Sea Urchin

One night, while walking back to our room after dinner I spotted a crazy looking rodent running into the garden. Naturally, I yelled at  Kees, “Oh my gosh! You have to come here RIGHT now! What is that?!”

 

 “It’s a rat.”

 

“There is no way that is a rat! Look how slow it’s going.”

 

And also the fact every rat would dodge into the bushes and disappear in a shot but this little clumsy shadow was out in the open “attempting” escape.

 

We managed to corner it and get a good glimpse with the light of our phone.

 

He really looked like a mix between an anteater and hedgehog with his long nose and prickly back.

 

On our way back to the room afterwards, we bumped into a couple staff guys and told them our spectacular story of this prickly rodent thing we'd discovered…. Only to find out they see them all the time. Hhaha, I just love that I am on the other side of things. When I was young we grew up with all kinds of different cultures in our home. We use to laugh when the homestay students from Asia, Europe or South America would jump up and down if they’d see a raccoon and run out with their cameras. The same reaction occured when sighting squirrels,  bears, or skunks. I love that it’s my turn to be that excited about something which for some are as normal as squirrels and even considered a pest. It made Kees remember the first time he ever saw a gecko. He practically flipped his homestay’s house upside down to find it, jumping up and down all the while, telling them they wouldn’t believe but there was a GECKO in their house. This is one of many reasons why people love to travel. Like Kees says, “lions are great but if you can’t appreciate

the small things….”

 

Speaking of spikey creatures, did you know you can eat sea urchin? I didn’t. Sounds gross right? Well it is. There’s hardly anything to eat,just strips of gooey slime from the inside shell. I could never figure out why some nights they’d have a whole table piled with those prickly monsters but I can’t object to what one of my twitter friends said lately, “Would be good revenge for the number of times

I've had to pull an urchin spine out of my foot!” (@zzelladonatella) Perhaps it is all purely revenge-based? But maybe it's actually the urchin  that gets the last laugh while our stomachs turn…as we have to eat their  fishy, sandy goo.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And while I’m talking about sea food, which I never thought I was a seafood kind of gal, despite my unconditional love for sushi, I tried lobster for my first time EVER. Only five words, Can I have some more? WOW, what a delicious beast. Why did it take me so long to discover this one? Or perhaps it was a sihpromatum (sip-row-may-tum) because it saved me years of huge bills. If it hadn’t cost 50 euro a piece, I would have had it twice a day. I must admit I was surprised that I loved it, but also how small the actual edible part is. That whole animal, living in a tank and going in the pot JUST so I can eat that little bit of tail? Isn’t it a bit of an unfair world? Do you ever wonder why people have less affection and sympathy for water creatures? Is it because they don’t hear their pain? Or because we don’t see their facial expressions? Oh well, I guess it doesn’t matter because I will eat every lobster I come across from now on. I’m a mean, lean, lobster eating machine.

 

Savannah Grace

Check out video of spiked rodent here on FB page

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=480264092042248