Carol Bontekoe

This blog has been keeping track of my adventures since 2004. The stories and the adventures have come from my college dorm room to Uganda, Peace Corps Kyrgyzstan, learning Dutch in the Netherlands to living in the wilds of Homer, Alaska. I went back to school in Amsterdam to study Theaterwetenschap (Theatre Science) at University of Amsterdam. And now my adventures as a Fruit Fly, a Sexy Unicorn, and creating a movement with Team Sparkle in Chicago.

Tuesday, August 5, 2008

Let me know...

What do you know about ticks?
Cuz I don't know anything. But I got bit by like two bug lookingish things. and like they were like stuck to my leg tight and I ahd to pry them off and then where they bit wouldn't stop bleeding for a long time. I didn't think anything of it till I read ion a Lonely Planet there are lots of ticks ion Lithuania and that is where I got bit while walking near some woods.
so, ah let me know...

3 comments :

  1. Where_the_heck_is_the_guidebook? said...

    http://images.google.it/imgres?imgurl=http://www.unbc.ca/nlui/wildlife_diseases_bc/ticks.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.unbc.ca/nlui/wildlife_diseases_bc/winter_tick.htm&h=520&w=788&sz=89&tbnid=3W82yj6_W9uPwM:&tbnh=94&tbnw=143&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dticks%26um%3D1&start=3&sa=X&oi=images&ct=image&cd=3

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tick

    http://kidshealth.org/PageManager.jsp?lic=1&article_set=36502&cat_id=20221

    http://chppm-www.apgea.army.mil/documents/FACT/Tick_Removal-April_2006.pdf

    Hey Carol,
    How are you? =) Been reading your blog and watching for updates. Sounds like a sweet trip. Not that it's going perfectly but I feel like that's why you would take it, for the adventure and craziness. I wish I could be there with you actually.

    At the moment I'm in Rome, as I left the family almost two weeks ago. Good riddance. The situation was quickly getting out of control, as the oldest boy was turning into the kid from hell and the mom wasn't around enough to do much nor did she seem to be addressing it in a way that would solve things, or at least make it so that I could take care of him.

    I could write a novel about it, but I'll just say it took a lot for me to say "This isn't working." I had searched online for 4 months for a family (and changed families 3 times when things didn't work out, like they moved to different country, etc.), and I ran around like crazy getting things ready to be with this family and had planned on staying with them for a year, so I don't feel like I gave up because things got hard or I just chose to be an aupair on a whim or have other plans going on (the mom seemed to think I was a wimp or had some other plans in the works, neither of which were true- I wanted to shake her and say "look lady, i've got no where to go but i'm leaving anyways bc your son's such a little shit, and you're the one who lets him be be that way!).

    By the grace of God I found an apartment in Rome quickly and was able to get all my crap here. Now I'm looking for a job and going to take my classes in September. That was the reason I stayed in Italy, the classes. I didn't earn anything the first 4 weeks in cash bc the mom payed for a month of classes in advance (so I "earned" my classes that month), and I really wanted to take them and maybe salvage the trip in some fashion. Finding a job is hard though, but I'm going to keep looking. Not what I had planned on but I'm going with the flow.

    I love catching up with your bike adventure, really I can't say how much I look forward to hearing about how you're doing and hoping that you're ok and things are going well (as well as they can be, right?). Now that I have reliable internet access I'm always checking for updates. Maybe one of these days when you come home or I make it back to Europe we can sit down and talk for a long while because I know there's so much that isn't written in your blog about your bike trip and your stay in Holland as an aupair. So plan on hanging out with me and talking for a long time the next time we're in close proximity to each other. =)

    Take care, and don't worry about getting back with me until you have the time. Really, just know that I'm keeping up with your adventure and know how crazy it is to try to reply to people in the midst of craziness (I'm not even caught up replying to everyone, sheesh!). Love you and am praying for and thinking of you!!!!! Ems

  2. Karen said...

    Carol,

    Here is some information on tick bites. This is the best website I know off and as a Medical Librarian...

    http://vsearch.nlm.nih.gov/vivisimo/cgi-bin/query-meta?v%3Aproject=medlineplus&query=tick+bites

    Hope this helps, Karen

  3. Anonymous said...

    so i take it you figured out what to do?

    did you ever see the episode of house about the teenage girl who had had a heart transplant so her mom was really overprotective. but then the girl's bf snuck in through the window and the girl got a tick in her vagina? totally gross, but a great episode :P