It's all fun and games...

...until you meet the spideybird. Honestly, it was a bird-spider..a spideybird. And I thought I was so emotionally prepared for spiders too.

I just had my first full day in the actual area I am living. And I loved meeting a few of the missionary families that I am staying with and seeing the apartment that I'll be living in. I even met a few of the kids that I'll get to teach. They were out killing crickets for their pet hedge hog, Snuffles, and their preying mantis.

And like I said...hedge hog, preying mantis...even the everywhere lizards, or the toad I stepped on, the three unknown bugs in my room I just killed, or the crickets (which one of those louder lil guys sounds just like my alarm clock, what a punk)...fun and games. But this spider was massive and he was a HOPPER.

I came home after dinner at the house of the teacher I'll be working with and saw him fling himself from the kitchen counter to the wall. After a bit of yelping (screaming) and deep breaths, I took off my shoe and started giving myself a pep talk about how I was gonna smash him. And if one smash wasn't enough, I would just do it again. And if he escaped, I'd find him. The problem was I knew this spideybird hated me so if I killed him, his children would come find me, so a few seconds of pep talking turned into a few minutes...

Then I realized there was a brave just out of high school boy in the apartment next to me. So with glee, I scurried on over and smashed myself against his window and did my effective loud whisper "D...D...are you scared of spiders?!"...and I heard his voice from his room, "my sisters make me kill the spiders, too".

And he didn't even kill it, he captured it in a big jar and let it outside. So now the spideybird's children aren't mad and I'm thuh-rilled. I told my neighbor the next one was on me, but maybe I conveniently won't have a jar to put it in or something...