I just realised how long it's been since I've posted -- I'm sorry about that! Schoolwork is finally starting to pick up, so I've been spending a lot of time staying on top of all of my reading (and, if I'm being honest, watching far too much Doctor Who as well). In all seriousness, though, while I'm a quick reader, reading in Spanish takes at least twice as long as reading in English, so while it's not any more than I'm used to, it does take longer than usual! But I promise to try and keep up with the posts from now on!
Anyway, onto story time! So last weekend -- the 25th to the 28th, specifically -- my program took us on a field trip of sorts to Valparaiso, Viña del Mar, and the surrounding areas. It was a lot of fun! We got to participate in all kinds of activities, including making our own pottery, visiting Pablo Neruda's house, taking a boat around Valparaiso's harbor, checking out Congress, visiting an alpaca farm, meeting an organ grinder (and his parrot), and walking around the beautiful city of Valparaiso itself. Phew! And that brings me to Saturday.
Saturday started out as a pretty shitty day -- literally! As it turns out, there was something a little off with the meat we had been served at dinner the night before. What was supposed to be a one-and-a-half hour drive to the campo turned into a three hour drive, complete with four or five bathroom stops. The worst part was watching everyone on the bus slowly being picked off, one by one, and wondering whether or not there would be a bathroom nearby when it finally struck you!
We eventually made it to the camp where we would be staying the night. It felt a lot like summer camp -- all of the girls squished into one room, and all of the guys in the other. Unfortunately, there are around 45 girls, and fewer than 10 guys, so our room was a dense maze of bunk beds and mattresses, while the guys had enough floorspace to host the inaugural ball.
The afternoon was pretty relaxed, in order to allow some recuperation for those in the Poop Group who had been hit the hardest. We hiked around, played some games -- Katy taught me some fencing moves, and we both tried to teach Addison how to do a handstand. We ate a delicious dinner, and later tried to find some of the southern constellations (with moderate success). Eventually, Katy and I decided to head up to bed a little early, since we were tired and knew we had to get up early the next morning.
We found another group of girls who had had the same idea as we had, and we all chatted idly as we prepared for bed. Talk soon turned to spiders. Earlier that afternoon, someone had discovered a tarantula in the girl's bathroom outside, and naturally, nobody was very pleased.
"No, seriously you guys, if I see a spider in here, I will cry."
"I don't think a tarantula could get up here -- it would have to get up the stairs, and the stairs have gaps between them. Plus the door was closed this afternoon."
"Yeah. But our beds are all raised up off the floor, so it wouldn't be able to get to us anyways."
"Dude. My mattress is on the floor."
"Oh. That sucks."
We all agreed, though, that a tarantula would have to try really hard to finagle its way into our room. And as it so happens...one of them did.
We were first alerted of its presence when Margaret, who was sleeping on the mattress next to mine, dropped her toothbrush and said, "Oh. My. God." I whirled around, and there, slowly picking its way across the wall, was a fully grown tarantula. Now, I like spiders -- I think they're interesting, and they're really fun to watch! But I don't particularly like them on me or my things, and this particular tarantula had crawled out from behind the curtains that would be hanging directly above my head. It wasn't a particularly comfortable feeling.
The resulting reaction was a combination of gasps, screams, and "that's so cool!" As we gazed at it, we realized -- we didn't know how to get rid of it. Obviously, it couldn't stay there. Hanging out in a room full of girls all night? It would have to buy us dinner first. But none of us were particularly keen to pick it up and chuck it out the window, either. Margaret flew outside, to see if some of our manly-men (or womenly-women) wanted to give us a hand.
While we waited, we all pulled out our cameras and took some pictures. This was a story to remember! And then we waited. Belatedly, I remembered that I had tupperware in my bag! Unfortunately, the spider was hovering on the wall right next to them. I inched across the mattress, and then, with lightning speed, I unzipped my bag, dug around for the container, re-zipped my bag, and scuttled back, all without breaking eye contact. There should be a contest for this kind of thing. Speed tupperware fetching -- the next sport of the 2016 Olympics!
A minute later, Margaret returned, with Brooke and Benjy trailing behind her. Between my tupperware, Benjy's newspaper, and Brooke's skill, the tarantula was eventually safely contained and brought outside to be released (and, of course, to be boasted about). We all double checked the curtains and the gaps between the mattresses and the wall, and settled down to sleep, still flinching at dark spots on the wall.
