A Week in the Middle of the Ocean
This week has been absolutely jam packed, and it has been much more vacation than sabbatical.
I arrived on Sao Miguel on Saturday. My taxi driver was from Boston, which presaged a common theme of the week: There are a ton of Americans here. This makes sense; some call the Azores the “Hawaii of Europe” for its surfing, tropical feel, and resort culture. I’m staying in an Airbnb that has four rooms, which were all booked with travelers when I arrived. This was very conducive to meeting people, as was the five straight days of diving that I did through Best Spot Azores.
My first goal was to figure out my transportation around the island. I had initially thought of renting a bicycle, only to realize that there was no safe place to store it - a bike wouldn’t fit through the entryway of the Airbnb, and there were no places to lock it outside. So, I went to Open Door, a rental shop in Porta Delgada, to ask about my options. Marcos, the owner, could not have been more helpful or generous. I ended up renting an e-scooter, and because of the incursion of Bolt Scooters, Marcos let me rent it for just 5 euros per day - an absolute steal. He also sent me his favorite places to visit on the island, which I will explore next week, including hot springs, walking trails, and beautiful views.
From September 1st through 5th, my days have followed a steady routine: Early wake-up, scoot over to the dive shop, two dives off the boat, lunch, relax, work a little bit, and then an evening activity.
The diving has been beautiful, and I have been incredibly impressed with the quality of the dive guides at Best Spot. On my birthday (the 4th), I said that the best gift would be to see an octopus, and my guide Sara led me straight to one. This particular octopus was curious and friendly, and they held my hand as I wiggled my fingers by their tentacles. It was an absolutely magical moment, including when they tried to drag my fingers into their little hole, and I could feel its beak trying to determine if my fingers would be a tasty snack.
Beyond this once-in-a-lifetime experience, I also saw beautiful schools of fish - damsels, wrasses, and some very scary-looking barracuda. I also saw a grouper that was bigger than me, as well as a 6-foot long conger eel making faces at me. Next week, if the conditions are calm enough, I’ll go on an “offshore” pelagic dive into the blue, where I will see manta rays and maybe some whales.
Five straight days of diving have left me totally exhausted, so I’m looking forward to a beach day tomorrow!
Out of the water, I have also made many human friends this week - Americans, Canadians, Germans, French, Spanish, British, and Portuguese. Diving is an activity that brings people together. It’s so easy to strike up a conversation about the best places to dive, the coolest animals, the weirdest experiences. My German housemates and I went out for pizza, where each table was outfitted with scissors for cutting slices; my American/Canadian dive buddies and I checked out some items from the Gin Library, a bar on top of a mountain that only serves gin of every flavor imaginable (the spicy mango was my favorite); and, my American diving friend and I indulged some homesickness by getting Burger King for dinner and making a real feast out of it.
But the most fascinating encounters I’ve had have been with people in similar situations as me: world travelers, sabbatical-takers, people looking for a drastic change of pace. Interestingly, many of those folks I’ve met on the island have recently left positions in tech, either because they lost their job due to AI or because they’re tired of being forced to use AI to do their jobs. In aggregate, it’s quite alarming. It portends a changing world, and I’m not sure if it will be for the best. The last few years have brought many of these supposed innovations to education: AI tools that claim to enhance a student’s learning. But I wonder what they mean by that. I could be convinced that some test scores could increase if every student utilized an AI tutor, but is this really how we want our young people to “do” school? School should be messy and full of mistakes both academic and social, and I’m not sure that immediacy is required when correcting those mistakes, as AI promises. Each moment of struggle is also an opportunity for connection, community, and growth that far exceeds the academic goal. I worry that AI in education is yet another step towards dehumanizing the students in our classroom, treating them as scores to be raised and mistakes to be fixed. It reminds me of an old quote whose source I could not track down: A child is not a vessel to be filled, but a flame to be kindled.
I digress. I hope everyone back home is healthy and thriving, and I look forward to sharing more adventures and rambling thoughts soon.
See you soon,
Ethan