I would hardly describe myself as a girl of many talents, but Friday was just quite the productive day.
This weekend, the majority of our study abroad group and a few of the girls from American University decided to go to Varadero. Alyssa and I had already been, but three of the guys that were going had arranged to go skydiving and I really couldn’t pass up the opportunity.
With my Ironman training though, it sometimes makes it difficult for me to do what everyone else does with ease, because they’re not worried about their running or swimming schedule (I’m not able to bike here). My long runs are usually on Saturday and this Saturday my run was 13 miles long. To ensure that I would have a relatively care-free weekend, I got up at 5:30 am on Friday and did my 13 miles before class. After that, the fun could begin…and it did.
There were six of us that took a maquina (one of the old 1950’s Ford cars that function, here in Havana, as a version of a cheap taxi) to Varadero and then proceeded to check in to the resort that Alyssa and I had stayed in the last time we went to Varadero. (For $35 per person, the room and all-you-can-eat breakfast, lunch, dinner, snacks and drinks are provided.) After checking in, I went to look for the boys who were skydiving and at the last minute, two of the AU girls decided to jump as well.
While this blog entry may make me sound brave, I would be lying if I said that I wasn’t scared. I was terrified! I was thinking about it all day and although I’d been really excited, I hadn’t ruled out the possibility that I would back out at the last moment. But in the end, my excitement had gotten the best of me and by the time I had realized what I was actually doing, I was moments away from willingly flinging myself out of a helicopter.
Originally when reservations for skydiving were made, we were told that we were going to jump out of an old USSR war plane and land on the beach. However, I think the plane was in disrepair and due to the direction of the wind, we couldn’t land on the beach and we were told that we would be landing on the grassy area where we took off from. Just as we began to wonder where the plane was that we would now be jumping out of, a helicopter flew overhead and landed on the landing strip in front of us.
We were going to jump out of a helicopter!
As we climbed into the helicopter and we gained altitude, I realized it was too late to change my mind. First I saw the two camera people go: it looked like they literally just fell out of the helicopter. Next, Heather (one of the AU girls) dropped out and she looked absolutely horrified. Finally, it was my turn. I was literally strapped to the instructor at four different points of my suit and he turned his back to the open door of the plane. “Ready?” he asked. I was singing Tom Petty’s “Free Falling” to myself as we jumped out.
What a rush! Had I not been wearing goggles, the speed at which we were falling felt like it might have been enough to peel back my eyelids! Before we jumped out, the instructor told me to keep my eyes open the entire time so I wouldn’t miss a thing. “Right…” I thought. The only way I could see myself jumping out of the helicopter was if I didn’t have to look when I did it. But instead? I kept my eyes open the entire time.
The free fall ended when the instructor pulled the parachute open. When he did, it was as if time itself stood still. The rushing downward stopped and I looked around to take in all the sights. All around me were farm lands that, from that high up, looked perfectly manicured and green. And the ocean…wow. When we went skydiving, it was about 7 pm and the sun was just beginning to set and the rays of light danced across the ocean’s surface. The instructor even let me steer the parachute for a minute or two and as we floated back towards the ground, I can’t imagine that the smile on my face could have been any bigger.
After skydiving, we went back to the resort to have dinner and a few drinks. According to the itinerary, there was going to be a comedy show at 9:30 pm down by the pool and we all figured it would at least be a few good laughs to watch while we thought of something better to do. While we sat at the bar and waited for the show to start, the show “host” recognized Alyssa from the last time we had stayed there and pulled her towards the stage to come “help with the show.” Having had a mojito and a fabulous day prior to that, I eagerly followed her on stage. Following me was Louisa and Caitlin (from AU).
What we ended up doing hardly constitutes just “helping with the show.” For all intents and purposes, we WERE the show. The comedy show was actually a series of five competitions, with four female contestants competing. Our first competition was to pretend to be a model on a catwalk doing “sexy moves;” the second challenge was to make the male host of the show “fall in love” with us by saying sweet (generally corny/ridiculous) things to him; third, we had to act out the scene of a man waking up in the morning (scratching inappropriate places, etc.); fourth, we had to sing “Guantanamera” with our mouths full of water (similar to playing Chubby Bunny) and finally, beans were scattered on the floor of the stage which the four of us had to scramble to pick up. Whoever picked up the most beans won that competition. Alyssa ultimately won overall and all four of us were probably the resorts most popular people for the rest of the night. What a show!
After the excitement of the day before, we spent most of yesterday lying on the beach, which looked as beautiful as something you might find on a postcard.
*Last but not least, last night we watched UNC play in the Final Four – and we watched the game at the house of the head of the U.S. interest section. We had gone there to visit a few weeks ago, but because the game was only going to be on CBS and we definitely don’t receive CBS via Cuban satellite here in the Residence, we asked if they wouldn’t mind us watching the game there with them. They were kind enough not only to say yes, but to provide us with the means to stuff ourselves silly (popcorn, candy, cake, cookies, soda, etc.). Maybe they’ll invite us back over tomorrow to play for the national title?
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