On Monday, almost the entire eighth grade of my school hopped on buses and headed to Great America, an amusement park in California.

I hadn't been sure whether to go or not. I thought that it would be wasted on me because I cannot go on rides much scarier than the carousel...Since I have gotten carsick, airsick, and seasick in the past, I was sure that riding on a rapidly-spinning ride or a roller coaster would cause me to pass out, throw up, or some other atrocity.

But I didn't want to stay at school, either. For one thing, I had no idea what we would be doing all day, seeing as all our textbooks had been returned and there was nothing academic left to be done.

Also, I had hoped to gather up my courage to try a roller coaster for the first time. (I vaguely remember having ridden one and having been very upset by the experience, but then again, it could be my imagination and not an actual memory, so I instead consider it to be that I had never been on a roller coaster) Since so many young people seemed to enjoy thrill rides, I figured that it would not kill me to at least try it before dismissing it as undesirable.

I traversed the park with two friends. The first place we headed was the Kidzville. (Supposedly, the rides intended for younger children would be milder than the rest of the ones in the park.)

We rode one of those swings that go around in a circle first. I cannot describe how terrifying it was at the beginning... My head felt unsteady and so did my intestines. It was all I could do to not scream and cry and thrash until someone stopped the ride to let me down. I tried closing my eyes. Then I realized that the ride was really just a pattern. As you went around in a circle, you would swing upwards and then drop a little downwards, and that would repeat. It was easier to deal with the nausea if I closed my eyes right before the highest point and opened them once I started to move upwards again. Towards the end of the ride it was bearable and I could look around with some degree of calmness. But then the ride slowed down and we got out of the seats.

hen we went to the roller coaster in Kidzville, but the man working there compared our heights to a pole and said we were too tall. (Maybe he didn't feel like working, so he figured he'd reject people until he felt like taking customers. I mean, it is kind of waste to run a ride for only three people, but it was still annoying since we were only an inch or two too tall. And we were able to go on the swing ride, even though the same height restrictions are used there) Isn't it ironic? I've been considered too short before. So it's unexpected that I'd be told I was too tall for a change.

I thought I wouldn't be able to try a roller coaster because I figured there were no other small roller coasters in the park, but it turned out there was one, the Woodstock Express, in Snoopy Land. I thought we were going to die several times. (There was a point where the ride seemed to stop and then jerked...) And when it was rushing up and down I thought we were going to crash into something or run off the track... And then when it was going around the bend I thought we were going to fall out of the seats... I was so surprised that I was still alive after the ride. (I must have been crazy because later that day I rode the Woodstock Express a second time.)

Nevertheless, I declined offers to go on certain rides such as Berserker and Centrifuge because they seemed far too dizzying for me to handle. But since I wasn't going on as many rides, one of my friends urged me to go on a ride called Whitewater Falls. I thought I was going to die again when we were going down the slope...I didn't pay attention to where I was going and started walking off but then the people working on the ride told me the exit was the other way. Whoopsy-daisy.

I wonder if someday I'll have enough courage to go on one of the really thrilling rides, like Drop Zone or Invertigo. Or perhaps I never will. Maybe I won't ever do it and it'd turn out I would have been fine even if I had gone on those rides. Perhaps I've been afraid unnecessarily. And that fear may have prevented me from doing a lot of things, from taking risks that would have turned out well for me. But at the same time I wouldn't want to be too reckless. Still, I wish I could be a little braver...

Labels: amusement park, children, courage, danger, death, dizzy, fear, great america, height, irony, nausea, pattern, quote, reckless, rides, risk, roller coaster, school, thrill, trip

Recently, my father was telling me about a lady. He has never met her, but she is famous. The lady was pretty much an unknown person, up until she got plastic surgery. (She said she only got a nose job, but people seemed to think she'd had more surgery than that done to her face, when comparing before and after pictures) Then she started getting noticed and she was even able to become the host of the show Big Brother. So, it seems to me that if you have enough money, then you can go places. (Of course, there are things that can't always be obtained with money, but that's a different story.)

There's always the flip side, though. Do you recall the post ◆ from riches to rags? (It's in the August 2009 archive, if you don't remember it) About how Peter Pan was rich but then because of business problems he quickly lost his money? As the saying goes, "Money comes and goes."

Even in history class, we talked about money. England had colonies because land = power, and also you can tax the people in the colonies. So the king of England, back during the times when the USA was still colonies and not a country, let the colonies do what they liked (to an extent) as long as he got his taxes. My teacher says the king had dollar signs in his eyes. Click for a "visual representation"

Anyhow, as I am writing this, I am not feeling too comfortable. Once my language arts teacher said that us kids were germ factories! I was kind of offended since I wasn't sick at that time. But then apparently one of the people who really is a "germ factory" tried to expand its business, because I somehow or other caught a cold. I have been suffering from a sore throat and either a runny nose or sneezing (depends on where I am and what time of day). I hope it will be over soon (today is the second day of symptoms). Luckily I don't think it is swine flu since if it was, I would have trouble breathing and also have a fever.

