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Last week the other North American teachers and I got our bank accounts set up just in time to receive our first paycheck on Friday. We also got the second installment of our relocation money on Thursday. Yes, we did know that it was the beginning of the month and that there were probably bills to be paid. However, we had not received any bills, nor did we actually have money to pay them if we had received them. Come to think of it, we also didn’t know where our mail box was… hmmm… Yesterday, we found out that the school actually pays our rent for us (in part from a housing stipend and the rest from our salary) and that in order to get our utility bills, we should ask the front desk guy at our apartment. After that we had several options for paying the bills: paying them at the bank, paying them at the grocery store, or bringing them to the school where they would pay them for us and deduct the money from our next paycheck. No problem.
Yesterday, when we got home, there was no water.
(Actually, we went to the gym first and then returned to find that there was no water.)
Since the water had been turned off at our apartment 3 times since we’ve lived here neither Elizabeth nor I were too concerned. It will probably come back on pretty soon, we figured. Several hours later, Elizabeth’s friend called and told us that the water was off for the whole neighborhood, but that the gym had it’s own well. Back to the gym we went, but this time just to shower. We went to bed clean and comforted by the fact that the water was supposed to turn back on at midnight.
As you may have guessed there was still no water in the morning.
Elizabeth mentioned this to the school director, who deducted that we may not have paid our water bill… She made calls to the front desk guy and the water company to confirm that in fact, our water had been shut off. Somehow, she acquired our bills for us, then collected money from us and sent someone to the bank to pay our water bill for us. (Yes, she is that amazing.) We were grateful and relieved to have that taken care of, although we knew our water would probably not be turned back on for 24 hours.
After an extra-long day, we went to the grocery store to pay our electric bill, buy some water, a couple beverages, and then go to gym to shower. We tend to bring backpacks to the store and use them to carry groceries, which is not only good for the environment, but much easier to carry. After showering, one of the beverages in Elizabeth’s backpack exploded! We laughed at the fact that her school bag now smelled like a brewery and there was no water to wash her bag.
We walked into our apartment complex to find our director finagling a deal with the front desk guys! It turns out she had pulled some strings and asked the maintenance guy to turn our water back on for us! But when she called the apartment back to see if they had been successful, they told her that they were missing a spare part and couldn’t do it. Not to be deterred, she went to the store, bought the spare part and brought it to our apartment. (I think she may actually be Wonder Woman…) For some reason, maintenance guy could only turn the water on in one of our apartments, but our director stayed until the water had successfully been turned on and then flew off to fight crime or something.
What an eventful day!
I set my backpack down on a chair, but it toppled over, cracking the 5 liter jug of water that was inside and spilling approximately 2.5 liters of water.
And so….
Moral of the story #1 Always know when and how to pay your bills.
Moral of the story #2 Don’t put liquids inside your backpack!
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