I am not even making this up

Forget bombs. I just experienced the scariest thing EVER. I was innocently washing my hands in our downstairs bathroom, when movement caught my eye. There, scurrying past the bathtub, was the BIGGEST COCKROACH I have ever seen in my entire life. Like, I have this nasty fake cockroach my dad and I used to play tricks on each other with, but THIS bug (are they still insects when they're that big?) was far bigger. Seriously. It was maybe two inches long. I jumped maybe six feet straight up and shrieked, "HOLY LIVING (badwordbadwordbadwordbadwordreallybadwordbadword) TRAVIS TRAVIS TRAVIS COME IN HERE AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAUUUUUUUGH!!!" Then I said some more bad words. Seeing your life flash before you in the shape of a cockroach big enough to carry off your pet dachshund will make even the nicest of people swear like a drunken sailor. Then the cockroach, apparently not used to being called so many bad words (and yes, he understood me-I used some new Indonesian bad words), ran down into this little drain in the floor. My brave husband appeared with a can of bug spray, and now there's a cloud of insect poison hanging over our house. But at least the bug's dead. Maybe.

I just spent three days in an MYP (Middle Years Programme...yes, programME...dang it) workshop, learning how to teach according to the education philosophy or whatever it is our school uses. The workshop was great, it was extremely helpful and now the MYP philosophy and all of that is much clearer to me. Now if only I could attend a "how the heck to actually teach" workshop! The workshop lasted Thursday and Friday and then for a few hours Saturday morning. We left the workshop when it was over today at 11:30 a.m. and went straight to the spa for massages. Nice! We then bought some paint for the inside of our house-we're sick of icky beige! We're hiring a local guy to paint the walls for us next week. He painted the houses of some of our other expat friends here, so he should do a good job.

We got home around 3:30 in the afternoon and were just sitting down to relax when there was a knock at the door. It was this guy, who I guess travels around the neighborhood on Saturdays and sells fresh-cut flowers! We bought this BEAUTIFUL huge bunch of purple orchids from him for less than US$3. It's little things like this that make me smile. Flowers I couldn't even find at home without selling a kidney are brought fresh to my door once a week for very little. Yay! They look very pretty in our house...though I'm thinking we should invest in a vase, since such gorgeous flowers deserve a bit more than a generic juice glass.

Anyway, I'm so glad it's the weekend. We have this coming Monday off, and the Monday after that. Yay for long weekends! Hey, if anyone's reading this, and I know people are-the counter is moving up!-leave a comment and say hi or something! We really miss everyone over here, and it would be nice to hear a little something every now and then, even if it's just a "hi!" It gets kinda lonely sometimes, especially after stuff happens like it did here earlier this week, we send out an email to about 60 people and hear back from maybe three. I know everyone's busy, because we are too, but...we really miss everyone and wonder how everyone is doing! It's a little lonely here in Indonesia! Drop us a line...or even a word! :)