Vermin

Last week I found a frog in my bathtub and I have to say that was a new one for me. When you live in Florida, you get used to things that crawl and fly and usually bite. A little more nature indoors than you bargained for. Before I moved to America other Polish students have warned me of a cricket problem they had at the apartment I was set to take over. My advisor in Warsaw who convinced me to give this Gainesville program a go ten years ago warned me about cockroaches.  She was once a student here and when she had visited one of her professors a sight of a cockroach convinced her that he and his apartment must be very dirty. But Florida is not like Europe. Roaches are simply everywhere, big, fast, attracted to the light and some even fly. Often you don't even know they are around until they pop up dead somewhere on the floor. Bathrooms, kitchens, shops, apartments- they're impossible to get rid of. I see insects of different colors, shapes and sizes I have not seen anywhere else. A few years ago I've had an allergic reaction to something we've assumed bit me in the bushes in front of  the law school. My friend Dee later claimed that in the very same spot a caterpillar bit her a day later. Have I mentioned the squirrels? Another thing that became so overpopulated and familiar , that it barely reacts to people walking by. Love bug- an insect so much in love in fact that it pairs off and flies into everything inn its way, rumored to be an University of Florida invention to get rid of mosquitoes ,  an experiment gone horribly wrong and yes, the mosquitoes themselves buzzing around most season of the year. Two days ago I saw something I can only assume was a large wasp. But a stubborn frog was something completely different. My friend Verity asked me if she could take a quick shower  at my place after work last Wednesday. I remember her saying as she was leaving that she found a frog in my bathroom but that she flushed it away. I guess the frog had a different idea. I didn't give it much thought as I thought she meant one of the smaller, tree variety that I sometimes see outside. And for some reason I didn't notice it until the next day. In the  morning I noticed a commotion in the water stopper area. Something was either attempting to back out or get into the drain.At first I thought it was an insect- a roach or a silverfish, but I determined it was simply too big.  I turned on the water to flush it, but I think it was too big and simply got stuck. It seemed to drift under the water stopper with two of its limbs sticking out. I was afraid I would have to deal with it later, but quite frankly I don't like touching gross, slimy things. Luckily I had some friends giving me a ride home from a meeting later that night, so I just asked them for help. Turns out, the frog was simply too big to simply pull out, so they had to unscrew the stopper to get to it. Even then, it positioned itself all the way back and in the far corner, so it couldn't be reached. My friends noticed the unusual size and color- it was a well fed pastel yellow-orange frog that simply was too big for my tub drain. When my friends tried to touch it it just backed further. We knew it was still there because the water wasn't draining that fast. Then somebody had a great idea to scare it away with hot water. After that they switched to cold water for pressure. I guessed that worked and it  got flushed away into the sewer system, because after a while the water was draining as usual. That was my adventure. Florida- never a dull moment.