Sooooo as most of you should know, dryers are a rare occurrence in Spain. If you are lucky enough to have a dryer, it probably won't get used because the electricity costs are rather expensive (supposedly). (I still haven't actually received an electric bill yet-- knock on wood.) Therefore, almost everyone hangs their clothes outside to dry. Yes, even when the temps are a high 30 degrees.
This past Tuesday, my last day of winter vacation, I decided to do some laundry. It was my first time doing it in the new place. I am happy to report that I am blessed to now own a "modern" washing machine. (Meaning the loads now take 45 minutes instead of two hours-- ALLELUIA.) Things went very smoothly. Once the load was done, I brought my laundry outside to our terrace to hang the clothes. After this, I made a trip to the library and later returned around 2:00pm for some lunch.
I promise this story is going places....
Because the weather has been beautiful lately in Spain, I ate my lunch outside. As I was eating, I noticed a brown spot on one of my black shirts. I decided to check it out since I couldn't recall what I had last spilled on my shirt that would have left a brown stain. Turns out, this giant brown spot was actually a GIANT bug. We're talking a grasshopper, cicada hybrid. The thing was two inches long. I was immediately grossed out that it was on my shirt. (I freak out over any bug, especially massive ones.) So I found the closest thing to me-- a broom-- and hit my shirt hoping the bug would fly away. It did not. I prodded the bug, poked the bug, swept the bug... nothing worked. I swear it seemed like it was glued to my shirt.
Now, I'm not the type of person to provoke a bug into attacking me. So I took the passive approach and decided to let it hang out on my shirt and continue its sunbathing and it would fly away later. (Black shirt + sunny day = good sunbathing weather for bugs?)
The next day, I repeated the process of eating my lunch outside again. The bug was still there. Okay, so now I'm thinking that this is its daily routine as well. My next plan was to just bring the shirt inside as soon as it got dark. The bug would definitely be gone by then.
Well, I actually forgot about my shirt because I was adventuring off to Cordoba, so it remained outside. No big deal. No way was the bug still there. It had been six days and it was now nighttime. ..
Very, very, very wrong. The stupid bug was still on my shirt tonight! SIX DAYS LATER. Okay, so at this point, I want the rights to my shirt back. I beat the shirt endlessly with the broom but soon gave up because this bug was going nowhere. I went back inside and asked Sara what this crazy creature was. Apparently they are typical for Spain. (They have some crazy Spanish name I don't remember.) Her and Luisa came outside to help me rescue my shirt. This is where the comedy show began. Just imagine three girls battling a bug...
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Luisa managed to somehow get the bug off of the shirt. But then we needed to get it off of the patio. To do that, we needed to scoop it up over the ledge. Not an easy task since this bug hops and flies sporadically. Eventually after about 30 minutes of battling this bug, we finally (aka Luisa) managed to get it over the ledge while Sara and I screamed and ran away from the thing every time it hopped. With the bug finally gone, I thought the battle was over.
Wrong again.
This stupid thing had laid EGGS all over my shirt! Tiny, itty, bitty white specks are now covering my black shirt. -__-
I am not a happy camper. I'm giving these bugs one last night to live outside before that shirt goes into the washing machine tomorrow morning. I might be a tad traumatized to wear that shirt. Every time I put it on now, I will only be thinking of my new family living in it.
Ew.
Now I have images of tiny baby bugs living in the pocket in the front of the shirt traveling with me all over Priego.
Goodnight.
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