absolutum dominium

Hello! Today's lazy Sunday. Have decided not to go out. I have Hapkido class at 3pm anyway, and I need to rest + do my work.

Friday night Eileen called me out around 9pm, and I went with her, Shawn and Kwee Lin down to The Pit Pub @ the SUB (Yes. The Canadian 'YIH', which has a lounge and a pub). Actually they were having a party in the ballroom, but when we went there it was just a whole bunch of people getting drunk on cheap beer, and it was so boring. So we adjourned to The Pit. And it was really fun coz they started playing Hip-Hop/RnB songs and Eileen and I could just take off our jackets and dance to them. Although admittedly I wasn't prepared for clubbing; I was wearing some long-sleeved blouse over my tank top coz the weather on Fri night was so chilly tt I had to pull on 3 layers. It's been going down to 10 degrees at night now.

So yeah, once we started dancing it was getting really hot and uncomfy. And the music was ok, nothing comparable to Phuture, but to people as clubbing-deprived as Eileen and me, this was way better than nothing. Or 'parties' where the objective is just drink till you get hammered. (Eileen took pictures with her camera too, but I don't have them yet).

Anyway we met a couple of people tt either she knew or I knew, and the circle just expanded. It was strange coz they would intersperse a hip-hop song with a retro song ("Call on Me" is *so* popular here) or a country song like "Save a Horse, Ride a Cowboy" or something along those lines... It's interesting to look at the dancing culture too as well. Although admittedly people generally dance better here than in Singapore. Even the boys generally know how to groove.

Got picked up 2 times on Fri night; first time was by this tall ang moh in black, and I thought he was talking to the Mexican girl next to me, so I ignored him. And the second time was when 'Crazy in Love' came on, and you know how crazy I go when I hear tt song. And another ang moh guy just squeezed through the group in front of me, took my hand and twirled me around. And I was just stunned. I was like thinking "Where the hell did you come from???" That was potentially traumatising.

By this time it was about midnight, so we decided to leave. Anyway the walk back from The Pit to Totem is about 15 to 20 min, and since I was walking back alone I didn't want to go back too late.

Called the boy after I got back. Coz I missed him, and I wasn't tired. And I couldn't sleep anyway coz my floormates were going on and on outside with the music and the voices and laughter and the knocking and slamming of doors.

Third night in a row he got smashed. Apparently this time his best friend's girlfriend brought along her whole gang of girlfriends, and they all went to Thumper and got high. And one of the girls was hitting on him and they were all dancing pretty provocatively. He got challenged to a drinking contest by this other guy who was jealous of the attention tt girl was giving him, so they competed over 2 bottles of Chivas and a 'special edition' Waterfall, which knocked the other guy out. He tells me the girl wants to ask him out again. Even though they're both attached (not to each other), and she was disappointed coz he didn't offer to send her home. WTF.

I slept around 2.30am on Fri night. But I had to wake up at 5.30am on Sat morning.

Coz on Sat I was going skydiving!

Anyway most of the other people had transport to this small town outside Vancouver in BC called Abbotsford, which is about a 2 hours drive from Vancouver. I didn't though. Me and this other guy 'Sean' whom I only contacted through email, who stayed on campus too.

So we decided to meet at the bus terminal at 6.30am to catch the first bus out, change bus to the Vancouver Bus Terminal, and take a bus from there to Abbotsford.

Anyway Sean is a pretty cool guy. Just to show you, below is him and me at the Abbotsford Skydive Centre in our jumpsuits.



Sean's American, comes from a city called Medestos in California. Apparently Medestos ranks #1 in the US for the most number of pedestrian deaths, and #2 for the most munber of vehicle deaths. It's also pretty notorious for its gangs and drive-by shootings. He was really cool though. It was fun talking to him. He's one of those 'alternative' type people. Listens to KMFDM and Rammstein, 2 bands I used to love when I was in my morbid angry 'fuck the world' phase. He has a mohawk (although he didn't spike it up today), and he's really really open.

We talked about so many things during the 4 hours it took to get us from UBC to Abbotsford. About cultures, what stuff we were doing, we both have an interest in martial arts (me: taekwondo and hapkido; him: aikido and shorinji kempo), extreme sports like skydiving and bungy-jumping, sports (he loves cycling), etc. We even discussed world issues and politics like the US Elections, George Bush and the war in Iraq, perceptions of Marxism and Communism and even Islam and Islamic Law as it originally was and how it is portrayed today. All in all, he was a really interesting personality, and really nice too! Haha. Totally changed my perception of mohawk-toting 'punks'. ;)

But yeah, with great difficulty, a lot of time wasted, and some uncertainty, we made it to Abbotsford Skydive Centre.

