Now I try to be brave about most things over here. I take risks with travel, food, animals, etc.

However, there are two things I am quite terrified of- bees and cockroaches.
First of all, I am afraid of bees at home, however, there are bees here that are certainly four times the size of those at home. One of my least favorite things here is when one gets trapped in my classroom and buzzes past my face as I teach and try to retain composure. It’s horrifying.

Second, I have strong dislike of cockroaches. The first time that I ever recall seeing a cockroach was a year and a half ago on the streets of Philly. A scrubby homeless man laughed at me when I stopped to look at one because I didn’t know what it was. Since my arrival here in Guangxi, I have seen many. They are also alarmingly large. For the most part, they have stayed out of my way. I’ve seen them scurry across Kyle’s apartment floor and I have seen quite a few in Heidi’s kitchen and one in her bathroom (in Liuzhou city). Last week, I found a big dead one on my balcony. I was not pleased, but I was thankful that it was dead.
Last night, I was having trouble sleeping because it’s terribly hot, but then when I turn the fan up, the noise kept me awake. I finally got some restless sleep, but I awoke from a strange but horrible nightmare where a cockroach was crawling all over my bed. It was strange.
In the morning when I woke up, I realized that it wasn’t a nightmare after all- there was a big cockroach crawling all over my bedroom.
I finally killed it, but I don’t feel so great about the idea of sleeping in there again. I suppose I’ll just have to get over it.
Cockroaches are just…well, gross.
They fly, they crawl, they swim, and they have those disgusting long antennae.

On to something a bit more pleasant…
Now it has been raining quite a bit over here.
Yesterday, I was walking back from the front gate of the campus and you could see a storm coming- dark clouds, lots of wind, and you could smell the rain.
Suddenly, I heard students behind me start to run and scream. I turned around and you could literally see the rain coming, the students were trying to stay ahead of the heavy rainfall and it looked like the rain was actually chasing them. I laughed- until the rain caught up with me. This was not soft rain at all. It was painful and I was really glad that I was close to my apartment building.
Watching the storm from my balcony was fantastic. The thunder was amazing. It’s scary when you think about what thunder really is- the sound created by the intense heat of lighting in the air. It’s incredibly powerful and I really enjoy the beauty of it all.

I’m terrified of bees.
Absolutely terrified.
Unfortunately, there are bees here that are the length of my thumb. Really. They are ridiculously large.
To make matters worse, They seem to be particularly fond of my lessons.
It makes for an interesting time, that’s for sure.

During library time this afternoon, I was talking to a group of my students about insects in Yizhou. (inspired by the giant bee that was buzzing at the window behind us)
Apparently many of them used to play with cockroaches as children.
One of the girls told me that she and her friends used to hold them still with their fingertips (to keep them from biting or flying away), then they would tie a string to one of their little legs. They would then have a little cockroach on a leash. My understanding is that the best part of this whole little game was when the cockroaches went to fly away- they couldn’t get far because they were tied to the string. The kids would stand there holding a string with a cockroach struggling to fly. It gave me this image of a small child with a really horrifying cockroach kite of some kind. Eww.
However, I feel that I’m required to mention the fact that when I was a little kid, I loved cicadas. I would definitely play with them and they’re certainly not a whole lot prettier than cockroaches. To be quite honest, I’m not sure what attracted me to those funny little bugs in the first place. Kids can be strange.

I’m listening to a World Cafe podcast (of course!) and there’s a guy named Joe Boyd who worked with Nick Drake talking. I’m an enormous Nick Drake fan (Pink Moon is possibly the best album of all time) but I realized that I know very little about him and his personality. It’s extraordinary to listen to this guy talk about what Nick Drake was like and how he felt when his albums failed to succeed. Tragic, really. I fall in love with his music every time I listen, so it’s sad to hear how depressed he was about it. I suppose that it would be heartbreaking to put so much of yourself into something and then have it rejected the way that his music was. I guess he was just one of those artists who was ahead of his time.
Actually, that’s a saying I have often heard applied to artists and musicians who failed be a success during their lifetimes, but who were wildly popular after death. It’s such a peculiar thing to say. Can someone be “ahead of their time”? I understand what it means, of course, but it’s an odd idea if you think about it. The phrase implies that each person has a “time”. That’s rather frustrating to consider. I don’t remember being given a choice about when I was going to be born, so what if I’m before “my time”? What does that mean for me? Does that lable always result in an unhappy and unfulfilled life?
I suppose that I’m just thinking about it too much. That’s what happens when you spend your days explaining the meanings of phrases like “identify luggage” or “to be faced with the problem of”. You start to analyze every phrase for every possible meaning.
Well, I’ll leave you with a bit of one of my favorite Nick Drake songs to enjoy.
Nick Drake – Way to Blue

It rained for a little while tonight. I’m not sure if it was enough to cool the weather down for tomorrow, but I certainly hope so.

So I’ve just returned from my first official visit to a doctor to have something checked out.
Last term I had an injection at the school clinic, but that doesn’t count. The scary part about that is that I’m not entirely sure what that injection was for!

However, I have apparently been bitten by some horrible sort of bug. Then, the matter was complicated by the fact that the bite got infected. Lots of fun, I assure you.

I was extremely hesitant about going to see a doctor. I don’t know how many of you are in China now or have been to China before, but I must tell you something that I have observed- they give every patient an IV, seemingly regardless of what they’re there for.
Well, those of you who know me are probably aware that I have a ridiculous fear of needles, basically a phobia. Therfore, the mere thought of a needle stuck anywhere in me, makes me tear up and shake a bit. I had already decided that I wasn’t going to a doctor unless I thought I might die.
It didn’t seem to be a near-death moment, but I’m going to Vietnam on Sunday, and the last thing I want is to get sick from a bite when I’m not anywhere near home.
I decided to just tough it out and see what happened. One of my wonderful coteachers helped me go to the clinic and show the doctor/nurse (not really sure what he is) my lovely bite.

He shook his head when he looked at it, then told me that it was infected and I should have come in as soon as I got the bite. Then he cleaned it out (which, I must say, was not the most fun) and gave me a couple of creams to apply for the next week until it gets better.
He either didn’t know what bug it was, or it couldn’t be translated, but it was made clear to me that I should be careful because there are many dangerous insects around this area. Fantastic.

I’m just glad that it’s taken care of now.

This afternoon, I’m heading out to Longzhou to spend a couple of days with Kyle. It sounds like the weather down there is fairly warm. It’s raining here right now, so the weather is just perfect. We’ve had a lovely mixture of rain and sunny days recently. I love a good rainstorm, and it keeps it from getting too unbearably hot here.