Ok, I'm alive - part 2

As if white water rafting and jumping off a 25 foot rock in the middle of a river isn't dangerous enough, on 18 July I decided to go skydiving and bungee jumping with a bunch of people in the program. The entire day was a huge adrenaline rush and I will try to explain the adventures as much as possible.

We had to be at the skydiving office at about 10 am. I was going up with Ashley, Alex, Austin, Megan, Angela, Matt, and Dan. When we got to the office we filled out paperwork that said people sometimes and often do get injuries, among other things. Then we waited around a little while and I was borderline panicking. The instructors came and I met mine, Sam. He was really laid back and calm and I'm not really sure if that made me more or less nervous. I put on his terrible terrible pants and then Sam taught me the procedures. It was kind of scary that I was about to dive out of a plane and he spent roughly 5 minutes teaching me how to do it. Sam had a video camera the whole time and he was interviewing me throughout this whole process. I was so nervous that I was giving him the worst answers to his questions. So after some more pictures and such we got onto the bus to go to the airstrip. I was talking to Sam and he was really cool. It was crazy how many times he has jumped--he said it was in the thousands. We got to the airstrip and we see this little green and yellow (LHS '06) plane. There was a lot of yelling and excitement and video taping. Walking up to the plane was a blur. Of course I was last getting on the plane and then first jumping! Yikes... So I was sitting on the floor of the plane and Ashley was sitting right in front of me. When the plane started to taxi, the door was still up and Sam made Ashley believe that there was no door for the entire flight. Part of me believed him too. When we started accelerating Sam put the door down and the first level of panicking settled. Sam had an altimeter that I was watching it the entire time we were climbing. At one point Sam told me to look outside and I already thought we were pretty damn high and that we might be getting close and Sam told me we were at only 5000 feet. We had another 20 minutes or so to get to 14000 feet. That flight seemed like the longest I have ever been on and I was recently on a 14+ hour flight to Australia. The view from the plane was amazing. I could see all of the hills covered in trees and rivers and the ocean. It was so incredible. My hands were getting so clammy. When we were at about 13000 feet Sam gave me final instructions a few times and I tried to get mentally ready to jump. He clipped me to him and tightened my straps and at 14000 feet Sam opened the door. As seen in my video my face went from excitement to pure terror. Then before I knew it I was out of the plane. It was a ridiculous rush. At first I couldn't really breathe but I think that was a combination of being sick and almost hyperventelating from being nervous. But within seconds I just got this rush of amazement and more adrenaline. I dove right through a cloud and that was definitely the coolest thing. It was so cold and slightly moist. Then emerging from the cloud looked so cool. Everything was beautiful. I was freefalling for about 60 seconds before Sam pulled the parachute. I was then falling for another 5-6 minutes. I could see a river and Sam pointed out an estuary (which I sadly got excited about). Sam let me control the parachute for a little while. We landed in a cleared sugarcane area. As soon as I landed the only thing I could think of is... I'm alive. The whole feeling is so hard to explain. My mouth was incredibly dry and my ears popped really bad but everything else was completely inexplicible. We watched people land one by one and then we asked one of the instructors if there had ever been a skydiving accident and he told us there was 1 in 20 years and it happened the day before. Its a good thing they told us after we went or I would have bounced out of that office real quick in the morning. When we got back from skydiving we went to lunch at The Crowne Hotel (sounds fancier than it was) and I got the best fried calamari that I have ever had. I went back to the hostel and then went to pick up some postcards for some special people. Before I knew it, it was time for stage two of the days adventures.

With almost no rest it was time to jump on the bus and head over to the bungee jumping facility. I was way more terrified about that than skydiving. So when we got there I had to fill out another waiver (I really need to stop signing my life away). Before bungee jumping we got to go on one of those giant swings. I don't really know how to explain it but they have them at six flags and stuff. You are laying down on your stomach with two other people and they raise you up like 50 feet and then you pull a cord and it releases you and you swing. I was with Dan and Ben and I got to pull the cord! It was really fun. The guy who was setting it all up was totally messing with us though by running in front of us when we were swinging past the platform and trying to catch us and such. I came to the conclusion that in general that extreme sports people like to mess with people. After that, the three of us climbed up about 15 flights of stairs to get to the top of the bungee jumping platform. It was a combination of being completely out of shape and being terrified that was making my heard pound. A bunch of people went before me and then finally in was my turn to throw myself off a 50-foot high platform. Logical, right? I put on the waist harness and they strapped my feet together with a towel and bands. They hooked the bungee onto me and I was officially the most terrified I had ever been in my life. I kept asking them questions about whether they had done everything right and Boris (one of the guys who was setting everything up) was telling me that I was over thinking it. Of course I was over thinking it! I was about to jump 50 feet! But I walked up to the edge of the platform and Boris just said "5, 4, 3, 2, 1" and I jumped. Holy crap was it a thrill. At the bottom there was a man made lake and I guess the guys wanted to mess with me even more and they dunked me in it. I got wet up to my neck. Apparently I had good form. I have a video but I'm not sure if I can post videos on blogs. I'll check out the possibility. Once I got back to solid ground I was so pumped that I wanted to immediately go again. Unfortunately it was already late and more people had to go. I definitely want to go some other time though (sorry Mom and Dad).

When we got back we all cleaned up and then it was time for group dinner at none other than The Woolshed. We had champagne to celebrate a successful trip and the rest of the night was just a great time. Who knew that you could get jugs (pitchers) of wine? Classy.

The next day we hopped onto a plane and headed back to Sydney. I met my roommates and finally moved into my apartment. As much fun as I was having, I was so sick of living out of a suitcase.

So, I am pretty much all caught up. I'll let you know about more adventures as they happen so you don't have to be at the edge of your seat every time you check my lovely blog.

Until next time,
Lara