And the rest, I'll let the pictures tell the story.



Above: that is the group of the 4 of us who are going on the plane for the tandem jump at the same time.



This is the plane tt's going to take us out.



This is the view from within the plane. Yeah, I look really retarded with the helmet and the goggles.



This is the view tt you get as the plane ascends.



And gets higher. We are supposed to jump from the altitude of 9500 feet.

Anyway *I* was the first to jump out. I didn't even know! One moment I'm in the plane watching it ascend, and then the instructor is arranging the buckles on my straps, and suddenly the doors of the plane are opened and this gust of really icy air hits me in the face. And he's like: "Step out onto the ledge."

And Oh. My. God. The ground is just so so so so so fucking far away. You really do get seized with fear as you step out and you see nothing beneath you. You're just this small speck and if not for your parachute, you die. There's no two ways about it. The pressure in the air will just tear you apart and you'll die.

The propellor is really loud, but at this height it's been drowned out by the all-encompassing wind. When I step out, it is cold. It is so fucking cold. There's already snow on the whitecaps of the mountains below; so you can imagine how low the temperature is at this level.

And then, the moment I step out, there is no "one two three". One minute my feet are on something solid, the next... Nothing. I'm just falling falling falling. Through the air, through the sky. You might think from TV shows tt people 'fly' or float' at this altitude.

Wrong. They fall.

Could just see the plane rise away from me as I fell, and the pull of gravity is so strong tt I feel as though my body is falling faster than my stomach. I arch my back and pull my legs up and open up my arms as was instructed, and just watch as fear melts into the thrill of almost flying.

Almost.

The instructor pulls on the parachute and the rebound jerks on my leg straps. It's painful, but I think it'll be worse if you're a guy. Muahaha. And then I get to take out my camera and take pictures from the sky.

So yes, all the below pictures are taken from the height of between 9500 and 1000 feet.



This is the first view you get when you look down.



This is what you see when you look ahead and around you (I got a panoramic view!).



The view from another angle. You can see my other fellow jumpers in the distance.



And lastly, me. Heh. ;)

For proof lah.

So we land, and then yeah... it's over. Just like tt.

That was pretty fast.



But well, this is a shot of another jumper coming in. I'm on the ground now.

So yeah. The whole skydiving experience is over. It is a trip. It is a complete fucking trip and I'd do it over and over again if I could. But it's expensive and the experience isn't more than a minute.

However, at least tt's one more thing I can cross out from my list of the Top Ten Things I Want To Do Before I Die. Fantastic.

After this the only other things I want to do here is learn how to snowboard, and bungy-jump into a ravine (off Whistler Mountain, or off Nanaimo). :)

So we have to find our way back again. Needless to say, the journey back was damn fucking sian. Another 4 plus hours. I reached UBC at 4.30pm. UGH.

But on the bus, I decided to take a couple of pictures; just to show you how the view from a Vancouver highway is like.



Generally, this is what you see.



Or this. :)



And Ikea has invaded Canada too!



And tt's me. Testing out the camera. Heh.

So yeah. That was the bus ride back. In time for a really late lunch/early dinner.

And then it was off to the dance.

Namely, the annual Totem Meet Market (pun on Meet), more commonly known as the Totem Meat Market. Why? Because according to Jay Leno on one of his Tonight shows, the Totem Meat Market is #3 in his list of Top Ten Places to get Hooked Up in North America.



So that's me with two of my housemates, Jackie and Alex, before we go down. A lot more pictures were taken, but most of them were not in my camera. Maybe I'll upload them when I get them, then you can see who else stays on my floor.

But anyway the girls and the guys all start drinking before they go down, so I take 2 shots of vodka with my shot glass. And then a couple of girls decide to make shots 'a floor thing'. And coz my shot glass is the one everyone uses, I get a few more honorary shots.

So I'm really high by 8.30pm. A group of us end up dancing in the guys' room on 5th floor before going down to the Meat Market.

And at the Meat Market, this Canadian-born Chinese guy from Calgary starts dancing with me less than 10 minutes after we reach. So I lose my group for the rest of the night. But it's all good coz he's good-looking and he dances really well, and I cannot turn down a good-looker who dances well because I am superficial and tt's how it is.

Admittedly, it's probably also due to the fact tt I'm smashed.

But well.

The music was good, the company was good, and I was fucking high. So all in all it was a good night.

Got back to my room around 1am. Fell asleep almost immediately. I think it was also the lack of sleep tt contributed to this.

Oh well. Anyway when I woke up this morning to brush my teeth, I found an empty Trojan condom packet on the floor of the girls' bathroom. Ooh. Dirty.

I wonder whose it is.