A Tour of Our Apartment

****Make sure you guys read all the way down, I put up 3 different posts today****

So I guess I have been lacking in telling you all about our new apartment here in Jacó. It is much smaller than the one in San Jose, but brighter, and for whatever reason, more comfortable. And it doesn’t even have a living room.

We have a main area with a metal table and 2 metal chairs, a small “breakfast bar” with 2 bar stools, a “kitchen”, well a cooking area with a stove, sort of, and a sink. The refrigerator is decent size, unlike our dorm-style fridge in San Jose. Except it is situated diagonally so it basically cuts off anywhere you could place a mini-couch, or 2 small comfy chairs. We have a “laundry area”, mainly a sink that looks like it is made out of clay for us to wash our clothes by hand. Better than paying for each load of laundry I guess. We have a bathroom with a pretty big shower, and it has normal hot water, not the electric suicide coils above your head. The bedroom has a big bed and enough closet/shelf space for both of us. Plus we have a TV, with lots of channels. The whole complex only consists of 8 apartments, 2 of which are studios. There are 4 upstairs (where we are) and 4 downstairs, and the studios are the 2 on the ends of each floor. The landlords live in a house that is situated perpendicularly behind the 2 stories of apartments. Also, we do have a pool. Awesome! Finally for the first time in my life, I live somewhere with a pool. It isn’t huge, but it has a nice little waterfall and it serves its purpose. We have a balcony/terrace area outside our front door to sit, and we normally drag the table and chairs out there to eat dinner.

Now that I have told you about the apartment, lemme get into some details.

The metal table and chairs are identical to all those tables and chairs you see on the sidewalk cafes in Europe. Whew, talk about comfy there! Imagine, you have just come home from a long day at work, and you want to relax. Ahh, the thought of relaxing on metal sure seems appealing doesn’t it? And the heat will just grab you, since the place has been closed up all day. They just installed air conditioning (see below for THAT story), but said our rent would be $400 per month instead of $300 if we used it. Fans are fine, thanks. I guess it is good that we have the metal chairs to cool us off.

Now, maybe you need to wash a few clothes. I hope you can stand the smell of the laundry area. See my last blog about my sense of smell. What is that smell? Well, looking underneath the sink area, you are greeted with an amazing display of mold. Well at least that explains the smell. And the only reason I happened to notice it is cuz I slept there after a ridiculously stupid argument Kurt and I had last week where I refused to be anywhere near him. So I pulled the comforter off the bed, and slept underneath the sink. On the floor. Under the mold. I am sure glad it didn’t drip on my face. Gross.
Anyways, the laundry area serves its purpose for the most part. Since we have no washer, we wash our clothes by hand. Not quite as clean as the washing machine, but better than nothing.

Let’s go to the bathroom. This is the one room that has absolutely no air flow. I mean none. There are 2 small windows, but they don’t lead outside anywhere, just into the main room. Light in the bathroom comes from the main areas, or turning on the light. Oh, but none of the lights we have have shades on them, so they are just bulbs burning brightly in your face. The first thing I noticed in the bathroom when we first arrived was something missing that most every bathroom has. Unless you are my dad and when you build a new bathroom, you decide this one thing isn’t important. Anyone have a guess? Let’s do a checklist. Sink, check. Storage space under the sink, yep (our place in San Jose didn’t have this). Shower, toilet? Yes and yes. A towel holder in 3 different places? Got them. Hot water? Check, although with the heat we never use it. Hmm, what could be missing? What else do you need in a bathroom?
A MIRROR!!!!!!!!!!!!! There was no mirror. Anywhere. In the entire apartment. No mirror. Hmm, how does one fix their hair, put in their contacts, and do anything else they need a mirror for? Good question. Good thing I am a girl with makeup, and makeup comes with mirrors. I had also brought along a small mirror, bigger than compact size, for when I cut my hair. So we use that. It is about 3” square. Better than nothing. But very interesting when I did decide to cut my hair, using the 3 inch mirror propped up on the soap dish and the small compact mirror in my hand to see the back. Now that is talent.

