G'Day

mimstrel

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Hello Aussies

Just thought I'd say hi because I miss you all. I did a semester abroad at the University of the Sunshine Coast almost six years ago.

One of my flatmates was an American girl. My introduction to her was hearing a bloodcurdling scream from her room... I ran over. There was a bug (you know, one of those giant cockroach things) on her bathroom ceiling and she started screaming for me to kill it. When I pointed out that I couldn't reach it but it was completely harmless, the hysterics really started.

She wasn't a fan of me using one of her towels to knock it off the ceiling, either.

When we had a repeat performance a week later over a house gecko (except I didn't hit it with a towel, I really like geckos), I thought maybe we should ship her back to the US. Clearly she was unequipped to deal with Australia.
And that was before the German came home with a video of an eastern brown snake crossing the path to the university.
 

franky_s

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Geckos are cute. Those cockroach things are horrible - I kill them with whatever aerosol I can get to first.

How did she handle the huntsmen? :D
 

Albedo

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Hello Aussies

Just thought I'd say hi because I miss you all. I did a semester abroad at the University of the Sunshine Coast almost six years ago.

One of my flatmates was an American girl. My introduction to her was hearing a bloodcurdling scream from her room... I ran over. There was a bug (you know, one of those giant cockroach things) on her bathroom ceiling and she started screaming for me to kill it. When I pointed out that I couldn't reach it but it was completely harmless, the hysterics really started.

She wasn't a fan of me using one of her towels to knock it off the ceiling, either.

When we had a repeat performance a week later over a house gecko (except I didn't hit it with a towel, I really like geckos), I thought maybe we should ship her back to the US. Clearly she was unequipped to deal with Australia.
And that was before the German came home with a video of an eastern brown snake crossing the path to the university.

Man, who gets scared of a gecko? Who even has anything but an AWWWW response to one? That just ain't normal. (Apologies to any AWers with gekkotaphobia, but unless you suffered some sort of major gecko-related trauma, the issue is with you, not the gecko.)
 

mimstrel

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How did she handle the huntsmen? :D
She wasn't a fan, but the standout there was my friend who was arachnophobic. He was helping another friend clean her kitchen and they found a dead huntsman. Her (Australian) roommate put it in a jar and carried it around to freak him out... he started getting used to it and then the roommate switched it out with a live one. So mean, and yet... hilarious. (Even Josh was able to laugh about it after the fact. He had to admit that Australia was maybe not the best choice for where to go if you're afraid of spiders.)

Man, who gets scared of a gecko? Who even has anything but an AWWWW response to one? That just ain't normal.
I know, right? They're super adorable. But, then again, I'm a biologist. I find all kinds of strange things cute. So I can't always assume that just because I think something is great, everyone will agree with me.

beauty.png
 

Albedo

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I know, right? They're super adorable. But, then again, I'm a biologist. I find all kinds of strange things cute. So I can't always assume that just because I think something is great, everyone will agree with me.

beauty.png
Heh.

I know what you mean about finding unusual things cute, I have positive responses to things that freak others out all the time. Jumping spiders, giant isopods. But geckos are classically cute! Baby animal-cute. Big eyes, goofy grins on their tiny faces, comically exaggerated proportions:

article-0-186D4EDA000005DC-969_634x669.jpg

I CAN TASTE MY EYEBALLS

Freaking about a gecko is like freaking out over, I dunno, a spider monkey or something.
 

mimstrel

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Hey, I freaked out the first time I saw a spider monkey in the wild.

...oh, you meant bad freak out, not quasi-fangirling. ;)

I sort-of freaked out about the geckos at the university (in Illinois) where I did my graduate studies. I didn't know that they have a "wild" indoor gecko colony that exists mostly to control the escapees from the cricket lab, and I seriously thought I was going crazy because I kept seeing lizards out of the corners of my eyes, but only when there wasn't anyone else around. But then it turned into a happy freak out when I realized that my university has pest-control geckos and how cool is that?