Gettin "Narc'd"

I'm one dive away from being an advanced diver! I've got two more days left here and I'm trying to eat up the cheap diving opportunities while they last. I've absolutely loved diving, it's been a completely surreal experience. I did a deep diver today down to 30 meters where nitrogen narcosis can set in, which is basically that the deep depth can lead so much nitrogen to flood into you that you feel a bit drunk. It can vary by depth, individual physiology and a variety of other factors how bad people get "narc'd", but I had a nice little buzzed feeling down there.

They gave us a test to make sure we weren't blasted out of our minds by showing us a certain number of fingers and we had to show the fingers that would make it all add up to 9 (it confused me a bit on land, so I was crap at it underwater). I passed, but barely--I definitely had to count it out slowly and had some of the symptomatic giggling in the process. It definitely is similar to being a bit drunk. There are stories of people being so narc'd that they start offering their breathing regulator to sharks as they swim by. In any case, I'm doing a night dive tonight to finish up my certification which probably would have been a nightmare for me years ago, but now it seems pretty exciting. Tomorrow I'm doing another deep dive in a place where there are normally groups of sharks, woot! (don't worry, not so much the people-eating types).