Fears
Among the many fears that I already claim my own, I have added quite a few more since I have been in Chile . They include, but are not limited to, the following:
- fear of strange cheeks
- fear of gross people touching me on the subway
- fear of throwing up on public transportation
- fear of being trapped in an enclosed space with a couple
- fear of earthquakes
- fear of exploding water heaters
- fear of being held up at knife/gun point
- fear of running into random family members at the mall and/or at a bar
- fear of the cell phone comapny calling me
- fear of having to go within 50 feet of what they like to call 'hospitals'
- fear of the mall on a weekend at the end of the month
- fear of getting caught in protests and the inevitable clouds of tear gas
- fear of people who dress like clowns and ask for money on the bus
As of a few days ago I can now add 'fear of spiders' to that list.
The thing is, I've never really feared spiders, per se. I certainly don't find them adorable and cuddly and when, in the ninth grade on the first day of class, my biology teacher went around the room making random students hold a tarantula I did my best to make sure she didn't come anywhere near me because there was no way in hell I was about to hold that thing in my hand without throwing it and running out of the room screaming like a small, female child. But, I'm not one of those girls who is like 'eeeww a spider...i have to find a boy to kill it for me...hee hee.' No sir, that's not me. I kill my own spiders and I have no problems doing it cause frankly my space is not a human-spider communal space.
So, the other day I found this huge, gnarly spider crawling around near my bed. And that's when it started....
Wait, let me go back.
At some point early on in my Chilean adventure I had this conversation with one of my aunts about spiders. Apparently here in Chile we don't have any dangerously poisonous animals, except for this one spider. A spider which, it just so happens, is common in households everywhere. At first I thought she was kidding, so I laughed, naturally. And then she was like "no, I'm serious." This is while we were taking a table out of a really cobwebby part of the house...so, you can imagine...
Anyway,I didn't really think much of it until I saw a spider in my apartment and even then I didn't think much of it because I killed the sucker right away and didn't see another one and forgot. Then, when Abby was here I mentioned to her that if she sees one she should kill it right away because if it bites her it might be deadly and she freaked out a little and I pretended like it was no big deal and that they don't come into houses ever anyway (which is a boldfaced lie) when really what I wanted to do was hug her and be like "we might die! dear god, what do we do?"
Have any of you seen the movie Aracnophobia? That movie was a turning point in my young life and pretty much the reason I can't watch scary movies ever.
So, fast forward to a few days ago (last week) when I find this GIANT spider walking around near my bed. That's when it hits me, right? Like, if I hadn't seen it that thing could have crawled on my face during the night and I could be dead by morning. The thing is, I realized, I have no idea what these fuckers look like. So, after I killed it I did what any other normal person would do — I walked through the maze of crap that is my apartment, sat on my bed and googled the little suckers.
Image googled. "Araña del rincon."
This is what I found:
I FREAKED OUT because that's exactly what the splotch on my floor looked like, but then I realized the err of my ways because, quite honestly, that picture looks like every spider I've seen ever and HOW THE HELL AM I SUPPOSED TO KNOW IF A DEADLY THING WAS IN MY APARTMENT OR NOT?! So, I freaked out again. Then I got a paper towel and removed the evidence and immediately began cleaning my apartment because this one website said that was the best way to keep them out. So now I'm totally freaked out about spiders. I have nightmares about them crawling on my face while I'm asleep.
It's nice to know my list of fears really is neverending.
Ugh.
— E
- fear of strange cheeks
- fear of gross people touching me on the subway
- fear of throwing up on public transportation
- fear of being trapped in an enclosed space with a couple
- fear of earthquakes
- fear of exploding water heaters
- fear of being held up at knife/gun point
- fear of running into random family members at the mall and/or at a bar
- fear of the cell phone comapny calling me
- fear of having to go within 50 feet of what they like to call 'hospitals'
- fear of the mall on a weekend at the end of the month
- fear of getting caught in protests and the inevitable clouds of tear gas
- fear of people who dress like clowns and ask for money on the bus
As of a few days ago I can now add 'fear of spiders' to that list.
The thing is, I've never really feared spiders, per se. I certainly don't find them adorable and cuddly and when, in the ninth grade on the first day of class, my biology teacher went around the room making random students hold a tarantula I did my best to make sure she didn't come anywhere near me because there was no way in hell I was about to hold that thing in my hand without throwing it and running out of the room screaming like a small, female child. But, I'm not one of those girls who is like 'eeeww a spider...i have to find a boy to kill it for me...hee hee.' No sir, that's not me. I kill my own spiders and I have no problems doing it cause frankly my space is not a human-spider communal space.
So, the other day I found this huge, gnarly spider crawling around near my bed. And that's when it started....
Wait, let me go back.
At some point early on in my Chilean adventure I had this conversation with one of my aunts about spiders. Apparently here in Chile we don't have any dangerously poisonous animals, except for this one spider. A spider which, it just so happens, is common in households everywhere. At first I thought she was kidding, so I laughed, naturally. And then she was like "no, I'm serious." This is while we were taking a table out of a really cobwebby part of the house...so, you can imagine...
Anyway,I didn't really think much of it until I saw a spider in my apartment and even then I didn't think much of it because I killed the sucker right away and didn't see another one and forgot. Then, when Abby was here I mentioned to her that if she sees one she should kill it right away because if it bites her it might be deadly and she freaked out a little and I pretended like it was no big deal and that they don't come into houses ever anyway (which is a boldfaced lie) when really what I wanted to do was hug her and be like "we might die! dear god, what do we do?"
Have any of you seen the movie Aracnophobia? That movie was a turning point in my young life and pretty much the reason I can't watch scary movies ever.
So, fast forward to a few days ago (last week) when I find this GIANT spider walking around near my bed. That's when it hits me, right? Like, if I hadn't seen it that thing could have crawled on my face during the night and I could be dead by morning. The thing is, I realized, I have no idea what these fuckers look like. So, after I killed it I did what any other normal person would do — I walked through the maze of crap that is my apartment, sat on my bed and googled the little suckers.
Image googled. "Araña del rincon."
This is what I found:
I FREAKED OUT because that's exactly what the splotch on my floor looked like, but then I realized the err of my ways because, quite honestly, that picture looks like every spider I've seen ever and HOW THE HELL AM I SUPPOSED TO KNOW IF A DEADLY THING WAS IN MY APARTMENT OR NOT?! So, I freaked out again. Then I got a paper towel and removed the evidence and immediately began cleaning my apartment because this one website said that was the best way to keep them out. So now I'm totally freaked out about spiders. I have nightmares about them crawling on my face while I'm asleep.
It's nice to know my list of fears really is neverending.
Ugh.
— E
posted by Eugenia at 9:21 PM
1 Comments:
Oh, don't you worry, the "araña del rincón" is small. So if the one you got was big, it wasn't it. There is another poisonous spider in Chile, the "araña del trigo" o "araña de poto colorado" what pretty much speaks for itself to where you find it and how it looks.
Love,
D.
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