Roach Motel

Somehow I had managed to fall asleep, the first thing I did when I woke
up was check my shoes for cockroaches. I had barely slept and still felt
frazzled from the hellish night at the Circle Hotel in the city of
Gondar. The night before, a soccer game between Madrid and Manchester
United started around 10:30, followed by another match between two other
teams, and they were showing these games on the 5th floor of our hotel.
The place was packed with people and every time a goal was scored, the
rafters shook under the stomping, jumping for joy and roar of the crowd.
I sat in the middle of the bed scanning the room for movement as I had
already slaughtered half a dozen cockroaches that ran across the floor,
the walls and all over the bathroom. Around 2am the soccer fans filed
outside and continued to party somewhere nearby so the drone of drunken
hooligans never ceased, but I turned on the television and curled up in
the middle of the bed with the lights on. The movie '9 to 5' with Lily
Tomlin and Dolly Parton came on and, in a sea of nostalgia, I must have
dozed off around 4am. When I awoke at 6am, Barney the purple dinosaur
was dancing on the television and I could hear traffic moving outside.