Vacation, Heat, and.....Bugs?

Just yesterday, I came back from Palm Springs, my family's vacation destination this summer.  Once we decided where we were going to be staying at months ago, I literally thought there was no way that I was going to be able to wait until July 2nd, the day we were going to leave.  And what a gorgeous place this vacation home was!  There was a huge, modern-looking pool in the backyard, 4 large and cozy bedrooms scattered around the home, and a regal fountain that drew all eyes to it in the front yard.  The place seemed absolutely perfect to me...until we found our first cockroach that night.  I was sprawled out on the couch after a long day of swimming and drinking soda and eating delicious vanilla-covered pretzels, when I heard a big thud.  I ran into the master bedroom where my dad was standing, and cringed at the thought that I might find something I would rather never know about.  My parents picked up on my hesitance and told me to back to the family room, and I happily obeyed.  But then my mind's curiousity got to me and I kept thinking that I would go to sleep better if I knew what the creature was, instead of dreaming up something bigger, scarier, and well, disgustinger (I know, it's not a word, but can you just go along with it?  I like the way the three words go together so smoothly.)  So I asked my parents what was in their bedroom and came away knowing that cockroaches were inhabiting the same gorgeous 60 year old house as me and my family.  I never would have guessed that I (a bug-hater) would even be able to sleep a minute that night in my own bedroom, but surprisingly I did.  And the next day, I woke up feeling refreshed after my sleep, and at ease about the cockroach incident, telling myself that we won't find any others, that it was just a fluke.  But sadly, I was wrong.  That day we found more cockroaches, the day after a millipede, and the day after that, several insect bites along our hands, legs, and arms.  Yay for us.  Finally, after five days of what seemed to me like camping (even though we were supposed to be living in a comfortable and sanitary house), the day for us to leave Palm Springs and go back home came.  On typical vacations, I am extremely melancholy about the departure of our new place (the Palm Springs house), and the arrival of our old place (my real house).  But this time, I was relieved to go back to a clean, bug-free zone.  I wanted to kiss the tile ground inside my home, and hug the white walls.  I prayed I would never see a cockroach again, and hopefully that's true.

Before this vacation, I had never seen a cockroach in real life.  But because I was so comfortable with them after, I could think of one very good outcome of this bugcation: I got a Biology lesson.