Flashback - Wounded Gecko
The summer between my freshman and sophomore years in college my parents moved back to Japan. Okinawa to be exact. I went with them.
It was a typhoony summer. How many typhoons were there, maybe 4? 5? I don't quite remember, but it was a lot!
A typhoon seems like it would be really scary right? The first one kind of is, but after that you realize *the houses are made of solid cinder block and the wind can blow as much as it wants, that house ain't going anywhere.
Then you learn when the eye of the storm passes you can go outside and experience the weirdest calm ever. It's silent, gray and still, but the air is thick and heavy and your body just senses something is off. Sometimes you can see the storm blowing in the horizon. That's fun.
After a time or two of braving the eye, you realize that as the wind starts to pick up it is pretty fun to see how far you can lean into the wind without falling over, before your mom forces you to come back into the house, so you'll have the faint hope of graduating from college. Those few moments of wind weightlessness are pretty crazy. (Not that I would know, girls, I have only done completely safe things in my life. Hear me? Completely. Safe. Riiight.)
After all the newness and thrill wears off, typhoons get really, really boring. You are basically stuck in the cinder block box for several days, with no electricity and nothing to do. And you have to be careful not to open the fridge too often or your food will spoil.
Its is during these moments that you are forced to look for a creative outlet for your energy, after all a person can only play so much Scrabble before the thrill is lost. Sorry Scrabble people, its true.
During one of these storms I decided to write a book called Home Surgery and 101 other things to do on an Okinawan Rainy Day. A compilation of our crazy time killing ideas.
Suffice to say, the book never got written, but we did come up with quite a few awesome ideas, including this little ditty:
#57 Wounded Gecko.
That would be my brother Scott, his head wrapped in an ace bandage and green swimming goggles.
Playing wounded gecko includes mimicking the suction like movements of a gecko as it crawls along the floor and walls, making those crazy little gecko sounds and just generally harassing other members of the family until the storm is over.
Typhoon hilarity.
P.S. There are a lot of geckos in Okinawa. They live in your house and there's not a single thing you can do about it, except keep your mouth closed when you sleep. Ewww.
It was a typhoony summer. How many typhoons were there, maybe 4? 5? I don't quite remember, but it was a lot!
A typhoon seems like it would be really scary right? The first one kind of is, but after that you realize *the houses are made of solid cinder block and the wind can blow as much as it wants, that house ain't going anywhere.
Then you learn when the eye of the storm passes you can go outside and experience the weirdest calm ever. It's silent, gray and still, but the air is thick and heavy and your body just senses something is off. Sometimes you can see the storm blowing in the horizon. That's fun.
After a time or two of braving the eye, you realize that as the wind starts to pick up it is pretty fun to see how far you can lean into the wind without falling over, before your mom forces you to come back into the house, so you'll have the faint hope of graduating from college. Those few moments of wind weightlessness are pretty crazy. (Not that I would know, girls, I have only done completely safe things in my life. Hear me? Completely. Safe. Riiight.)
After all the newness and thrill wears off, typhoons get really, really boring. You are basically stuck in the cinder block box for several days, with no electricity and nothing to do. And you have to be careful not to open the fridge too often or your food will spoil.
Its is during these moments that you are forced to look for a creative outlet for your energy, after all a person can only play so much Scrabble before the thrill is lost. Sorry Scrabble people, its true.
During one of these storms I decided to write a book called Home Surgery and 101 other things to do on an Okinawan Rainy Day. A compilation of our crazy time killing ideas.
Suffice to say, the book never got written, but we did come up with quite a few awesome ideas, including this little ditty:
#57 Wounded Gecko.
That would be my brother Scott, his head wrapped in an ace bandage and green swimming goggles.
Playing wounded gecko includes mimicking the suction like movements of a gecko as it crawls along the floor and walls, making those crazy little gecko sounds and just generally harassing other members of the family until the storm is over.
Typhoon hilarity.
P.S. There are a lot of geckos in Okinawa. They live in your house and there's not a single thing you can do about it, except keep your mouth closed when you sleep. Ewww.
Comments