It’s amazing the kind of things you see on days that are supposed to be normal.

After spending a lovely afternoon eating our favorite foods, Jessi and I decided to go to the local beauty supply store and pick up some new colors of nail polish. I chose bright pink, something completely unnatural for me. She picked up some sparkles, stars, and a great maroon type color. We headed back to the dorms to have tea and paint our nails and timed our trip perfectly; we were able to watch a great sunset at the same time. Sounds like a good evening, right?

We parted ways, and I headed home. I was just getting ready to play the Sims when I noticed a strange smudge of dirt on the wall. “How odd,” I thought. “It looks like that smudge of dirt has claws.” And so it did.

Yesterday at about 5:45 pm, I saw my first live, in my house scorpion. SCORPION. You can bet that I hightailed it out of the room as FAST as I could. I called Kaan, sobbing from fear. He said he was coming, to just ignore it. Not knowing how long it would take him to arrive—and desperately needing to hear a friendly voice—I called my mother. She had a good laugh and occupied my attention until Kaan could come and kill it, which he did.

I was actually surprised, upon seeing the whole thing, that the scorpion was so small. What I saw was it sticking its claws out of the wall vent, magnified by its shadow. I was ready for a cell phone sized monster; instead, it looked about three inches from tip to pincher and scrawny as hell. After seeing it in real light, I felt rather silly. All that commotion for a skinny little thing! But still, I’m glad I didn’t have to deal with it. Kaan aptly smooshed it and put it in the trash can. I took him out for kumpir and ice cream afterwards.

Today a woman from my home university is coming for a meeting with the international office at Bilgi. Jessi and I are going to meet up with her, show her around a little, and escort her to the correct campus. I just hope that she doesn’t decide to bring a pet scorpion; I don’t think I can handle any more claws!