A few nights ago, Ray and I just could not fall asleep for the life of us. It was hot and muggy, and our bed is harder than what our bodies are used to, there was no helping the situation. As I lay there with my eyes closed, just trying to convince my brain to shut off, I decided there was no hope, and I opened my eyes. It was about 2AM, the lights were off, and there was just a faint glow coming in from outside. I looked to our ceiling... and saw a large black spot. I instantly began rationalizing with myself, wasn't the paper on the ceiling peeling? Could this not be just a small hole I had never noticed before? But it was no use. I knew.
I tapped Ray. "Please tell me that's a hole in the paper and not a cockroach on our ceiling?" I whimpered.
"Do you really want to know?" responded Ray after a moment of searching.
Shuddering and groaning with disgust, I wrapped myself in our sheet and bolted out of the room into the hallway. We couldn't turn on the light, because the cockroach would have beelined it to who knows where! Instead, Ray grabbed the bug spray, and a bowl, and we developed an elaborate plan.
Standing on our bed, in the dark, with bug spray in hand, Ray poised himself for a most terrifying battle. Meanwhile, I still stood pathetically out in the hallway, hardly able to even look at the black lump on the ceiling. We counted down, "3, 2, 1, now!" and Ray sprayed the varmint! It scuttled about a foot and then stopped long enough that Ray was able to snap the bowl around it, trapping him. I reentered the room to hand Ray a piece of paper so he could slide it between the bowl and the ceiling. This he slowly did. The cockroach fell into the bowl with a disgusting thud, and began running around the inside of the bowl. I will never forget that clicking, awful sound! Bleh!
I've no idea how Ray kept his composure. He reports he could feel the creature throwing itself around inside the bowl and against the paper. But somehow he managed to walk the trapped thing out of our room, down the hall, and into the stairwell where we debated what to do next. The cockroach was obviously not dead, we could see and hear him moving. We didn't want to lift the bowl up and then try to squish him as he ran. Cockroaches are much faster than you think. Drawing upon my 6 year old, spider killing knowledge, I suggested we just spray the heck out of the paper, turn the trap over, and allow the fumes of the bug spray to waft up and become trapped in the bowl with the cockroach, effectively destroying him.
So this we did. Ray moved his hand long enough for me to drench the paper in bug spray, and then he quickly flipped the trap over onto the ground. For good measure we put a heavy hiking boot on top of the bowl... you just can't trust these guys, okay?
Falling asleep was even more difficult after that- knowing what was crawling around us in our sleep! But somehow we managed to finally rest, and in the morning, the cockroach was dead. Victory! We have done what an atomic bomb could not.
Ray disposed of the body, I still couldn't bring myself to look at it. For the sake of having all the facts, the cockroach was about an inch and a half long, and I know that's not the worst that has been found in our apartment. Here's to four more months of 2AM cockroach killing sprees!
Wednesday, August 29, 2012
Sunday, August 26, 2012
A Smattering of Photos... with Toast
I wish this post included toast. I would kill for some delicious wheat bread, full of hearty oats and seeds and natural goodness. Smothered with some jelly, or perhaps homemade marmalade. But alas, I have none. So instead, we'll just move on to some photos.
A few weekends ago, the four of us (Ray, myself, and the two other teachers we work with) decided to go up to Taichung for a short weekend getaway. There are fabulous shopping streets in Taichung, an amazing, blissfully air conditioned mall, and most importantly: Modern Toilet. Modern Toilet is a restaurant (franchises available in Changhua!) where you sit on an upcycled toilet, and the tables are sinks or bathtubs with some plexi-glass over the top. Our tub came complete with a shower head mounted to the wall! We ordered some soda, and to our delight it came served in a miniature urinal- which Ray is beautifully displaying above. We also got a shaved ice dessert, which had a menagerie of: yellow shaved ice, soft serve on a wafer cookie, raisins, small croutons, mango chunks, and multiple flavors of gelatin pieces; all served in another urinal. Our friend got some french fries in a toilet teacup, and our neighbors ordered soup which comes in a small toilet. It was quite the adventure- and it left us wondering... could we pull off one of these franchises in America?
