Loy Krathong

is the Thai festival for honouring the water spirits. It's November 16 (yesterday) so there was a festival here on Koh Tao. Lots of different people performed Thai dances and then all the dive shops hold an all island Miss Loy Krathong contest. Sam was the representative from our shop (BANS), but unfortunately she didn't win. Highlights include when they asked Gemma "What's your favourite place on Earth" and she answered, "I don't know, but in bed with my boyfriend is pretty good." After all the dancing and contests etc everyone lights floral arrangements and candles and floats them off to sea. It's beautiful, but it leads to a lot of crap in the ocean, which we saw all over the place when we went diving today.
Today was the final day for my open water students (the class I'm assisting) and they did really well. Luke and Anthony said I did a really good job assisting today and Anthony wants me to assist his advanced course starting tomorrow as well. In less than a week I'll be qualified to lead without supervision! Scary! I passed my physics exam, and now I'm tutoring some people in physics that had trouble. At least I'm good at something :) Judging by the way the DMT group has been gelling and hanging together I'm relatively well-liked so it feels nice to be a part of the staff here. I don't feel so lost anymore and I'm having a great time. My diving is improving rapidly and it helps that my confidence is coming along a bit too.
I don't think I'll make it to Cambodia and all that on this trip- just not enought time. I'll just have to come back after Penn and go through IDC, then travel, then maybe get a job for 3-6 months in Australia or the Maldives. How brilliant of a glide year would that be? If there was anyway for me to put Penn off for a while, I would. I am loving this life.