Held Hostage

I was at Burger King yesterday with 2 of my American friends and in an almost empty restaurant this young Chinese guy comes and sits right behind us. I assumed he was hoping to practice his English by listening in on the foreigners’ conversation. Well I hope he learned his lesson. The conversation quickly turned to our shared battle with cock roaches. The king of all roaches has held my bathroom hostage for the last 3 days. I woke up in the middle of the night to use the bathroom the other day and thought I saw something but ignored it in my half-asleep daze. The next morning this monster roach was fearless and didn’t even try to hide when I flicked the lights off and on. I slammed the door and tried to pretend it wasn’t real. I literally opened a new toothbrush and brushed my teeth in the kitchen. It wasn’t until that night that I got the courage to face him again. Armed with a tennis shoe in both hands, I took a deep breath and went in swinging. The first throw was a miss but the second shoe was a direct hit! This monster wasn’t even phased by my weak attempt to kill him and climbed up half-hidden right on top of the cockroach poison thing. He was either too big to get inside to eat the poison or the trap was too old. The next day I stepped on the shoes hoping to crush him if he was hiding inside, my shoes were soaking wet. That’s when I realized my toilet leaks, yuck! He continues to taunt and terrify me. Yesterday I devoted my entire teacher’s day gift card to bug killers and traps. I have become the monster! My friend’s apartment seems worse. She has tons and baby roaches everywhere! We decided 20 of the little ones equal the size of my monster roach. But they can hide so much better. She says she will move a shirt off the chair and scurry scurry scurry! Get a dish in the kitchen scurry scurry! But she is fearless. They are impossible to kill because they are so little and quick. She thinks she would prefer my monster because at least he is the only one, although I am sure he has friends that are just better at hiding…. Rats are another story, there is no pretending you didn’t see it or ignoring one on the other side of the door, I would 100% die if I saw a rat in my apartment. One girl told the story of sitting at a restaurant across the street and a rat crawled over her feet under the table! She said her and her friend screamed a little but continued eating. Later that same night the cook had a basket with the compost pile where he was putting scraps as he cleared the table. As he opened the lid she saw a HUGE rat hop out of the basket and run into the kitchen. She said it took her 3 months before she went back to that restaurant. HOW! How could you ever go back?!? I would be scarred for life! Her response, “the food was still good, and hey it was cheap!” Last year in longhua there were always rats in the bushes behind the bus stop where I waited for the bus home. I would freak out and cling to my friend for protection. While the Chinese people seemed not to care at all and the children pointed and tried to catch them! At least this was outside and not inside my favorite restaurant. Oh the other scary part about my apartment is that the stairs and hallway are pitch black. They have motion censored lights, but you have to walk for what seems like ages for them the to trigger. One night I literally had to give myself a pep talk before turning the dark corner lighted only by my cell phone glow. I swear I saw some animal run out of my neighbor’s and into the school kitchen across the hall. It was either a HUGE rat or a stray cat. Either way I freaked out and odds are I ate it at lunch the next day. All the time we are exchanging these stories never once did it slow us down from devouring the Burger King deliciousness. So maybe living in China has desensitized me too. I sure hope that boy enjoyed his English lesson!