All I wanted was a FREAKIN spinning chair!

**Apologies folks! I'm gonna have to skip a very important entry for now to allow myself the energy to write the following post. Forgive me and I promise to tell you more about our travels to Zambia very soon!**

I'm still shaking from the adrenaline!! Ladies and gentlemen, I just fulfilled a nearly life-long dream of mine...making me officially the coolest (and possibly craziest) person alive. Yes, it's conceited sounding, but come on--I JUMPED OFF A BRIDGE/CLIFF 3 TIMES TODAY INTO THE ZAMBEZI RIVER WITH BEAUTIFUL VICTORIA FALLS BEHIND ME! That's pretty damn cool. I also spent the morning atop an elephant in a game park, then got to FEED and PLAY with it!!

So yes, that is how my day began. Bright and early at 6:45, Aubrey and I got picked up for our elephant-back safari. We were part of a relatively small group of tourists and got to sit together on our elephant, Danny! He was the biggest of the group and the leader, so we were in front the whole time. Meaning we were the first to see and closest to the large group of giraffes we walked through! You know, I've been on a few safaris before, but nothing beats seeing animals without car windows or metal rods to block your view. To the giraffes, gazelles, baboons and birds, we were just a bunch of funny-lookin' elephants with odd lumps on their backs! We got very close to everything and it was cool enough just sittin on the elephant and having it reach back with its trunk to be fed/pet every now and then. When the safari was over, we then got to give our elephants treats...aka we got to sit in their laps and pour food pellets into their trunks! It was amazing! Danny was HUMONGOUS so feeding him so close to those giant tusks was definitely a rush :) Then, delight of all delights, we got FREE (well...included) breakfast! That was good cause we were starving at this point. After this, we got a ride back to our hostel, and we started trying to calm our nerves for the ridiculous afternoon we were planning for ourselves.

I was exhausted after having gotten rather sick from our dinner the night before and running to the bathroom at ungodly hours. So I decided to skip the walk to Zig Zag Coffee Shop and took a nap instead. I woke up refreshed and ready to head to Vic Falls for our adrenaline junkie extravaganza. We taxied over, got permission to cross the border to Zimbabwe without buying a visa, and began the short treck from the border post to the Vic Falls Bridge. It is at this spot 16 years ago that that first brave bungee jumper took a leap of faith into the gorge! We registered ourselves, qualified to do the activities, and then realized that no one except for me had brought enough cash to pay for it! So I waited for everyone to go pull out money, and in the meantime, watched as several Japanese tourists did the jump. Seeing them go squashed any fears I had, and by the time my friends got back from the bank, I was jumping with excitement! They finished up registration, and then we walked from the office to the middle of the Vic Falls bridge, aka the no-man's land between peaceful Zambia and F'd-up Zimbabwe. Hard to believe that two countries so close to one another (and linked by such a world wonder!) could be so very different. Aubrey had originally wanted to go first, but was a bit too nervous when the time came, so I happily volunteered to be guinea pig! I know...I'm nuts. But I just couldn't wait to be the one plummeting down into that gorge, only to bounce back up at allllmost the point of no return! So we got strapped in, I climbed onto the metal platform on the edge of the bridge, and the guys working there started attaching the various ropes and harnesses that would prevent me from plunging to my death. Pleasant thought...no? They wrapped my ankles in two sets of very thick towels to prevent the straps from cutting into my skin, then attached TWO safety harnesses before finally attaching the bungee cord! I was feeling very calm and cool...until about 2 seconds before I walked to the edge of the world. As I stood there, with my heart beating like a heart attack, I looked out over the gorge and saw just in the distance the Victoria Falls Hotel on the Zimbabwe side of the river. I had a total flash-back to 4th grade, when I had stayed at that very hotel with my parents (before Zimbabwe's government and economy went to shit). I clearly remembered sitting on the huge patio of that beautiful hotel and watching the bungee jumpers leaping off the bridge...and promising to myself that someday, I would do that too. Corny, I know. But that promise to myself is probably the main reason I didn't suddenly turn around and climb back over the fence like a wussy (or sane person, depending on how you look at it). So when the guys yelled out "5, 4, 3, 2, 1...BUNGEE!" I didn't stop to think about how crazy this was...I just leaped!

IT...WAS...TERRIFYING!

