Funny Story Friday #5

Growing up, we frequently had foreign exchange students live with us for the school year. My mom was an AFS coordinator which entailed lots of tasks including finding homes for students, hence we often had a student living with us. We had visitors from Chile, Argentina, several from Japan and Russia. It was a great experience.

One of my high school years, we had a girl from Japan named Yuki. My friend Tanya and I took her tubing down the Ottertail River in MN, land of 10,000 lakes. Outdoor past times were new to our foreign friend. She was raised in a boarding school and lived her life between the pages of books. She was very nervous, but we reassured her it would be fun, an adventure.

I will jump to the end by saying Yuki had a great time overall. If it hadn't been for that leech I would gander to guess she would be up to going again. However, towards the end of the gentle winding river ride, I spotted a leech on Yuki's back. I am a total sissy pants when it comes to leeches. I love animals, but have no affinity to those that suck blood. I pointed it out to Tanya and we both shivered and silently squealed. We got to a place where we could easily jump off and rest on the side. I told Yuki there was something on her back and that we needed to brush it off. She freaked. Language barrier kicked into overdrive and she wanted to know what it was. I had no idea how to describe a leech, hind site this is painfully obvious. I told her a leech was like a small water snake and it was on her back. She lost it. My friend, with gaping mouth, looked at me in horror unable to comprehend my complete moronic explanation. We grabbed a t-shirt and chased her down, eventually rubbing it off. We showed it to her on the ground and she calmed down half a notch. After this episode, we all just wanted off the river. Poor girl, in an instant she may have been forever ruined for nature experiences.