Mesquite? Is that made from Mosquitos?

The other day I was in my room, on my computer when all of a sudden I saw a mosquito fly in front of my face. Mosquitos are my 2nd most hated insects. I hate them a little bit more than flies and a little bit less than ticks. I especially hate mosquitos in my room because they always end up having a feast while I sleep and I think I must be slightly allergic to them because their bites usually turn into welts on my skin. So, needless to say, I dropped everything I was doing so that I could engage her in a fight to the death. (Yes, her. For anyone who doesn't know, only female mosquitos suck blood.) I think if anyone had walked into my room at that moment they would have felt puzzlement that would have bordered on alarm. I was frozen in an attack position, waiting for her to fly into my sight. She came into sight a few times which resulted in futile attacks on my part. Then she made a terrible decision and flew over to my wall which is white and made her stand out a lot. I grabbed a notepad and flung it at her and that ended up finishing her off. The crazy thing was that as hard as I hit her with the notepad, her body remained in-tact. Spanish mosquitos are made of steel I think. Anyway, here's a picture of her:

Her stripes are pretty beastly. I think it means she's a tiger-mosquito.

Other big news: I have officially infiltrated the sticker-trade at my school. Stickers are extremely popular here and pretty much every kid has an album. They are very serious about making trades. If someone gives you a tiny little sticker, you aren't going to be giving them your favorite 3-D Hannah Montana sticker. It just doesn't work that way. So they began giving me stickers here and there before and after class and I just started putting them in my agenda book:

That's just the first page. I have at least 2 more pages so far. I'm pretty fond of Sandy Cheeks at the top of the page there. It would take a pretty hefty offer to make me part with her. Last week I actually bought some nice Spongebob and High School Musical stickers to put into circulation. It was a horrible idea. I actually made one of the teachers mad because the kids were becoming too distracted. Oops. Next time I have to make them a prize for good behavior or something.

On a more serious note, I had a nice moment yesterday. I've been here long enough now that there's really no excuse for the fact that I have slacked on getting into the bible. I've joined a bible study through this international church that I go to now, but it doesn't really replace the time that I have one-on-one with God. My bible was still in my bag from bible study so during my break I decided to shut myself into the little classroom they give me and just read. I was really enjoying reading through the parables and stories in Mark. I think the story of James and John asking Jesus to sit at his side in Glory is hilarious (Mark 10:35-45). I think one of them must have pulled the other aside and been like "Listen man, we need to get dibs on the places next to the throne. I'm asking you because I like you and you have sweet sandals that you let me borrow that time that mine were giving me a bad blister." Then Jesus basically says, "Guys, do you honestly think that is a first-come, first-serve kinda thing? Those spots are reserved." But what really makes me laugh is that it says "when the ten heard about this, they became indignant with James and John." I imagine that to be the most awkward moment ever. "Umm.. James? John? Did you guys seriously just try and ask to sit to the right and left of Jesus? What the hell? What happened to our 12 best friends agreement?"

Ok, so that's my dumb interpretation of that story, but in my mind it was really funny. It was one of those moments where the bible was making a lot of sense to me and I had a hard time putting it down yesterday.

Ok, it's 3:15 on Saturday and I haven't done anything.

35 days until I come home!

-Josh