skydiving in switzerland

[keep in mind, 80% of this was written last saturday. and just a heads up, it's a long one...]

:)

laying down but can't sleep. eyelids heavy but heart racing. me and katie have been trying to find the words to describe what we got to be apart of today. the overwhelming beauty of the swiss alps and the lakes below, the feeling of falling to the earth, the total and complete trust we had in our instructors are all a lot to take in and we are speechless. so while i'm exhausted but having a hard time napping, i'll try to write it.

we got to switzerland on wednesday, ready to soak in the outdoors. there is something about the fresh air and beautiful mountains that just lights up my soul. i see the Lord's beauty in it…in feeling so small, seeing a landscape so pure, there is nothing like it to me and i've been looking forward to it all semester. since katie and i don't have class on thursdays, we decided to take the train wednesday afternoon. we rode through rain, glorious rain, the entire way here passing through northern italy and lake como to southern switzerland. the first night couple nights we stayed at a hostel that didn't have a reception…you just check in at the bar. classy establishment. no but really, this has got to be one of the greatest hostels we have stayed in so far this semester. we found this one before we got word about the two famous ones but i am super happy we found it, especially considering it's called "happy inn" and had smiley faces everywhere-even on the keys. we threw our stuff in the room and came back down to have a beer and talk to the bartenders/receptionists about the activities we could do. what i found out i should've done before i got here was check traveler's blogs about the weather in april. april is probably the most awkward time we could've come because the weather is so inconsistent and unpredictable. it's in between their ski season and their outdoor activity season and everything we wanted to do either wasn't open yet or we didn't have warm, water resistant clothes and shoes to don so we could brave the cold mountain weather.

we talked to andy and helen for a couple hours about hikes around town we could do, and their take on skydiving. i told katie, if canyoning isn't open and it's still too cold and snowy to go mountain biking, i might have to skydive. from then on, it was over for us- we had to do it. one small problem: the weather forecast. they were optimistic that we could do it the next day even though it showed clouds and rain through the weekend. we woke up the next day to soft, beautiful, drizzly rain. we had the lady at the bar call for us and sure enough, it was a no-go for that day but we were scheduled for the following day at 8:45…they told us it was our best bet. we said alrighty then, where can we go today? lucerne. never heard of it but okay…

we had the most amazing ham and cheese sandwich for breakfast and were en route to lucerne 45 minutes later. through more rain, we passed brienzersee, the lake next to interlaken and the lush green fields until we arrived at lucerne. it was like a picture. lucky for us, it was small so even though we got lost a couple times, we managed to see the whole town. we have discovered a theme with just about every european town we've been to: rivers and bridges everywhere. so while we didn't do a whole lot of digging about the historical significance, we saw rivers, bridges, and lots and lots of expensive things. switzerland is COSTLY, beware. we saw the famous lion carved into rock that symbolizes lucerne, tasted some swiss chocolate, witnessed a bunch of old men dressed in traditional swiss german attire singing together, and wandered through a panoramic museum that had walls of paintings from mountains and views from all over switzerland. after we got lost the first time and were trying to get to these museums, we found a castle wall and saw some people walking down so we thought why not, and walked towards them. although there was no castle, we walked through it (the archway, that is…) and came to this beautiful view of the city. we saw a lot more people coming down from a higher hill and our curiosity got the best of us so knowing no german and being the ignorant american tourists, we walked up to the clock tower and slowly, floor by floor, traversed to the top. we passed a german lady who kinda laughed and asked if we were american and told us that technically, this clock tower wasn't having its inauguration until the next day so we were very lucky to be in there :) we wandered the rest of the floors, looking at all the different clocks that were centuries old and seeing how they worked through the huge glasses cases. after a very full afternoon, we headed back to the happy inn.

when we got there, it was 8:15, only 45 minutes from when the band was supposed to be there. since interlaken is such a small town and there's really not much of a nightlife, the entertainment on a thursday night was the jazz band playing at our hostel. so, we finally got to sample some swiss cheese fondue and enjoyed the music until we had to register for classes. the bar filled up quickly and here we were, the two american girls listening to a bunch of old guys cover some oldie blues songs that i had never heard and looking up our classes for the summer and fall on our iPhones. we got into our classes, enjoyed the rest of the music from the other room so that everyone who was 30 years older than us could have our seats and skyped with a couple of our friends. besides, we had a date with the sky the next day…

