What Was Lost in the Flood and Other Tales

We are sincerely miffed. Our house is being a serious nuisance.

As I may have told some of you on the phone, when we first arrived in the house, the faucet in the bathroom was broken. We also had (and still don’t) have hot water, and the screens on the front door were sub-par. However, these were highly manageable evils, and the landlady was kind enough to promptly call in a plumber to fix the faucet. All seemed fine and dandy.

As of Saturday midday, however, the toilet began to leak…no, I understate. The toilet began to flow improperly and out of many more orifices than natural. The water then proceeded to flow out of the bathroom and into the living area, Brian’s bedroom, and inch toward Katie’s and my room. 

As soon as we returned and noticed this, we all began to point fingers. Who was the last to use the toilet? It smells like crap in here, is that you? Etc. But, blame was quickly forgotten, as soon as the extent of the problem was discovered. That is, when we attempted to flush, we ended up with….ahem…..backwash into the shower. Ew. We were completely unable to stop the flow or pinpoint its origin, though. First, we stopped using the toilet. Slow of water flow. Clean up mess. Bleach shower floor. All is well again. Katie then took a shower. Water won’t drain. Another massive flood. At this point we decide not to use any of the water spewing gadgetry in the bathroom vicinity.

Unfortunately for us, in Puerto Rico everything is closed Sunday, so this means we have had no toilet, bathroom sink, or shower in the house since mid-Saturday. We have had to walk down the street to the Office to use the facilities there. We have made other concessions, but I would rather not discuss them. Sigh. We still have a working kitchen sink, though, so not all bad. We did speak with the landlady, and she has promised us that a handyman will come to fix everything today. Fingers crossed.

In other frustrating house news, our stove also seems to be on the fritz. The stove, as you may or may not know, is not a self-igniting one. As a result, you have to turn on the gas and then light it up. Yesterday, as we were attempting to cook dinner, the burner kept randomly blowing/going out and would not sustain a flame larger than very low level. No clue why. This meant that instead of ten minutes, it took us nearly an hour to cook up some chicken in a pan. Arg! Luckily, I think this is fixed now. Brian seems to have fiddled with a knob outside and bumped up the gas, and tonight it took us no time at all to boil water for our pasta. Hmm…

We have had some interesting bug company, too. Centipede crawled through the living room last night. (We let it out.) Saw our first flying roach. (It let itself out.) And today we had a disabled cricket in our living room that kept jumping in these awful, round-about, flippy jumps because of broken back leg. It was actually kind of sad. He would try to go in one direction but end up 45 degrees away from where he started and aimed in the wrong direction. (Brian let him out, only to be eaten, though, I fear.)

On a more interesting note, I have had my first ocean swims down here in Punta. J The ocean is not so clear as one might hope, but Katie, Sasha and I managed to walk a ways down the beach on Saturday and take a surprisingly pleasant dip. The water is very warm and bathtub-like, and the beaches are not at all crowded. In a very me moment, I somehow managed to get stung by a jellyfish on my bum, even though I never saw the jelly. I am chalking it up to bad luck and a stray, clear tentacle, but either way, I got quite the little welt to show for it. I went for another swim today with better luck, so I’m thinking it was just a fluke.

On another fun side-note, we had a little group over for beers on Saturday night. It was basically just the Harvard group, the UChicago group, and one of the CPRC staff, but it was lively, fun, and relaxed. We didn’t have to work hard for ambiance either, since the house next door was having a big party with a live band, who began playing salsa and merengue music at more than full blast around 8pm and didn’t stop until well after midnight. This is normal for Punta, I gather. Everyone plays their music, and especially their bass, at full volume wherever and whenever they go. In fact, as I write this I can hear someone’s bass thumping loud and clear.

Ah well, I suppose there’s not much more to say. Oh! The people next door found a use for the little fenced in backyard behind our house. They are currently keeping a miniature horse and her brand new baby in it! Totally and disarmingly cute. I love it. I will definitely post photos. Also, we have a new tradition in the house. We watch an episode of Dexter ever night now. It is a great show but disturbing, fascinating, and creeeeepy. I am still getting over the creepy disturbing part, but everyone is right. You really cannot help but love Dexter.

Anyway, much love to all, and I’ll update you on everything again soon.

Please don’t fret too much about the house stuff either. I just wanted to whine a bit. ;) We’re getting on just fine, and although a pain in the arse, the bathroom and other things are really not that big of a deal. Just kind of gross. 

Much love!

B

*Note: I wrote this entry last night. Today the plumber guy came, but of course, the language barrier proved quite the obstacle. Luckily, Katie thought to use her iPhone and translate everything into Spanish. Although, he wasn't able to figure out what was wrong, at least he knew what was happening. For the time being though, we still have neither toilet nor shower, and the entire back end of the house smells like sewage, since it reflooded in a truly epic fashion this afternoon. Rank. Nasty. Humid. You see my dilemma. Sigh. As I write, the plumber and landlady are back at the house tinkering. I will have to continue showering and doing my business here at the office. 

On a more pleasant note, I found out that a friend from high school, Adrienne, is down in Punta! Coincidentally, she is on the Yale team and will be down here all summer as well! Huzzah for having someone I know already!!!