My website has only been around since December 21st 2007, and everyone who reads this blog should know that. Just because my website has only been around since then, that doesn't mean I haven't been blogging longer. Doesn't mean nothing interesting has ever happened to me earlier! So I'll write about it now. You're about to read a fascinating story about my summer vacation to Virginia beach.
Virginia I must say is gorgeous place. Especially right by the beach. Clearly, as you can see in the title, we went to Virginia Beach in 2006, the summer of the year I got my 5-year dance award. (That is another story waiting for 2011.) It was a bit strange, because there was a pool, like, 10 yards from the beach. This was the first time that we have all swam in an ocean together. There was a couple things about this trip that really made it unforgettable.
So me and my family were taking a dip in the ocean, cruising around, swimming in the waves, having a great time. I felt like the weakest thing when I was in the ocean, because when ever I tried to go against a wave (and get drenched while I'm at it), it always pushes me head to toe of the ground and back first into the rocky bottom. It's like we're wrestling, and I can never tackle it down. I feel like the shortest thing in the water, because even when I'm just standing there, not bothering to wrestle with water, the waves splash like two feet over my head. Note: Always keep your goggles on while you're in the ocean. Otherwise, you will get unexpected waves leaping at you and getting salt water in your eyes, which believe me, is NOT pleasant. So I decided to go with the waves, rather than against them, because I was tired of getting knocked down all the time like I was a helpless little shrimp.
Then I started to feel this weird stinging sensation around my left arm/shoulder/armpit. I ignored it. It was probably some sand or something. I kept on going with the waves, which was awesome. But whatever the stinging was, it didn't stop. It kept on going, all around my left arm, shoulder, and a bit of the armpit, which began to get very painful. It felt like those places where completely numb, only I could still feel the pain. I let out a small cry of pain, and raced for land. But that felt impossible. The waves were not helping at all, for I was stumbling all over them and tripping all over them as the pain increased. This was the part where I really felt helpless. Tripping over the waves and the rocks, I finally managed to drag myself to land. The pain didn't go away, but the constant increase of the stinging did. I just stood there, staring at my arm, not blinking at all. Large clumps of bright red sat all over my left arm, shoulder, and a little bit of the armpit, too. It looked like a volcano had erupted, and my left arm (and other friends) were the only part of my body that got to see it explode. It felt like a million needles were stabbed in my arm, and just left there. It felt like a wolf had just ripped open my left arm. Clearly, I was in serious pain, but I had to hold my tears until we got into the hotel room. Otherwise, that would have been just plain embarrassing. My parents came out from the ocean, and *gasp* there was no large, noticeable blotchy red spots sitting all over their left arm. We went up to a lifeguard, asking what might have caused it, but I thought I already new, and I was right. I had been stung by a jellyfish.
My left arm, shoulder, and a bit of my armpit KILLED. It was like jellyfish were still crawling all over me and stinging me. All of it was throbbing, and I thought I was going to cry forever. Turned out I only cried for about half a minute. It wasn't a very pretty sight, but it wasn't that ugly either. I tried to ignore the pain as much as possible, but that wasn't to easy. It felt like my whole left arm/armpit/shoulder had been electrocuted, and was still burning from the shock. Yeah, that's probably the best description of how it felt. I had to sit in my bed in the hotel for a couple of hours, letting my arm rest on a tower of pillows. The only kid thing on TV was Dora The Explorer. I guess it was better than watching some boring adult thing. Meanwhile, my mom called the main office and asked what to do. They said you had to put some strange sort of meat on the red parts. I overheard my mom on the phone saying, 'Meat?! Uh, are you sure?' and some more mumbling from the other end. 'Oh, you don't have it? Oh. Well thanks anyway..' I was SO relieved. I was NOT going to let someone put MEAT on my arm. I just wanted to have one of those sling things so no one would touch it and I wouldn't have to look at it or anything, even though a sling was not necessary.
The large blobs of red on my arm started to go away after several hours, but I didn't want to go back in the ocean again. A couple days after the jellyfish incident, my brothers, my dad and I went for a walk on the beach after dinner. There, on the shore, were tons and tons of jellyfish, sitting in the sand. My oldest brother took a stick and jabbed the little bubbly part on the top, and flipped it over as if it was hamburger meat. To me, that's just gross. We were all shocked to see that there were no tentacles attached to the top of the jellyfish. There was just the blob parts sitting there.. but what I don't understand is how the tentacles got removed. Farther down on the beach, we saw a crab, struggling in the sand. Poor guy. We all tried to get him back in the water, but he kept trying to scurry back into the sand, as if there was something scary about the ocean. We made a little sand castle for him, and plucked a couple of sticks in it in honer of the crab. Even though he didn't make it into the ocean. (The sand castle was hardly a castle at all- more like a large clump of sand on the beach with a couple of sticks jabbed into it.)
The last thing about this trip that made it unforgettable is parasailing over the ocean. Some people have no idea what parasailing is. Parasailing is similar to a hot air balloon, only with parasailing, you're strapped into these seats attached to a large parachute, and there is a cord that is attaching the whole parasail to the boat, so you don't float away to North Carolina or something.
Our parasail had three seats. We went out on a wicked cool boat with this guy who was helping us. The first three people who went up: My dad, my oldest brother, and starring ME! We went up 800 feet!! That was the LOWEST option. Good thing none of us are afraid of heights!!
Being up 800 feet, sailing over the ocean and getting a nice view of the beach and the city is most likely the closest thing I'll ever get to flying. Just flying. With wings. That's my dream that I KNOW will not come true. But I've had several dreams where I was flying. One was inside and I was strapped to all this stuff and there was squishy pillows on the floor in case I fell. That is NOT flying. That's called someone pulling you into the air because you're attached to a pulley. Another time was when I was running super fast, and my feet weren't even touching the ground. Okay, sure. That's flying. Like half an inch off the ground. Let me clarify: my dream is to be able to fly really high with wings. Not half an inch off the ground. Then I've actually had a dream were I DID have wings- and they were bright white!! I was flying through the night, feeling absolutely amazing. I flew all the way to Paris, and to the top of the Eiffel Tower. Now that's a good view of Paris. Until of course the French security people came.
We came back down from the 800 feet high flight, which was quite pleasant. The next group to go was My mom, my other brother, and starring ME! (again!!) There was two people left who hadn't gone, but someone had to go twice from the first group. So I just stayed strapped in while the others got in. Time to go flying! Again! This was amazing. One thing that I think was very interesting was that you had absolutely no way of contacting the dude on the boat. Unless of course you knew sign language, and the other guy did. But then again, the chances of that are very slim.
After a little while of being up 800 feet, for the second time in a row, you would probably guess that I wasn't feeling to good. Congratulations- you're correct. You win absolutely nothing. My stomach started to feel weird, and of course, that nice lump in my throught came back. Thanks for stopping by, lump! Listen, now isn't really the best time, because I'm kind of parasailing 800 feet in the air. Then I really didn't feel good. I figured this is what it was like to be sea sick. Finally, the dude started pulling us back to the boat, and I felt like I was going to throw up. Which I did. On the boat. I know, gross.. but I had to get it out. Okay, so I got to (sort of) live the dream of flying, but didn't feel too good after wards.
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