8:45 rolls around. another no-go for the sky-dive. while it wasn't raining, the clouds were too thick so they couldn't fly out and they said they would check back at 10. so we went back to bed and awoke to another no 3 minutes before they were suppose to get us. 1:00 they said. by 1:00 the weather should be cleared up and we should be able to get out. we understood but were starting to think we wouldn't be able to go at all. we decided to ask for a trail we could go hike since it wasn't suppose to rain and we had a couple hours to kill. we walked out of interlaken toward brienzersee, and somehow got lost. it's a GIANT lake and we could not find the right trail that led us right along it so after an hour and a half of incredible landscape, we decided to turn around and come back to interlaken in case we were going to get to skydive. lucky for us, we had just enough time to eat a ham and cheese toasty before stefan, the skydive guy rolled on up to the happy inn ready to take us up the valley. then came the nerves- this was actually going to get to happen.

stefan and his sweet 10 year old daughter skyler were ready to rock and roll as they led us toward lauterbrunnen, the town in the valley outside interlaken that we were going to take off from. stefan has been on over 10,000 skydiving jumps and has been jumping for nearly 30 years. he is a seasoned veteran to say the least so i was confident that if he has survived 10,000+ jumps, surely i can survive one…

famous last words…

no but really, we were confident in his ability as a skydiving professional and were getting more and more excited by the moment. we rolled on through the valley and came to lauterbrunnen, which translates to "many falls." there are over 70 waterfalls that run off into this valley and its green and the mountains seem taller and it might just be my heaven on earth. we tried to capture the beauty but we couldn't really do it justice. we signed our lives away, knowing if we were going to die we were glad it was going to be here. dan, katie's kiwi jumper guy, came in all tatted and dreaded, fresh off a morning of skiing and was ready to go. these guys live the life. onward we went, up to the heli.

the trip to our designated jump point in the sky was short, unfortunately, but the scenery was more than i could handle. we zoomed out of the valley over the tops of the snow-covered mountains and up up up we went. the ground became smaller and smaller and me and katie just gripped each other's hands tightly as we could NOT believe this was about to happen. i was suppose to go first since i was the closest to the door. out the front window: a beautiful blue lake. to the right and left snowy mountains that fade into green trees and grass and finally, interlaken, the city below. stefan taps me on the shoulder and asks me to open the door to the helicopter.

……i'm sorry you want me to do what??????

open the door, of course.

i unlatch the door and he helps me slide it open. i'm told to step out of the helicopter, onto the ledge below. hovering in the sky, standing outside the heli, i look straight out and all i see are white, snow-capped mountains and my brain doesn't process that i'm standing 12,000 feet in the air about to voluntarily jump towards the earth. the only way to describe it is that it was a spiritual moment. I love God's artistic abilities, His imaginative mind, to think that THIS is exactly how He wanted this place to look and THIS is what He thinks is beautiful too…He is speakin my love language and man it makes me love Him more. He gives us beauty each day to enjoy, to see Him in, to praise Him for. i pray for eyes to see it in the everyday things as much as i see it in the towering, swiss alps.

about 10 seconds later, i hear him counting down. head leaned back looking straight into the blue sky, knees slightly bent, i brace for it. 3…….2…….1…….. towards the earth i tumble. he warned us that we probably wouldn't remember the first couple seconds if it was our first time and i will admit, it's a tiny bit spotty. i do remember feeling the weight leaning against me as we left the helicopter, and i remember the mountains briefly, then after that…the city. i saw green trees, brown roofed houses…i'm staring straight at the ground with eyes wide and mouth gaping open. i actually remember thinking wow my mouth is really dry all of a sudden. looking back through the pictures, i realize that it's because it is open the entire time. i'm in shock, then smiling, then laughing. wow what a feeling to free fall….i can't even describe it.

