Now that I'm back from Mike Ball Dive Expeditions, I've got a few more things to finish before I make my final decision. Also, there's new interns in the house! So lots going on.

At this point, I'm running very low on funds. Since Abyss Scuba Diving hit me with a $5500 bill  when I got here, I ran through my savings a LOT faster than expected. I wish they would have explained the whole program better before I got here. I can't imagine coming with some of the amounts of money I've heard the other interns come with. I have about a month (the amount of time this post covers) to figure it out.

On the way back to Sydney, Crystal sent my resume in to an EB Games store for an Assistant Manager position which sounded really promising. I didn't want to strictly rely on this since I don't have much retail supervisory experience so I applied at several other jobs around the world. I applied for several I.T. and Retail jobs here, a few retail jobs with Justin and Bob in Hawaii, I applied for The House of Dancing Water in Macau, China, and for a bunch of jobs near Miami, FL. Just trying to find something to move me forward. Unfortunately I only heard back from EB Games and The House of Dancing Water...and both have generally bad timing for my situation. EB Games called 36hrs after I re-applied to MEDHOST and was accepted, and Dancing Water still hasn't scheduled interviews. At this point, I've accepted my position back in MEDHOST albeit on the Wednesday thru Saturday shift  so no weekend fun until I can get my schedule back in the next shift bid. (I'm looking at you Patrick...whoever you are)

During the job search, one of the new interns and myself decided to explore Sydney. He was WAY cooler than the other interns that have been here, so I actually had a good time. We bought tickets to what I like to call The Sydney 5. Basically, it was a package with access to the Sydney Sea-Life Aquarium, Sydney Wildlife Sanctuary, Sydney Tower Eye, Madame Tussauds Wax Museum, and the Manly Sea-Life Sanctuary. Colin and I went to the Aquarium the day we got the tickets because it was raining, so the visibility at the tower was terrible, and we didn't know how much of the wildlife sanctuary was outside. We went a few days later to the Tower Eye on a clear day. Both were pretty sweet. Having just come back from the GBR, the aquarium wasn't all that impressive but still cool, and our Tower ticket just got us to the observation deck...we didn't get to go to the open area on top. A few other interns showed up and wanted to see the city, so we took that day to do the Wax Museum, Wildlife Sanctuary, and the Manly Sea-Life Sanctuary. We were supposed to go see a Sydney sunset from North Head, but it was cold and rainy, I was in shorts and a thin jacket, and we were all tired...so we just went home and hung out there.

Elaina, one of the newer interns, started out pretty cool. She's a springboard diver for low-budget shows around the world similar to the ones I did on Royal Caribbean. We went to a Diving Masters (Sydney Springboard Diving Team) practice at the Sydney Olympic Park Aquatic Center so I could see how much I remember from last fall. It was good times...the coaching was great, and it was only $25 for a 2hr session. It's kinda funny, because Coach Iman, my coach from Plano, had called me one day about getting a pool set up for some private lessons for some other people...so I'm going to be working on that with him when I get back. Anyway, Elaina is young, and doesn't really know what she wants, so she's very emotionally volatile. Our friendship has gone downhill because she doesn't understand real life yet...so I'll just leave it at that. Apparently I have issues with 18-22yo independent girls; good thing I'm gay.

Back to real life... Since I've accepted a job back home, I booked my flights and gave Carl some time to get my Oceanic Service Tech course scheduled and finish my Sidemount Instructor Course. That being said, this means I have to stay at the intern house for a bit longer, as I couldn't find any short term accommodations for much cheaper without lost of space. I also based this on Carl telling me that Abyss would cover my accommodations if the scheduling issue was their fault. I took that at half value, but it may come into argument once my final bill comes into play. Carl also backed out of a deal we had because I'm moving away and he is afraid of how it would be handled. This is costing me a good amount of money as well. We'll see how it all ends up, but I think I'll be ok if Abyss didn't do anything else for me and we just $0'd out the accounts...they still won.

TL;DR: I'm coming home for whatever phase 2 becomes. :) See you back in TX! (why did I leave after winter, to another winter, and now I'm coming back for a 3rd winter? What's wrong with me?!?)

-Brenden