Where are the guys when you need them?

So far this summer, we've had a pretty steady stream of interns and summer workers here, most of them guys. This week, however, they've all been gone-- here, there, and everywhere. Not even mentioning other incidents that have happened this week, last night we had a huge wind storm-- bad enough that it blew our neighbours' car into their stone wall and fence (wall is about a half meter high, then a fence on top) and knocked it over. My Mom and two friends were coming home by train yesterday and instead of taking four, ended up with an eight and a half hour trip due to the tracks being covered with fallen trees. They got in at 3am by bus after having been stranded on a train three hours away for an hour and a half.

So today I was supposed to be babysitting eight kids, but because of a very-last-minute change of plans, I ended up with two. Quite thankful for that now. We had another big storm, only this one was thunder/lightning/rain. Torrential rain. I was running around outside the house I was at gathering everything in that needed to be inside-- within the first ten seconds I was drenched. It was pouring. Had to struggle with a big tarp to cover an outdoor kids playhouse that is NOT waterproof and is taller than I am, and chase down their pet rabbit and get it inside. Then I had to run around inside closing all the windows, which I was late getting to so I ended up having to wipe up floors in every room. When I finally got home at 8, I was ready to crash. Discovered the family saved me some supper and ate that, then went downstairs to the basement to my room-- only to discover that the entire basement was flooded. One of the rooms still has a watermark of 6 inches. Everything--everything-- is a mess. I called my Dad and got him over, and he in turn recruited the family and several friends and interns. By the time they arrived, however, I'd already managed to drop one of my sister's nail polishes on the floor in the bathroom. Have you ever spilled an entire bottle of nail polish? I never had. (Never even owned nail polish.) Let me tell you, it's incredible. So strange to see it in the inch and a half of water covering the floor. As I was trying to clean up, I managed to cut my foot several times and get three gashes in my hand, so that part wasn't so cool. (It is hard to see glass in water, in case you never thought of that before.)

Soooo... we've spent the last few hours mopping out. Dumped bucket after bucket after bucket of water from my apartment, and have dozens of either completely ruined library books, or pretty wet ones that are currently being dried by a fan in the hopes that they'll still be legible once they dry out. There're four of us girls who are in the basement, and because of the extent of the flooding, we're all moving into an upstairs BERC flat tonight. It's mostly cleaned up now. At least, the water is off the floors. Now we have the extensive project of going through everything, getting things dried out, and then back to where they belong.

Thankfully, though, that it wasn't worse. But seriously, where are all the guys when you need them?

---

from Friday night, 22 June

I wish for...

One day. One whole, quiet, all-to-myself day, where I can stay in bed the entire time. No getting up at 5.30. No classes to teach, no classes to be a student in, no meals to make, no rooms to clean, no commitments. Just one whole day in an entirely to-myself house, where I can stretch and relax and enjoy doing absolutely nothing. And not skipping out or feeling guilty. Just one beautiful, precious, quiet, relaxing day.

Beeper Thingies

I'm beginning to be paranoid about going into stores. Of late, I've been getting "beeped" quite often going in and out of stores. Today, however, took the cake: four times in four different stores.

(huh: I've noticed also that in the last two weeks I've used a lot of Americanisms. Expressions like "take the cake," "coon's age," "graveyard shift," "catch-22," "hit the hay," "third times a charm," etc.)

I cringe at the thought of going into any store at the moment.

</my profound post>

Things I've learned this week

• When attempting to say, "My toenail fell off," you shouldn't startle your listener by announcing your "foot" fell off, and then correcting it to your "toe," before finally, on the third try, correctly stating that it was, in actuality, your toenail that fell off.
• When you fall asleep sitting up at the computer and fall out of the chair, it's time to take a nap.
• Star Trek: The Next Generation seems to change between the times of watching it when you are 5 and watching it when you're 18.
• Spiders half as big as my palm do have the ability to freak me out at 5:03am when I'm absent-mindedly reaching for the door handle after just falling (literally) out of bed and discover them on the object I'm reaching for.
• Spiders are also easily killed by second-year French books no longer in use.
• Smashing a second-year French book no longer in use against a spider against a door with all your strength is not enough to wake your sister up when she's sleeping on the other side of that door at 5:04 in the morning, even though the neighbours three houses down hear the bang.
• Gigantic spiders found perched on the door to a bedroom have a tendancy to make the finder paranoid about any more spiders located in, around, or within a five km proximity to the bed the finder is about to climb into.
• It is not advisable to forget and accidentally grin at a man on the bus who is making funny faces. He might move seats to come stand near you and get to know you better.
• A ten minute walk seems a lot longer when you're making it in the mud and pouring rain.
• It is difficult to feel charitable towards the man who drives the car that races past you in a rainstorm and drenches you just before you have to go in to sit for two hours straight to teach English.
• Fresh boiling juice just made on the stove does, in fact, burn through jean when the holder is sitting on a bed in English class and a student drops heavily onto the bed nearby.
• Fresh boiling juice also leaves nice juice marks on jeans for the rest of the afternoon.
• Fresh boiling juice even attracts a lot of dirt as it remains sticky all afternoon, thus making your jean pants appear brownly discoloured in patches on your leg.
• When singing on the song team in church, one shouldn't be distracted by the cute boy walking into the room and begin to sing about him to the tune of the song you are already singing about instead of singing the words as they are supposed to be sung.
• When talking about a cute boy, one should be quite careful to make mention (if it is true) that the cute boy happened to be 11 months old.
• And lastly, if you are a car, it is possible to vroom past a certain house on Nerudova street.