Thursday, August 25, 2005
An exhilerating experience...just missed
You all must have heard the proverb..."u got food in your hand but you couldn't put it in your mouth".Well, something similar happened to me.
My orientation ended recently with a trip to a camp near the Smoky mountains, a really beautiful place and a 45 min drive from my college, though we did not exactly go to the mountains. It was a nice trip but the journey was not like how we have in India, with Dumb C, antakshari etc..., it was just sit and talk as there was a mixture of a few Indians, lots of chinese and a bit of europeans and canadians.
The place was good, as soon as we went there, we had some salads and bread to eat (for veggies, non veggies had lot of choices), followed by some activities like canoeing, riflery, wall climbing, zip line(going from one end of the rope to another end at a lower elevation tied from the top) etc..we wanted to go canoeing but the bus was full, someone said there's gonna be a 2nd trip later, so we went to riflery. That part is run by a guy who's a shooter in the US military. The targets were not some 100 balloons in front of you like in India. It was a sheet of paper with those usual concentric circles, 50m or 50 ft away (dunno exactly) and we had to wear those googles, headphones etc. and shoot them. Well, my career as a sniper is out of the question...I missed all 5 as I could not even make out the target properly with goggles over my goggles!well, we went back for canoeing, they said, no more trips :(
well, we went to zipline and wall climbing instead, but it was so crowded we ditched it. we went swimming then. man, what an awesome sight that was! we were swimming along with blonde babes in bikinis and playing waterpolo with them ;). this went on for about 2 hrs..
Then we went to archery, I was much better in bows and arrows, infact i even hit a bull's eye (almost), came back for dinner and had lasagna.After dinner, there was some group activity where we were supposed to talk about our expectations and aims and some bullshit like that, that took a lot of time. there were 5 topics, but it was cut down to 3 (thankfully!).
By then it was dark, around 8.30 PM (it gets dark only then). There were 3 options for us then, a bonfire (no way!), a night swim (hmm. interesting..), but we took the 3rd option, the V-swing.
There were 8 of us for this, 7 indians and 1 chink. now, this V-swing requires 8 ppl, 7 to pull a rope and 1 person to swing. First you'll have to wear all protective straps, then go up a ladder where there is a rope and they'll tie you to that. then, all of us, will start pulling a rope tied to him and he is carried upwards, more than 100 ft from the ground. then he jerks the rope open and starts swinging like tarzan!! the best part of that is, it is pitch dark and in the middle of a forest and we swing from a rope for around 5-8 mins!!! one by one, 3 guys and the chink finished swinging, I was next in line, all ready with straps and helmet etc.. The time was 9.35 PM, we were supposed to go back at 9.45 PM. everybody thought I'll finish it and probably the next guy in line. The person before me gave us a scare first, he started swinging, went some where and did not even shout! and after a while, he realized that and we heard a 'Aaaaahhhhhh....' from the trees and he came swinging back, much to our relief. Anyway, he finshed, I was all set, and then..the damned rope got stuck somewhere in the trees and they started looking for it, and after a few mins, they said, "guys, its gonna take some time, please remove your harness and get back to the main area, or u'll miss the bus!!" man, I was so f.....g close!! :(
All in all, an exhilerating experience...just missed in the end.
My orientation ended recently with a trip to a camp near the Smoky mountains, a really beautiful place and a 45 min drive from my college, though we did not exactly go to the mountains. It was a nice trip but the journey was not like how we have in India, with Dumb C, antakshari etc..., it was just sit and talk as there was a mixture of a few Indians, lots of chinese and a bit of europeans and canadians.
The place was good, as soon as we went there, we had some salads and bread to eat (for veggies, non veggies had lot of choices), followed by some activities like canoeing, riflery, wall climbing, zip line(going from one end of the rope to another end at a lower elevation tied from the top) etc..we wanted to go canoeing but the bus was full, someone said there's gonna be a 2nd trip later, so we went to riflery. That part is run by a guy who's a shooter in the US military. The targets were not some 100 balloons in front of you like in India. It was a sheet of paper with those usual concentric circles, 50m or 50 ft away (dunno exactly) and we had to wear those googles, headphones etc. and shoot them. Well, my career as a sniper is out of the question...I missed all 5 as I could not even make out the target properly with goggles over my goggles!well, we went back for canoeing, they said, no more trips :(
well, we went to zipline and wall climbing instead, but it was so crowded we ditched it. we went swimming then. man, what an awesome sight that was! we were swimming along with blonde babes in bikinis and playing waterpolo with them ;). this went on for about 2 hrs..
Then we went to archery, I was much better in bows and arrows, infact i even hit a bull's eye (almost), came back for dinner and had lasagna.After dinner, there was some group activity where we were supposed to talk about our expectations and aims and some bullshit like that, that took a lot of time. there were 5 topics, but it was cut down to 3 (thankfully!).
By then it was dark, around 8.30 PM (it gets dark only then). There were 3 options for us then, a bonfire (no way!), a night swim (hmm. interesting..), but we took the 3rd option, the V-swing.
There were 8 of us for this, 7 indians and 1 chink. now, this V-swing requires 8 ppl, 7 to pull a rope and 1 person to swing. First you'll have to wear all protective straps, then go up a ladder where there is a rope and they'll tie you to that. then, all of us, will start pulling a rope tied to him and he is carried upwards, more than 100 ft from the ground. then he jerks the rope open and starts swinging like tarzan!! the best part of that is, it is pitch dark and in the middle of a forest and we swing from a rope for around 5-8 mins!!! one by one, 3 guys and the chink finished swinging, I was next in line, all ready with straps and helmet etc.. The time was 9.35 PM, we were supposed to go back at 9.45 PM. everybody thought I'll finish it and probably the next guy in line. The person before me gave us a scare first, he started swinging, went some where and did not even shout! and after a while, he realized that and we heard a 'Aaaaahhhhhh....' from the trees and he came swinging back, much to our relief. Anyway, he finshed, I was all set, and then..the damned rope got stuck somewhere in the trees and they started looking for it, and after a few mins, they said, "guys, its gonna take some time, please remove your harness and get back to the main area, or u'll miss the bus!!" man, I was so f.....g close!! :(
All in all, an exhilerating experience...just missed in the end.
