We have also started to take riding lessons in Haut Bay, at a stable called The Riding Center. It works well for us that we are in a developing country, because lessons are so affordable. I haven't ridden since I was a child. Growing up, my best friend had two horses (Misty and Daisy), and although she didn't really like to ride (she thought it was boring) - I made her take me out sometimes. Later I took a class through Girl Scouts at El Rancho de Paz, in Owego. It wasn't much, but it was enough of an introduction to keep me excited about horses since. Sebastien took riding lessons a couple of years ago (he is the star pupil in our class) when he was living in France. It has been wonderful. Challenging, but wonderful.
This past week, I rode Peanut, so far my favorite of the horses. I am bringing carrots on Saturday, for sure.

Remedial Diving

I started taking scuba diving lessons a couple of months ago. Sebastien was in the routine of going quite regularly for a while, and I would go with the group just to hang out on the boat, but then everyone was coming back from being underwater elated, just raving about how amazing the sea life is. They also explore shipwrecks along the coast. I think I made up my mind to take scuba lessons when we took the boat out to "Daikker Island" that is filled with, literally, THOUSANDS of seals. No joke. They were exploring under the boat, and playfully swimming near the divers, and when I saw the pictures (our friend Barry has an underwater camera), I nearly melted. They look like big wet puppies, looking for attention, and I am a sucker for that stuff.
So, I started classes, but... I am very afraid of drowning. And this isn't good. The most important thing they say every class is "stay relaxed - keep breathing," but I get tense and then I forget to breath. Which is bad.
Thankfully, the class is really well organized, so that we have time to learn practical diving information from a book before we ever get into the water. Even then, we dive our first two dives in a swimming pool (that is ideal - I have had FIVE pool dives so far), before we even go to the ocean. Well, all that is fine: I do well on all the book information, and I am certainly getting better at the pool dives (practice makes perfect I guess). About three weeks ago, I had a full week of it. I started completely over - even though I had already passed the knowledge tests, I went to those classes again. So far I have started with three different dive classes, and although many of the people I am with finish the course in a week, I have been at it for much, much longer. So, like I was saying, I completely started over, and I was feeling really good about things. I understood the information in the book, and I figured out how to calculate recommended dive times, and I was even feeling good about getting into the pool again. My instructor thought it would be a good idea to do a full day of diving. I left the house at 6:30am for our pool sessions. We did the pool dives, and even when I started to panic, I was able to control it, continue breathing, and move on. Well, we finished the pool dives (only swimming about 6 feet below the surface), and then went to the sea to do our shore dives (to about 12-15 feet below the surface). Well, I made it (all day, mind you, except lunch break - 8:am to 7:pm, no kidding), until FOUR minutes before the end of my LAST shore dive (so we were about 3-4 meters in the ocean) when I couldn't clear my ears and my mask was filling with water, and I drank some sea water, and flipped out thinking I was going to drown, and basically just went to the surface, which means I need to do it again. Luckily, the instructors keep teaching you until you are comfortable, but I was SO upset about being so flustered that I couldn't finish the dive. Next time will be better, I am positive. Now, it is a challenge. I MUST finish.