Here is a picture of me towards the end of one of my classes with our younger kids. They had made a Mr. Potato Head and were cracking up saying it was "Teacher Ray." I of course had to send of them to get Ray and my camera so we could document this. Aren't they the cutest? Johnny isn't trying to kill Yoyo there on the left, he just... didn't want to be in the picture I guess!
We stopped here at this lovely Confucius Temple on our way to Subway and some light shopping. The buildings are always so interesting, but the roof tops are what always get my attention. The animals and detail work are always just phenomenal. I wish I had my own personal tour guide that could just tell me everything about the significance of all these designs and animal statues.
Here we are in Taichung again! This time we went up to visit the Jade Market, unfortunately we didn't quite make it. We were delayed by some rain in Changhua, so by the time we rode our bikes to the train station and got a train up to the city it was already about 4:30PM. We got on a bus and told the driver we were looking for some certain streets and tried to communicate the Jade Market to him. He must have understood, or was just sick of us... He informed us the market was closed and we should just get off here. So with a vague idea of where we were in the city, we hopped off and went exploring. Fortunately we find this amazing Buddha statue, and eventually we made our way back to the Chungyo Department Store, where we could easily spend days just exploring the 14 levels of the three different buildings.
We also went to the night market in Taichung, which is way bigger than the one in Changhua, with a lot more to see. Though I will say, I feel like the Changhua night market has better "authentic" foods. We were starving when we got to the market though, so we all stopped at a dumpling place. Our native friend went to order, and came back to tell us she had gotten 10 potstickers. Among 5 people, alright- two for each of us. That will at least tide us over until we see something else we want to eat among the vendors. What we got however, was a bowl of soup for each of us, and 10 flats of 10 potstickers each! Nearly 100 dumplings, which I won't lie, only 10 of which were not consumed within about 15 minutes. They were delightful. :)
This past Friday, a huge typhoon was heading for us, so we got the day off work. Luckily, the typhoon took a southern turn and we didn't even get rain on Friday! Apparently once they've called the day off though, there is no going back, so we just had a nice, relaxing, typhoon free 3 day weekend. In preparation for the typhoon though, Ray and I had gone shopping for the ingredients to make some well deserved chocolate chip cookies. Chocolate chips were nowhere to be had, so we chopped up some chocolate bars instead. You should have seen us scouring the aisles for baking soda too! We had just about given up the entire venture when I spied a small, purple bag with the words "Sodium Bicarbonate" on it. Thank you sophomore year chemistry class for helping me bake cookies in Taiwan :) It was also my first time using a toaster oven! Which is why I'm now probably craving toast...
And finally, on Saturday morning we went to the morning market. We saw lots of cool things again, and everything was a great price, but in the end we ended up just buying me a pair of stud earrings since I left all my jewelry in America during our fast pack. I will definitely have to buy more- one pair for $30 NT ($1 USD) or 4 pair for $100 NT (~$3 USD), yes please!
We ended Saturday by going on a long bike ride to explore more of our "neighborhood." It was really beautiful- and we understand now why everyone has a scooter. The roads to get to homes would simply never accommodate a car. If you don't have a bike or a scooter, you're going to be walking for a long time, my friend. The greenery when we got up close to the mountain was just wild, it really dawned on me that we are living in a tropical country (as if the humidity weren't enough of a reminder). The apartments are so diverse and the range of well-off to impoverished is blatantly obvious, all within a 3 mile radius. Taiwan is unbelievably different from America, we're so glad we are here seeing and experiencing all of this, soaking it in to save and cherish for the rest of our lives.
One final note to end our Sunday. Ray and I both have callings in Primary now. Today was Ray's first day and I think his class will be a bit trying. It's been great to be a part of primary though, we're happy we are there.
A few weekends ago, the four of us (Ray, myself, and the two other teachers we work with) decided to go up to Taichung for a short weekend getaway. There are fabulous shopping streets in Taichung, an amazing, blissfully air conditioned mall, and most importantly: Modern Toilet. Modern Toilet is a restaurant (franchises available in Changhua!) where you sit on an upcycled toilet, and the tables are sinks or bathtubs with some plexi-glass over the top. Our tub came complete with a shower head mounted to the wall! We ordered some soda, and to our delight it came served in a miniature urinal- which Ray is beautifully displaying above. We also got a shaved ice dessert, which had a menagerie of: yellow shaved ice, soft serve on a wafer cookie, raisins, small croutons, mango chunks, and multiple flavors of gelatin pieces; all served in another urinal. Our friend got some french fries in a toilet teacup, and our neighbors ordered soup which comes in a small toilet. It was quite the adventure- and it left us wondering... could we pull off one of these franchises in America?
