Driving in first gear.

Today is like a Knoxville Sunday. It's raining so I'm not going on the hike to Cascade du chaudron, but instead I get to sit in my room, read, do homework, and relax. There is a lot of pressure to DO things because I'm not here very long. Only two more months and then I board a plane. That fact alone makes me feel bad for sitting in my room, but sometimes that's all I really want to do: just be quiet.

So, today it was wonderful to wake up late, remember my dreams, move slowly, and just do what I want to do at the speed I want to do it. With two of my classes already finished for the semester, I have fewer to worry about. Now all my concentration goes into translating from english to french and french to english. I also have a grammar course that is teaching me the most and helping with the translations. No matter how you slice it, my life is not stressful. My other class is SCUBA diving.

Last week was the first time in the ocean. I was a little freaked out because he had a power point of all the scary things that could go wrong when you're 20 meters under water and then explained how to prevent them in French. I got most of it, but still some was lost in translation. It turned out just fine, because I went down for 15 minutes just with the instructor. He held my hand for the first five and motioned everything that I needed to do, which turned out to not be that much. Then it was easy, and peaceful, and beautiful! After the 15, we went back up to the boat and got two other girls and went down again. We were down 12 meters for 45 minutes. At one point he motioned to me and another girl to sit down on the ocean floor and wait and watch while he worked with the other girl. It was the coolest, most surreal classroom I've ever been in. There were Nemo-like fish swimming all around us and through the giant coral. Every now and then a current would reach through the valley of coral and push me to the side, where I'd start to float out of my seat on the sand and I'd remember I was under-the freaking-ocean. So tight.

Then we swam around and saw eels and a fish that disguised itself as a rock and a school of fish where each fish followed the other and made a line 10 meters long. The water was so clear, you could see all around you. From the boat you could see the bottom, a good 15 meters down.

It was a silent, tranquil world just chillin' under the surface that separates their world from the one that moves quickly, with worry and with purpose of betterment. Under there, everything is content with the way things are, living in the waves, harmonious and free of desire.