The day began at 3 AM. The easy part of the day ended up being the actual travel itself, with a relatively seamless time at the the airport and on the flight. Upon arrival is when the "fun" began. Customs went very quickly; however, the downside is that I ended up having to wait an hour in a parking lot for my ride to arrive, at no fault of hers. It did give me the chance to truly appreciate the warm, Caribbean air, tall mountaintops and bay right in front of me. The weather was sunny, dry and about 82*F.
From the airport, we then needed to drive to the other side of the island, in traffic, in order to drop her off for me to take her car as a rental. By this point, I had nothing to eat or drink since 3 AM. To make matters worse, my original plan was to drive from the airport, directly to a grocery store in Philipsburg to go shopping prior to arriving at the apartment. Due to our drive to the French side, I had to go to a French supermarket. Needless to say, the French do not buy in bulk. So this translated to only being able to pick up a few goods and make the best with what I had.
Four hours after the airport, I finally arrived home. Unpacking ensued for hours, which included three large boxes plus carry-on. With the late hour and no desire to go out again for food, I tried to find delivery places, only to learn that Domino's was the only place open on a Wednesday night for delivery. Finally, almost twenty-four hours later, I was able to eat...or so I thought.
I had been looking forward, for weeks, to being able to enjoy eating dinner outside on the patio overlooking to ocean. However, within a few minutes of eating, I looked down and noticed a bug on the crust. For a second, I didn't think much of it. After putting my flashlight on it, I found, to my horror, it to be a giant cockroach sucking on the pizza. Needless to say, I had to write the pie off. So I grabbed something to knock the roach off the crust to throw out the pie. Well, the moment I moved to knock it off, it actually jumped onto the table and scurried off into the darkness. Every movie depicting roaches scurrying away into the darkness has been 100% accurate. They move like lightning. Few things will make one's skin crawl more than a giant, 5" cockroach scurrying away. To make matters worse, here, they fly.
So after a day of not eating, I was only able to eat one slice of pizza. Not wanting to encounter another "neighbor," I cleaned up the table and headed inside, only to find new "neighbors," that is, millipedes. Apparently, in the Caribbean, they are as common as ants up north, and, wow, did they show up in my living room that night. The rest of my night was then spent eliminating them, which meant that the next day would require a full bug-defense perimeter of the house. This was occurring in a clean, well-kept home. Needless to say, it was not the most sound sleep that night.
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