The weather nowadays is annoying. In the morning it's foggy and cold, and it's kind like San Francisco (since the fog moves in and out of San Francisco all the time). But then the fog goes away and it gets really hot outside. I wish the weather would either decide to be hot or cold. Seems to me the weather is "wishy-washy".

I remember that one year (I think it was in seventh grade, in the first trimester?) the weather suddenly changed. It became cold when previously it had been warm. I felt kind of woozy in second period, and had trouble concentrating on my math test. The discomfort grew in third and fourth period and eventually I felt so terrible I went to the nurse's office during lunchtime, so I could call a parent to pick me up and take me home. I hope it doesn't happen again this year. I guess I am too sensitive to my surroundings. (Like all those allergies I have)

Labels: allergies, america, big brother, cold, colonies, dizzy, dollar signs, england, eyes, germ factory, headache, king, land, money, plastic surgery, quote, sickness, swine flu, taxes, weather

Step aside, Blue Man Group, and the old four Teletubbies (Tinky Winky, Dipsy, Laa-Laa, and Po. I couldn't remember Laa-Laa's name so I had to look it up). Because all the tourists going to the Great Barrier Reef with Quicksilver (no, not the clothes brand) have replaced you. You can rent a blue suit for a cheap price which will help keep you warm when you're diving. It makes you look a little like a teletubby.

I traveled on a Quicksilver ship to get to the Great Barrier Reef. The ride was a traumatic one for me. I couldn't enjoy the free cookies (they are popular! There was a guy who only took a certain kind of cookie and he took a lot of them. They are supposed to be chocolate-flavored I think) or the complimentary coffee or anything since I was seasick. When I was on a cruise to Hawaii one time several years ago I also got seasick (threw up, fell asleep, and after that day and night, I was all well). My dad insists he has a "strong mind" because he didn't seasick. But my mom and Meggie (my dad's friend's wife) didn't get seasick. However, my dad's friend, David, and his son, Michael, did get sick. They had to go vomit a few times. I did not vomit since I am practicing my self control and ability to resist pain, but I was really dizzy and I was almost dead by the time we got to the floating dock.

It's weird that they have a floating dock in the Great Barrier Reef. It's kind of spoiling nature to have such a strange thing, if you ask me. I suppose they built it especially for tourism purposes. There was lunch included but I only ate some bread since I was not feeling too good yet. My mom ate with an appetite seeing as she is not seasick. She's so lucky not to be. Even my dad says he can get carsick unless he's the driver (I don't know why, but drivers don't get carsick, apparently)

Everyone once in a while a little submarine will be there and you can board it to see the Great Barrier Reef closer up. (If you simply just go snorkeling you can see some but not much in comparison) I didn't expect much because in Hawaii we rode a submarine, and paid for it (instead of it being an optional feature of something we already purchased, like in Australia) but that time, it had been disappointing. But the Great Barrier Reef is much better. Sure it's not really as colorful as the photos, but I think that's just because light has to penetrate the depths of the ocean. There were some cool fish down there. We saw schools of them and occasionally a really huge fish.

I have heard rumors that global warming is killing the reef. When the temperature rises, the organisms that live inside the coral (because coral is actually more animal than plant) die off, so the coral dies, fish lose their homes, and basically the whole habitat will suffer. Already I have heard the reefs along with the glaciers (though those are on the other side of the Earth) are vanishing. I hope people will try to protect the reef.

Oh! You can do your part if you come to the Great Barrier Reef someday. Here's some tips that I got from the brochure you can get on the boat.

- Don't throw anything overboard. There's trash cans to be found. Or, shall I say, RUBBISH BINS.
- Don't stand on the coral. It can break off easily. (There are two groups of coral, the more common hard coral, which is like rocks because it has limestone in it, and the soft coral, which actually sways because of the water current. And there are many more varieties within the groups, like staghorn coral, a hard type like antlers. That breaks off easily)
- Don't urinate in the water. I find this to be the most amusing. Anyhow, they have toilets on the ship, but not on the floating dock. They are kind of cramped and you have to use the air dryer to dry your hands, which is a little too warm but you can't help that unless you would rather use the toilet paper. o_O;; This rule is disturbing since somebody must have tried to urinate in the water or else they wouldn't need such a rule.

Labels: australia, bathroom, blue, boat, carsick, coral, danger, dizzy, driving, fish, great barrier reef, hawaii, quicksilver, reef, rubbish, seasick, submarine, teletubbies, tips, vomit

I was feeling fine in the morning, but during the second class of the day, I started to run into trouble. I had this strange pounding headache in the left side of my head. It was extremely painful and I found it hard to concentrate on my homework or focus my eyes. I thought it would get better, but it only got worse during the day. I couldn't take it anymore and when 4th Period was over, I asked my friend to walk with me to the nurse's office. I called my mom and then I tried to sleep on one of the weird beds they have in there. After a long time my mom finally came and I got taken home, so I took some medicine and a nap.

Anyhow, now I'm really nervous because I don't have the homework from my language arts class, and I missed a quiz in PE class. My PE teacher threatened to make us come before Zero Period in the morning and run a mile if we missed class. I really hope she isn't serious, and I hope she'll believe me if I say I'm sick...

Labels: dizzy, headache, homework, missing, morning, nurse, office, sick

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