Strive to Inspire
I tried to put this up last week, but apparently my computer hates me and it didn’t make it!
Reflecting back on the past week, I realize that if all the weeks are half as eventful as this one, I will have quite an adventure over here. Monday morning started out great, until Elizabeth and I walked into the orange room, filled with our fellow DACers, only to realize we were approximately fifteen minutes late. Of course we have tons of people we could blame, but the plain truth is that we were late. It isn’t too pleasant to miss the one and only name game and look around a room and not know a single person’s name. You will be happy to know that I now could name about half to ¾ of them. We started out doing low ropes and the main event to me was that the bottom of my pants got absolutely soaked with nasty mud and God knows what else… It was great to get to know other people and get a sense of what they were like. Just to give you a sense, they are all great! After an hour for lunch, we went surfing! I managed to catch about 3.5 waves, yet crashed and tumbled on the other million that I attempted. Besides a few bumps on the head and a few bruises, it went very well and was superbly fun!
Tuesday we went straight to the rock wall and channeled Spiderman. We have yet to do the high ropes but I am sure they will be just as great! We had to do the belaying as well and it was fun to make people stop half way down the wall and give them a major wedgie! A big part of our course is First Aid and Beach Lifeguard theory, so in the afternoon we had our first lecture on First Aid and learned a lot of important things, just about saving people etc…
Wednesday was interesting because we had to do a 400m swim in under 8 minutes. We were in a hotel pool so that meant 33 lengths of the pool. I would say that the majority of my fellow course-mates did not manage to get it; I’m glad that I did make it so that I don’t have to do the swim again until December. When 20 people are doing a swim like that, there is a lot of spare time to just sit in the Jacuzzi and chat, which is exactly what we did! They had a steam room which really helped my cold out a lot (yes, I am still sick L). After lunch we had a Beach Lifeguard lecture which let us know all about the duties and responsibilities of a Beach Lifeguard and how fit they all are.
Thursday we went Kayaking and Canoeing which was great craic! We paddled around some little islands in quite a large lake which spans all the way from the UK to Ireland! It really isn’t that amazing, but it is very cool, in the way that Niagara Falls is; you can see another country from where you stand! Then in the afternoon, after a quick jaunt to KFC to get some kids lunch, we had another lecture; this time we had the manikins out and got to practice CPR on them, which was really funny!
Overall, everyone is really nice and fantastic. The Irish welcome is legendary, but it is more than anything I had ever imagined. It is amazing how good it feels to have people really want to know how you are getting on and want to show you around their country. Every morning we look out our window and see the pro surfers catching waves at 8am. It is so inspiring to see someone command a wave and ride it like there is no tomorrow. Perhaps someday I will be able to inspire such emotion.
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