February in Bordeaux

...So i'm a little backed up, but i'll see what I can tell you about February. 

February was generally calm. I went to class...Always. I maintained my friendships in France with regular outings and out of school events, I took part in a fancy Valentine's day dinner with my other exchange friends, Sarah (another uOttawa) came to visit from Grenoble for two days...to be honest, its been too long ago so I don't remember that much.

My main memory of February was the cockroach infestation that took place in my building. It started at the beginning of the month and at first I did not mind their infrequent presence in my room. I would even be so kind as to pick them up and put them outside on the balcony. The situation worsened, however, and soon I was being flooded by these cockroaches from all the cracks in my room. I would return home and find them being very at home in my room. About a week and a half into their stay with me I caught one of them near my toothbrush and another one on my bed. After those incidents I became a lot less gentle with the cockroaches, some might even say violent. As they mostly come out when it was dark and when there was minimal movement in the room, I knew when to expect them. I would rush home after being out late, open my door slowly, turn on all the lights and squash them all with my shoe. 

Another strategy was that I would go to bed with my pocket flashlight, mostly because I was scared they were planning to mobilize against me. I would wake up in the middle of the night and very discreetly shine the light around the room looking for them, eliminating the late night snoopers. 

After two weeks I thought I was winning the battle with these critters as there were less of them and the ones that remained were the smaller ones. Out of a hint of nostalgia for their departure I decided to ease up on the few remaining cockroaches. In hindsight I realize that this a personal moment of weakness and a huge mistake. They came back in greater number and size. 

By this point I had become mildly obsessed with the cockroaches. I would talk about it with all my friends and in class plot different strategies against them. I would spend time on the computer researching methods to get rid of them. Then one day I came back to my residence to find a sign warning the building of an extermination that was to take place almost two weeks later. I was both glad and upset. I mean at least administration had taken notice, but two weeks was a long time to wait. This was around the same time as I became convinced that there was a rat living in my wall who would eat elaborate six course meals in the middle of the night. 

My neighbour cracked before me. One day I came back to my room to find him treating his entire room to a powerful anti-cockroach repellant. Toxic stuff. For me this was a last resort, but figured it was time. I used the spray conservatively, which brought results, but was poisoning me as much as the cockroaches...the trade off seemed worth it at the time. Eventually the extermination happened and I left for two weeks during the break. I have just gotten back, but have yet to see a living cockroach in my room. I suspect that they may be regrouping in a safe zone. 

That was what I remember the most about february.