Today started with two hours in the classroom, where we watched some video and got a little lecturing. It was a pretty boring way to start off, but I guess you gotta know the theory. Our lunch hour was pretty busy. We had to get our cursory medicals, get photos taken, sign away our lives, take our first quizzes, and eat. The quizzes are trivial; as long as you are awake for the videos, you can answer most of the questions. The rest you can look up in the book.

After lunch we had to prove that we could swim 200 meters and tread water for 10 minutes. I knew I could do neither of these, so I was pretty nervous. I managed to do the five laps around the pool somehow, although I came in last. I was only able to stay afloat by staying close to the shallow end and kicking off the edge when needed, so I am a cheater. It was either that or drop out.

Next we learned how to attach our tanks to our BCDs (Bouyancy Control Devices, the vests that hold all your stuff), hook up our hoses, and put it all on. Then we walked in to the shallow end, and did our skills, most of which I had done yesterday, so it was pretty easy. Eventually we had to go down to the bottom of the deep end, probably 5 metes down. As I feared, I couldn't equalized my ears, so I didn't make it all the way down. Hopefully I can figure out how to do that.