Spring and creatures

Spring has finally come to Bergen.

I realized this the other day when a confused and groggy bumblebee crashed into my forehead. Ive always been amazed by bumblebees...their anatomy does not suggest they should be able to fly. But they really are cute...especially right after they've woken up from hibernation. I have no idea how many times Ive had to duck or jump to the side, just to avoid frontal collision with a bumblebee. They fly wherever they want, whether you are standing in their way or not. -Not because they are arrogant, but because they have no idea how to turn.

Wasps on the other hand are vicious and evil creatures, put on the planet to terrorize happy and content human beings drinking lemonade and ice tea in the heat. Although I have to admit Ive never been stung by a wasp...-as far as I know... I still fear them. My baby sister had a nice plan for saving the world as a kid. She was about 2 years old and decided she could de-wing all the wasps. She would pluck their wings off when they were resting in the shadows on the ground in the middle of the day...sometimes she would amputate their legs as well...Surprisingly enough she only got stung once, for which she mumbled; "ouch" while looking at her finger. Tough kid indeed. Although her plan clearly failed, it was a good initiative.

Along with the bumblebees and the wasps, the warm weather also brings out my archenemy. The queen of all feared beings (for me anyway); the spider . And I am at this very moment looking at the mother bitch of all spiders outside my window...Many have wondered why I have such an irrational fear of spiders but I have been through ordeals that most will never experience, and few realize how lucky they actually are in life...I have never been bitten by a spider, I honestly dont think we have many species that do bite in Norway, although I know we have a few, cause my high school teacher told me about a time he got bitten and his hand swelled up...but personally I have never physically been scarred by a spider. Mentally however is a different story.

I was tortured once.

It was my second year at the university. I had zoology as a chosen subject and we were at an excursion that took place over 5 days. I thought it was going to be a nice trip with forest hiking and sunbathing by the fjord, but in reality we were shipped off to a zoology concentration camp...

5 students were packed into one room with one tiny bathroom that had a shower over the toilet. Breakfast was every morning from 7-7.30...and if you were late, you could kiss goodbye to lunch, as lunch had to be made during breakfast. The entire day from 7.30 to 5pm was spent in the field…be that a forest/meadow/salt march etc...which would have been nice, had it not been for all the slave work we were forced to do. At 5pm we would return to the camp, and we (if we were lucky) had 30 minutes to get ready for dinner (imagine 5 students fighting over a toilet shower....6 minutes each). Dinner would end at 6-6.15 and thats when the real torture started. Thats when it happened...what made me so afraid of spiders. We were forced to spend the next 3 hours staring into all 8 eyes of different spiders and draw them and determine species. The first time was ok....the second was ok...but after having stared into the eyes of several individuals at a period of 3 hours each day for 5 days...You will get scarred. You will have nightmares. You will never be the same again...

I thought I liked spring...now Im not so sure anymore. I think what I need is a personal spider squasher...and by that I mean a man.

Happy spring everyone.

http://www.bumblebee.org/

Spring outside my window