I hate spiders.

I hate them. (I am not scared of them, it’s just a matter of acknowledging each others’ existence and mutual dislike. Totally.)

The enginerd is my personal spider repellent. We’re leaving tomorrow, and just a moment ago he packed a pair of gloves for spider removing purposes. He once stopped me from going into a public toilet in Thailand, because he had just shared a stall with a humongous spider. He only told me about his bathroom buddy a lot later, saving us both from me throwing a hysterical tantrum.

Also, once he came to warn me about a guide who was showing the rest of our group a hand sized black eight-legged creature from hell, before I could walk right there to see what everyone else was inspecting.  That time I did have a semi panic attack, after the guide shoved the spidey to my direction explaining that I shouldn’t be scared for it’s not poisonous. Sharks aren’t poisonous, Slender Man (apparently) isn’t poisonous and the neighbor’s angry AF dog isn’t poisonous, but it’s still okay to avoid them and slightly cry when in close contact.

However, since I love rain forests, I love warm places and I love nature, I had to come up with a way to survive. Thus, I created a rule. I call it ‘the matchbox’ rule. Basically, if any six or eight-legged monster you meet fits into a matchbox, it’s okay, you can hang out, you can stay in the same room, no-one needs to cry, the engineer is not needed. And the more South we go, the bigger my mental matchbox gets. In Finland, our matchboxes and bugs are tiny. What here requires the enginerd (or my mom) to come and rescue me, is not a big deal in let’s say Thailand.

And that’s my way to enjoy my time while being surrounded by little motherfuckers lurking in every dark corner and under every leaf and rock waiting to attack me. That’s my spider repelling hack.

This past week has been very hectic, and filled with phone calls to insurance company, phone company, credit card company, cancelling news paper subscriptions and packing, packing and packing. No spiders, so far. We are also happy to announce that our efforts of two years are finally paying off: We have packed our bags, we are leaving tomorrow, we are homeless, unemployed, and oh so happy! We’ll go to Goa and soon head to Taiwan to see what we could find there.

We’re on the road again! Join us and follow our journey to freedom, to finding ourselves and fulfilling our dreams 🙂