a mere 45 seconds later, i feel a jerk and the parachute is deployed. right and left, the same scenery- the lakes, more green than snow, and i'm laughing. i wish i could've reversed gravity. we were still falling unfortunately, but it was still a priceless moment. i do remember asking where katie was and we looked up and by God's good grace, her parachute had deployed as well. i asked stefan if after 10,000 jumps he gets tired of the view…he answered no way. we had some more fun while we were droppin like a rock. we dove and did some fun little circles and before i knew it, he was telling me to put my knees into my chest because we were about to land. we came screaming in, thanks to the breeze sweeping through the valley but we managed to land on our feet. a few seconds later, katie came in (on her bum :]) but nevertheless, we were on the ground, injury free, grinning ear to ear, still not fulling believing that that just happened.

we were downloading the events of the day and what i was shocked about, was that even though i'm afraid of heights, i never felt that feeling in my stomach that i get when i'm up high. i remember when i'm at camp working high ropes, and i'm getting my harness on, i double, actually triple, check my harness to make sure everything is double-backed and the carabineers are on correctly and locked. when i look down for the first few minutes, i get butterflies. in the helicopter- there was none of that. the entire time stefan was getting me ready in my super snazzy jumpsuit, i trusted him 100%. he tied me in, latched us together, and we were ready. i didn't doubt for one second that he had done everything he knew to do to keep me safe. i trusted him up until we were on the ground again.

and then it hit me like a ton of bricks.

how can i trust stefan, a flawed human being, with my life and yet i doubt the God of the universe who loves me WAY more than anyone else has the capacity for. not once did i look behind me to see what all stefan had to do to strap me in nor did i ask him to show me that i was secure, i just trusted. even in the air, stepping out of the helicopter, my mind did not ask once if i was going to be okay…in complete and utter faith, i let him push me off the ledge and experienced the ride of my life. why don't i trust the Lord like this? why do i always have to ask why and why do i always doubt He knows what He's doing?! He deserves my trust and my faith more than anyone else i know- He gives me hope and at His right hand are pleasures forevermore. i pray for faith like that skydive: unrelenting, unhindered, joyful, willing faith in the One who has conquered all so i can live this life fearlessly, knowing my Sovereign Father knows EXACTLY what He's doing. If that means tumbling through the air, not knowing for sure the outcome of what i'm going through, i pray His peace would flood my soul, that confidence in His power would replace any fear, that joy would uproot anxiousness. He has already proven time and time again that HIs plans for my life are better than anything I could dream up. this life is not my own anyway so surrendering should be a no-brainer :)

so, strap me in God, clip me to Yourself, lead me to the edge of that helicopter. You have given your Word to guide me, You have promised You'll never leave me…to stick with the skydiving analogy- we are riding tandem through this life. You are for me, i have nothing to fear.

He deserves nothing less than all of me…surrendered, fearless, confident, assured.

i want faith each day like that first sky dive.

God bless the English speaking city of London.

three days after we got back from rome, katie and i were set to embark on our first trip just the two of us to LONDON!!! we were so excited about: speaking english, british accents, sight-seeing, starbucks, and speaking english. getting there, however, was half the battle. we got to have our first experience with ryanair, the airline that has really cheap flights for us poor college students. we heard from people that you get what you pay for and while you pay a very low fare to fly, don't expect a great experience service-wise. you have to pay to check a bag, there is one REALLY long line (actually it's more like a blob) to board the plane (which really stressed me out). also, the airport we have to fly out of is in pisa. so first things first, we had to take an hour train ride to pisa. then we had 4 minutes to make our connecting train and we missed it so we had to wait almost another hour to take the next train to the airport. however, while we were waiting, we met two very nice gentlemen who had just been in italy for the week and live in london so they gave us some advice on what to do and gave us their numbers in case we needed anything or had any questions while we were there. so sweet!

