Danger

It is well known that it was Andrew's own fault when he chose to wear sandals and impale his foot on a piece of rebar this summer. After all, he saw the rusty metal sticking out of the crumbling sidewalk, aimed, and kicked. It was a perfect shot, that was Andrew's own fault, about 2 inches into his foot between the little piggy that had none and the little piggy that cried all the way home. Unlike the last little piggy, however, Andrew neither cried (though he almost passed out while receiving unanaesthasized medical care) nor was able to go home to the States for American-style treatment.

Oh well. He again walks, he runs, he gets kicked out of local coffee shops because he wears shorts. Business as usual once again. Other things that have happened to Andrew include: bee and scorpion stings in the same week; accidentally gulping down half a glass of home-brew vodka; accidentally seeing said vodka again; getting chest-bumped by an offended music store employee; subjection to angry dogs that chase him; and being kicked out then readmitted to his primary assignment.

We have both ended up in a marshutney (like a big van) that caught fire. Fortunately, most of the 20-odd passengers were already out of the vehicle, taking a smoke break, so they were able to put out the flames by throwing snowballs at the engine. Once the fire was out, we crossed our fingers, and continued our two-hour journey home.

In other near-explosions, our refrigerator shot craps recently. Didn't so much cool stuff as provide horizontal space for it. Our landlord put the fridge on its side, mucked around with the motor for awhile, got it running, put it on end again, then spied something on the floor.

Not knowing what the thing was (and still having no idea whatsoever), I commended his work and thanked him for getting the refrigerator running again. He shook his head, looking at the tiny silver ball he'd picked up.

"This is not good," he pronounced, in Armenian, among many words that I didn't quite understand. "This is not good at all because | | | | | | | | and the refrigerator could explode and | | | | | | |"

Alarmed, I went to bed and slept soundly.