The one with the spider story, 10-2-05

Original email Feb. 10, 2005

Hello All! It’s been awhile i know. You may think it's because I’ve forgotten all about you, or because I’ve actually stumbled upon the farthest corner of the earth and managed to fall off it, but you'd be wrong. In fact, I just forget that I haven't actually written my stories down and sent them to people yet. I tell them to myself all the time, and once in a while I even tell them to other people :)...and then i forget that you may not have been able to hear that. So, here goes. I've had some requests for fewer words and for more photos, so.... well, there are photos anyway :)

It's hard to believe It's already the 3rd week of the school year- feels like forever. I had a nice long holiday for about 5 weeks (that was ages ago), and now I’m back into my favourite kind of intensity. It's the most challenging job I've had in a long time, but I’m enjoying it for the most part. I feel like I’m starting all over as a 1st year teacher again in so many ways, and the newly arrived refugee kids I work with are heartbreaking and frustrating and delightful all at the same time. The teachers I work with are fantastic.

It’s been hot and still and muggy in my paradise this week. It’s been that way for about 2 months i guess, with occasional breaks of incredible thunderstorms that bring some breezes. And going to school in the dead of summer, when most days (and evenings and even some nights) hover between 95 and 100 degrees F, is a completely new wonder for me. I wonder why the schools are not air-conditioned! Of course, my Sudanese students barely even notice. At home, we have an old, clumsy brown box in our living room that pretends to be an air conditioner. It makes all the loud noise, but it's not too convincing. I'm getting used to the semi-tropical summer though. My lizard-like skin just loves it.

Today i welcome the rain, but with a bit of trepidation :S Last time it rained for days, we had a very unwelcome surprise visitor in the kitchen.
I came home from work and was rinsing some dishes, when something big darted up the window just inches from my face. It was big and brown and hairy, it had 8 hairy legs and I could SEE its fangs. By the time I’d noted all this, i was on the other side of the room --way over in the living room -- and we stared at each other. Just days before, I'd read a pamphlet about the most common spiders in Queensland, and i recognized it as the ever-popular Huntsman spider. It was bigger than my shanking hands. I reminded myself that this is a jumping spider. It doesn't always make webs; it hides in corners and jumps and at its prey. I couldn't remember exactly how high it was on the list of "creepy poisonous things you want to stay away from in Australia," but at that moment, it was the scariest thing I'd ever been so close to.
It was crouching in the corner of my window, no doubt thinking, "when is she coming closer so i can jump on her and bite her?!!" and I, of course was silently screaming, "How the HECK did that monster get into my KITCHEN??!!"
Danny got home just then, greeted by a pale and trembling wife. All i managed to say was "...BIG SPIDER!" He had to handle it from there. It’s a very sad story really. If I’d been less fearful, i may have put up a fight for the spider's right to live and breathe fresh air outside again; but as it was, i didn't move until Dan had confused it with fly spray and trapped it in a disposable Tupperware. Then i got a closer peek. I did not take a photo. But while Dan took it outside to the bin, i googled Huntsman Spiders, and i did find an identical image of the spider in our home.

Danny's explanation for how it was in the apartment in the first place: heaps of spiders come out in the summer rains. They get inside when they are tiny babies, un-noticed, looking for moisture. (So they especially like bathrooms and kitchens.) They hang out there silently and hide. They grow insanely fast! Dan guessed that our little friend was about 4 days old.
(For anyone hoping to come visit us someday, you'll be happy to know that no one has actually died of a spider bite in Queensland since 19 eighty-something.)

And he's wonderful in other ways, my spider-killing husband. Last week was exceptionally stressful at my 2 schools. On Thursday i had a break-through with some students, and it was the first real success I’d noticed for a few days. I was happy but exhausted. I felt like going out for a drink and some hot Buffalo wings with friends. Sad-to-say, I’ve still never found Buffalo wings down under, and there were no new friends with a free Thursday evening for going out. I had a vague aching of homesickness for Minnesota.

And Danny immediately lit up with a solution; he took me out to "The Lone Star Bar and Grill." What a surprise! A little bit of my far-away home, just down the street. You know what the Outback Steakhouse is like in the U.S.-- This place was like that, with the South-West U.S. being the theme. The decor was mostly authentic, but hodge-podge and hilarious. There was a real Texas license plate, giant stuffed Bison and longhorn heads, and neon cactus. But there were also a handful of deer heads on the walls, and the biggest laugh of all - a massive Moose head! Who ever heard of a moose in Texas?!

The most wonderful surprise though, was just how happy it made me. That right here where i am feeling more and more at home, i could suddenly have so many of those things that I’ve been more and more often missing. There was real country music all night long, something i haven't heard in a long time. There was salad with ranch dressing! (something most Aussies have never heard of). And Bar-B-Q pork ribs!! Oh, they reminded me of mom's home cooking and going out with my family when we were kids.

Ok,
I’m winding down now.
(This is the equivalent of the Minnesotan hour-long goodbye. we have that here too :)
I think i wanted to tell you about some of the joys of a summer in the tropics... about mangos for breakfast and avocados for lunch. About the mango tree by our front steps that covers the ground with the smell of rotting fruit for months :S
And the bats! Oh there are whole tribes of fruit bats out every night. and they love our mango tree. But if they hear us walking up the stairs after dark, they get scared and come wildly flying out of the tree.... but they're not too bright. They always seem to come straight for my head. It takes them a while to get up and over the roof of our place. I haven't quite been hit by one yet- i get out of the way just in time. Good thing too - they're about half the size of me!

And if you're interested in more photos, there are 3 albums that we added to the yahoo website in January-- lots of random stuff we did over the holidays: New Year's, Country drive, and Gold coast. If you want to see them, check out
http://photos.yahoo.com/dannyandaliciasmith

Yep. That’s really all for now. I’m sure I’ll come up with another letter just in time for you to finish reading this one. :)
How are you??? Thinking of you, and wishing you many bat-and-spider-free days
With lots of love,
Alicia and Danny