We moved in Feb. 7. We finally got our real mirror on Monday. 2 entire weeks in a bathroom with no mirror. Try it sometime. I guarantee it will be quite the experience for you.

Also, in the bathroom, we have a sink. Most sinks, I would assume, are used for brushing your teeth, washing hands, you know, water-related stuff. Ours, on the other hand, wouldn’t be ours if there wasn’t something for me to talk about. The hot water doesn’t give any water at all. That is okay, because like the shower, we don’t need hot water anyways. But the cold water only gives a trickle. More than drip drip drop, but, not quite enough for you to just turn it on, rinse your hands, or brush your teeth. If you have time, you can let it run and fill up your hand, but most of the time we use the kitchen sink to do our teeth brushing and hand washing. It has normal water flow.

Moving on to the bedroom, there isn’t too much to report here. A bed with a good, firm mattress, but the pillows are another story. My pillow has a dent in it that feels as though it was ripped in half and the just shoved back in the pillowcase. Our closet, although doorless, serves its purpose for us. Our stuff fits neatly on the organized shelves. The TV works, and has a ton of channels. Half English, half Spanish. Too bad you can’t ever find anything good to watch. Luckily for Kurt, the Costa Ricans, like the Spaniards, apparently have no problem with nudity on regular TV.

In the mornings, there is no need for an alarm clock. One of 3 things normally wake us up, more often than not, all 3 of them do. The sun, the heat, or the constant construction around this small complex. The sun comes up no later than 6, normally earlier, so good morning! With the sun normally comes the heat. This is the reason we no longer sleep with the comforter. It has been folded and placed on the top shelf of our closet. So far, upon waking up in the morning, on our little travel alarm clock it has read anywhere between 86°-90° F. Ahh, nothing like waking up to the average temp of 88 degrees around 8 or 9am!! Nice and cool day once again in Jacó. One of the reasons we might get woken up is the very normal power outage. This happens on average 3-4 mornings a week. Since we aren’t using the new air conditioning, we rely on our super-fast fan to cool us off. When the power goes out, so does the fan. Within approximately 84 seconds, we are roasting. It normally lasts about 5 minutes or so, during which we are sweaty and miserable. How about the random water outage? This happened twice Wednesday. I would rather lose power than water. Or there is the banging, clanging, hammering, yelling or drilling from the constant reformations our complex is going through. I love a nice, new modern apartment as much as the next person, BUT ONCE COMPLETED, not while I am living here.

Air conditioning was installed, as I mentioned earlier. Small units, nothing fancy. So tell me, why did it take 4 freakin days?!??! Lucky us, we had the only apartment upstairs with roof access through our bathroom, so they were in and out of here for 4 days. Since we are traveling with somewhat valuable stuff, we decided to alternate staying home on 2 of the days to make sure no one wandered out of the apartment with our 70pound suitcases. Okay only one of mine weighs that much, but still you get my point. That was last Weds and Thurs, but then they came back this past Mon and Tues. Finally they finished. But not before making a total mess in the apartment, and forcing us to take all our clothes off the shelves and practically move out so they wouldn’t get dust, dirt and powder all over them. We did this not once, not twice, but 3 times. Oh the joy. And each day they were there guess who got to sweep up the apartment cuz apparently clean-up was not included? Cinderelli, Cinderelli, night and day it’s Cinderelli.

Our landlords are very nice, a mother, her daughter and a granddaughter. And a 3 pound Chihuahua named Yuna. She likes us and comes running into our apartment to say hi and play. Definitely not a substitute for my little punkin at home, but very cute and playful nonetheless. She likes our bed, and yesterday decided to bury herself under the pillow. Her little butt was sticking out of one end and her nose stuck out the other. Very cute. The first few days we were here she had a little yellow dress on. She also has a diamond earring in one of her ears. I swear. Even I am not that bad dressing up Lucy.

So there you have it, not anything to report on the kitchen so I left it out. Except that terrible smell from under the sink. The stove works fine; we have a big gas tank underneath that we have to fill when it runs out. It is the same gas tank that you all have for your outdoor grills.

Welcome to our apartment. Home sweet home.

