I had my final pool session for scuba today. It involved the demonstrating the underwater swim and ten laps, then getting all the gear on and trying my best to get to the bottom of the pool. Despite strapping twenty pounds of lead to my waist, all the neoprene comprising the wetsuit is doing its best to keep me floating back to the surface every time I take a breath of air. When at the bottom of the pool, my knees are resting on the floor, but as soon as I breath in, I gently start to float away. Apparently this is just one of the things I'll get better at with practice.

Saturday morning (at 6 am) we meet to go down to Monterey for our ocean dives. Sunday is more of the same. I can't wait!

Yay! I was finally able to swim underwater for 25 meters at the pool today! I've been trying to accomplish this for several weeks now; I need to be able to do it to pass my scuba class. For the longest time, I could only get halfway across the pool, but finally, by concentrating on relaxing my body, I made it across the whole 25 meters. Immediately afterwards, I did it an additional 3 times. It truly is a mental problem, not a physical one; once you do it once, it becomes a whole lot easier to do it again.

Now I just need to demonstrate it for my scuba instructor...

While in Washington Square park in San Francisco waiting for The Go Game to start, Alec and I witnessed a flurry of pigeons flying in a circle across the park. Around and around, they seemed really frightened of something, but we couldn't see anything in the area that should concern them so. Then in an instant, we saw a huge pigeon crash to the center of the group. A huge, brown-golden pigeon...wait, that was not a pigeon. An eagle or hawk had crashed the party and grabbed one of the pigeons in mid-flight. The raptor turned and flew into a nearby tree and waited there, watching us, as the hapless victim squirmed in its talons, slowly suffocating. Once the prey stopped moving, the predator took off and left the park, leaving a group of a half dozen of us stunned in amazement.

Who knew that you could find such a display of nature in the middle of a city?

Oh, yeah, and the Go Game rocked.

Announcement in the Zoo:
"Please don't scare the ostriches! Cement floor!"

"Many people come, looking, looking, taking picture...No good...Some people come, see. Good!"
- from a Sherpa near Mount Everest, as recounted by Galen Rowell.