Hot Water

I got back to my apartment last weekend only to find out that my hot water heater was not working properly. This was Monday morning and I really wanted to take a shower. However, with ice cold water and it being the middle of winter, I didn't need one that bad. So, I trudged into work, a bit smelly and disheveled. I told the head instructor, Anna, that my hot water was not working. She in turn told our school handyman, Eric, that the water wasn't working.

One of the most frustrating parts about working in a Hagwon is the lack of communication. After I told Anna, I am pretty much kept out of the loop. For some reason, on Monday, there were not able to make it to my apartment. Tuesday I went in and said something to her again. I didn't know if anyone had even made it to my apartment, if it was broke and was going to take a week to fix, if there was a simple solution and they just needed a day to get the part... I had no idea and nobody told me.

Anna got a bit upset but I just told her, it's the middle of winter and I have no hot water and no floor heat. As a foreigner, you are at the mercy of your co-teachers, managers, owner, and school handyman; unless of course you can speak Korean very well. It is not like I could have called someone up and said, "Hey, my water heater is broke. When can you get here?"

Nevertheless, Tuesday passes and I was excited to go home and take a hot shower. I get home, push the button. Same light starts flashing - still broke. Oh yeah, to make matters worse, my toilet also stopped flushing Monday morning (I'll leave that to your imagination). I was wondering if I had some serious pipe damage, a frozen pipe, what was happening? So, Wednesday I woke up and got a gift from the Toilet Fairy - my toilet flushed. That was a huge plus after two days of not flushing. I checked the tank the night before no water and when I woke up, I had the plan to fill the tank with my shower head. Didn't have to. So, I checked the hot water - no luck.

Things changed from Tuesday to Wednesday and when I got to work, Anna actually asked me if it had been fixed. I told her no. I also took a shower Wednesday morning, only it was at Spenser's place. No way was I taking a cold shower. Now, I have no idea what happened Monday. Anna (she is a great person and we do get along great) told me on Tuesday Eric did not have access to a car and therefore couldn't make it to my apartment. For those of you who don't know, it's a 10 minute walking. A little frustrating that my school handyman wouldn't walk 20 minutes, round trip, to try and get me some hot water, in the middle of winter.

Now I am thinking, what if there is a major problem, and it is going to take three more days to fix it. It would be Monday, at the earliest, until I get floor heat and hot water. Lucky me... I saw Eric Wednesday night as I was headed to dinner and asked him, "Hot water?" He said, "Yes. Yes. Ok," and gave me the thumbs up. Again, with my limited Korean and his English I had no idea if this meant "Yes, I'll look at it" or "Yes, it's fixed."

I went home Wednesday night and I had hot water.