Jaco Apartment Pix

Smells of Jaco

Okay, living at the beach has its definite perks. Now that we have joined the never-ending amount of people who bike everywhere, our options for travel in this very small town are now unlimited. Because of our new method of travel, we ride through our small town watching the people, and trying to avoid the endless potholes and cars, who are also trying to do the same. But anyways, living at the beach allows for a more relaxed lifestyle. Where else can you go to the grocery store in just your bathing suit, no shirt, no shoes? Here of course. It is very casual, meaning that of course, I have overpacked by about 2 suitcases. With the hotel job we are supplied with shirts, so I only need about 3 different items of clothing that I have with me for bottom options plus a bathing suit or 2, and a few things for the optional night excursion.

I am rambling. Surprise surprise.

Back to the smells. Kurt always says I have a nose like a bloodhound. Maybe this is true. However, having a nose that seems to smell EVERYTHING has its ups and downs. I can smell when dinner is burning, a handy tool. I can smell when Lucy (unfortunately) may have messed in the house. I can smell the juicy mangoes we have been eating almost twice a day. But I can also smell the town. And smell at times this town does. The ocean has a smell, of salt and freedom. Is it possible to smell freedom? Well, maybe. Costa Rica obviously has no official dumps, so therefore everyone burns their garbage. This is the same smell you smell when you are camping in the woods or wherever people go to camp. Me, not the camping type of gal, wouldn’t really know where people camp. But for some reason I know that burning the trash smells like camping. While on a bus, you are often overwhelmed by the smell of burning trash, or campfires. Here, being a small “city”, the trash burning/campfire smell isn’t so prominent. Where is the trash then, you wonder? ON THE STREET, or in alleys, sidewalks or somehow hidden somewhere where people can’t see it, but yes, smell it. Old garbage that sits out in the heat everyday smells. Bad. Since we arrived, the temperature has been probably in the mid to high 90s everyday, with around 80% humidity. Gross. And old trash sitting in that heat everyday? Grosser. We WANT to put our trash that we might have with us in a garbage can, but there aren’t any on the street. Hence, all the garbage. Let’s not forget to mention the random smells you encounter while cycling or strolling through town. Yes, you might encounter that delicious smell of garlic over seafood (hopefully lobster), ahh, yummy, but you might encounter something that one of the thousand or so random dogs in this town have left behind. Or the bad drainage they seem to have so stagnant water, again sitting in heat all day, collects and smells. Then there are just the weird smells. The ones I can’t describe, but the ones that make my nose wrinkle and yearn for home where at least the smells are trapped somewhere that they won’t get out. Such as the one that emits from under our sink where we put our trash, the gas tank for our stove and our dishes, pots and pans. This smell is something like hot, rancid dog shit mixed with decaying rat or something. It is terrible, and there is neither rancid dog shit, or any dog shit for that matter, nor decaying rats. Unexplainable, but stinky.
And how bout the random horse shit, not just on the streets, but the sidewalks (where there are any)??? Horses on the sidewalks? That one I wish I had seen.

I question how I will know when I am pregnant if I already am a bloodhound for smells. Isn’t it true that when pregnant a woman’s sense of smell and taste are for more attuned than normal? If this is true, maybe I should buy one of those Michael Jackson masks now, just to prepare myself. For now, I leave you to ponder your own sense of smell and the variety of smells you encounter on a daily basis. I guarantee they are different than my everyday smells of late!

Sweatin with the oldies

Ok, so we have been doing our new job for a few days now, and I have noticed one thing: the majority of the people at the resort are pretty old. And I am not saying old like Kurt, I mean old, like in their 60s, and some look like they might keel over. How am I supposed to sell them something that they might want to use over the next 25 years if I am not sure they have 25 minutes left?

The job is very easy, yet very hard. "Talk to people, get them over here to listen to a presentation, then we'll do the rest, and pay you for it." Right. Kurt managed to get one sale, but I am at 0 right now. Why did the time share industry have to spoil our fun? Because that is exactly what people want to know right away--is it a time share? Not exactly. It is better, but for more info, I would want to tell you in person so I get the $15 lead!!

