Splash!

Yesterday I found a suicidal lizard swimming in my toilet. We went on a drown and rescue mission to save it (Yo is a hero!!!) and set him free on our balcony.

Did you know little lizards play dead? We thought we had killed him when he lay there all limp, but as soon as we turned our backs he sat up!!! Little faker!!! The fun never stops!

It's a Bird, It's a Plane....

It's a roach!

Even since I arrived in this country 6 months ago, I have heard stories about flying cockroaches. Having never seen one fly, and being very opposed to the idea, I chalked these tales up as myths. Until now...

I have been forced to realize through personal experience that yes, roaches can and do fly. It was a very traumatizing discovery. Coming into my apartment building I saw something flying around as George was opening the door. I thought it was a moth (silly me!!!) so I just moved over from where it was flying. When it landed on the ground, I looked over and in horror realized that it was a roach the size of my index finger!!! ICK!!!

Luckily at that point George opened the door and we ran inside with the door closing just in time for the roach to fly into it. It was so disgusting that couldn't stop watching where it was going....until it promptly flew into the plant on MY balcony (I live on the first floor). Not so cool. So of course that brought on another flourish of bug spray (Raid this time...I'm not stupid!) around the sliding doors, just to prevent it from somehow miraculously penetrating through glass and invading my apartment.

Hopefully the rest of the week remains adventureless, as I am at my limit for a while. Plus I can't run too fast with my bruised knee you know! Good thing I didn't meet the one-armed man yesterday!!! Hope everyone is doing well in the cold and snow. At least you don't have flying roaches in Canada! That discovery was just about enough to make me pack up my bags!

Whale Watching

Yesterday was the field trip to Samana with the third grade classes to go whale watching! It was awesome!!! The 4 hour bus ride there and back wasn't so great. I got the joy of being responsible for F, my table throwing student, all day as his mother sent him alone without his Ritalen....boy was that a fun bus ride home! You try getting an ADHD kid to sit quietly for 4 hours. Not easy.

The whales were amazing! At one point there were Humpback whales every which way we turned! This is the time of year for them to migrate south to have their babies, so they were everywhere. But oh my goodness the ocean was ROUGH!!! I was focussing on the horizon most of the time...until the whales came along. Then I didn't care about seasickness!

Off My Toes

*edit* These posts are just priceless! I am beginning to wonder how I made it out of that country alive! *edit*

(Feb. 18, 2004)

Well, I am happy to tell you all that there have been no more one-armed man incidents. I am still boycotting the restaurant, but Stacy, Yolande, and Matt have been back there with nothing to report.

That said, however, there is still plenty to keep me on my toes around here--or off them for that matter! I have had an interesting last few days, to say the least. It all started out on Wednesday morning when I was getting out of the shower to get ready for school. We have these blackish-reddish bugs that come out of the bathtub drain (at least they come out of my bathtub drain) once in a while. They are "tropical centipedes" according the the children's dictionary in my classroom. Anyways, they can be small, or incredibly large!!! The large ones are disgusting, and they smell funky. So of course, as I am in my towel getting out of the bathtub, I see a LARGE one (about 3 inches long) on the floor. It starts running out of the bathroom and into my room (naturally), so I grab the bug spray (the cheap bug spray that doesn't kill anything, but is better than nothing at all) and spray the thing to high heaven. Well it just keeps running around, but now there is a huge puddle of bug spray on the tile floor right in between the doorway to my room and the bathroom.

So jump over the puddle into the bathroom to get toilet paper and squish it now that it is more or less swimming. After I squish it, I go to jump over the puddle again to throw the centipede in the toilet and KABOOM!!!! I totally slip in the bug spray and come crashing to the floor, hitting my bad knee directly on the bone on the corner of the door frame. OUCH!! But I still managed to flush the bug! This happened about 10 minutes before I had to be at school, so I picked myself up, quickly got dressed and hobbled up the street. Boy was my knee killing! I couldn't walk so well that day but after school I rested it and the next day it was somewhat better, if not more purple. That will teach me to go killing bugs in my bare feet!!!