I'm Wearing Green to Celebrate St. Patrick's Day

And going to Dublin.

Both are important steps in really getting a feel the celebration. Apparently St. Patrick's day is celebrated with more enthusiasm in several places in the US than in Ireland itself. Dunno why that is, but I'm not too worried about it. It'll be like going to Punksutawny for Groundhogs Day.

Me and the three Boston U. students I'm going with met up at 7:40 this morning to catch the 8:05 bus to Heathrow. I brought a bag of apples, a french baguette, and a wheel of brie cheese. Everybody happy? Yessir.

I'm also in the midst of getting the finishing touches on my honors project for the London portion of my European Adventure. How exciting!

Most of the students are gone from HMC but there's a good bunch left who are finishing up 9th week tutorials and pre-lims. I don't really know what pre-lims are. But they're really intense. I wouldn't want to take them.

Yesterday I spent four hours trading music with James Kanimba. We met for a late breakfast at 10 and went to The Buttery. That place has won me over since my first days in Oxford when they kicked me out of their tables while I was trying to enjoy one of the best apples in the world, etc. You may remember the story. so now I've got 26 new songs on the JK mix that I can associate with several of my favorite memories and people from Harris Manchester.

I've kept a tear tally while over here. What's a tear tally? Basically every time I've bee reduced to tears since I've been here, I've put a little tally mark on a yellow sticky note that hung directly above my laptop at my desk. 19 times in 9 weeks. On average that's just over 2 times a week. But most of the tears are concentrated in the very beginning of term and the very end.

Oh, PS. I went skydiving on Saturday. It was the biggest thrill of my entire life. I jumped out of an airplane from 3,500 feet in the air. I did. I did it. There are pictures. I've got the memory. The feeling was unbelievable. I was the last one of 7 to jump because I'm the smallest. I sat next to the pilot, Jeff, and chatted with him as we took off. Very nice and comforting, thought I didn't really need much comforting honestly. It didn't take as much effort to jump out of a plane as I thought. The instructor, Luke, was incredibly lighthearted and funny which are two very important things for someone who's going to help people jump out of a plane.

``Quick note: I spent my whole bus ride to the airport on my way to Dublin describing sky diving, but it didn't save all of it. Now I must REexplain that experience before I can dive into my Dublin experience. It's all so tiring!``

Basically Skydiving is the biggest thrill of a lifetime. So far. We've established that much. I got to watch 6 people jump before me. One person, Griggs, I'd known before that day. The others I'd just met. One guy was obsessed with "manly" things. He'd referred to at least 3 or 4 things that day as being "manly" and I couldn't help but find this rather funny. Before he jumped I gave him a thumbs up and told him how manly he was. I like to think it boosted his confidence.

Luke kept calling me Scarlet and I couldn't figure out why. It was because he thought that's what my name was. Whatever. I responded to it and I was the only girl in the group so it wasn't like he could have been referring to anyone else. So I was last to go and I scooted to the door on Luke's command. He opened the door, looked out, yelled "CUT" to Jeff, who then cut the engines. He helped me situate myself in the door, had me look into his eyes and keep focused on him. Focusing out the plane isn't a great idea at this point. So, he said "chin up!" Which is the first command. Then he said "GO!" Which is obviously the second command. I hesitated for a fraction of a split second and thrust myself from the plane! I fell forward instead of onto my back and panicked for another split second until I rolled over onto my back. I looked up and watched my canopy open above me. Sweet. I didn't even get to do my count properly. From the plane you're supposed to yell "One thousand! Two thousand! Three thousand! Four thousand! Check Canopy!" I called 1000 and 2000 really on thousands 3 and 4, and watched my canopy open on Check Canopy. It's supposed to already be fully deployed by then. When I looked up, I had a nuisance. My lines were twisted. This is just a nuisance because it's easily fixed. I'd gone over the technique about a hundred times or so so I didn't freak out. I did exactly what I was taught to do, which is exactly what you do to a swing when the chains get twisted. Grab each chain in either hand, pull them apart and scissor kick your legs so that you spin around, unwinding the wind. This type of nuisance is common but needs to be fixed other wise you can't steer your canopy.
Once I'd gotten rid of the nuisance I reached up and grabbed my yellow toggles on the back of the rear strap. I looked left and steered left. I looked right and steered right. All was in order and all was silent and all was cool and all was a view from 3000 feet in the air above Swindon, England.
It was hard to read the wind that day because there was hardly any at all. That's certainly not a bad thing, it just means your landing might be a little fast because there's not wind to slow you down. All in all, my landing was awesome. There was a radio in my helmet so that people on the ground could direct me. "#6 go right. Right. Right. Release."
One guy face planted which was hysterical. Another guy almost landed in a hedge. Equally hysterical. They who face planted wasn't hurt, he'd already touched ground with his feet, he just couldn't stay on them. I came in running, taking a few steps then falling on my rear. There are some ridiculous pictures which will be posted asap.
I couldn't stop talking once I'd landed. Not too unusual but it was amplified by the adrenaline high. I'd forgotten how to gather my canopy but luckily Griggs ran out to help me. I started to pick it up and he said "No, no! You haven't made it a ball of washing yet!" Right, washing. ball it up. After jumping Luke showed us each the video of our exit from the plane that he'd taken so we could discuss what and how we did. I obviously needed work on my exit because while it wasn't bad, it wasn't optimal. It's hardest for small people because we're fighting against 80 knots of wind coming at you. Not impossible for a small person, just harder. His advice, along with more stable arms upon exit, was to eat more pies. Check. I'll do it.
Everyone from our group decided to jump again. I decided not to. The rush was overwhelming. Fantastically overwhelming. My legs were shaky. My mind was racing. I'd given many hugs. Luke got one. Babs, one of the only two women who worked there got one, even the dog, Marley, got one. In fact, Marley and I took a nap together on the couch while the others dove again. I woke up to Babs taking a photo of us. It'd been an exhausting and satisfying day.