Week 9 - Bday Week :)

Hello there!

Monday I got a ride to Pacific Fair (huge shopping center) and got some tanks and a dress for Derby Day in Melbourne. Also got a cool feather to wear in my hair. I worked on my Drugs paper alot.

Tuesday I had a bunch of different classes and did heaps of work. Then I went to CBD and Varsity Tavern. Midnight I turned 22! My friends were all buying me shots and it was a good time. I stayed out until 2AM even though I was being picked up at 7AM for skydiving. I mean you only turn 22 once! It was cool.Wednesday: BDAY! I woke up and got a coffee with Tom. We then got picked up by "Sky Dive Byron Bay" and headed to Byron. I suited up and met the person I was to be attached to at 14,000 feet!! Big, strong, man? Nope. She was half a foot shorter than me! She had jumped out of a plane "a few thousand" times! Wow!! So we packed into this tiny plane which was rather uncomfortable and headed up in the sky. I got a video tape and over 60 photos of the jump. The video is priceless. So at one point I said so are we almost there and she said Jackie we are at 5,000 feet, we have 9,000 to go! WOW! It took about 20 minutes to get to maximum height. All of a sudden... BOOM they slid open the door and out popped a tandem. She pushed me up to the door and I was like whoaaaaaa... The look on my face is absolutely priceless. Not only do I look like I want to die but I thought I was going to die. I was second out of the plane with not an instant to even second guess it.

We started to free fall and it was one of the best things I have ever experienced in my life. It was cold and so fast. We were moving at over 120 miles per hour (approx. 200 kilometers per hour). I couldn't help but keep my mouth WIDE open almost the whole drop. My camera man and the chick Sally told me SMILE but that wasn't what my mind was thinking. I was thinking OMG THIS FEELS SO GOOD!! WOW I AM GOING FAST! WOW MY EARS HURT! WOW MY MOUTH IS DRY! WOW WOW WOW Like my mouth was wide open all the pics are ridiculous lol. After like 20 seconds we had fallen 9,000 feet and she opened the parachutte. WAM we got lifted up. It didn't hurt though. I was in AWE. It took

another minute to touch down to the ground. My views up in the air were amazing. Byron Bay is already one of my favorite spots in Australia, and let me tell you boy was it gorgeous.

As soon as I touched the ground I said, "I want to do it again! Let's go back up!!!!" And I meant it. When I get back to the states my friend Lisa and I are going to go up to Lebanon, Maine and do it again. After I do one more tandem, if I still feel so passionately about it I am contemplating getting my license so I can do jumps alone. The girl talked to me alot on the ride down and I kind of just wanted to be in awe and look out onto the world while floating down.

After this amazing begining to the day, the company brought us to Byron. We got lunch at the Beach Hotel which was real delicious. Then we chilled on the beach and walked around. We were all pretty exhausted. We got a ride back to Bond.

After that I showered and got ready and showed the video to a few people. Colleen and I then went down to Don's and my buddy bartender gave us 6 free drinks/shots. It was great. Then me Sarah, Colleen, Jen, Kayte, Kayleigh, Amy, and Dana went to dinner at Lake in Marketsquare. It was delicious.
Afterwards me, Kayte, Tom, Jennie, Joe, Samarth, and Josh went to Strike Bowl Alley in Surfer's. It was kind of a disappointment not more of my friends came. So many people on facebook said they'd come and didn't even bothering telling me otherwise. Ben and Will didn't even make an attempt to come. They were supposed to be real good friends of mine which is pretty upsetting. Ben especially. He really kind of just showed the lack of understanding when the next day he didn't realize he did anything wrong. I had to beg him just to watch the video nevermind a hug a happy birthday a card for crap's sake. Both guys instead of chilling with me got obliterated from whisky in the dorms. Cool.