But so so soooooo good at the same time! I'm pretty sure I kept my eyes open the whole time, though its a bit hard to remember everything, it happened SO fast. I just remember screaming loud enough to break glass and seeing the rapids rushing at my face as I free fell the 450 feet into the gorge. Just when I thought I was for sure going to hit the water, the bungee cord caught and I absolutely FLEW back up into the air! I swear I nearly hit the bridge again! On the way up, I unfortunately flipped again so I wasn't upside-down anymore...which is not a good thing. When I fell the second time, I whiplashed so hard I thought my eyeballs would pop out of the sockets! My brain must've hit my skull at least 3 times in the process of bouncing up and down, and it definitely hurt my head a LOT...but it didn't matter. I was dangling over the Zambezi River. I had just jumped 450 feet into a gorge. I was freakin HARD CORE and AWESOME! Haha! So I just let myself enjoy the rush until the guys came to rescue me and turn me right-side up again. I was pulled back onto the bottom of the bridge, then climbed out of the maze of metal onto the very pavement I had just leapt off. WHAT A FREAKIN RUSH! I then got to watch my friends do the same crazy dive I had just completed, and afterwards, we went back to the office to recover a little bit with cold water (it was a very hot day!) and to see our pictures and video footage of the jump.

Andre and I, being the total crazy adrenaline seekers that we are, decided that cheating death once wasn't enough. So we signed on for the package deal...an extra $25 bought us both a gorge swing off the bridge AND a zip-line ride across the gorge. Now, if the bungee was a 10/10 (which it totally was) in terms of coolness...the gorge swing was a TWELVE. You get hooked into another harness and attached to some VERY heavy ropes, then from the same platform we did bungee, we walked to the edge again, and this time just simply stepped off the edge. Bungee supposedly gets you to a speed of 120 km/hr as you fall, but the added weight of the rope swing gets you to 180 km/hr free fall!!! I fell so fast, I LITERALLY left my scream behind me! I felt it catch in my throat as I plummeted to the ground and thought I hadn't made any noise as I fell...but the video Joey took of me swinging has me screaming as I walked off the platform. I actually beat out SOUND I dropped so fast! Lol! The drop is incredibly scary, WAY worse (or better, I guess) than bungee. But then you catch and you get to swing sitting comfortably in a harness...the right way up! It gives you the most amazing opportunity to look around you and realize that you're swinging above the Zambezi and it is absolutely beautiful down there. The rapids are raging below you and the cliffs surrounding you are perfectly green and alive looking and the falls are behind you. You can't see them, but you can hear them roaring and picture them with the ever-present rainbow hovering above them. Amazing.

I got pulled back to the bridge a 2nd time, then waited for Andre to complete his swing. Then we walked over to the cliffs on the Zambia side and took a nice, leisurely swing across the gorge on a zip-line. This was a great way to end the day because my head was still pounding from bungee...and I was ABSOLUTELY exhausted. No free fall involved, no whiplash from the ropes catching you, just a nice, breezy ride over the rapids to the Zimbabwe side of the falls. It was wonderful. This was also the inspiration for this entry's title, because as I flew across the gorge, I was spinning around and I just kept imagining Aubrey doing one of her many movie quote impressions (a game we LOVE to play on those long bus rides and probably do too much). But yes, as I slid across, that quote from Austin Powers just kept playing over and over in my head: Dr. Evil saying "all I wanted was a FREAKIN spinning chair!". Lol, too funny.

Still riding our adrenaline waves, we cabbed it to a nearby Indian restaurant Aub and I had heard about called Armadillo (strange name, no?). We celebrated (or recovered...depending on how you look at it!) with delicious Indian food and bottles of Savannah Dry cider. We called our families and boyfriends to assure them that, yes, we were still alive and well. Victoria Falls still had its 100% survival rate after us! Then we came back here to the hostel and took turns on this amazing amazing FREE internet to send out mass emails/blogs about our adventures.

I'm gonna have to crash like IMMEDIATELY because I spent nearly 5 hours today cheating death, and the other hours riding and feeding lots of huge elephants. But I had to tell you all about this experience before I wake up tomorrow and it just feels like one crazy dream. I still cannot believe everything I got to do today...and the fact that I actually was crazy enough to do it all! I will never, ever forget this day. Everything that has come before this is pretty much irrelevant. I am just 21 and I have traveled the world, crossed Africa by bus (and any other means necessary!), and now I have taken a leap of faith directly off a bridge! I think I can let myself lay back and enjoy Christmas in South Africa now. Tuesday afternoon, we head to Durban to stay with my family friends Mike & Christine, then I'm off to Kuwait to see my lover Tamara for New Years! Then back to Kenya to finish up my amazing year abroad with my man, Ken, and my fantastic friends and family here.

Goodnight all. Love you so so much! XOXO