found out going through security that their limit for liquid/gels/aerosols is lower than the U.S. so me and katie got half of our toiletries thrown away. (the limit is 100 ml in case you are every flying in europe.) we boarded the plane, sitting a row away from each other and once we were all seated with our seat belts fastened and our seats in their full upright and locked position (I don't know if they actually said this, it was all in italian…), we got to wait on the runway because there was an air traffic control strike in france and since we were flying through there, we couldn't go until they said we could. sooooo a little over an hour later we were on our way. luckily we sat next to some awesome people on the plane and got to learn some italian and get another list of places to go in london town. once we finally got on a bus and checked in at our hostel, we had been traveling for 9 hours. day 1 and we were already exhausted.

so this was our first hostel experience and it was an interesting one. we were in a mixed dorm so we weren't quite sure what to expect as far as roommates go. we had a sink in the room, a shower connected, and the restroom was in the hall. the storage was under the bunk beds and you were suppose to bring your own locks. oops. sorry we are amateurs. we found out we only had one roommate that night after we had already gotten ready for bed. in walked tony, a sweet spanish boy who had been in london for a month looking for a job. laying in bed in my clothes (i forgot pajamas…), with no make up on and my retainer in, we got to chat with tony briefly before we went to bed.

we got up the next morning determined to go find a starbucks. since we had to pay for the internet in our hostel, we decided to just walk to the train station and figure it out once we got there. we had researched the deets on seeing a broadway show with a student discount and found out if we showed up at the box office the day of the show at 10:00, we could get the best available seats for a really cheap price. and did we ever. we were told we were actually right across the street from the theater so we went back inside to wait a few more minutes and FOUND A STARBUCKS RIGHT INSIDE! oh my goodness we were so happy. we waited outside for the tickets and got 8th row dead center. man were we pumped! this was already an awesome day! we then got on the tube/underground and went to the meeting point for the fat tire bike tours. since it was a weekday, it was a smaller group of people which made it even better. we learned A TON on our tour. i don't know why we haven't taken more tours where we have gone because it was very informative and made everything even cooler. below are some of the highlights:

the first of many

beginning our tour through kensington gardens

kensington palace: the apartments in the back are where william and kate will move in. the construction kinda sucked...

perfect timing for the horse guards

the building on the left was used to film the king's speech and the one on the right is where prince charles and camila live. it's also where harry lives and where william lived before he got married!

the prime minister's house. this area that is covered with dirt now is where the beach volleyball matches will be played for the olympics

westminster abbey

the school that a ton of famous musicians went to such as the band bush, gavin rossdale, dido, and more that i forgot.

us and ben :)

the london eye

the beautiful blue bridge in st. james' park

rollin on through hyde park

Alba Memorial facing Royal Albert Hall

 after the tour we had a beer at a pub with our new friends from the bike tour and left early so we could go hit up some CHIPOTLE before wicked that night! we got off the tube at the wrong stop (which was my fault. katie is the directionally-savvy one.) so when we were asking around where it was, no one knew!!!! *gasp* we finally found it and savored every ounce of that guacamole and hot sauce and steak and YUM YUM YUM IT WAS DELICIOUS. definitely not as good as chipotle in the u.s. of a. but it satisfied fo sho! wicked was amazing, incredible, no words, wanted to cry the singing was so beautiful hahaha this is the girl that played elphaba:

that night we went home and crashed because we were exhausted from the day. the next morning we woke up to a couple deciding to share a bunk above katie's. to make the situation even more awkward, they only spoke french to each other so we didn't talk at all once they finally got up. we had to move hostels anyways because that one was booked for the weekend so we grabbed our toast with nutella, said goodbye to tony, and peaced on outta there. since we couldn't check in to our next hostel yet, we decided to go watch the changing of the guard at buckingham palace. once we got there, we realized an hour and a half later that there was a sign on the other side of the fence that said:

after that wonderful experience we checked into our next hostel which was like a dream come true. it was in a city park which was beautiful and it was part of the youth hostel association so they actually care about their property, clean sheets, and a good experience. we put our stuff in a locker since our room wasn't ready yet and we went to go see the tower bridge. me and katie were laughing because at first, we assumed since this was london, the london bridge is the really big spectacular one you see on all the postcards but as a matter of fact, it's the tower bridge. the london bridge is literally a sidewalk. nothing special whatsoever haha see for yourself how gorgeous the tower bridge is…

tower of london

we got some fish and chips at a place down the road then decided to take a double-decker bus over to the london bridge just in case there was something to see. there was nothing. however, we did see a beautiful church and upon walking toward it, we found an awesome open air market called the borough market. if you go to london, you HAVE to go hear…cheeses, meats, honey, jams, fish, cookies, brownies, etc. etc. amazing stuff!