Here is a picture of me towards the end of one of my classes with our younger kids. They had made a Mr. Potato Head and were cracking up saying it was "Teacher Ray." I of course had to send of them to get Ray and my camera so we could document this. Aren't they the cutest? Johnny isn't trying to kill Yoyo there on the left, he just... didn't want to be in the picture I guess!
We stopped here at this lovely Confucius Temple on our way to Subway and some light shopping. The buildings are always so interesting, but the roof tops are what always get my attention. The animals and detail work are always just phenomenal. I wish I had my own personal tour guide that could just tell me everything about the significance of all these designs and animal statues.
Here we are in Taichung again! This time we went up to visit the Jade Market, unfortunately we didn't quite make it. We were delayed by some rain in Changhua, so by the time we rode our bikes to the train station and got a train up to the city it was already about 4:30PM. We got on a bus and told the driver we were looking for some certain streets and tried to communicate the Jade Market to him. He must have understood, or was just sick of us... He informed us the market was closed and we should just get off here. So with a vague idea of where we were in the city, we hopped off and went exploring. Fortunately we find this amazing Buddha statue, and eventually we made our way back to the Chungyo Department Store, where we could easily spend days just exploring the 14 levels of the three different buildings.
We also went to the night market in Taichung, which is way bigger than the one in Changhua, with a lot more to see. Though I will say, I feel like the Changhua night market has better "authentic" foods. We were starving when we got to the market though, so we all stopped at a dumpling place. Our native friend went to order, and came back to tell us she had gotten 10 potstickers. Among 5 people, alright- two for each of us. That will at least tide us over until we see something else we want to eat among the vendors. What we got however, was a bowl of soup for each of us, and 10 flats of 10 potstickers each! Nearly 100 dumplings, which I won't lie, only 10 of which were not consumed within about 15 minutes. They were delightful. :)
This past Friday, a huge typhoon was heading for us, so we got the day off work. Luckily, the typhoon took a southern turn and we didn't even get rain on Friday! Apparently once they've called the day off though, there is no going back, so we just had a nice, relaxing, typhoon free 3 day weekend. In preparation for the typhoon though, Ray and I had gone shopping for the ingredients to make some well deserved chocolate chip cookies. Chocolate chips were nowhere to be had, so we chopped up some chocolate bars instead. You should have seen us scouring the aisles for baking soda too! We had just about given up the entire venture when I spied a small, purple bag with the words "Sodium Bicarbonate" on it. Thank you sophomore year chemistry class for helping me bake cookies in Taiwan :) It was also my first time using a toaster oven! Which is why I'm now probably craving toast...
And finally, on Saturday morning we went to the morning market. We saw lots of cool things again, and everything was a great price, but in the end we ended up just buying me a pair of stud earrings since I left all my jewelry in America during our fast pack. I will definitely have to buy more- one pair for $30 NT ($1 USD) or 4 pair for $100 NT (~$3 USD), yes please!
We ended Saturday by going on a long bike ride to explore more of our "neighborhood." It was really beautiful- and we understand now why everyone has a scooter. The roads to get to homes would simply never accommodate a car. If you don't have a bike or a scooter, you're going to be walking for a long time, my friend. The greenery when we got up close to the mountain was just wild, it really dawned on me that we are living in a tropical country (as if the humidity weren't enough of a reminder). The apartments are so diverse and the range of well-off to impoverished is blatantly obvious, all within a 3 mile radius. Taiwan is unbelievably different from America, we're so glad we are here seeing and experiencing all of this, soaking it in to save and cherish for the rest of our lives.
One final note to end our Sunday. Ray and I both have callings in Primary now. Today was Ray's first day and I think his class will be a bit trying. It's been great to be a part of primary though, we're happy we are there.
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