On to Israel
Trip Start
Unknown
1
18
28
Trip End
Ongoing
West Tisbury, Massachusetts
Monday, January 31, 2011
The weekend before last, I spent the night with my cousins, Aunt and Uncle (different from the ones I was living with). We had a delicious dinner, I had my first Hebrew lesson from the kids, and the next morning, they took me to a trapeze school in a Jordan's Furniture. One of my cousins is a fantastic gymnast; she has been training on the Silks but had never tried the trapeze. Somehow, I agreed to try it with her. If you don't know, I'm terrified of heights. Literally, I get vertigo standing up sometimes. I think my level of comfort is inversely proportionate to the number of inches I am from the ground. I was petrified. My cousin, who feels more comfortable in the air than on the ground, climbed right up the wobbly white steps to the platform. I watched her get strapped into the harness, grab hold of the trapeze bar, bound off, take three perfect swings, and end with a back flip. Fearless. My turn. The whole time I was up there that voice in my head that got me through the airplanes in Lisbon was back, this time telling me, "You think this is scary? I'm about to go to a foreign country to pursue the thing I love most in the whole world for five months. That is scary. This is nothing." And somehow that got me into the harness, out onto the trapeze bar, and, after a dialogue that went something like. . .
Muscled trapeze man: "when I say hup, you jump with both feet. . . hup!"
Me: "Oh. Was that it? Do I jump?"
Muscleman: "HUP!"
Me: "Oh. . ok! Um, here, ready, one two three? ok!"
. . .into the air. The swinging brought some relief. Some guy on the ground (unfortunately attractive trapeze professional) told me when to smile and when to kick. And then he told me to do a back flip. And I think I just laughed. After dropping (a better option than the back flip), and being belayed gently down onto the cushy mat/net, I don't know what made me go back and do it again. This time I applied some of the muscly trapeze man's directions, actually jumping on the "hup!" and took a similar path downward, only this time with my rear end stuck right up in the air as I fell to the mat/net. The third time though, and let me tell you, if that trapeze guy yelling at me from below hadn't been so cute this never would have happened, I agreed to commit to this back flip. There was this terrifying moment where the ropes went slack, I was upside down falling toward the mat/net, and I let out this horrible involuntary scream. And after a few long seconds of clutching myself for dear life I crawled off of the mat and was met by my Aunt, Uncle, and cousins all grinning. We had a fun lunch and then got lots of jelly beans! Even though I think from now on I will let my expert cousin do all of the flying, I'm so glad (and honestly pretty surprised) that I was able to do this. I realized that for me to quell a fear, I just have to think of something scarier. Thank you Aunt, Uncle and cousins!
Thank you also other Aunt and Uncle (I've decided not to use names in my blog) who allowed me to live in their beautiful cosy house while I worked in Boston! I had a wonderful and perfect stay, and you will see me soon I think.
Now it is time for me to go. I'm still waiting to come down off of this sugar high; maybe I will sleep tonight. I'm already dancing in my mind! (And speaking Portuguese too, oddly enough, which will do me no good whatsoever).
Até já! (Until already/ see you very soon!)
