Bugs

I decided to fill you in a little on the bugs here in Australia. Probably the biggest thing I have had to get used to is people just live with the bugs here. They are everywhere. It is something you just have to get used to here. They are huge! the cockroaches are as big as a bite size candy bar! I have had a few encounters with the bugs and small animals here. SomeI have already written about.

The first major encounter I have had was at the softball field on our first game. On our way to the game we were coincidentally talking about spiders, and our friend Brewster had mentioned that there is an extremely rare white spider here that bites you and the poison kills of the skin cells around the bite. It's a pretty nasty spider bite because it just keeps killing off the skin. So we get out to go play softball and after the game I grab my bag and a few other things so my hands are completely full. I'm walking by a ton of people, some from our club, some not and I see a spider on my hand! So I scream bloody murder, throw everything off my arms, and start into a sprint that would have won most olympic races. Once I got everyone's attention I stopped and said sorry there was a spider on my hand. A friend of mine decideds it's a good time to let everyone know that I'm American. So I walked back over grabbed my stuff and continued on my way. I just wanted to make an impression on the people at the field so they wouldn't forget me.

Another encounter I had was at home. I was making a peanut butter and jelly sandwich at the counter when this gigantic spider came running after me. (This was probably the biggest spider I have ever seen. It was probably the size of a peanut butter lid.) The spider was about a foot away from me so by the time I realized it was there and running faster than the wind I had to jump over it to get out of the kitchen. I swear once I was out it started chasing me. It kept coming towards me and I was screaming and telling Meribeth to kill it. so she grabbed a shoe and killed it! She's my hero! 10 minutes later I caught my breath and things went back to normal. After that I did not feel very safe in my home because I screamed for a good 2 minutes and not one of my neighbors came to check on us.

I was at work when I got to meet one of the giant cockroaches. There was a girl that worked with us but she was off duty and she spotted a cockroach making it's way into the restaraunt. She says go kill it before anyone sees it. I looked at her for a second like is she really talking to me? I decided I would give it a try, or give it a go as they would say here. I casually walked over to it so I wouldn't bring attention to it and picked my foot up, then the thing decides to move a little and I turned around and yelled I can't do it I can't do it! So by then I managed to get the attention of the whole restaraunt and I turned back around to see what happened and it dissapeared so I started yelling where did it go? so the girl that originally saw it jumped up and ran after it to kill it. It was pretty embarassing but hey I tried.

Probably the worst one for me so far is when I was sitting at my desk on the computer. I had pants on and I felt a tickle on my toe, so I leaned over to pull my pants up a little and a cockroach ran out. It was on my foot!! I screamed and did laps around the house. then Meribeth came to my rescue again and tracked it down and killed it. I felt like I had a cockroach on my toe for the rest of the night. that type of thing haunts you.

I will spare you the rest of my stories, but these bugs are everywhere. They're not just everywhere, they are on steroids. It is one thing I will not miss when I leave.