Allie


Wednesday, August 31

spiders and monkeys and frogs, oh my!

So besides being scared of the palm-sized spiders in my room and the frogs that stick to the wall, curl up to look like bats (WAH) and sleep in the crevices of my bathroom, I have a new fear: monkeys. Since I've been here, I've only seen one. Granted they may look precious, but from my research (clearly a necessary Google) I learned that they can be quite vicious and carry an array of diseases I'm not interested in contracting

Yesterday, I was sitting outside (sweating profusely) trying to get a semi-decent internet connection when I saw three monkey friends jump the fence and head straight towards the door to the building that my room is in. One came closer to me so that we were just merely a couple feet away from each other and just sat there. We stared into each others' eyes for probably 20 seconds until I winced (totally creeped out), so the monkey jumped and I ran away shrieking. I stepped a few more feet away from the building and noticed there wasn't just three monkeys but an entire family of monkeys. It was really and truly like a scene from a movie or something. They went in the building, were swinging from the upstairs windows and throwing things around (from what I could tell from my safe position in the field). Finally, they got bored with the building and all ran away (and at this point I noticed a little baby monkey, who could have made a fabulous pet).

Though it was a funny sight to see, I now have another thing to be afraid of when making the seemingly long and treacherous walk from my room to the main building for dinner at night. The walk may be comparable to the freshmen year Maher-Valley walk (for all my USD folk). Pitch darkness, hiding behind your tall roommate (thanks for the protection, Kelly) with only the light from your cell phone to guide the way, all the while hoping and praying that you don't stumble upon a raccoon. That's kind of how I feel here these days... except I'm hoping to not run into this monkey family (or a palm sized spider or a bat-looking frog). Oh the risks I take, living on an Indian farm/forest (har-dee-har-har).

Side Note: Tomorrow there's a festival in town honoring the god Ganesh (remover of obstacles if I'm not mistaken?) and I really hope I get to go and experience it! Apparently the whole town and especially the temples are decorated nicely and there's all sorts of things going on. I will let you know if I make it!

Other Side Note: My fifth graders' test results were fabulous! Last test, I had maybe two grades to cheer about and this time, I have SEVEN! Of course I was hoping for an overwhelming 100% from each nugget in the class but hey, any improvement is worth getting excited over.

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