2019-20
Gili '20

Visits from Friends

One of the highlights of my summer was having some of my friends from England, Jake and Chloé, come and visit me in Boston for a week. Although I don’t actually live in America, we all stayed at my aunt’s house in Wellesley.
The first few days we tried to stay as busy as possible: with day trips into Boston, shopping sprees at the Natick Mall, Duck Tours, and a trip to the New England Aquarium. One of the best parts of having my friends come and visit me in the U.S. was seeing the excitement on their faces for the things that I no longer find amazing here, like the cinemas. I can’t believe I’ve forgotten, but most cinemas back in South Africa and the U.K. don’t come with recliner seats that are more comfortable than the beds in our dorms. Also, having the ability to order full-sized entrées while watching a film is unheard of back home. You start to wonder whether you’re still at the cinemas or in a restaurant. However, once you actually taste said entrée you quickly remember that you are indeed at the cinema.

Towards the end of the week, we decided to relax a bit more and take it easy. Thursday and Friday were comprised of long tanning sessions during the day and card and board games at night. Since Saturday would be our last chance to have fun together, Jake and Chloé and I, along with my cousins, went on a day trip to New Hampshire to go cliff diving. When we arrived we saw this bridge that was suspended above the river. Most people were jumping off the lower cliff instead of the bridge, so Jake and I decided to be mavericks and do our first jumps off the bridge. Once we reached the top I quickly realized why people weren’t jumping off the bridge: it was a lot higher than it looked, a lot higher. I did not particularly feel like dying that day, so I told Jake I needed the bathroom and quickly proceeded to the lower cliff and jumped off that. Jake, however, did not “need the bathroom” and he decided to take the plunge most would not. Although he didn’t die, the sound of his back and the river becoming close friends and the pitch of the scream he let out affirmed the decision I made not to jump off that bridge.
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