H 2 No

We have no water. And when I say "No water," I mean NO WATER. Not a drop.

This was the nice welcome home I had yesterday upon my return from civilized Canada.

I got out of the van yesterday with all my luggage, my thoughts on having a relaxing shower and changing into my pj's before starting to unpack. Just then, Alison and Eric came out of the building on their way to buy bottled water. They helped me with my luggage, and told me how there has been no water since they returned from Germany on Friday.

Lovely.

So I spent what remaining energy I had running up and down three flights of stairs filling up bottles and pots with water to heat on the stove so that I could pour water over myself in the shower stall in a most Victorian way and have a semi-bath. While heating up water, I burnt my thumb* because in my dazed state, I forgot that pots that have been on the stove are hot and thought it would be a good idea to pick it up. Ouch!

This morning we told the director about our situation. Alison and Eric had been calling him all weekend, but he was away on holidays. Apparently the last tenants had not paid the water bill last June, so 8 months later the water company finally got around to cutting off our service. Nice.

They will be around tomorrow morning to turn the water back on. YAY! Who ever thought I would be so happy to have running water (in ITALY)??? In the meantime, I have been showering at another teacher's house that is just up the street from me.


* Cold egg whites are great for burns. George told me this a long time ago. I somehow remembered this advice and ran to the fridge to slather my thumb in egg. I let the egg whites dry on my thumb and left it there for about 15 minutes. It stopped the pain immediately, and I had no pain at all later on or the next day.