La Cucaracha

Pretend this was posted on August 26. The main events described in fact happened around 3am August 27, but that's neither here nor there: I didn't sleep that night, so it's still the 26th in my mind. Also, due to an all-around late night, combined with three days of different time zones, the day my blog is missing a post is the 26th. So, just bear with me. This is August 26.

As I mentioned briefly earlier, I spent this weekend getting to, preparing for, taking part in, and getting back from my brother Alex's wedding in the States. The first part of the journey took place on Friday, as (after a rather stressful Ikea trip and a visit to Karina's potential future apartment) Karina and I took High Speed Rail from Kaohsiung to Taipei, crossing the country from South to North in a dazzling hour and a half.

When we got there, we were met by Karina's friend Tom, who went to school with her and is now back in Taipei doing his year of mandatory military service. Then we went back to Tom's apartment--a great little studio the size of a private dorm room but much, much nicer--and basically just hung out for a while until Karina and Tom's other friend from college, Rosanna, met up with us.

The four of us hit up a night market--some, but not all, of which was still open at that point, since it was past midnight--and then went back to Tom's place. We then decided, essentially, not to sleep.

Which turned out to be a good thing, for herein begins the saga of the drama that night.

We found a cockroach. And I'm not talking about a little, guy; no, this cockroach was roughly half the size of my hand. And, as it turns out, neither Karina, Tom nor I can deal well with cockroaches. So our response was to stare it down for a long while, daring it to move from its hiding place behind the TV. Not all too effective for getting rid of him.

Eventually, Tom went down to 7-11 for bug spray. But even with the spray, it was a four-way dance of "Do you see him?" "He's under the support behind the TV." "Where are you seeing that? What do you see?" "I can see his antennae" "Are you sure it's not just the wiring?" "Yes, they just moved. Just spray in that little hole..." *the cockroach scurries to the other side of the TV* "Wait, he just moved again!"

And this little bugger was tough. We sprayed him behind the TV; we sprayed him behind the TV again; we sprayed him below the counter by the refrigerator where he hid next; we pulled out the refrigerator and sprayed him again. And again. And again. (And, of course, when I say 'we' in this, I really mean 'Tom'.) By the time his upside-down legs stopped moving (why oh WHY are cockroaches' leg so freakishly long?!?!) we had been at it for at least a half hour, and Tom's apartment was absolutely filled with spray, as if we were trying to exterminate ourselves in the process.

So we opened the window, turned on the fan, and evacuated the building.For an hour. At 2am.

We had fun; we grabbed drinks from the 7-11 and then hung out in a little park down the street, but we were all still jumpy; myself especially. Every little noise caught my full attention, in case we had another unwelcome visitor.

So we headed back to Tom's less-toxic apartment at around 3am, knowing full well that I would have to leave for the airport that morning by 6am at the latest. And we sprawled sideways across the bed and took a nap for the next day, since really, that was all we could have done at that point.

The next day Tom took me to the shuttle bus station and I set off for the States, sleep-deprived from the start.
So that was my Taipei adventure! I will need to go back sometime soon, when I don't have to catch a plane the next day and we don't find a cockroach and have to kill it and evacuate.

But it was fun for the first time. :)