The SAGA of Zhongguanyun Apartment 212

 The apartment I live in is very old and ...hmmm....rustic, to put it nicely. Sometimes I have some other choice words for it, but most of the time it is just fine. I don't mind not having the nicest place on the block, but i do mind when things don't work. I mean that every day it is a gamble whether the water will come out of the faucet or not. Most of the time it works, but at least once a day it stops for an hour or two and it is never the same time each day...

(more pics and drama)

 One day, I was stuck in this not so hilarious position of showering with our drinking machine water. I had just worked out, was sweaty, and needed to quick shower before I left for work. I started the shower. It was working. However, right after I rubbed the shampoo in my hair, it stopped. What is a girl to do when the water cuts out mid shower? Well, she runs to the water machine and grabs cups of water to splash on herself until all the shampoo is gone and she feels clean enough. Yes, I'm a problem solver, but when stuff like this happens I have to laugh, because I can't believe it is happening.

 The next problem came when the electricity in our apartment cut out twice. The box outside our apartment said, "END", which means that we have to call our Chinese contact to call the electricity company and charge our account up again. Since the language barrier exists for me and since the electricity company is notorious for taking their sweet old time, this isn't the simplest task to fix. We just had to wait for two days at the mercy of other people.

 In the meantime, we ran an electrical cord from our neighbor's apartment to ours, so that we would have at least one light to find our way with at night.

Eventually, it all got fixed and our apartment is again livable. The only other frequent problem is our toilet. It's gotten clogged twice, for no good reason, mind you. The handle to flush has broken off and it used to not flush correctly. We've had multiple maintenance men up here. I can never talk to them, but I express my gratitude for a proper working toilet when they are finished. We've gone days without a working toilet this year, and I've really come to appreciate the modern plumbing system. I shall not take it for granted again! Megan and I also have a washer that is missing a hose, so we need to go next door again to our gracious neighbors and use their washer. Oh, the life at apartment 212 is always interesting. I hope for our sake though, everything works for a while.