Day 30- Parachute Tower and Loch Eil

Monday, Feb. 15, 2010

(*Note- As there was not Internet access at the Outward Bound Centre, these are all posts that I wrote originally with paper and pen and then transcribed onto my computer.)

We’ve arrived in Scotland. And we’ve covered so much in One Day.

The experience is amazing thus far. I’m rooming with an Indonesian Muslim girl, Zia, and a Palestinian Muslim who lives in Israel, Areen.

Zia is 19-years-old. She looks a bit older than 19, but definitely has the youthful spirit of a teenager. Quirky and always high with energy is how I would describe her. She wears a hijab, which I am sure we will discuss in the coming days.

Areen is 22-years-old. She’s a social worker in Israel. She’s very chic. Her normal outfit consists of baggy slacks, a snug dark-colored turtleneck, a leather jacket of some sort and gold jewelry. She’s always wearing her gold necklace that bears her name. It must be her signature piece of jewelry. She’s nervous about her English-speaking abilities, but in my eyes, as a monolingual American, she’s speaks fabulously. Not to mention, she also speaks three other languages- Hebrew, Arabic and Italian.

So here’s how the day began-

The bus dropped us off at the Outward Bound Centre. The view is beautiful. The Centre is smackdab in the Highlands of Scotland. All around us are snowy mountains, including Ben Nevis. And the Loch Eil is just at our door step.

We all unloaded out suitcase and went to our assigned rooms to unpack. We were given about two hours to settle, take a nap, take a shower and just recoup a little from our travels.

When we regrouped, the 23 of us were split into two different clans. That’s right, clans. Since we’re in Scotland, our Outward Bound guides told us we’d be doing things the Scottish way, and therefore we were clans, not groups.

I was put into the Fraser clan, along with Claire, Daphna and Tomer (Israel), Alex, Indi, Moussa and James (U.K.), Zia and Andy (Indonesia) and Razan and Omar (Palestine). Our guides were John and Alex.

Our first activity of the day was a group-building exercise. We all had to stand up on a wooden beam and then rearrange ourselves alphabetically by first name without getting off the beam. The task was rather simple, but was a good warm-up for getting to know each other’s name and opening the door to being physically comfortable with helping each other.

After that we had lunch, and then came back outside for our second outdoor activity- The Parachute Jump.

If you look at the pictures below, you’ll see a 3-story wooden tower. Our task was to walk up the tower, and then jump off. If you look closely enough, you’ll see that the tower isn’t horribly daunting. Especially considering we were wearing harnesses and were attached to a pulley-device, it was also a rather simple task. But! If you are afraid of heights, like myself, any kind of activity involving heights in some fashion is terrifying.

Walking up the ladder was a breeze. But by the time I reached the landing at the top, my legs were shaking. John hooked me up to the rope and told me  that whenever I was ready, to just approach the edge and walk off.

“Walk off?!” I said. “That’s it?”

“Yup, just walk off,” John said in a comforting yet obviously amused way.

Ok, ok, I’ll just walk off. That’s right, I’ll just walk off, I told myself.I closed my eyes, took a deep breath, and just walked off.

That was the scariest part, walking off. But the actual falling down part was nothin’. Falling down actually happens pretty slowly, since I was attached to the rope.

But the festivities didn’t end there.

Our last challenge of the day was swimming Loch Eil. Obviously, the swimming part wasn’t the challenge. Dealing with the freezing depths were.

We suited up in t-shirts, shorts, life vests and sneakers. We had to keep our shoes on because the loch bottom was covered with jagged rocks. Two-by-two we jumped into the loch. It was sooo cold that I was literally burning, not freezing, but burning from the cold. It definitely took my breath away, but in a good way. The experience was so refreshing and it definitely kicked my energy level way up.

It was definitely a good day. But alas, it didn’t end there.

The was the “Journey of Understanding” schedule works is we do outdoor activites from 9 in the morning to around 5 in the evening. And then after dinner ends at 6, we have discussions about culture, identity and hot-button issues until 10 at night.

The first night of discussion was a warm-up of sorts. We played a variety of get-to-know you games and ended the night with “Speed Dating.” But instead of talking with each other in hopes of finding love, we talked with each other to learn about each other’s cultures and beliefs.

When the discussion ended at 10, many of us were tired but not willing to go to sleep knowing we only had 9 more days together. So we stayed up and played the card game “Spoons.” I got to the final round, but lost. Oh well.

And so, that wraps up Day 2 of the Journey of Understanding.