I'm no longer afraid of spiders...

...except the kinds that eat birds, which my distinguished colleague reminds me are prevalent in the mountains and hills of this area. However, I have a few jumping spiders in my apartment, whom I have asked to jump under something so that I can't see them anymore. So we live happily in this way. Sometimes I jump when I see one, but the jump is followed by the thought: It's just a spider! Thank goodness!

We have geckos here too, more than in Arizona, but I don't mind those either. If I see one scurrying across the floor, the same thought goes through my mind: It's just a gecko. And I call it "Baby bihu (house lizard, 壁虎)" and talk to it in Chinese. I usually pick it up and put it out on the front balcony.

In China, small harmless spiders are a small harmless worry when there are 2-inch roaches threatening to squeeze through the cracks and streak across the room when you turn on the lights. Roaches give me the heebie-jeebies (a word that I taught my students during a slang warm-up this semester). Even thinking about them makes me jump and have formications.

A few weeks ago, as I was walking to ACC to work out I saw a glitter of gold on the ground. This was the first day of sun after a few days of rain. I looked down to see a iridescent beetle, stuck on his back and flailing to flip over. I grabbed a leaf and turned him over. It was the most beautiful natural thing I had ever seen, mixed specks of gold on a background of emerald green that sparkled in the sun like a gem. I grabbed a piece of paper with the intent to wrap him up, go work out, and then take him home to take a picture. However, a slow and steady escape artist, he worked through the folds in a few minutes and flew away before I could put him back inside. I lamented that I wasn't able to take a picture, and would probably never see another more stunning insect ever again.

Today I went to exercise early, and on my way back, I saw the iridescent beetle again, on the ground. This time I wrapped him in a towel, but as I was arranging this, a man who swept the streets took an interest and came over to see. He picked up the beetle off my towel and started shaking it around. I thought he was going to crush it. "No, wo yao! Ack! No, no, no.." He said something like "Bu yao dinxin" and put it back on the towel. I have no idea what he said, maybe "You don't want to touch it," or "You don't want a beetle," or "You don't want to capture it." As I rewrapped it and started walking home, the sweeper laughed and shook his head: Crazy laowai!

Well, I did get my picture, and the beetle is still alive on the balcony, although I'm hoping he will fly away before the cleaners come today.

-吴佩芙