Give Me Air!

Juliette is so totally brave. Sometimes I feel like a real chicken next to her. Cluck, cluck! :-) Because we took our first scuba diving lesson this week, blog buds. And guess who got scared out of her wits? Here's a hint: It wasn't my best friend, Juliette.

Remember last week I told you that "Julibella" was going into the swimming pool with our masks and fins and all the clunky equipment that divers wear? Oh yeah, and in case you didn't read that blog, "Julibella" is just a name for Juliette and me. I'm Isabella, your faithful blogger buddy. Our friends call us Julibella sometimes because we're so close. You know, like sisters. So anyway, we were both really all excited to get into the water for our first lesson. Until ...

Until I had to get into the water for real! LOL. Now try to imagine this scene, ok? Juliette and maybe five other people put on all their diving gear. I'm a little slower doing this so now they all jump into the pool with these big old fins and their masks and air tanks and everything else. They're swimming under the water and having a great time, right? Then I jump in the water too and go under and start swimming like them. Except - wow! I just kind of get all freaky and scared. Instantly! So I stand up in the pool right away, maybe like only two seconds after going underwater. And I pull off my mask and I just yell, "Air! Give me air!"

How totally embarrassing. I wanted to find some little hole in the wall and crawl in so I could hide from everyone. Even Juliette was laughing and I couldn't blame her. I would have laughed at me too. Well, what can I say? Sorry. It felt scary being under the water and trying to breathe for the first time. Even if breathing is so easy with a scuba tank - as I soon found out for myself.

That's right. I knew I had to get back under all that water. So I kind of laughed along with everyone else for a couple seconds. Then I just put my mask on again and put the regulator in my mouth again too. The regulator is that thingie you hold in your teeth so you can breathe underwater. Then I kind of close my eyes and ... glug, glug, glug! Just like that I'm going down and down, maybe four or five feet deep. And I'm breathing, really breathing, right in the middle of this big swimming pool.

It still felt pretty weird for a minute. But then it started to seem so cool to me. It's an amazing feeling, blog friends. It's almost like you become a fish or something, swimming all free and staying below the surface as long as you want. Juliette swam up to me underwater and I could tell she was smiling inside her mask. She gave me a hand sign to ask if I was ok. You know, a "thumbs up" thing, right? And so I just nod yes and then give her a big thumbs up right back. I was ok.

It took me a few minutes but now I knew I could do this. I could become a real certified scuba diver so I can go on dives in the ocean with, you know, like all the fish. Hmmm, maybe I should think about this again ... ;-)) But seriously, blog buds, I'm going to stick with it for sure. Juliette may be the brave one now. But I can be totally stubborn sometimes. Like about learning to scuba dive. So yes, both parts of "Julibella" will go back for more scuba lessons. Juliette - and me too. Next week I'll tell you about all the excitement in the pool when we start doing some strange things underwater. Sounds kind of scary to me. But fun too! BFN!