The bowling alley was heaps of fun though! We played 2 games with girls versus boys, where we lost miserablly, and then switched up the teams. I got one strike which was awesome. Then the next round up I got zero, so kind of shows how I play. LOL. Everyone got me so many drinks and it was just so much fun. We then went to Melba's nightclub where they gave me a huge scorpion bowl for free. We danced and then I went home. It was probably the best birthday I have ever had. I did a bunch of different things, ate great food, and hung around with all different people throughout the day.

Thursday I woke up at 6AM and jumped into a taxi with Kayleigh. Halfway to the airport she realized she had forgotten her ticket to Derby Day so we had to turn back to get it. Good thing we made it back to the airport on time. We jumped our flight to Melbourne and then got a taxi to the hostel. The hostel was one of the grossest living quarters I have ever seen in my life. I have stayed in many a hostel and this one was by far the worst. Porn magazines thrown about, empty mayonnaise containers on the floor, and ever a band aid stuck to the bed. Good thing Kayleigh had a friend who lived right outside of the city. He had an extra mattress and I ended up sleeping on that the three nights we were in Melbourne. It was cool.

Day one in Melbourne we just walked around and ate lunch at a cafe. That night Kay and I plus Amber and her sis, Kelly, and Gabi went to Little Italy (Lygon Street) and got food. We talked the owner dude into giving us each a free glass of wine and free garlic bread. I even got free pasta with my chicken parm. It was good for sure. Then Kay's friend picked us up and we were off to his place. We chilled and watched some television and passed out. Friday we had to be back at the hostel to be picked up by 7:20 AM for a full day tour of the Melbourne Coast.

We left his house at 5:30 AM and went into the city and got breakfast. The breakfast was actually so good too. So far Melbourne is definitely the place to be for good food!!! We then got into the shuttle and were on our way touring the Great Ocean Road.Great Ocean Road Tour: We saw live koalas in the forest. We went on a short hike in a 250 year old rainforest named Maits Rest Rainforest. There were trees there that are a breed that is the tallest flowering tree on earth. These trees were monsterous. Really. They were 50-80 meters high, and the highest ones go to 150 meters high (um 1 meter = about 3 feet). They were crazy. Unfortunately most of the day is rained and it was freezing but I still tried to stay positive and enjoy the natural surroundings in the environment. We went to the best wave beach in Australia, Bells Beach. We saw some wild kangaroos just chillin around.

We went to the 12 Apostles, which you can see in the picture right below.
There are really only like 8 Apostles now because some have dissipated into the sea. You could see all of the lines of sediment in the rock formations. It was pretty cool. All of the rocks are losing 2 cm per year and forming new apostles as the old ones are being washed away.

We went to an Aboriginal culture center where a guy showed us different weapons and tools, which were cool and definitely lethal. He also played the didgeridoo for us which was real cool. It seems like such a stoner type of instrument. It is made from natural wood in which a termite has eaten the insides out, but not the outer piece making it completely hollow, naturally. I got a sandwich at a health food shop for lunch and had Chinese food for dinner. They were both just okay.

We went to a giant gorge called Loch Ard Gorge. It was cool. Then we went to London Bridge, which is a natural formation of a bridge in the water. It used to be connected to the main piece of land but it broke off in the 1990's. Funny anecdote: There were two people on the other side of the bridge when it broke off. They were safe, but trapped on it. Helicopters and news agencies came and it took about an hour for them to be rescued. The two who were rescued? It was a man and his mistress. He told his work he was sick and called out. His wife thought he was at work. Neither were true. His wife left him and his job fired him. Moral: Never skip work and cheat on your wife in a spot where a natural disaster could happen. Ha Ha.

