Wednesday afternoon started out fairly well; I did a dictado with Lindsey and Candela followed by the usual English lesson. I only had one new vocab word from the dictado, which was exciting (usually there are several). After that, Lola had me fregar all of the floors (UGH), but it was okay because in the end she said I did a good job! Finally! I have officially learned how to mop.
After fregando Lola sent me out to water the olivos. I went to the really big finca - there are 20+ trees there - and started watering. Everything was going well as usual; I sat and read my book and left the water running. Usually it is difficult to find a good place to sit, because the trees are in the middle of the wilderness. They are surrounded by tall grass and pointy plants, and there's usually maybe 2 sq ft of shade to sit in. I was walking around scouting out a place to sit, when I found a patch that was just dirt with no plants (!). So I sat there and started to read.
After un rato, I decided to get up and walk around / play with the dirt (exciting times regando los olivos). The ground here is really entertaining to me because I have never seen a desert before - the dirt is hard and cracked like it is in The Lion King. I like to poke it and make new cracks sometimes.
Anyway, as I was walking around observing and playing with the dirt, I saw a weird crack that surprisingly circular. And large. It also had twigs surrounding it in a clearly organized manner, so I figured some animal lived there. I peered in to see who it was (the hole was a bit smaller than my fist), and saw three big hairy legs.
I FREAKED OUT and screamed at the top of my lungs. It was a scream of pure terror, and I'm pretty sure everyone between here and Huercal Overa heard it. I had never seen a spider that huge before, and I was not happy.
I backed away a little bit, but kept my eye on the hole (obviously). The spider started to come out, and was just sitting there half out of his hole. I stamped my foot and he went back in. We did this for about 7 minutes - him coming out, me scaring him back in - while I devised a plan.
The tree I was watering was about 5 ft away from the hole, so I wasn't worried about recollecting the hose, but the next tree I wanted to water was directly in the path of the spider death trap. I debated trying to drown it, but I was worried that it wouldn't die fast enough and it would come kill me first. I was also concerned that it would be able to jump up onto the hose and climb up and kill me that way. (I also debated whether or not this was a life or death situation, and decided it was: the finca I was watering was super far from the house, so I wasn't sure if I would be able to stumble back to the house before lapsing into a coma and dying). I determined that I would not be able to drown the spider monster, so I collected the hose and walked the long way to get to the next tree. I left the hose there, even though I was only halfway done watering, and started heading back home.
At this point I was absolutely terrified of everything. I was concerned about leaving the spider hole, because 1. he could follow me and make a sneak attack and 2. he was still alive in there and could kill me anytime. Or anyone else who goes to water the olive trees. Or he could follow me home.
Walking back was difficult, because I had switched to the wrong side of the trees to avoid death. Nobody walks on that side, so the grass is taller than usual. I learned that in addition to my underground spider assassin, there were also equally-sized grass dwelling spiders here! I almost walked straight through a web that was strung between the tall grass, but I saw it's GIGANTIC constructor just in time. I screamed again (obviously) and ran around to the other side. To make matters worse, a huge bug hit me in the face as well while I was walking back.
Eventually I made it back to the path and got home. I immediately went online to determine what kind of monster I had encountered in the wild. I determined that it was a wolf spider. EXCELLENT. Apparently there are quite a few dangerous animals indigenous to this region. Lindsey saw a scorpion the other day (!) but Lola killed it and everything was okay.
Eventually I relaxed and everything was good. We had a nice dinner, watched I'm Not There (highly recommended). Of course that wasn't the end of it though. I woke up in the middle of the night and saw a HUMONGOUS hairy spider on the wall above my head. I didn't know what to do so I wrapped myself up in my blanket and curled up in a ball. I sat like that for about 15 minutes, literally dripping with sweat (it was probably upwards of 85 degrees in my room at the time), before I realized it had been a dream. I sat there for a little while, still panicking, and slowly unwrapped myself. Eventually I fell back asleep.
Luckily I have not seen any scary creatures since then, and several exciting things have happened so I'm over it. I went on a quest yesterday to determine what kinds of fruit trees we have here. It turns out we have apple trees, fig trees, almond trees, olive trees, pomegranate trees, lime trees, quince trees (I had never heard of quince before coming here, but apparently that is another fruit), and grapes. I think that's everything, but I'm not sure. The trees are just growing around the property, around the pool and around the houses. It is so cool to see the little fruits growing on them.
Lola also made us ice cream yesterday which was very exciting. It only had three ingredients (leche, limon, and brevas) and it was DELICIOUS. She made it with the Thermomix, which is this machine that is very popular in Spain and can do everything. It's actually magical. She uses the Thermomix to make just about everything: arroz con leche, almond milk, various pates, any kind of cooked food, bread crumbs from bread that is harder than a rock, and apparently ice cream too! And all you do is put the ingredients in, and it mixes everything together. You can control the temperature, speed, and time. It can cook cold and hot things, and also weighs the ingredients as you put them in! I want one.
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