What was I thinking???
So I purposefully chose not to think about this upcoming event otherwise I wouldn't sleep for the weeks leading up to it. The morning of I think I was just in denial about what I had in store for me. Or that it would somehow not happen and go away.
The skydiving outfit was located in a town about 20 minutes from our house called Thiene. It closer to the mountains and quite picturesque actually. The people that own/run the skydiving place seem to sort of live there. When we arrived at 9am we saw campers, trailers and some of them were just getting out of the shower. Everything was all a little unorganized and with the language barrier we didn't really know when or how this whole thing would happen.
Then out of nowhere this British guy shows up. I can't even express what a godsend he was. Not only could I understand him pefectly but he was funny, lighthearted and very experienced. He was a contractor and would do tandem jumps all over Europe. He, his wife and his 6-month old baby lived in a VW camper van!
So my British tandem jump instructor (yes, I claimed him) gave me the brief on how this was all going to go. Nick was jumpig with a young Italian guy that I'm sure was also great but it was a HUGE comfort to me to have an instructor that spoke English. He patiently answered all of my many questions and calmed my nerves with his awesome British humor.
So the time finally arrived when we had to get in the plane (see photo of this plane below). They packed us in there like sardines because there were a bunch of people that were just going up for the sake of jumping that day. We also had 2 guys that were jumping so they could video each of us.
The ascent up seemed like it took forever. I sort of just put my mind in a happy place and prayed that this experience would go quickly and it would be over soon. When the door opened and I started seeing the people jump out I literally just pretended that this wasn't happening to me. When it was our turn to jump I followed the instructor's directions perfectly, mainly out of fear that I was going to die if I didn't. Then there was probably 15 seconds of hell which seemed like an eternity. I was just holding myself together until the shute opened thinking all would be well once that took place.
I was looking forward to the floating part of this skydiving experience but what no one told me was that I could become motion sick. Unfortunately I was fighting the nasea all the way down so I really couldn't enjoy what should have been a beautiful part of this experience. The mountains were right there and I could even see Nick across the way. Nick landed before I did because his guy was doing all these fun twisty, turny things and floating faster. I woulnd't let my guy do anything fun given the fact that all I wanted to do was vomit.
When I hit the ground I wanted to cry.....but then I was so relieved that this horrific experience was over that I was also smiling. Then I saw Nick and I really wanted to go over and hit him for making me do this! He must have saw that look in my eye because he conveniently offered to help the guys roll up the shutes. But my British guy told him to stay with me and enjoy or moment together. Poor Nick. I wasn't too hard on him really. But I made it clear that I would NEVER be doing this again. This was our big "together-ness" experience and from now on our next adventure would be much tamer.
On the upside for Nick, anything he now asks me to do will be a piece of cake compared to skydiving!
I will say that I'm proud of myself now...after the fact. I'm glad that I can say I did something this crazy. It's so not like me!
Nick was super sweet to me for the rest of the day. His 'reward' from me was watching the last season of Sex and the City and then watching the movie. :) Lucky guy.
No comments:
Post a Comment