the very unexciting london bridge

southwark cathedral- the first gothic style church in london

we didn't spend too long at the market because we knew we wanted to make it to the 5:00 service at westminster abbey. our tour guide told us it's a really incredible service because they have their world-famous westminster choir sing and it truly was amazing. it was a catholic service but regardless, it was really neat to be in there since so many famous people are buried there and its where william and kate got married :)

after the service we went back to chipotle for dinner and once again, it confirmed that it is, in fact, better in texas. we went to a pub to have a drink and as we were leaving, we stopped outside a theater because these three guys were jammin out on their drum and guitars. they played billie jean and upside down by jack johnson and we were LOVIN it! since the tube closed at midnight and we didn't know how to use the bus system, we scooted on outta there after the second song was done and headed home for the night.

saturday was our last day so we did our best to see all there was to see in the last few hours. at breakfast, we met a group of high school kids whose parents were stationed at the american army base in germany. the sweet old man who was leading their trip offered us sack lunches that were left over from their group and we were on our way :) katie had never been to picadilly circus so we went to go see england's version of time square. we didn't spend long there because we knew we weren't going to do any shopping so we went on over to the national gallery which was free admission and housed soooo many painting from the 1500's to today and included many many famous painters such as van gogh, monet, caravaggio, and more! afterwards, we really wanted to take a picture on the giant lions out front. our tour guide made it a joke by saying they are the only country who doesn't care if people climb all over their national monuments but its really true so we decided to go take pictures haha katie had some technical difficulties getting up but once she did, she kicked back and enjoyed the moment.

Picadilly circus

chillin in trafalgar square

two more stops then i'm done, promise!! one of the places our friend on the plane told us to go was the camden market. we got off the train at camden town to a SWARM of people. they had scheduled engineering work planned for that weekend on one of their busiest lines so all the trains were just incredibly busy and on top of that it was a saturday so everyone was out and about going to the market. initially we thought maybe this guy didn't know us very well because all we saw were like gothic clothing shops and tattoo/piercing parlors and i really thought these people were scary. fortunately katie thought maybe we just hadn't gone far enough so we kept walking and sure enough, ran into a freakin awesome market. it had a ton of independent food stands as well as the most precious boutique clothing and trinket shops. we spent a couple hours there walking around then finally we went to………………………………………………..PLATFORM 9 3/4!!!!!! i know harry potter fans, i'm awesome. there was a line but it was worth the 15 minute wait to take a couple pictures! :)

camden market

had to.

we hopped on the tube and went back to our hostel to get our stuff because we thought we were timing our trip back just perfectly but as soon as we got on the train we heard over the loud speaker that there were train delays so we were expecting to be stuck for awhile. since the tube had been working perfectly the whole time we were there, we recognized the Lord was giving us an opportunity to trust Him so we sat back and waited for the trains to start up again. right when the train operator was telling us over the loud speaker to expect long delays and to consider other alternative routes to our destination, the train started going again. my head whipped over to katie and i said "that was random!" and she just smiled and said "no it wasn't." God is good, even in the little things. long story short, we missed our first bus but made the second to get to the airport, security made me throw away my brand new greek honey i got from the borough market, our plane was late so we got great seats once it finally arrived, and after a long travel day, we made it home and were in bed by 3 a.m. :)

so thankful to Jesus for a safe trip and sweet memories with my wonderful friend katie! studying studying studying for mid-terms this next week then SPRING BREAK! this life is so sweet, whether in florence, london, or skyping with the people i love who are thousands of miles away. enjoy today, soak in the sunshine, and be thankful for whatever you have, wherever you are because at the end of the day, these experiences are awesome, but knowing Jesus is always going to be better. ciao ciao! baci xoxo