Dead Kangaroo and Jumping out of an Airplane.

So we'll start with last night. I went out with my roomie, Laura, from the UK. We went to the "little aussie bum" for dinner, and got a spitroast and two drinks for 12 dollars. pretty amazing. and the food was really good. Also, there were guys in dresses, and hula skirts, which is always awesome. So we stayed there for dinner, and had a few drinks, and met some crazy people, and then moved on the the "mad cow" bar next door. We played 4 rounds of pool, and I'm proud to say I won two of them. Then we went back to the "bum" and were pleasantly pleased to see the guys in male clothing, and then we had a couple more drinks with the staff, and we all decided to trudge across the street to the "rhino bar/nightclub". we proceeded to dance the night away, and it was, all in all, an amazing night. I had a blast dancing to all sorts of music. Finally, we returned home around 2 am to get a few precious hours of sleep before going SKYDIVING.

So, as you know, I went skydiving. It was. AMAZING. I did "jump the beach" which is down in Mission Beach (about a two hour drive). We went up in the plane with 7 tandem jumpers, and 1 solo jumper, and 1 video photographer (for me!), so we were all like sardines in a can. I was fifth to go, and we were high high above the clouds. On the way up, we went through a cloud patch and I lookd at Pierre's wrist height watch thing, and it said 4,500 feet. The clouds were at 4500 feet, and we were going up to 14,000. At 11,000 we threw out the solo jumper, who leaped out of the plane, and it was at that point that I began to get a little nervous. Not to mention, the guy sitting next to me on the plane was shaking because he was so nervous. Finally, we reached the optimal altitude of 14,000 feet. I was fifth to jump, and before I knew it, I was sitting on the edge of the plane, with my hands crossed across my chest, my feet bent back under the plane, and Pierre saying "alright, here we gooooooo!!!", and there I was. Falling towards earth at 200km/hour. It was a ridiculous feeling. I have no other way of describing it. After what seemed a nano second, we were reaching the cloud layer. As a child, I always thought it would be awesome to take a nap on a cloud, and I always thought clouds would catch me if I fell out of a plane, so in some strange way, it was like I was living a child hood dream. The cloud was freezing and wet, and after about 4 seconds I saw the ocean. It was right below me. With Mission Beach and islands scattered in every direction, and POOF! our parachute opens (to my relief). We glided down to the beach, which took about 4 - 5 minutes, and Pierre even let me steer the parachute! It was pretty exciting. And that was it, I was back on land, and I wanted to go back up and do it again. I was in the first batch of jumpers, and there were still two more to go (which took another 3 hours), so I got to hang out on the beach and meet some new people, and of course, watch for falling people out of the sky. I met a few people from the UK, Natasha, Tom, Robert and hmmm I don't think I ever got the fourth person's name. It's Natasha's birthday, and we're all going out for Mexican food at 8, followed by some dancing.

Tomorrow I head off for my dive trip! I'm stoked, especially since I got to see the reef as I was freefalling towards earth.

Oh yeah, and on the way to Mission Beach, I saw my first kangaroo! Unfortunately, it was roadkill. :[ Also, on the drive back to Cairns, the sun was setting over the mountains and it was so beautiful. Anyways, I've gotta go hop in the shower and get ready for dinner. Will write again after I dive on the Great Barrier Reef!! :]