Today, I had two major encounters with the wildlife of the Indian Himalaya.

I decided to eat breakfast in my studio today. I have some cereal and milk (I'm still not quite sure what "toned" milk is, but it tastes fine), and a little mango juice in my room for snacks. Woodstock has generously provided me with a set of dishes and silverware, so I have a neat little set-up if I want to eat a meal myself. (If you add more than two people, it's a BYOSilverware situation.) I got my cereal ready and went to get myself a glass for juice. I opened the cupboard, and saw this:

My Indian (spider) in the Cupboard!

Oh dear lord. This is not the biggest spider I could possibly find (often they come as big as a person's hand- or face), but it was still a shock. I looked at it for a time, quietly got my glass and closed the cupboard. I went back to get a picture, and then ate my breakfast. I readied myself for the day and started the walk to school.

The path from my house to Tehri Road is rocky and pretty wild, so it takes quite a bit of concentration to avoid falling. There are also many plants and wet spots, so creepies tend to reside there. Because I was wearing my sandals, I tried to be very conscious about avoiding vegetation and slippery spots. I even checked my feet and my ankles after the path to make sure I didn't have any undesirables on me. I was halfway to the quad when I felt something strange on my foot. It was another leech, and it was wriggling around, suctioned to the bottom of my foot. "NOOOOOO," I screamed as I hopped to the side of the road. This was not something I was going to put on the back burner. I took my shoe off, then hurriedly unzipped my bag to retrieve my container of salt and attempted to salt the creature with one hand. Imagine my horror when it stuck to my finger with its other end! I had a ghastly realization that leeches have a mouth on either end of their bodies. Frantic, I shook my hand to get the nasty thing off me, but it didn't work. I hopped over to a road-side fence (remember, I had a shoe on only one foot), and banged my hand against the fence to get the leech to relinquish its grip. That worked, and I stood for a moment, breathing heavily, trying to calm myself down. The whole ordeal took only about 10 seconds, but I found myself emotionally exhausted at only 8:25 in the morning.

What a day.


Update: I didn't look in the cupboard again until I came back after the staff retreat, and the spider is still there.