Tropical living

Here we are, living in the tropics. This whole adventure still sometimes just feels like a really long, sometimes horrible, vacation and I think the palm trees, hot days and frequent thunderstorms contribute to the feeling that this is not really home. It may take a while to sink in that we are now tropical people.

While I shudder to put it in print, we now have experience with another aspect of tropical living: chihuahua-sized cockroaches. Living with us.

So far, I have only seen them between 5 and 6am when I am up with Emerson, and the same is true of Eric. I now refer to that as "Roach o'clock" or sometimes "The Cockroach Hour" which is funny to me because it sounds like a news show put on by cockroaches. I think the headlines would focus on pieces of food Emerson hides around the apartment and when someone forgets to run the garbage disposal before bed.

The funniest part about the cockroach encounters for me was how delighted Emerson was to see them. In his mind, these are just like the lizards he is fascinated by outdoors, but they run around on our kitchen counter and are as big as his hands. He loves them. They should clearly be welcomed, not shunned, and he got really agitated when I tried to trap one to put outside (ridiculous, I know, but I don't have the stomach to try to squish these things - waaaay too much crunching given how big they are).

Other than that this rental condo continues to be good enough for now. Sure, there are holes in the towels and the small bed Eric and I share is really more of a trampoline than a mattress: when he rolls over, I get three feet of air. But I just keep reminding myself that our bed will be here soon (probably). The home inspection of the place we have under contract is tomorrow, so I guess we will know more after that.