The power went out this morning. Great! The heat and humidity was sweltering!
L. was having a hankering for fried chicken, so we stopped by KFC for lunch and then went to the main campus early, just to get out of our stuff apartment. After unloading our stuff, playing badminton, and taking a shower, I went to class. The heat bothered many in class, so we ended 10 minutes early.
L. met me outside. Another teacher, K. was with her - they had just been to dinner at a local restaurant. While we were walking back, they told me about how while they were paying for their meal, the waitress behind the counter screamed and a few seconds after a giant rat ran out into the restaurant. Two other guys grabbed a mop and a broom and started chasing and beating this rat as it tried to go up the stairs. Everytime it went up one step, they would beat it and it would fall to the step below...this happened repeatedly. Finally, the two guys just followed the rat upstairs, but L. and K. aren't sure whether they actually killed it, or just let it go upstairs. In either case, neither of them is going to go there again anytime soon. This got us talking about various other creepy, crawlies, including spiders. K. talked about big spiders she had to deal with in her room, and how she was ok with them, as long as they weren't rats. (Although China is quickly curing her from her fear of them). While we were watching TV that night, we noticed a very large spider, similar to the ones K. had mentioned, crawl into our bedroom. It took a while to get the thing, as I was being a wuss about smashing it. It was fast and flexible. Its leg span was almost the size of my hand. It hid behind our bed, the bookcase, and climbed high on the walls and ceiling. I tried throwing hot water on it, but hit the light bulb, which exploded. Glass fell everywhere. Another hit with hot water brought it down on the ground. It crawled into the bathroom, stunned by the water and me trying to smack it in between the cracks of the door. Finally, I killed it after discovering it in a corner of the door, using hot spraying water from the shower. It took us a good half-hour to get it dead. We went to bed with the mosquito net in place and with the willies after the spider encounter. There are quite a number of bugs at GW, more than XM. I'll take XM over the spiders at GW any day.