We got back into Melbourne real late (10PM) and didn't even get to our friends house until 11PM. It was Halloween and I really wanted to go out but it just wasn't feasable. This is probably the first Halloween I have officially missed and not done anything. At least my mom sent me a bunch of Halloween toys! lol

Saturday: DERBY DAY AT FLEMINGTON RACETRACK

Kayleigh, Brad, and I went out to breakfast. It was good and cheap. Then we got dressed up for Derby Day. The Australians pronounce it Darby Day. Over 120,000 people attend this race every year in Melbourne. The culmination of this race is the Melbourne Cup. There were 10 main horse races. I did some research and learned how to bet on different horses. I ended up betting around $100 dollars. I won some money on all the races but two. One race the horse Wilander broke through the wood doors and started to race on his own. I was pissed. He clearly has enough strength to break through the doors, he ran so fast around the track too. He would have won; I am sure of it. On race 7, this horse Whobegotyou was so famous. He had placed in 1st the last 3 of his races. On the radio people said he'd win. All my friends said he'd win. So instead of betting "Each Way" which is if the horse gets 1st, 2nd, or 3rd you win money, I bet WIN $15. Of course the horse didn't win, he got 2nd. So if I had stuck to Each Way I would have won money. In the end I made 85% of my money back which isn't that bad. It was entertaining and it enabled me to talk to a bunch of people around. We ended up getting a good table inside the glass. It was FREEZING outside so we were lucky. We ended up standing with those old guys in the photo but it was cool and they gave us a few free beers. All my friends drank champange and got toasty but I stuck with the beer because I wanted to stay out all night.

I met up with a friend who had good seats upstairs and chilled up there for a few of the races. They had a good view. I stayed until the end and went to the train. It was insane. SO many people and not enough trains. We got on the third train (after being separated from everyone but one girl) and then walked 20 minutes from downtown Melbourne to the hostel. I grubbed out hardcore on the walk home. Yum. Kay and I met up with some other people had a beer and then walked down to this nightclub. The nightclub was called Equinox. We ended up crashing some girls birthday party but I don't think she minded. There were tons of Lebanese people there. I told one of them I had seen Lebanon two times before and he was like how. I said I was in Israel and looked out through an army post. He asked if I was Jewish and I said what if I was? I was just chillin in Israel anyways.. He said "Jews run the world! They really do! They suck." Then I flipped it and told him not really and what not I am good at the advocacy shit. Then I admitted I was Jewish. He was like, "Whoa. But you are pretty. and normal. I don't understand." I was the first Jew he had ever met in his life and he already had these horrible thoughts in his mind. Then he told his friend they were all whispering and it was weird. They were still nice to me after the fact though and hopefully they weren't drunk and remember that we are normal and nice too. OY! and no not OI like Aussie, OY like Oy gavulta! lol

After this we went to some other bar on the street. I met some chill girls and we got into a taxi and followed them to another club. Unfortunately we lost them and so Kay and I went into the biggest casino in Melbourne, The Crown. It was out of this world. SOOO nice. Like a Foxwoods but maybe even flashier. I had half a sandwich and it was time to go. We jumped in a taxi and went back to Brad's. I fell asleep waiting up for the boys on the couch. I was awoken by a 30 year old friend of Brad's creeping in the room but all was okay and I went back to bed. The next morning Brad made awesome breakfast and we watched movies all day. He dropped us off at the airport. Our flight was delayed (what else is new) and then we got back to the Gold Coast. I watched television, unpacked, and went to bed.

What an awesome week!! I love it here!!! I just wish the weather would perk up!!!!! Plans for next week: 2000 word drugs paper due. Melbourne Cup partying Tuesday. Thursday 6:10AM flight from Brisbane to the Great Barrier Reef~!!! NEXT WEEK IS GOING TO BE ROCKING WITH EXTREME SPORTS 4 DAYS IN A ROW!! YEA BABY YEA

I LOVE YOU FAMILY AND MISS YOU. THANKS FOR THE CARDS AND MESSAGES ON MY BIRTHDAY! :) KEEP THE MAIL COMING WAHOO!

Photos of me jumping out of a plane at 14,000 ft:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2222664&l=498e2&id=1812695

Photos of my trip to Melbourne: (2nd largest city in Australia, by 2010 it will be the largest)
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2223807&l=b4711&id=1812695