
Interlaken and Bern, Switzerland
Best Weekend of my life---Switzerland. Words cannot begin to describe everything so this entry will be erratic and chaotic, similar to my experience here.
Well we came in at 3:00 am Friday at the Funny Farm Hostel to be greeted by a GIANT Saint Bernard…yet I think all Saint Bernards are giant. Anyway, it was precious and it instantly added to the character of the hostel. Our rooms were nice, and we all crashed. We
woke up at 8 to sign up for…CANYON JUMPING. 1:00am we met with a group from Gonzaga, Syracuse, and Lafayette. We all agreed that we would have to tell our mom about this…after we jumped. Canyon Jumping is when you jump off a ledge 300 ft above this river in a canyon. You are attached to a harness with a rope on the other side so essentially you free fall for 5 seconds and then when you run out of slack you swing back and forth in the mouth of the canyon for a few minutes.
Fast forward through hiking up the most amazing mountain and trees and being the last one to jump (we had to jump in descending weight order, so lucky me…I was last…and everyone was

watching). I was so calm for most of the trip, yet when standing over the ledge…I didn’t know what to do. Canyon Jumping is said to be more intense than Sky Diving because you are alone…you have to willing choose to jump off a mountain into open air. You’d be surprised how hard
of a decision that is…instinctively I kept grabbing the bar, holding on for stability.
You are basically going against your natural mental state to avoid danger. Our guide, Biff (yeah I know…the crazy Swiss adventure junky, typical) kept making me let go and told me to hold onto the rope for stability. But everyone else jumped with his or her arms out and I wanted to be brave. Finally, after being up there for too long, I took the step off the edge….

I instantly went into fetal position, and screamed the whole way down. It’s the strangest sensation that is impossible to describe…your body is still but you know your moving. We were going approx 80 mph.
My eyes went into shock, it happened so fast, I was in the air, needing to
grab for something stable and then all of a sudden it looks like I am about to crash into the canyon wall. But right before I hit the wall I swing back over the river. Screaming the whole way yet not sure if I actually made noise because my voice box was closed up. When swinging all I could do was lie on my back and look up, reflecting that the most insane thing I’ve ever done.
Since then, I’ve been reliving the moment over and over again, feeling the fall, taking in the view, comprehending what I just did. My next post will be a video of the jump…check it out!