Dykking

Yesterday i started attending a two week diving course. It's a bit expensive (particularly now that i'm a student!) but since the teaching and the textbooks are in norwegian, i figure i'll be doing some language practice, too; more value for my kroner, i tell my conscience. It seems convinced. For the moment.

The first lesson consisted of two hours of lecturing, a couple of quizzes, and some practice on how to put together the vest, tank and hosing. I understood the theory and did the hands-on stuff quite ok, but the vocabulary in some of the quiz questions gave me trouble. I asked the teacher and the guy next to me about the meaning of a few words, but next time i'll just bring the dictionary along, so as not to seem so totally out of it.

As for the social aspect, well, no dictionary can help there! You know how it is: a small group of new people, everybody excited about the course, friendly, bantering, getting to know each other... My social skills are not very good even in the best of circumstances; in those hours, with norwegian stereo-surround, my brain squeezed to the utmost just to be able to extract the most general sense out of what people were saying, i simply became almost mute. I was so concentrated i even forgot to smile and nod, sometimes. My classmates and the teacher must have either found me totally morose, or been about to call a proctologist to get the stick out of my arse. Either way, it can only get better now.