The end

Aussie word of the day: rubbish bin = trash can, it's pretty self-explanatory, instead of trash can you just say rubbish bin.

Except for daylight savings starting this weekend here in Perth and the beginning of summer, everything else is coming to an end. It is the end of October and almost the end of the year. The end of the semester is in sight (just two more weeks!), the end of my scuba certification course, the end of the 30's for one friend! Happy BIG 4-0, by the way! The end sounds so sad, so tragic, but why should it? The end is also the beginning for new things and sometimes brings a little relief and freedom with it, like quitting my job and coming to Perth. The end means the beginning of something else, something new. It is the sound of hope and renewal, like springtime or fall. The trees must shed their leaves in the fall to welcome the vibrant new green ones in the spring and everyone forgets that those trees were so stark and bare for the last few months. It is the end of being single for my friend Sarah who got engaged in Niagara Falls last weekend and also the end of being pregnant for my friend Teagan who welcomed a beautiful baby girl into the world last week. But most people would look at Sarah and Teagan and only see the beginning of something new, a new marriage and, in both cases, a new life. And right about now it is starting to look like the end of our nice weather as the clouds roll in over Perth.

The thing I am most excited about ending aside from the semester, is my scuba course which has taken me over a month to complete with all the bad weather and crazy scheduling. Today, was my first ocean dive! I really enjoyed it and saw some really great things. We visited a dive trail in Rockingham, 30 minutes south of Perth. The dive trail consisted of a string of sunken boats and airplanes connected by a rope. The boats and planes are not side by side, but spread out over a few metres of ocean floor about 20-30 feet apart. The sunken boats and planes are covered in all forms of sealife, from marine plants and coral to various types of fish. We mostly saw smaller fish today. I petted a real life seahorse, which was pregnant, held sand dollars and touched star fish and other interesting things. It was really amazing seeing those things alive in the ocean instead of dried up and dead. I could've stayed down there all day. Of course, that may have had more to do with my inability to get out of the water without falling down and once you are down, there isn't much hope for getting back up. In the shallower water along the shoreline, my legs were like jelly and I couldn't catch my balance to bring myself back up with the weight of the scuba gear holding me down and all the waves crashing against me. It was pretty embaressing, but luckily I did make it back to my feet before the guys had to drag me to the beach. I also had trouble getting my fins on in the water, but by the end of the day I was a natural *cough*. So now that it is nearly the end of my scuba certification, I will have the freedom of scuba diving anywhere in the world! Next stop, The Great Barrier Reef! See how good The End can be?!?! The underwater world is my oyster.. haha!

It was also the end of my loss of appetite from the stress I've been having over the last week and a half. So what could be better when you feel like eating again than KFC! Good ole American Kentucky Fried Chicken. This is actually the first time since I arrived here to eat American fast food, but it was damn good! Tomorrow is another ocean dive, this time off a boat. Today was a shore dive where you walk into and out of the water. Then tomorrow night there is an American style Halloween party on campus... Saturday is a day of exploring Rottnest Island off the coast of Perth, followed by... the gay pride parade. It wasn't my idea, but who knows.. it might be fun! That's why gay people are called gay right.. because they are always happy and fun! Besides that, my gay American pal, Charlie, is hosting the Halloween party Friday night. It's a weekend of gaydom!

The End