Friday, July 11, 2008

Hot Water.

This is a blog in two parts.
Part Uno.
As any of you who have ever lived in Russia may know, they turn the hot water off for 20 days during the summer. Why is this done? I haven't the faintest idea, but I have been told it's for "Preventive Measures." At any rate, it is, in my opinion, entirely uncalled for. Luckily, the hot water was turned back on some time ago, but I will never forget those 20 days of the coldest, most awkward showers of my life.
Part Dos.
Old Russian people are very paranoid about their appliances/household items. For this reason, I try to avoid touching any of these while in the apartment. Unfortunately, there are times when this is unavoidable. In the shower the other day, I slightly touch the hot water handle, and it fell off. "Oh crap." That's what I thought. Luckily, the water was on, and I was pretty sure no one heard the terrible clanking noise the handle made as it hit the bottom of the tub. I managed to shove it back on and finish my shower, which was wonderful. After getting out of the shower, however, as I was all set to leave the bathroom and go to my bedroom, the handle fell off again. This time the old familiar clanking noise was unconcealable, and the woman I live with began pounding on the door. Rather than telling her what actually happened, like any normal person would have surely done, I felt responsible for the broken handle, and thought that if she would just go away, I would be able to fix the handle myself and no one would ever know. Cleverly, I told her i just dropped my razor, which is metal, and thus, the clanky noise. Well, she did believe me, and then said, "Oh. I thought you were going to say the hot water handle fell off. It falls off all the time." She then proceeded to enter the bathroom to show me how to fix it. I was trapped. Of course, I admitted that the handle did fall off in the shower, and she did not mind. In all of my worrying, however, I had shoved the handle under my towel, which was on top of something in the bathroom. This made for quite the awkward moment when she inquired as to the where abouts of the handle, and I had to reach under my towel to retrieve it. In the end, I realized it would have been nearly impossible for me to fix the handle myself, as she had to use a screw driver to fix it. Yes; I am rediculous.

2 comments:

Amanda S. said...

haha! This reminds me of the time when I took hot showers at my host family's apartment in Moscow (I lived in Moscow, as you know); and every time I took a shower, I would flood the floor of the bathroom. This was very early on in the time that I lived there, and I had no idea what was happening. So I would just...leave...with the floor flooded, and not say a word. It was very mysterious. Then I discovered that my host dad had not finished redoing the tub and putting the caulking around the edges, so water seeped through. AHA!

Lanée Jensen said...

hahahaha ahhhhhhhhhhhhhh. My shower was cold this morning too, and the whole time I was thinking about the coldest showers I have EVER taken in my life in Guatemala when the water was ice cold and made my head hurt. oh the joy.