As the title says, today was the last day of orientation here at Franklin College; back to the real world, as my father would say.
The whole freshman class took four charter buses up these narrow, at times one lane, road through two hours of beautiful southern Switzerland. A bit frightening but part of the experience, as I told myself.
The first stop we just swam in this area below a turquois waterfall. Talk about cold. And I didn't even get my hair wet. Some students, especially our meager male population just dived right in, head first. Show offs.
The next stop was most memorable! The sun was shinning in this area where sunbathers lounged and locals jumped off the 50ft bridge. They didn't let us jump the bridge but there was a rock landing about 20 ft below that eager students lined up on to take a dive into the yet again, frigid glacier water. I simply observed with my friend Natalya, from Seattle. We just sat around chatting in some of the last rays of summer.
All of a sudden, I felt terribly impulsive. I really wanted an excuse to NOT jump that cliff. I felt really lame just sitting there not participating in this rare outing. So I went to my Swiss friend Alex who hadn't gotten in the water at all yet that day. Honestly, I didn't think he would want to jump at all, but I asked anyway. Mistake! He casually said yes and led the way. I spazed out.
"So you want to jump together?", he asked. Uh, yeah. Well, he dove right in anyway, leaving me in his dust.
I. was. not. happy.
But I did get a round of cheer and applause when people just saw me standing there looking down at my fate. This made me laugh, and jump.
What a rush! The moment I stepped off until I got out of the water were the most invigorating of my week. It was so chilling; and Alex was just waiting for me at the bottom like this was no big deal. Hm, icy cold shock and a 30 foot jump? I'm not in Kansas anymore.
I'm really glad I did it and I can't wait to do it again! But I'm still mad at Alex. Hmmpf.
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