Oh, did I mention we have to do this during the day, when it is about 90 degrees with about 80% humidity. Oh, why oh why can't I be one of those dainty ladies who just "glow" instead of SWEAT. I mean it. It drips down my back, stomach, face, neck, GROSS. And not to mention the new perfume I have been wearing-- I like to call it "Eau de OFF". Yes. Bug spray.

Yes, we definitely have prostitutes, 3 of them that we know of. Out of 8 apartments. 1 of which belongs to Kurt and I. So 3 out of 7 apartments are prosti-ridden. One of them, the one who lives next door, NOT FRIENDLY.

We are walking a ton, but not losing any pounds. Strange. We are looking at trying to get a bike too. That will at least alleviate our 30 minute walk to work, 15 of which is just to get to the main part of town!

Keep trying to post, I am not sure what the problem is.
Also, check out Kurt's blog at http://www.coffeeandbananas.blogspot.com

Sorry this blog isn't so funny, I am sweating (as usual) to death in the Internet cafe because as great as our new apartment is, we don't have wireless anymore.
So I bid you all goodnight and Happy Valentine's Day!

Trying to post comments

Okay, I have gotten a few emails that you guys are trying to post comments, but the site kicsks you out or something. I think it is a problem with the blogger site. Kurt's mom and sister have had the same problem, and even I had troubles posting an actual blog, not even a comment, last week. All I can say is keep trying! I posted a comment under anonymous and just signed my name to it, maybe try that??? I know I have the blog set up that you don't need to have a blog nor an account in order to post. But keep reading and trying to comment!!!
:)

Another New Chapter

Hey, greetings from Jaco. We got here yesterday on the bus, always a fun ride. By the way, what they say is true about watching your stuff on the bus. I had my brand new laptop above the seat we were in, in my computer bag. We had a brief stop, and this guy, a kid almost, walked to the front of the bus and was starting to fiddle around with the bags above the seats. Kurt had stayed on the bus while I went inside to grab a few snacks. The strap to my bag fell down, and Kurt happened to see it. He looked at the guy, and the guy pretended to look at the back of the bus. This kid had been sitting near me in the bus station in San Jose, and he creeped me out then. And seeing as how we had ALL our stuff, he probably thought we would be a bit distracted. I got back on the bus, and Kurt said he had to pee. So I let him out, and when I looked back, the guy had his hands on my bag, and the zipper looked slightly open. I looked him dead in the eye and said "que hace" (what are you doing?). "What the fuck do you think you're doing asshole" is pretty much what my "que hace" meant. He said nada and got off the bus. I took my bag down and put it at my feet, and Kurt freaked when he got back on cuz he thought the guy ran off with my bag, not knowing I had taken it down. He told me what he had seen him doing, so he had watched him the whole time I was off the bus. Luckily, we arrived in Jaco, I had both computer bags on me (one over each shoulder, diagonally), while Kurt got our 4 bags off from underneath the bus. We got a taxi and got to our new place. By the way, when that kid ran off the bus after I caught him, he never did get back on.

Jaco is an interesting place. Prostitution is legal in Costa Rica, so you can imagine what kinds of people you might find wandering the streets. OR PERHAPS LIVING IN YOUR APARTMENT COMPLEX. Upon arriving, we immediately saw a girl sunbathing in her thong (much to Kurt's delight), and noticed a few other "ladies" in the building. Last night, we realized maybe these were "ladies of the evening" only because it was pretty quiet in the complex. Kurt went out exploring and went to a bar, the Beetle Bar, a place known for nasty dirty men from hicksville states that I prefer not to name looking for hookers. This guy told Kurt that pretty much, count on being robbed. Today we found out that there is an 82% chance of being robbed here in Jaco. Fabulous. So we spent the whole night wondering, again, if we made the right decision to come here, and maybe our place isn't so great after all, since the main gate is a bit under construction and doesn't lock right now.

