Our friendly backyard spider met his (her) match the other day. Luke was looking for targets with his squirt bottle, and squirted him with a mild mixture of soap and water. The next thing I hear is "Daddy Daddy come look! Wilson the spider is coming down from his web!"
At first I didn't know what was up with this big ol' spider bailing out of his nest, but apparently the mild mixture of soap and water is a little more caustic to a spider than it is to us! It was a sad occasion but also (as I imagine some of you would agree) a relief that there isn't a giant spider in our backyard. All in all, Luke discovered quite an efficient way of "off-ing" a large spider, (or family pet).
Poor ol' Wilson gracefully dying on our lawn.
Older distinguished British fellow narrating:
"As the hunter becomes the hunted, and as the predator sometimes becomes prey, the vicious circle of life and death continues..."
Luke mourning the loss of beloved Wilson.
Luke preferring the crispy crunch of an apple to the crunchy crisp of a soapy spider.
Non-spider related bits of news:
Amy and I have just completed our first week in Unit 2 of language school. As busy as our school routine is (seemingly very busy), we do feel a little normality to our lives when compared to our first month here. As we are learning a new language from scratch, we are just getting to the point where we can have a very basic conversation with someone local:
(Translated for your reading pleasure)
Me: "Good afternoon Ma'am, Could I have 3 water (bottles delivered)?"
Ma'am: "Good afternoon Sir! Oh yes, we can deliver some water. How are you today?"
Me: "Uhhh..."
Ma'am: "How are you?"
Me: "Oh! Good, good...Can I...pay...uh..."
Ma'am: "Would you like to pay now or when the water is delivered?"
Me: "Yah, now! Thank you!"
Ma'am: "That will be thirty eight thousand, please."
Me: "Sorry...?"
Ma'am: "Thirty eight thousand."
Me: Oh, yah, Thirty...eight..."
Ma'am: "Thank you Sir..."
Me: "Thank you...See you later!"
Ma'am: "Yes, see you next time!"
Of course, we've had our share of word mis-use as well. As I can't remember all of them, I do remember "reviewing" my previous day to my class in Unit 1, and instead of saying "My house help cooked our lunch", I said "I cooked my house help for lunch". To get the point across to what I had just said, the instructor proceeded to draw a giant pot with my poor house help stewing in it.
The other day Amy meant to say "Sampai nanti (until later)". But instead she said "Sampai lantai (until floor)". Or, weirdly enough, google translates sampai lantai to cathedral...which could be totally wrong as google translate is useful but often wrong. But either way, it was a good laugh at the time. We're thankful for the patience that has been given to us by all those Indonesians that have painfully put up with our non-sensical attempts to communicate. Good thing the Javanese are so outwardly polite!
A week or so ago we also had the privilege of attending a Christian neighbourhood Christmas & New Years get together just down the street from our home. Yes, it is a bit weird (from a Western stand point) to have something like this almost a week after the new year, but I think it is common to have such a combined celebration here. Despite us understanding very little, it was a neat experience to gather with fellow believers in Christ! I hope to share a bit more about it in our next blog post.
(Translated for your reading pleasure)
Me: "Good afternoon Ma'am, Could I have 3 water (bottles delivered)?"
Ma'am: "Good afternoon Sir! Oh yes, we can deliver some water. How are you today?"
Me: "Uhhh..."
Ma'am: "How are you?"
Me: "Oh! Good, good...Can I...pay...uh..."
Ma'am: "Would you like to pay now or when the water is delivered?"
Me: "Yah, now! Thank you!"
Ma'am: "That will be thirty eight thousand, please."
Me: "Sorry...?"
Ma'am: "Thirty eight thousand."
Me: Oh, yah, Thirty...eight..."
Ma'am: "Thank you Sir..."
Me: "Thank you...See you later!"
Ma'am: "Yes, see you next time!"
Of course, we've had our share of word mis-use as well. As I can't remember all of them, I do remember "reviewing" my previous day to my class in Unit 1, and instead of saying "My house help cooked our lunch", I said "I cooked my house help for lunch". To get the point across to what I had just said, the instructor proceeded to draw a giant pot with my poor house help stewing in it.
The other day Amy meant to say "Sampai nanti (until later)". But instead she said "Sampai lantai (until floor)". Or, weirdly enough, google translates sampai lantai to cathedral...which could be totally wrong as google translate is useful but often wrong. But either way, it was a good laugh at the time. We're thankful for the patience that has been given to us by all those Indonesians that have painfully put up with our non-sensical attempts to communicate. Good thing the Javanese are so outwardly polite!
A week or so ago we also had the privilege of attending a Christian neighbourhood Christmas & New Years get together just down the street from our home. Yes, it is a bit weird (from a Western stand point) to have something like this almost a week after the new year, but I think it is common to have such a combined celebration here. Despite us understanding very little, it was a neat experience to gather with fellow believers in Christ! I hope to share a bit more about it in our next blog post.
Wilson was pretty big. Soap & water, eh? I might try that mixture here. We seemed to get quite a few spiders in the house.
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