I hate you, bucket showers

It's about twenty past 2pm and I'm sitting in my apartment, attempting to have a conversation with my landlord (who's English skills are marginal and, you must remember, that my Chinese is pretty much rubbish). He arrived more than an hour ago. I was planning to exit the house to sort out some flights for the May holiday and to get a bit of work done, but it was not to be. He decided to come over and hang out while I/we waited for a repair job. Why did he come? I'm not sure.

I have a type of gas-fired automatic hot water heater in my place. Every time I turn on the hot tap, I hear a small clicking and a "whoosh" when the gas catches the spark, and about 3 seconds later, delightfully hot water reaches my fingertips. On Wednesday night of this past week, I no longer heard the click. Likewise, I no longer experienced the sound of the "whoosh". And finally, my fingertips felt no warmth (and, consequently, the same went for my entire body the next morning, since I was standing in the tub ready for a 5:25am shower before work. The means I had to heat up water on my stove and have an impromptu "bucket shower" utilizing a face cloth and a pot. This did not help me begin a day well. And Thursday turned out to be a bad day). I thought the problem might be that I just needed to pay some cash on my gas bill, so I left 200 kuai (about $30) for Ayi on Thursday (I'll explain my love for this amazing woman in a coming post) and thought it would be taken care of. Well, this was not to be. I arrived home Thursday night and saw that Ayi had paid the bill and left me a receipt. I flipped on my tap and... no click, no whoosh, no heat. 

So, I sent a text to the landlord the next day after bucket shower #2 on Friday morning. He didn't get back to me until Saturday morning, asking me if Sunday was okay. I said no, since I sent the message on Friday and I needed hot water. So, I got a call back saying that they could meet me at my apartment at 2pm. No problem. I had just finished my 15km run, was having a delightful omelette, and was enjoying life (even if I was caked in salt from 90 minutes of exercise).

10 minutes later (at 12:25pm), my landlord called to ask if I was home. I said no, since I was mid-omelette. He said that he was at my apartment waiting. I guess that 2pm thing went out the window. Off I went.

The landlord checked out the situation, called a repair guy, and he said the repair guy would be there that afternoon. No such luck. What did this mean? Yes. Another bucket shower. I got a text later that night (at 8:40pm!) asking me if the repair guy had come... uhhh, no. He hadn't. I hate using my rice pot to help me bathe.

It now turned into Sunday morning, and the landlord sent me yet another message saying that I needed to be home between 2pm and 3pm so I could wait for the repairman. No problem. But just as I'm getting motivated to leave the house about 12:30pm, my phone rings. "Hello. Are you home now?" (Of course, it was my landlord). "Uh, yes, I am," I respond. "Okay, I am here. I come." Looking at my building cctv feed of the front door, I see him peering in the window. So, I buzz him up and he arrives. And sits. And proceeds to just sit and hang out for more than an hour and a half while we waited for the repairman.

The repairman showed up, putzed around with the heater, told me it had actually started on fire and he needed a new heater box, and left, saying that he couldn't fix it until WEDNESDAY! GAAA! That meant 3 more days of bucket showers. I might go postal. Some poor student is gonna say he was late because he was enjoying his hot shower too much, and I might murder him. I cannot be held responsible for my actions come Wednesday. Or even tomorrow for that matter. WeiShenMa?!?!?!?

In other news, spring is springing, running is going well (minus the semi-constant achilles pain I'm dealing with) and in almost exactly a month I'm running off on another great holiday, hopefully to Yangshuo in southern China. Should be amazing. For now, no more complaining. Much love, all.

T