Today we started our new jobs at the hotel. A bit slow. It is an easy job, in that all you have to do is talk to people and get them to get in a strange car with a stranger and be taken to a hotel (c'mon, wouldn't anyone do that???) to listen to a presentation about frequent visitor programs, and we get money and a percentage of the sale. That is, IF they agree to go listen to the presentation. IF they decide to go on the tour of the hotel. AND IF they buy into the program. Yep. You guessed it. BIG ifs involved. But the money potential is there.

I just had an interview at a surf shop, where I would be in charge of selling surfboards and lessons, but renting boards as well. A salary and commission. The salary is 600 colones per hour. The exchange rate is 500 colones to the dollar. Do the math here with me: $1.20 per hour. WOO, I am not sure I can count that high. So if I work 6 hours, I get $7.20 for the day, but 3% of any commissions of sales and rentals. SO now the decision is: take the surf job, and have at least some steady money, for sure.....OR stick with the hotel thing for a while, and potentially make big bucks, or none at all???

Decisions, decisions, decisions.

Kurt took pictures of our new place, but since we don't have wireless at home anymore, it might take a few days for him to post them.

Also, our landlords said our area of town is very safe, they call it the neighborhood of "ricos y famosos".......the rich and famous. Meaning the apparently hotel owners and people who don't NEED to steal live there, and they haven't ever had a problem. Let's hope it stays that way.

A little more broke, a lot more relaxed and content

Kurt’s friends, Jen and Graham, were in town so we headed to the beach. They were staying at this place which we couldn’t find on 5 maps, so we had decided to go stay at a beach sorta near them and then meet up with them. We headed to Playa Hermosa on Friday, caught both buses without problem, and showed up in Hermosa around 2pm. I had made a reservation at the number 1 choice from Let’s Go. The Ecotel. It said you had a choice of where you stay: in a tent, a rustic cabin (their words, not mine) or a variety of options. We showed up and were greeted by 2 locked gates…….and 8 dogs. Not little cuddly ones either. Mostly labs, but mutts as well. The owner comes out from somewhere behind a pile of about 500 beer cans that he looks like he is about ready to set fire to. He unlocks the gates, and the dogs come rushing, jumping on us. Um, sure. Having stayed in one crappy place on guidebook recommendation we are wise to this now. He brings us into one big room and shows us the choice of beds. Basically the only privacy you have is by hanging a sheet over your beds, like a canopy bed. NOPE!! Plus he looks a bit crazy, and then told us we would be the only ones staying there as his last guests had left that morning. Hearing the music from Psycho playing in my head and thinking they checked out by way of body parts in the stuff outside that he was getting ready to burn, we told him we had friends to meet and that if we couldn’t find them we would be back. But he told us that the place where they were staying was over an hour away. Great. A crazy lunatic and we’re way too far away. After a bit of goose chasing for a calling card (they have a monopoly on the phones here that you can’t just put coins in, you have to have a calling card. Of which we don’t have because ours ran out), a really nice lady at a different hotel loaned us hers. We called Graham and Jen, found out where they were (and how much it would be if we just stayed there), and ended up needing to go to Playa del Coco cuz they have all the calling cards there, and cheaper places to stay. Kurt and I had rationalized staying at that resort in this way: make the sacrifice with our money, but have an awesome weekend with friends and just worry later. Thank God for credit cards.

So got back on the bus to Coco, but it didn’t go all the way there. We hitchhiked part of the way. I can hear my mother now. Sorry mom, but it was either walk 4 kilometers, and “hacer ride”. Luckily, a super nice guy in a bread delivery truck picked us up and not 5 minutes later we coasted into Coco. Jen and Graham said they would come to Coco, so we checked in to a hostel for the night.

After we made a reservation at their resort.

