2 weeks in...6 to go

I have been trying my best to keep you all updated but the internet is so dreadfully slow it's a chore. That and I've been spending my time either swimming or sitting at the spanish bar drinking Presidente with the gang. It's been rough.

It has already been 2 weeks since I arrived in Statia. There are now 9 of us in the group and we all get along surprisingly well. Me and the girls in the group started doing Zumba a few nights a week and although we are totally lost, we have a really fun time pretending to be good. The boys play football (soccer) the same nights and we all meet up for a beer afterwards (to cancel out the whole getting exercise and being healthy bit).

As you can see in the picture I posted yesterday, I saw my first tarantula the other day! I was about to go to bed so I was in the bathroom having a wee and huge (seriously huge, like size of my fist huge) banana spider came running in along the wall heading straight towards me. I jumped up and ran out of the bathroom and as I was standing there, shining my head torch on the banana spider so I could see his every move, I realized I was right beside a tarantula. I was totally freaked out but managed to get some pictures and make it up to my tent without fainting or being attacked by them both simultaneously.

Yesterday we all worked in the garden together. Dan (23 year old from Maine) cut down a massive Acacia tree (which is covered in throrns) and we all chopped it up and cleared it out. All of us got cut up and I even managed to get a thorn stuck in my leg. Not surprising really. I thought it was just a little bit but when Claire pulled it out it was an inch long! (Mom: Remember that sewing needle you had to pull out of my foot when I was younger? That's what it reminded me of, except a lot less whining on my part.)

Zoe (a very cute 20 year old from the UK) and I have become quite good friends. We are both extremely clumsy and goofy and find ourselves laughing uncontrollably at nothing really at all. Her and I take turns stubbing our toes, falling down at the garden, or getting hit in the face with braches while we are riding in the back of the truck. Speaking of, because our work trucks are such pieces of shit, all 9 of us ride around in the one working (most of the time) truck. 4 of us sit in the back and have to dodge branches and thorny bits the whole way home. If you think of it as a game you can almost convince yourself it's fun! Almost.

It has been raining all day today which was much needed because our water supply at the house was getting really low. Yet when it's rainy and cloudy the sun doesn't charge the solar panels so then we have very little power.

Well gotta get going, ice cold Presidente awaits...

P.S. spell check doesn't work on these computers. Deal with it.