The infinite dread that comes with living in a new part of the world with new statistically minor threats.

Spiders. It all started with the spiders.

The first apartment I moved into in Valparaiso was (at times) moderately clean and tidy on the surface, but had pretty obviously not been deeply cleaned in over a year. Add on top of that a constant flow of vagabond university students and similar characters, and you could just sense some deep down filth. One day when I wasn't home, two of the roommates decided to really clean the apartment. It was fabulous. Then, the spiders started appearing.

The araña del rincon, or corner spider, is poisonous, although rarely deadly. I've read estimates claiming that it lives in anywhere between 50 and 90% of Chilean households. If that isn't scary enough, it likes to hang out in dark places, i.e. dusty corners, piles of laundry, cardboard boxes, bookshelves, closets. You know, many places that you often stick your hands without really thinking. But oh, it gets worse. Over a third of bites occur when people are sleeping. That's right. Beds are dark places, plenty of sheets and blankets to burrow in and a seldom cleaned dark dusty underneath space. Have I terrified you yet?

Well, now for the good news. The bites, although certainly unpleasant, are currently easily treatable with prompt medical care. The reaction is merely the localized breaking down of flesh, which I suppose isn't that bad compared to what I had originally imagined. Also reassuring is that Chileans take precautions against them (pulling beds away from the wall, meticulously clean houses, keeping poison spray on hand), but at the same time, they don't seem overly concerned about their presence. Since Chileans are a little prone to exaggerate when it comes to health issues (example: it is commonly believed that walking around with bare feet will undoubtedly bring you to your DEATH BED), the fact that they are not losing sleep over the possibility of poisonous spiders living in their underwear drawers brings me a little solace.

I have found quite a few of them though, including one in my laundry pile that ran over my arm before jumping onto the floor. I have certainly lost sleep over it, but after many months I am taking on more of a fatalistic attitude and beginning to come to terms with it.

So, if I am really getting over this, why am I writing about it at 5:30am you might ask? Ah, that is because I have found a new threat to keep me from sleeping: earthquakes.

Yesterday I was speaking on the phone with Els and I noticed that the shutters on the windows were rattling quite fiercely, then I looked up and realized that the cereal boxes on top of the refrigerator were kind of shaking around and I could hear the glasses in the cabinet kind of tinking together.

I said "Oh shit. There's uhm... an earthquake. I have to go."

I hung up and ran downstairs to what I believe is probably a stabler location. By the time I got there it had stopped. I went upstairs and called Els back and it started happening again! Once again, I ran downstairs and it stopped. I wrote Els an e-mail telling her that I was afraid that if I called her back it would start again.... and it started again just as I was finishing the e-mail.

Apparently this is what I felt.

Little tremors continued to occur every few minutes and I decided to relocate to downstairs to do some research. Did you know that Valdivia, Chile was the site of the largest earthquake on record? Valparaiso itself also has a quite jarring history of seismic activity, including well known incidents in 1906 and 1985.

Well, through the evening I felt quite a few more tremors and was a little nervous when it came time to go up stairs and go to bed. I placed my cell phone, a flash light and the house keys next to my pillow and a pair of jeans and shoes next to the bed, just in case I had to.... flee an earthquake or something (?!?!). I think that I woke up a few times during the night and felt some very mild trembling, but that could have just been a dream....

Then, at about 4:30am it started again. The keys hanging from the closet door started to rattle and I turned on the light, shot out of bed, got dressed and clutched the flashlight to my chest. By that time it had stopped and I was the only thing still shaking in the room. Since then we've been having tremors every few minutes to every half an hour or so and we actually just had quite a big one right now that caused me to run downstairs again.... I actually can't tell if the house is still shaking or if its just me but the cats look frightened and the water in my glass is still shaking around and can everyone tell that I am totally freaking out?

This is my attempt at blog therapy. It was working until just a few minutes ago.

Eeeeeek!

I feel a little better now that the sun has come up, but still! Eeeeek!

Besos,
Allie