I moved to Korea in July, and I got hot water in October; "How did she bathe?" You may wonder, i'll answer it simply: I didn't. Well maybe "I didn't" is a bit extreme, I did bathe, but I just bathed quickly. As the old Italian woman who Liz rents an apartment from in Italy says in "Eat, Pray, Love" the movie, "All the important parts" got washed. Now you may think i'm a stinking lunatic (literally speaking), but I would like to DARE anyone to try showering in frigid water in the middle of their bathroom for 3 months. As some of you have undoubtedly noticed, it WAS summer and it WAS 90 degrees with 80% humidity, but I say shut it! Until you have been showering in freezing water (under duress mind you) for 3 months you cannot reason with me.
All of this is beside the point of my story however; after I returned from China I noticed a significant drop in temperature and after my first cold shower I came to the concrete conclusion that this could not continue on. I needed hot water and I needed it before my next shower. So I did the only logical thing, I went to my landlords house to ask them to help me fix my problem, as I forgot that I don't speak Korean and they don't speak English this turned out to be the least logical thing I could do. Thankfully I was able to remedy my botched attempt at communicating by telling Eunyeong what I needed. She called my landlord and quicklly fixed the situation, apparently my landlords were extremely agitated and worried about me as what I had communicated the previous night was that I thought there was a cat stuck in my wall. I don't understand it either. I figured that everything was said and done at this point and that I should have hot water. Yay!
I was wrong, oh so very very wrong.
My landlord came over on Sunday morning as I was lounging about watching movies with my friend Jason, thankfully Jason speaks Korean and was able to help me effectively communicate precisely what it was that I needed, and to answer some questions my landlord had. Fixed fixed at last I sang in my brain as I did a happy dance. I danced prematurely.
Lucky me, at 6am the next morning I heard the pounding of god on my door and "Mohlly! Mohlly!" I stumbled out of bed, in my underwear, about had the door unlocked when I realized what I was doing. I mumbled something and trudged over to put on some pants. When I finally opened the door there were both of my landlords smiling and happy (at 6am, what is WRONG with these people!?). They trooped into my home and began fiddling with the buttons. I sat back on the bed and put my head in my hands watching them tiredly. Then the questions began. My male landlord began asking questions and gesticulating about, point at this, and then that, making the cross sign for "no!" in korean. I just nodded and kept saying "I don't know, I don't know" both in English and Korean, shrugging my shoulders helplessly. Obviously that was a failed tactic because he began to repeat himself, each time his voice rising in crescendo until he was veritably yelling at me. I, trying to respond in the nicest way possible and without actually realizing what I was doing becasue it was 6AM, was bellering back "I don't know! I don't know!" Finally my landlord began saying "Jason, Jason" and making the calling sign with his hand, I tried to explain that it was early and that we couldn't call him but it took about 5 minutes of pointing to my clock and making snoring noises before he understand. He finally smiled at me, said "ok!" and left. I slumpt on the bed, exhausted and eventually fell back to sleep.
Monday evening arrived and I was sitting on my bed doing something when I heard the knocking again, I sighed heavily and got up to open the door. My landlord traipsed in and began asking for Jason, thankfully it was past 6am this time and I felt comfortable calling him and begging him to deal with my landlord. After about 15 minutes of the landlord and I playing pass the phone we discerned that some workers would need to be called in to look at the problem (hadn't I already discerned this 3 months ago!?). Well THANKFULLY by Tuesday I had water, and my first hot shower in 3 months. I cannot begin to describe to you the joys I felt at scrubbing off 3 months worth of skin. Ah, the simple pleasures of life.
Anyeong!
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