Scuba!

Hey guys,
Back again after another stunt outside the realm of the Almighty Internet. I did, however, have a toilet seat. Fair trade. Its been brought to my attention that I seem to be confused as to what day it is. I wrote most of this post in a notebook while operating on the assumption that today is Sunday. Apparently its not but I can't really find the brain power necessary to convert the days and figure out what my missing link is. So here goes:
Wednesday night, after my last update, Aileen, a gal in my group, and I went in search of diner. At some point in the afternoon the 2 of us decided to wander away from the larger group to hit the store, pharmacy, etc. Running errands quickly deteriorates into herding cats when 8 people tag along. So the 2 type A blond political science majors went to get some things done. It should be noted here that we were also the only 2 members of the group to track down internet that night. HINT: Ask the mall security guard who's in his early 20's and looks like he'd rather be checking his facebook.
Back to the linear plot - we had some ok Japanese food and set off for a ramble around town. Unbeknownst to us we were in Tabaco during Tabakfest, which seemed like a city-wide party celebrating the town itself. We found a San Miguel beer garden with a band playing and sat our blonde butts down to watch. We quickly noticed, unsurprisingly, that ours were the only blonde butts in the whole place. Cue stares from the crowd and giggles from the children. Apparently old white dudes with hot young Filippinas don't turn heads but "blancas" and "spaghetti hairs" (seriously) cause quite the scene. So much for my theory that I'm so tanned I blend in.
The band leader stopped to give us a shoutout, which was followed up with someone from the audience sending a requent dedicated to us, "Here Without You". Lordy. I had a feeling when we got the stares that we would end up being called on stage, and in this country that so loves its Videoke (Karaoke) I was convinced they'd make us sing. Luckily the singing part didn't happen, but Aileen and I most definitely did get called up on stage infront of a cowd that numbered around 200. The singer sang that Lifehouse song "Wherever You Will Go" to us. Then came an avalanche of audience requests including "Faithfully" and a truly painful completely unidentifiable Celin Dion song. The most adorable little boy brought us a bag of peanuts, then some crackers, then some grteen mangoes from somewhere. I think he was flirting with us the only way a 5 year old knows how. I bought him a P5 bag of cookies and he almost broke his little cheeks smiling. It was one of my favourite nights in the Philippines so far.
Thursday brought an epic travel day. Bus to Naga airport, flight to Cebu, 4 hour bus to some ferry terminal, 11pm ferry to Malapacua. Bantigue Cove, Malapascua is by far the nicest spot we've stayed at yet. The hotel is the only cluster of buildings on the tiny cove with white beach and turquoise water. NICE rooms, great restaurants, toilet seats, a bit pricey. No drinking before scuba class so no Tanduay for me! The staff were amazing and there seemed to be dozens of them working politely at all hours. Friday was my first day of scuba school. 3 of us were starting our certifications from scratch so we 3 sat down bright and early and got our little textbook packages and filled out our forms and prepared for a day of lernin'. 10 minutes later we were following our instructor Jonjie down to the beach to get diving. Clearly they do things a bit differently here. An hour or so of diving and we were instructed to go read the book. Sunbathing and studying gave us a full afternoon and we headed up to the restaurant to meet and take some quizes. Jonjie took this opportunity to grab a rum and coke...and bring it to our testing table where we wre all working very hard on our group test. We breezed thru those quizzes no problem. Jonjie decided at some point during the day that my name was Carrie, but along the way his memory must've tried to remind him of my true name, but he only got so far as adding a "ch". So I was Cherry for the day. During and after dinner we watched the required 80's safety videos and headed for bed. Early dive day and all!
Saturday was jam-packed full of underwater fun. We did all our learning skill-development dives, or Confined Water Dives as PADI calls it. Lunch, then the second open water dive. Saw lots of fishies and coral and tons of sea urchins. We finished up our final exams and all the really 'official' parts of the course.
It felt so bizarre to be so responsible with my drinking and sleep schedule while doing all the dive stuff, but its so cool I don't even care. Jonjie gave us the low down on all the good dive spots coming up on my trip. Hopefully doing a shark dive in Boracay next week! I think I may have found my new money-swallowing hobby!
Sunday was even more diving. Highlights include seeing a 2m long sea snake and an amazing coral reef. On the boat ride back to the beach Jonjie said we were all done our scuba lessons, but we just had one more surface skill to demostrate before getting our official certification. Only in the Philippines would this mean doing a snorkel bong. (place snorkel on head, mask inclusive, have scuba instructor pour beer down the snorkel and chug it as fast as you can). So now I'm officially scuba certified!!!!! WEEEEEEOOO!!!
Today was a travel day that involved taking the 4 hr bus back to Cebu City. I got to spend 5 hrs sitting in the immigration office getting my visa extended. What a thrill. Going clubbing tonight and having a hungover travel day to Boracay tomorrow. The hotel here is soooo nice. We even have fridges in our rooms, so you know what that means - cold white wine! It's the simple pleasures that make life really enjoyable.
In other news, I finished Eat Pray Love today. HATED it. 300 some-odd pages of this woman meditating and eating and complaining about being sad and its such a pain in my ass.
I'm staying right on budget, greatly helped by the fact that there is ZERO shopping here. Its nothing like Thailand. It looks like Cebu has some pretty sweet shopping but sadly today has already been swallowed up by paperwork and drinking. Sad. I'm told Boracay is pretty decent. I need to boost this economy!
And like the true polisci geek I am, I miss the news. I watched BBC like a crackhead in immigration today. I have no idea whats going on in the world and its driving me crazy!
Miss you guys, I can't believe I'm almost at the half way mark!