Sharm

The most pleasant place in Egypt. Very pleasant indeed if you don’t include the poop water smells, diapers in the pool, ants in your bed (literally not figuratively), the haggling to buy something… Ok I’ll stop. The good side of Sharm: scuba diving, seeing really cool fish, eating Oreos, having a GREAT teacher.
Really it was GREAT compared to Egypt. Well, that doesn’t really make sense… but you know what I mean – the Sinai isn’t really like the rest of Egypt.

We started off the day by getting settled in after our AWESOME bus ride with TVs, games, unlimited movies, and plush clean seats. When we got to the house it was maybe 6:00pm so we had dinner and went to sleep at 8:00.

The next day consisted of lazing around the house, filling in ant holes and then at around 1:30, the hottest part of the day, we went to the really cool pool in the resort. There were two gigantic islands with palm trees in the middle of the pool. Kai and I played hide and swim. We usually hid in the island behind trees and then jumped in and swam to the other island but after a while that got boring, and the lifeguard was a really good one, so we could not go on the islands anymore. Fortunately there was a woman who was a very good spying target, standing out with her bleached blonde hair and taking selfies in the pool, so we started stalking her until our parents pulled us out for dinner.

Our first day of scuba trainings started early. We ate a quick breakfast, then ran out the door. When we got to the front there was a big white truck with music playing. A woman got out and asked us if we where there to learn to scuba dive. We answered with an immediate yes and got in the truck. We swayed along with the car as we sang pop songs that the driver had put on.

When our family reached the hotel Hilton we jumped out and ran around to the back where there was a scuba training building. Our parents left with a different guide who looked extremely like a grown up version of a good friend, Eli. We sat and read our books for a while, occasionally getting up to do jumping jacks to not fall asleep. At around 12:00 we ate our lunch, pesto pasta and cucumbers 🥒 and our treat Oreos then we geared up and jumped in the water. We immediately popped to the top and began to swim. Our teacher Darya helped us let out the air in our BCD’s (Buoyancy Control Devices) to go under the water.

As soon as we went under I was immediately distracted by the amazing fish that swam right up to our hands. I continued to equalize my ears as we got lower. Once we hit the bottom, I laid down and waited for instructions. We were to take our regulator out of our mouths. Then while blowing bubbles to keep the airflow going, we took a big arm sweep and found the regulator then cleared it and put it back in our mouths. We completed two other skills then with tanks at 80 bars we headed back up to the surface. We got back to the scuba center and said bye the people at the center. Darya, Kai, and I got in the truck again, this time very tired and feeling successful. We drove to our house with our parents, got out, and walked to our apartment. We had dinner and crashed again not waking up once!

Well refreshed and full after breakfast, we headed out to our second day. We got in the truck and greeted Darya with a hug. After arriving at the center we went to our classroom and for the first part of the day we did books like the day before. Then we had our lunch PB&J and went out to the water. We did a few more skills. And then went back in. The next day Darya said we would take two dives and then our first open water one.

We got in the truck and I immediately fell asleep on Kai. We where completely pooped. We picked up our parents. (They had taken the boat to dive this day. ) Then went back to the house. We had a quick dinner of pizza and broccoli then crashed yet again on our bed.

After breakfast we rode in the truck to the center and got right down to it; we got our gear on and went in. We completed the day’s skills and then came up for lunch. We ate and talked about our dive and then after we had digested we got our gear on again and headed out to the ocean. We went and practices our skills and then we went deeper down to 12 meters. We saw a bunch of really cool fish 🐡 🎣 🐠 🐟
and coral. We went back up so that we would not run out of breath. We got in the truck and picked up our parents. We got home, ate and went to bed early. We were having the final exam tomorrow and I didn’t want to go back tired 😴

We woke up early again the next day. I got in the car followed by my family. When we got to the center Darya was ready to go. We got our gear and then did our last open water dive. We came back and did our exam. It was hard and long but we got through it and then went and had lunch while the exams were graded. We got great scores. We both passed, and I beat my sister by one point. We were now officially Open Water divers!

The next day we were picked up by the truck. Everything was the same until we passed the center and kept going to the boat where our parents had been going the days before.

When we got off the truck, we stepped into the boat and took of our shoes. We went up on top of the boat and enjoyed the wind blowing in our faces as it took of. Our parents brought us hot tea and we sipped it as we rode the ship. Once the whistle blew we got our gear and jumped in. The fish immediately swam towards us and we enjoyed a very pleasant dive. When we got back to the ship we took off our gear and ran upstairs where we talked excitedly about the dive as our parents brought us some reward Sprite.

Just an hour later we got our still damp gear on. We hopped back in and started the dive. This time the current tugged at us trying to pull us out. The dive was great though. All the sea life was out. When we got back to the boat we sat down exhausted and ate lunch. After lunch we went to our next diving space. We all snorkeled instead of diving because we didn’t pay for it. After a while Kai and I got bored and we abandoned the mask and snorkel and just jumped in. We did lots of cannonballs and swan dives. It was so Awesome 😎. We got back on once everyone arrived and then went to the dock. We got in the truck and then went home what a day.

The next day was just like the first. We did our first dive. (Amazing) then our second. In which we saw two octopi 🐙and then had lunch. The afternoon consisted of two things: tea and belly flops. 🤪then we got back on the boat and went back to land. We drove home and ate a quick dinner. The next day we took off. We woke up at 11:00 and had a nice breakfast. We then got dressed and went to the pool. At that time it was already 6:00pm, so we went and played tennis for an hour. We went back home and watched a quick show and then went to bed.

We woke up excited and sad for our last day. 😳😨😧🙇‍♀️🤦🏻‍♀️We got on the boat and took off for our last dive. We jumped in and started our dive. We went to the wreck of a ship. There were sooo many toilets. It was really funny because you would go over to a toilet and see this big fish peeking out at you. When we finished the dive our next dive we saw a HUGE barracuda. We came up for lunch and our cannonballs. We went up to the top deck and jumped off there. It was a blast. We had so much fun. We got back on and rode home. I can’t wait to see where the next adventure brings us…. or maybe I can. 🙂