Would you dare live with "cucaracha"?

Some unwanted flatmates!

Hello again! It has been a while since writing the last article. The reason is that I have been living some extra Guatemalan adventures – I climbed a volcano where I could stand approximately two metres far from flowing lava (which was an incredible experience). Next, I went to a jungle where I even spent a night. I would love to share stories about this trip, but today, I am going to tell you another part from the “Erasmus Accommodation Series”. Just imagine, when I spent the night in the jungle last week, I was surrounded by many and many animals. Well, it reminded me a bit about my unwanted flatmates in Spain as well as in Madeira! Do you know what a cockroach is?

Cockroach, oh, cockroach – what is that?

Well, I am sure you have heard of a cockroach at least once in your life, no matter where you live. In some countries, it is quite a common thing to walk in streets right next to some of these beetles. It is also quite “normal” to have them in a house. I am not saying that it is a pleasant thing (although some people love beetles, insect in general, lizards...) to share accommodations with them, so it make sense that people try to get rid of them, but it might take such a long, seriously long, time!

Picture: You might find many of cockroaches even in clean streets.

At the moment, I know how to say the word of this animal in four languages! Cockroach in English – I have been sharing a flat with some English native speakers (and we had cockroaches in the flat every single day). So you understand why it was desperately needed to know this word in English.

Cucaracha in Spanish – that is the place where I was sharing the flat and my room with this kind of insect. When you want to live without them, you need to know how to ask Spaniards for a piece of advice about how to get rid of “cucarachas”.

Barata in Portuguese – because even there I had the less pleasant chance to share  accommodation with them and invite them for a date.

Šváb in Czech – which is my native language and when I wanted to share stories about my unwanted beetle flatmates with my family that speaks Czech (obviously), I used this word.

Our very first meeting

So it was in summer 2018 that I decided to go to Spain to work in a summer camp. All employees were offered accommodation in different flats. I was living in a quite nice flat where I had a room for myself. However, there was no fresh air in that room because there was just a tiny window which was not even facing a park or a street, just a patio.

Anyway, the camp (and so our flat as well) was situated in a small town of the eastern coastline of Spain. Very close to Calpe or Benidorm (or between Valencia and Alicante, if you know Spain a bit). So you can imagine that the weather was super hot there and cockroaches love it, as it seemed.

Picture: The town was small but really nice - always decorated.

We were in a flat which is usually rent just during summers. And so, first it seemed all right, but once our flatmate came and informed us that he found a cockroach. I meant, it was not that bad at the beginning – it was just a small beetle. Although, do not imagine it the same size that a fly is. It can be even three or four centimetres long. Some kinds can even fly, some not. They usually do not do anything, but people associate them with some dirty places and infections. So when you actually see them, you do not wish to spend nights with them – they are active mostly during evenings.

Let us move forward a bit. Days were passing by, we were working in a very hot weather, there were some huge and extremely loud celebrations in the streets, so we could not get a proper sleep for maybe seven days. Then we got home and found another cockroach. We got an impression, that there must have been more of them, they even had to have a nest somewhere in our flat, probably.

So, after a night when we opened a door connecting a hall with a kitchen where we stocked all our food and seeing some of them running on the floor and cupboards, we knew we had to solve the situation. That evening we just closed the door quickly and went to sleep a bit hungry.

Picture: Cockroaches get active especially in the evenings. So when we got home late, there was a huge possibility of seeing one.

There is a cockroach, there is no party!

Does your mum not want you to go partying? She should use a cockroach. At least, a cockroach stopped me from partying one evening.

How did it happen? Well, the whole summer camp team decided to go outside on one day-off night. Of course, we were at home and later on we had a meeting point. I was about to leave the house a little bit later. So when I was ready to go, I opened the door of my room and went into the hall. Oh no! What did I find just in front of my room?!? Yes, you cannot get anyhow closer with your guess. There was another cockroach!

It got into my room some days before that night and believe me that I did not wish (not even a tiny bit) to have it there again. Moreover, I just did not feel like passing it. Our hall was really narrow  and sometimes the cockroaches get so confused that they do not recognise at all, they are running towards you! It is simply crazy.

So what was my reaction when I saw it on the floor? I turned back as quickly as I only could, run to my room, closed the door and as there was a small gap between the floor and my door, I made a barrier. So I put some cloths and a rug there. Moreover, just to be sure I would not sleep with a cockroach walking in my room the whole night, I put my suitcase on top of the cloths and rugs.

Then I just put my pyjama on, texted my flatmates that there is another unwanted flatmate in our flat and went to sleep.

Let us have a party with some cockroaches instead!

So you might wonder whether I am such a milksop and let the whole party stay behind just because of the small beetle. It is not that I would be scared, it is just that it I do not want it to touch it. You might laugh and think whatever, but I really remember how I felt while living with them.

Imagine that you wash your clothes and towels and bed linens and I do not know what else, you leave it so it can get dry and when it is ready to be picked up and put into your wardrobe, you find another cockroach sitting on your freshly washed towel, ayay.

Picture: Shall I hang my clothes this high next time?

But now, let us get back to the party night. So as I have described above, I had spent that evening at home. I woke up easily when my flatmates came back home and started screaming. I got outside of the room and went to talk to them to realise what was going on. Oh no, again! There was my flatmate checking her room. She saw not one, but two cockroaches in her room! She was sure they got under the wardrobe. How would it be even possible? There was almost no space under it. But she could not change her mind. Moreover, she did not want to share her room with them though the whole rest of the evening. Well, I understood it completely.

One of our flatmates took it easy – he just wished we would stop screaming and yelling – he went to sleep. But luckily, there were still four of us – three girls, one guy. So we got some objects and a spray ready, moved the wardrobe forward, but could not see anything. We got confused – was it not under the wardrobe but inside? After all, we decided to pick the wardrobe up. There they were! And starting running away... Well, to cut the story, our flatmate finally went to sleep, knowing that there are no cockroaches in her room. Or at least those which she saw before.

Living without our unwanted animal flatmates finally?

Oh no, again and again. We got to a point when we were “meeting” at least two new cockroaches every day. So do not worry, more stories are coming. Stories which I laugh about a lot now. However, it is true that I was happy heading back home after that summer knowing that I will be able to enter my room, a kitchen, a bathroom without checking it first.

And who do I share my life with at the moment? I am writing this article in Guatemala where I share accommodation with some mini beetles that run in everything made of wood. So I receive a present of black points fallen on my desk, bed, chair, shoes... But I am getting used to it slowly.

That is all for today, but I will tell you how a cockroach/cucaracha/barata/šváb got finally on my body. Do not worry, it is quite funny now.