Which happens to be all inclusive. Which, for all inclusive, is actually very reasonably priced at only $115 per person per night. With our current financial status as being unemployed, out of our price range, but in the grand scheme of life, a really good deal. So we said all right, we met up with Graham and Jen, and then ended up going back to their hotel anyways, and stayed for free in their room. Thank you immensely again for that one you guysJ Our hostel lady in Coco was a bit confused when we gave her back the keys to our room at 10:30 and said we might be back. In reality, we both paid $10 to take a shower, cuz that was all we did at that hostel. Oh well, we were clean at least.
The name of the resort is the Occidental Allegro Papagayo. We highly recommend it:)

Saturday Jen and Graham were going on an excursion with their tour group, so Kurt and I lay at the pool all day. They had a swim up bar, which was very cool. The funny thing is, even though we technically couldn’t afford to stay there, this was the most stress-free and awesome weekend we have had since we’ve been down here. Maybe it was the fabulous company we had, or the fact that our meals and drinks were taken care of (always a worry when traveling), or the fact that we could at least pretend we lived a life of luxury for a little while, at least. I think of it as flying first class on the airplane: I never get the chance to do it, so on the rare occasions that it has happened, I really enjoy and appreciate it. Being very budget travelers, I think we appreciated the resort more than we would have if we traveled like that all the time. I am in no way saying that the people at that resort didn’t appreciate it, for all we know they travel like Kurt and I and this was their splurge. But we sat back and enjoyed it.

Sunday we spent ALL day playing volleyball in the pool and making friends with all the people that Graham and Jen were with on their trip. It was a prize from Graham’s landscaping company. Incentives, from I understood. You do a certain amount of business with this other company, but a certain amount of merchandise for your own landscaping company, and you win cool trips. Last year he got to go on a cruise, this year Costa Rica, next year, Hawaii. NOT BAD!!!

With drinks being included, you can probably imagine that we took advantage of this. They even rolled in TVs and a big screen for everyone to watch the Super Bowl yesterday. I watched till almost halftime, saw the 2 bullshit calls (that was NOT a touchdown Pittsburgh, no matter what anyone says, and yes that should have been a touchdown for Seattle), and then proceeded to watch Kurt and Graham get completely wasted. I went to bed shortly after they got the brainy idea to have a jalapeño eating contest. Which Kurt then washed down with 2 bowls of ice cream to cool his mouth off.

All in all, an awesome weekend. A little more broke, but way happy and content with our decision.

Tomorrow we move to Jacó to start our life there. We have jobs as time share recruiters. We get people from the street to go listen to presentations about buying a time share. We get $15 for every person that goes to listen. If they buy, we get 2% of the total sale. The sales start at $5000. So we could potentially make some big bucks, meet a ton of people, and maybe have a side career. I will keep you posted.

By the way, we did manage to rent our apartment in San Jose so we get our deposit back. Whew!

We just found out our Australian friend, Dean, who we met the first time in Jacó, is still there. Very fun!
We think our new place probably doesn’t have wireless, so emailing and blogging may slow down a bit. Will do my best to keep everyone informed and entertained.
Peace out for now.

PS-- thank you thank you thank you Jen and Graham for a fabulous weekend, the beers, new guidebook, bug spray and your company for the weekend. I had a blast!!!

Crazy Buses

Well, seeing as I haven’t died yet, I can continue typing this blog. Today, Kurt and I split up a bit, me to go to Hiper Más to find sunscreen and aloe, him to the art museum. Remember my blog about that Periferica bus? Well, in order to get to Hiper Más, I had to take that bus. So just as I was coming to the corner, the bus passed. Naturally. I tried chasing it, but didn’t know which street it would spit out onto, so I figured since I had nothing else to do, I would wait for another. Now, assuming that since we had gotten off the bus coming FROM Hiper Más in one direction, I would need to wait on the opposite side of the street to get there. Keep in mind what assume actually stands for: don’t make an ass out of you and me. So 2 busses pass in the opposite direction (the direction I figure is not correct), and here comes mine after about 10 minutes. Even though I am slowly getting used to the busses here, I always ask before getting on if it goes to where I need it. So I asked if it did, and he said no, the other side. The other side? Why? You mean the side that clearly is going the opposite direction? Okay, dude, whatever you say. So I run across the street (escaping from TJ thoughts again), and take the bus on that side. I ask the driver and he says yes. Weird. I get on, and I am positive we are going the wrong way, that I will now take the opposite tour of San José that I did a few weeks ago. Turns out, there is more than one Hiper Más in this city. Who knew? I get off the bus, and naturally, I am on the wrong side of the street. Again. Story of my life. I am now talking to myself on how the hell I will get across the street without dying, since the cars are coming just fast enough that I can’t jet through them. Well, I made it, and I did end up making it back to the bus stop too. The even weirder thing? When it came time to get off at my stop near my apartment, the bus was going in the very direction I had originally thought.

