WOW.
I don't even know where to begin. This past weekend was without a doubt one of the best of my life. We left last thursday and arrived in geneva with about 100 other kids on our program. We then took a 2 hour bus ride into a small little town called Interlaken which is nessled in the swiss alps next to two huge lakes. It's probably the coolest place I've ever seen. Thats neither here nor there, but how about this...250 college kids studying in Rome, Florence, and Barcelona invaded a quiet little town in the swiss alps, does it get any better? I think not.
I'll start with the hostel. Before we left, we were warned that our hostel was one of the oldest in Europe and that it did not have the greatest living conditions. That's probably the biggest understatement of all time. Our room had 32 beds...32 beds! Are you kidding me? We were staying in a room with about 20 other kids and we had a good time with it. Our room was literally like a tourist attraction, there was no lock on the door and all the other kids who were staying in our hostel would come to our room just laugh at us. Cohen woke up at 3:30 in the morning to a girl tickling his feet...enough said.
Moving on, Friday we woke up early and hit the slopes. Now I'm not much of a skiier and I had never skiid anything close to the swiss alps, so I definitly had my work cut out for me. Luckily, rapchik is a ski instructer so he was able to help me out a lot. I took my fair share of falls but I had fun with it and got a lot better as the day went on. I'm used to skiing runs that take about 5-7 minutes max, these were about 45 minute runs we were dealing with here, it was pretty amazing. Our first run we stopped about halfway down and had a beer and just took it all in. It was an amazing day to say the least.
Saturday morning I woke up with a slight hangover but that was the least of my concerns. I was scheduled to skydive at noon. A lot of people were asking me if I was nervous...but of course being the alpha male that I am, my response was something along the lines of, "Pshh, me nervous? Nahh." But in all serious, I was freakin out. I mean, wouldn't you be? Jumping out of a plane at 11,00 feet could probly strike the fear of god into most people. So me and cohen arrived at the site with a group of other kids, apprehensive and scared out of my mind. We got in the suits they gave us and I was expecting an instruction course that would take a little bit. Nope. I met the guy that I was jumping with and he told me what I needed to do and that was it. It was literally a 2 minute conversation. We got in a small little plane and started our journey. It was about a 15 minute flight to get to the jump site. About half way up the guys started to joke around with us and my guy even said, " I hope your harness works." Real comforting dude thanks a lot. Anyways we got to 11,00 feet and it was on. They opened the door, the first kid looked at me with the most terrified face I've ever seen to which I responded with a thumbs up a
nd then he was gone. I was next. My guy told me to get up and walk over to the door. Next thing I know, my legs are dangling out of a plane and I was officially freakin. I was expecting a countdown or him to ask me if I was ready. Wrong. Before I had a chance to blink, I was free falling. I cant even put the feeling in to words. The most incredible experience I've ever had, just insane. The free fall was about 40 seconds, and at about 5,00 feet the chute came out and we sailed down the the ground for about 6 minutes. I dont know what else to say except if you haven't done it, you HAVE to. It was honestly a life changing experience to say the least. The rest of the trip was just icing on the cake. I went to the casino after cause I figured it was my lucky day, I mean after all I did jump out of a plane and live to talk about it. I could not wipe the smile off my face. I got pictures and a video but its being sent to me so I don't have them yet.
Thats all I got for now, luckily there were no homeless people in Switzerland for cohen to kick away their life savings. By the way, swiss people are so nice and the chocolate is just as good as advertised.
Life is short but sweet for certain.
Still makin memories,
Pritkin
I don't even know where to begin. This past weekend was without a doubt one of the best of my life. We left last thursday and arrived in geneva with about 100 other kids on our program. We then took a 2 hour bus ride into a small little town called Interlaken which is nessled in the swiss alps next to two huge lakes. It's probably the coolest place I've ever seen. Thats neither here nor there, but how about this...250 college kids studying in Rome, Florence, and Barcelona invaded a quiet little town in the swiss alps, does it get any better? I think not.
I'll start with the hostel. Before we left, we were warned that our hostel was one of the oldest in Europe and that it did not have the greatest living conditions. That's probably the biggest understatement of all time. Our room had 32 beds...32 beds! Are you kidding me? We were staying in a room with about 20 other kids and we had a good time with it. Our room was literally like a tourist attraction, there was no lock on the door and all the other kids who were staying in our hostel would come to our room just laugh at us. Cohen woke up at 3:30 in the morning to a girl tickling his feet...enough said.
Moving on, Friday we woke up early and hit the slopes. Now I'm not much of a skiier and I had never skiid anything close to the swiss alps, so I definitly had my work cut out for me. Luckily, rapchik is a ski instructer so he was able to help me out a lot. I took my fair share of falls but I had fun with it and got a lot better as the day went on. I'm used to skiing runs that take about 5-7 minutes max, these were about 45 minute runs we were dealing with here, it was pretty amazing. Our first run we stopped about halfway down and had a beer and just took it all in. It was an amazing day to say the least.
Saturday morning I woke up with a slight hangover but that was the least of my concerns. I was scheduled to skydive at noon. A lot of people were asking me if I was nervous...but of course being the alpha male that I am, my response was something along the lines of, "Pshh, me nervous? Nahh." But in all serious, I was freakin out. I mean, wouldn't you be? Jumping out of a plane at 11,00 feet could probly strike the fear of god into most people. So me and cohen arrived at the site with a group of other kids, apprehensive and scared out of my mind. We got in the suits they gave us and I was expecting an instruction course that would take a little bit. Nope. I met the guy that I was jumping with and he told me what I needed to do and that was it. It was literally a 2 minute conversation. We got in a small little plane and started our journey. It was about a 15 minute flight to get to the jump site. About half way up the guys started to joke around with us and my guy even said, " I hope your harness works." Real comforting dude thanks a lot. Anyways we got to 11,00 feet and it was on. They opened the door, the first kid looked at me with the most terrified face I've ever seen to which I responded with a thumbs up a
nd then he was gone. I was next. My guy told me to get up and walk over to the door. Next thing I know, my legs are dangling out of a plane and I was officially freakin. I was expecting a countdown or him to ask me if I was ready. Wrong. Before I had a chance to blink, I was free falling. I cant even put the feeling in to words. The most incredible experience I've ever had, just insane. The free fall was about 40 seconds, and at about 5,00 feet the chute came out and we sailed down the the ground for about 6 minutes. I dont know what else to say except if you haven't done it, you HAVE to. It was honestly a life changing experience to say the least. The rest of the trip was just icing on the cake. I went to the casino after cause I figured it was my lucky day, I mean after all I did jump out of a plane and live to talk about it. I could not wipe the smile off my face. I got pictures and a video but its being sent to me so I don't have them yet.Thats all I got for now, luckily there were no homeless people in Switzerland for cohen to kick away their life savings. By the way, swiss people are so nice and the chocolate is just as good as advertised.
Life is short but sweet for certain.
Still makin memories,
Pritkin
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