Tokay Geckos are a pain in the $#@

Thanks to some detective work on my mother's behalf, I have found out that Charlotte the spider is a non-poisonous St. Andrew's Cross Spider and that the amphibian that I found was identified as a Tokay Gecko. Thanks, Mom!

Charlotte, I read, gets her (and it is a her) name from the cross pattern that she adds to the web. The cross adds an ultraviolet sheen to the trap, which is the same type of light used by flowers (although for a less violent cause) to attract bugs. Tokay Geckos are the largest type of gecko and are known for their beautiful markings and surly nature. They are known to bite, draw blood, and not let go unless submerged in water. Wonderful. This little nugget of information came in very handy at one in the morning, as you will see.

So for Mr. Tokay, he's proving to be a bit of a problem. According to Wikipedia, the "chirp" is actually called a "bark", which is a lot better word to use because it really is quite loud, and the barking has been happening more often, about ten times a night in roughly half-hour intervals. I finally jumped out of bed last night to chase him away and found that he'd discovered a Mrs. Tokay and was probably serenading her, or perhaps they were signing duets. Whatever the reason, I couldn't sleep and chased them over the wall of my room with a broom. (The wall doesn't meet the roof.)

A few minutes later (right after I crawled into my bug net, actually) they were back in full force. We played tag for about an hour before I finally gave up and let them bark at each other for the rest of the night. At first the thing would run when it was poked it with the stick, but eventually it was like "Yeah, right, whatever bitch. You ain't gunna do nothing. AW-AWK! AW-AWK!!!"

The next morning the other volunteer, Emmett, found the larger one hiding behind his bookcase. Mafia-style, we shoved it into my suitcase with a stick and took it far, far, far away and ditched it the little fucker where it can bark all night-- or perhaps hike back.

Beautiful Stranger

I've been woken up almost every night for the last two nights by this weird and very, very loud chirping sound. Since it was the middle of the night I'd generally dose off and forget about it. Then one morning I heard it and realized that it was coming from behind some of my clothes and pulled them aside to find this beautiful fellow. The bricks that he's on are the size of normal bricks, so he's probably about a foot long. First I explained to him that he couldn't live in my room but he wouldn't leave. Looks like I have a new pet. (I wish that I could record his voice but it's pretty erratic when he sings.)

Charlotte

This is Charlotte, the rather large yellow spider that I have to walk underneath every morning when I leave me house. I have seen her a few times in different locations on campus (I like to pretend that it's all the same spider.) No special zoom lens needed here, BTW. She's a bit bigger then my palm (legs and all) but I wasn't about to get close enough to put a penny next to her for scale. Depending on your monitor settings, this picture is more or less full scale. See, I wasn't kidding about the bugs!!

The New Computer Lab!

And withut further ado, please let me present the (ta da da da...)

New Computer Lab!

(Roof by the Brackett Foundation. Floor by Child's Dream. And walls by Sabrina 'n Co.)

(FYI, I didn't feel the quake all.)

Bugs

I've been evicted from my room for the second night in a row due to the Swarming of the Termites. The damn things hatch and then head for the nearest light source. This always seems to happen at night, and any light source will do-- even a gameboy. When I got back to CLC I noticed that the family who live here were leaving a classroom light on at night and I was disapproving of the waste of electricity... now I know that they were only doing it to drive away the bugs from their place. They seem to like computer monitors as well as crawling on sweaty, human skin, so my options are limited... deal with the bugs by sitting in an empty classroom reading or go to sleep at 7:30. This isn't helping me get over jet lag, I will say that much! It really is like some sort of Hitchcock movie.

The rainy season here really brings out all sorts of nasty things that I thought were confined to horror movies. My room is so bad that I have allowed the spiders to live in it provided that they spin thier webs above my head. There is one spider on my porch (can't get a good picture of it) with a body as big as the first two knuckles of my pinky and shows off all sorts of delicate shades of green and yellow. Hope he stays put because he just screams poison. I killed another spider that looked like a prop from a grade-school production of "Charlotte's Web"-- easily visible from even the back row.

All of a sudden shivering at night during the cold season doesn't seem all that bad.

What a Trip

FINALLY got back to Nai Soi. I do not recommend trying to go from Bangkok to Nai Soi in a straight shot. I left at Tuesday 2:40 Seattle time, and finally walked into my room at Friday 9AM Thai time (That is about Thursday at 7PM) And I was lucky to get that! About 32 hours of the 52 hours was spent traveling, 20 was spent waiting in various stations for various buses, and none of which was spent actually sleeping. Anyway, I am here, I am in my room (after spending an hour evicting the bugs who assumed that I wasn't coming back and 24 hours sleeping).

I'm not actually as thrilled to be here as I thought I would be, for some reason it was a lot harder to leave Seattle then it was the last two times that I went. I commented to Sarah while we drinking my last good cup of coffee in Seattle that I was actually a lot more nervous about traveling and a lot more reluctant to leave then I was-- which was odd, since I had a great situation that I previously couldn't wait to get back to. When the plane flew over the needle, I actually started crying. I figured that all would be well once I got home, but for now I am itching to mark December on my calender, and I feel eager for classes to start just to find out how badly I am needed-- and how soon I can leave. Hopefully this is just due to being here and having nothing to do and will pass once the students actually arrive. If not, I have a feeling that this is going to be a real quick trip.

My room in Nai Soi was a mess. I was a little worried on the way up that after 5 weeks someone had broken in and helped themselves. I undid the lock and first noticed that everything had been left untouched. About five seconds after that, I thought that perhaps it would have been better if someone had broken in and at least disturbed the dust a bit. The most disturbing thing was that there were about five or six large evacuated termite nests. The termites were gone, thankfully, but they left behind their calling cards-- thousands of little two-inch wings that are shed after they come out of their eggs and have sex. I ran into the fuckers during Chiang Mai-- one night the room was covered in so many flying insects that they blocked out the light that I was trying to read by. From what have heard this is a common occurrence during the rainy season in Thailand so I am sure that I will have lots of chances to photograph this phenomenon. At least someone is getting some in this room.

Just as I got my room to a sleepable state my boss, Kyaw Hlu Sein stopped by for a chat. I told him that I hadn't slept for three days but that didn't seem to phase him much as he pulled up a chair. What is wrong with these people? The nice guy who gave me a ride did the same to me as well-- after I got into his car (I have to admit that he was doing me a favour) I told him that I had been traveling for three days and I was tired but this still didn't stop him from give me a tour of his house and making three stops so that he could play “show off the foreigner”. Anyway, Kyaw wanted to go over the academic program for the next nine months so I threw him out of my room as gracefully as I could and passed out. I don't think that I offended him too badly because he was at my door at 9AM the next morning.

Welcome home.