The Cockroach Saga

Note: This week was awesome and I will write a blogpost about the awesomeness tomorrow or Monday. For now...


I knew I would encounter cockroaches during my stay in Costa Rica. I had been prepared. One of my roommates had already dealt with 2 or 3 in her bathroom. I had a fool-proof plan set up in my head-once I saw a cockroach, I would immediately yell to one of my roommates to come and take care of it since they are much braver than I. But OF COURSE my first Costa Rican cucaracha event occurred when both Brittney and Charlie were away in Punteranes for the night:

It was a normal Saturday night/Sunday morning. At about 3am, I had returned from a fun night out with my friends from USAC and some new Tico friends. Just before I went to go wash my face and go to sleep, I saw it out of the corner of my eye, crawling from under my chair and toward my bathroom. I didn't know what to do...it was 3am, my roommates weren't home, and no one I know lives near me. So I called Miguel.

With my eye never leaving el cucaracha, I explained amidst my sporadic screaming to my good Tico friend Miguel that there was a cockroach in my room and there was absolutely no way that I was going to be able to go to sleep until someone (and absolutely 100% NOT ME) took care of it. I knew Miguel would come even though he was 20 minutes away because he is a very nice guy and also because he tried to kiss me earlier that night before I explained that we were only just bffs.

While waiting for Miguel to arrive, I starting talking to Emily online because she just landed in Copenhagen. This distracted me and I lost sight of la cucaracha. I knew it was in the bathroom so I assumed that since I couldn't see it anywhere else that it had crawled down the drain, and so I drowned it with the shower water. Assuming my work was done, I called Miguel, who was like 5 blocks from my house, to tell him not to come anymore and that I was just going to go to sleep. I felt (and feel) so terrible because he drove out all this way for nothing and I think he secretly thought that there was no cockroach and I just wanted to see him but he was wrong and all I wanted to do was sleep without fear of la cucaracha and he sounded really sad and angry at me =(

Mad at myself for making Miguel, the nicest boy ever, angry at me, I finally went to wash my face. After washing my face, I went to pull my moisturizer out of my makeup bag when OMGHOLYCRAP THE COCKROACH WAS IN MY MAKEUP BAG (side note-how in THE WORLD did the cockroach climb up my toilet and into my makeup bag................I want to throw up just thinking about it).

I then had to devise a plan. With Miguel out of the picture, it was all up to me. So this is what I did-it was brilliant.

1) I grabbed the trashcan bin from my room
2) I reallyreallyquickly threw my makeup bag (containing the cockroach) into the bin
3) I put the lid on the bin
4) I ran with the bin outside onto my street
5) I poured all the contents of the bin onto the sidewalk in front of my house
6) The cockroach ran out from the contents of the makeup bag and I captured it with the bin
7) I took all of my makeup and stuff and put it back in the bag

The bin is still sitting on top of the cockroach. I have friends coming to watch the Ravens game tomorrow so I am going to leave it to them....

I know this will not be my last cockroach experience, but you better believe I am not letting Charlie and Brittney leave me alone ever again!





Again-----I am having an absolutely amazing time and have had the best week/weekend ever, and I will update everyone on this past week ASAP

Pura Vida!
Rachel