Oh by the way, I was trying to buy brown flip flops, and found some. The I found another pair, in my size, but the problem was there was only the right shoe. Where was the left one? Mystery ended up never being solved.

I may never figure this stuff out. Or I might get really rich here and here’s how: why not label these busses as number 1, 2, 3, 4, and so on, and map out the routes? SHOCKER. Busses with designated routes and numbers. Apparently everyone seems to know where they are going when they look in the window and see like 7 different places of that bus’s destination.

There may be a reason the United States is a bit more advanced than here.

Or maybe we are the backwards ones. How often do you give directions and name landmarks while doing so? That is how everyone gives directions here.

Maybe they are doing things right after all.

Who knows.

Eight Legged Creatures

Costa Rica, as you may well know, is a tropical country. This means bugs. Mosquitoes, ants, spiders, flies, you name it, they probably have it. Most people choose to get malaria pills before coming down, just in case, especially if going to the rain forest areas, or areas where malaria is prevalent. One of the best things about Madrid being so dry was that it had no bugs. Not so much here. Case in point: Monday night, Kurt went into our bedroom and yelled, came out and said there was a huge spider on our wall. Kurt isn’t a fan of spiders, and has me kill them. My sister is the same way. The tiniest, teensiest spider will set her off. Kurt as well. He is a bit of a practical joker, so I didn’t believe him at first. I peeked into our bedroom, and sure enough there was a spider on the wall. And not just any spider either. THE BIGGEST, HAIRIEST SPIDER I HAVE EVER SEEN WAS SLOWLY CRAWLING ACROSS THE BEDROOM WALL, RIGHT ABOVE THE BED. Now, normally I would grad a piece of Kleenex or toilet paper, squish and throw it in the toilet. Not this thing. From tip to tip on the legs, this thing probably spanned 5 inches. I tend to exaggerate at times too, but I kid you not. This was the biggest thing I had ever seen, and there was no way I was going near it. Kurt said he wouldn’t sleep in our room, nor enter it ever again (he actually said he would burn his clothes and buy new ones if it meant never seeing that thing again) if we didn’t get rid of it. Since we are leaving our apartment, we really haven’t bought a ton of stuff for it. Including paper towels, or even Raid or anything. I went searching for someone who might be home in our complex, and met a cool couple downstairs. I told them about the spider, and the guy, Mike, brought their frying pan. They came inside, and upon seeing the spider, also jumped. By the way we do have pix, but they don’t do the thing justice. We moved the bed a little, took a few pix, and stood by while Mike crept up to the wall and moved in for the kill. The body on this thing was probably the size of a United States 50 cent piece. One, two three, SMASH!!!! I screamed, Carrie (Mike’s girlfriend) jumped, and Kurt ran from the room. The spider was now dead, lying on the floor, but some of the legs were twitching. Now, how to pick it up. We took a piece of notebook paper, and a trash bag, and dumped it in there. There was hair on it, I swear. Being the insect experts that we are, of course we have no idea if this thing was poisonous, or where in the hell it came from.

The next day we happened to mention it to our landlord, and she said maybe we had brought it back with us from the beach cuz San José isn’t known for having spiders, especially the one we had. YOU MEAN THAT THING CAME BACK WITH US, IN THE TRAVEL BACKPACK???????? AND NOW WE ARE MOVING TO THE VERY PLACE WHERE IT MAY HAVE COME FROM? Fabulous.

Maybe this explains why I have these bites on my legs that I can’t get rid of and itch like crazy. I thought they were from mosquitoes. I probably have some strange spider disease now, or malaria.

Nice knowing you all.

Yoo Hoo- Anyone out there?

Hey!!

Is anyone reading this? Just checking cuz I don't seem to be getting any comments or responses.

I may be living somewhere else, but it doesn't mean I am not interested in your life. Write something, ANYTHING, just so I know you're out there.