Nothing Has Changed?

Hey everyone! The weather is not so hot today, so we are hitting up the free internet at the library. This morning I got my hair cut. It is not quite shoulder length when it is curly. I'm really happy about that though, it was getting very hot. Also, my hair is getting bleached blonde by the sun, it's kind of strange looking. Anyways, what I really want to talk about is yesterday. So... I went skydiving. Yeah. It was crazy. We went to the place and watched a DVD (they were trying to make us spend more money). Then we all went to the bathroom. In the morning, I had only drank one cup of tea, but had already gone to the bathroom four times. I heard that many people lose all bladder control when skydiving. That would be so embarassing, so I was guarding as best I could against that unfortunate fate. We decided to jump from 12 000 feet, with no cameras or anything. When you jumped, you could get a camera man to jump with you and take a video and pictures. We also had the option of jumping from 15 000 feet, which you can't do just anywhere in the world. But... I figured, up in the sky, it's all the same, so we might as well go for the lower height. The only reason I would have gone from 15 000 would be for bragging rights, and $90 NZ is a lot to pay for that. So, we got suited up in our jumpsuits and flight hats and goggles. Then we met our "tandem masters", the people who we were going to jump with, they pull the parachute. I was kind of upset about that, I mean, "I can pull my own parachute, thank-you very much." But that was the way it was supposed to be. We got on the plane. That was going to be the scary part, taking off in this little plane. I was nervous as soon as we left the ground. We got strapped in to our tandem masters. My guy told me what to do once we were in the air. They say, "be the banana", talking about the shape your body should be in. The only preparation you have for the jump is telling you how your feet should be positioned and where your head should be. That's it. So... we were going to be the last people to jump from the plane. Some other guy was just jumping on his own, and said he would jump with me (maybe I looked really nervous?). So, when Sydney jumped out, I freaked out. They jumped right out of the plane and plunged down. There was nothing stopping them, they were just jumping into mid-air. That is craziness! Then Bretton jumped out. I was really scared, I must have been so white. We started sliding up the plane to jump out. By we, I mean my tandem master slid me up to the door, I wasn't moving. Then we sat down by the open door. At that point I was saying, "NO, NO, NO. Like seriously, no!" He didn't listen, we jumped out. That feeling, nothing is stopping you, you are just going down toward the earth. I felt complete terror. I thought I was going to die! It was so scary, I was so freaked! I screamed bloody murder the whole 45 seconds of freefall. The other guy jumping with us was trying to get me to smile or have fun with my arms, but I was having none of it. I was just screaming. My tandem master tapped me to tell me I could take my hands off of my harness. He had to tap me three times until I let go. I was still screaming. Then, he pulled the parachute and we were suddenly smoothly floating around. It was so bizarre. To me, there is no way that that freefall was 45 seconds, it felt like 5. I screamed for 45 seconds straight. They said you would be scared for a while, your brain would go crazy, but the you would have fun. I think my brain was going crazy the whole time. When we were floating around with the parachute, I kind of was hyperventilating. My tandem master asked me, "Are you okay?" It was like this. Gasp, "I am," gasp, "fine". The view from up there was amazing, but I was still trying to relax. When we landed, it was all over. My knees buckled when we landed. Some person asked me, "Did you have fun?" To that I said, "Ummmm... fun, that's one word for it." I was not sure if I liked it or not. When I look back, it was good. I would totally do it again, but while I was doing it, it was insane. I would probably scream the whole time again. I don't know if I would call it fun even now though, I don't even think I got that much of an adrenaline rush. Maybe the idea is that your brain thinks you are dying, maybe that you are committing suicide. And, by surviving, you are beating death? I think I was so scared because I was so free. You are free in the sense that you have nothing stopping you, you can do whatever you want with your body, you can see so much. But you not free in the sense that you cannot stop yourself (your tandem master can, not you). Maybe it is so scary because I have never had so much freedom, but yet so little freedom, if you know what I mean. It is hard to explain, especially for one not so good with words. After skydiving, my ears were majorly sore and plugged, my throat was also raw from screaming. But today, it is all better. But, when we went back to the hostel, I felt like so much had changed. I went skydiving! I jumped out of a plane! I am a changed person. Yet, everything was the same. I am still Aleah with curly hair, staying in Taupo. Looking around at everyone, I expected something big to happen, for people to look at me differently, but nothing had changed. It is hard to explain again, but I would encourage you all to go skydiving- I'm sure you'll feel the same way. Also... they didn't ask for ID, again! I am beginning to think you can do anything you want in New Zealand if you look slightly older than your age. But I am appreciative of that. Tomorrow we're leaving for Wellington. We've got a six hour bus ride, so that should be fun. Anyways, I'll talk to you all soon. Hope all is well in the land of -20.