Last night, I handed my pride over to some ants

So my friends, last night was quite the evening. After neither of my classes showed, the Chinese teacher Chen Jun and Maew, a Thai teacher, decided to hold an impromptu Chinese lesson in the office. So, I used it as an opportunity to learn more Thai. All these trilingual comings and goings helped fill my little book with a good deal of vocabulary, although it now looks a bit odd, like “zhe shi = nee ke” and words in both Thai and Isaan. Should prove to be an interesting experiment in language acquisition. We then head across the street to a tiny restaurant foodshop like thing and had dinner. I was feeling pretty accomplished when I headed home.

Now, I have had a few ants who regularly traverse my bathroom wall. Here are the general photos of my bathroom.

and the drain:

In efforts to discourage them from setting up camp, I take the shower nozzle to them every now and then, sweeping a few more down the drain. Well, last night, I apparently hit the jackpot—

These little things had been holing up in my wall and the entire nest decided to come out and greet me! At first I attempted to continue my water fight, but was soon overwhelmed by their sheer numbers.

ants yet again

Plus, they did the clump together so they float maneuver, and I’ve never liked the way that one looks. So I shut my bathroom door and tried to ignore it. Periodically checking back, I saw the situation at its worst, but assumed that I had forced an evacuation, as they were moving their eggs or larvae or little white somethings away. My success was short lived. Checking back later, I noticed that their numbers, while dwindling, were frantically moving the eggs BACK into my wall. I let it settle down some more and as I was going to go ahead and take a (cold) shower, I saw this:

And zooming in for effect:

I do not know what this is. Nor do I know how it got into my bathroom. I do know that I admitted defeat. I shut the door, sprayed some OFF on the door frame and curled up on my bed, hoping that nothing would eat me alive. I called Rebecca, my Bangkok roommie, and Andy, the researcher. And then, with no more baht on my phone, I tried to sleep.

This morning he was gone. Don’t know if this is a comforting thought or not. Hopefully, today will involve a trip into town so I can get to a store and a 7-11 to buy bug spray and comfort food.