Saturday, January 30, 2010

What is the Coldest Shower You Have Ever Taken?

How do I possibly describe the events of the past...what 4 or 5 days? I'll do it with lot's of sarcasm and minimal profanity. On Wednesday night we realized that the radiators were not working. Ronny, who has been "so hot" in our room was pleased that the temperature was what he considers comfortable for sleeping. At my request, he e-mailed the landlord. That e-mail went promptly to his spam mail, but that's a minor detail. Upon waking up, we discovered that not only was the heat not working, but we did not have hot water. Unfortunately, I am one of those people that has to wash their hair everyday...thanks Mom. So I hung my head over the shower and washed my hair faster than I've ever washed it before. We finally got in touch with the landlord, who came over to try to fix it. He did a temporary fix, which fixed absolutely nothing! So, we slept bundled up with warm clothes and a beanie. Super.
Friday morning...I'm feeling not so fresh as a daisy. These Europeans might be cool with occasional showers, but there is no way in hell I'm going two days without a shower. Ronny and I were the guinea pigs. Ronny put our towels in the dryer so they would be nice and toasty, and while he "showered" I aimed the blow-dryer at him. No, we did not think about getting electrocuted. I have never laughed so hard! Ronny couldn't breathe the water was so cold! I learned from his mistake and decided not to go fully into the water. I also turned the water off while I wasn't using it. Despite my learning curve, it was the coldest shower I have ever taken in my life. Unfortunately, I've taken a very very cold shower before while I was in Nantucket...so I know what I'm f-ing talking about. Our roommate Joe learned from both Ronny and I, he boiled water to shower. Now, you may be asking "Why not boil water for a bath?" Easy, we don't have a tub here in Switzerfrance! It's only a shower and it's tiny, so moving on! Friday it also started snowing. We got quite a bit of snow and it's going to snow off and on all weekend. Someone did come to fix the problem, but it didn't stick because Saturday we still have no heat and no hot water. My boiled water hair wash and wipe down was better than the shower, but not by much. Yeah, we'll look back at this and laugh, but right now I'm pretty damn cold!

4 comments:

  1. being cold totally bites! i cant imagine if we didn't have heat/water right now...its 1 degree Farenheit right now...i definitely wouldnt have thought of the hair dryer..."trick". that was creative. doesnt the CERN have an atomic shower or something?

    :sigh:

    how does the landlord leave without this crap being fixed??

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  2. In Panama, we found out that nobody really has hot water so we were taking ice cold showers there. That was tough enough and it was like 80 - 90 degrees outside. I can't imagine taking a freezing shower in a freezing house.

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  3. Wow. That blows. I didn't even consider the electrocution risk until you mentioned it, and I consider myself a fairly avid warning tag-reader. I like the use of "Switzerfrance" though. Hope the water warms up soon!

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  4. I'm sorry about your situation. You're right though, years from now you will be laughing about this, and I think I will still be laughing at your description!! Really? A blow dryer?

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