No Shower For You!

On Tuesday, I was in the middle of a very nice, toasty warm shower, when all of the sudden - no hot water. It was like a bucket of snow had been dumped on my head. My head full of shampoo which still required rinsing. I jumped out of the way and attempted to get the water back, but alas, I ended up fa-reezhing. I got out of the bathroom and looked at my wall unit. We have floor (water pipe) heating here, and then you push another button to heat up water for showering/sink. A red light was flashing and the temp had dropped to 3. Now I'm not good at temperature conversion from Celcius to Farenheit, but I know 3 is close to 0 which is frozen. I ususally keep it around 19-20. So, like I would do to fix anything electrical, I turned it off and turned it back on. The green light was back - yay! So I didn't say anything to my boss.

Cue Wednesday. Turned on the power, turned on the water button. Check and check. This time, tested the water. Dum dum dun. Flashy light! Flashy light! 3! NOOOOOOOOOO. I ended up heating water in a wok on the stove, and using another bowl to microwave water and "showered" over my kitchen sink. I then copied down the hangul writing of the flashy light and showed it to my boss. Turns out flashy light means "check". My boss said he would call the office in the morning to have them come look at my water.

Cue Thursday. I was in my apartment all day (until I left for work at 2:30) and nobody came by. I checked the water and again. Power - on, green light - on, wait 2 minutes and...flashy light! NOOOOOOOO again. Repeated midevel method of showering (turns out, 2 1/2 minutes in the microwave is just about the right temperature). When I got to work, I asked my boss if he had called. He said he did and that they came to my apartment (or were going to my apartment - I didn't quite figure it out). I told him that I was home all day, but maybe they were there (my apartment) now. When I got home I noticed that the door to my laundry room was open, and I was pretty sure i didn't leave it that way, so I assumed they had come and fixed the water. I tested it and nope - flashy light remained.

Cue Friday. First of all, I was scared awake by an annoucement over our loud speaker. It didn't sound like an emergency, no sirens or anything, but it was all in Korean so I have no idea what was said. I assume it was the annoucement about fixing air conditioners, since they are doing that this week. So, since I was up, I decided to test out the water - flashly light still there. So, I called my boss. He called me back and said someone was on the way. Less then 5 minutes later, a man came to my door, came inside, and then got on the phone with someone while playing around with the water. Then looked at me, said something in Korean, I shrugged and he left. Flashly light was still on. I think he was telling me that he needed more tools or something, but, as I don't speak Korean, I had no idea what was going on. Did I mention that during this process I am wearing red and black UGA flannel pj pants paired with an orange Campbell hoodie? No? Because I am.

Cut to an hour later and a new guys come to the door. He walks to the laundry room then motions me over (that took a minute to interpret because at first I thought he wanted me to turn on the water) to show me the hot water thing and the gas meter. I start to smell gas and I think he tells me that the water heater is fine, but that something is wrong with my gas. Then he holds up 2 fingers like a phone can points to himself, so he's going to call someone. Then he says bye. I point to the heater and say OK? or No? He says no, points to the closet and says something in Korean. I say ok and he leaves. It is getting nearer to go time at this point (go time being the latest time I can wash my hair before I need to leave for work) and I am in a slight panic, but what if someone comes when I am in the middle of faux-showering? I can't tell them to wait...well I could, but they would have no idea what I'm saying. So right now, I'm sticking to the pjs. And keeping the window open to help the smell of gas leave.

At 2:15 I decided it was time to face it, and took a microwave shower. I made sure to double lock the doors, just in case. I was dressed and watching some online tv and grading essays when I hear my locks turning. I look over and there is a third guy coming into my apartment. I wave and keep on grading. He goes in and out of my laundry room a few times. It's getting close to when I need to leave and I really didn't want to leave with him still there in case he didn't lock the door. Luckily, 3:16 rolled around and tada! No more flashy light! The guy said bye, I said thank you, he left (and locked the door), I said yay, then left myself.

So I'm still keeping my fingers crossed that everything was actually fixed. I will find out soon enough I guess.