Well, I currently don't have hot water or the internet at my apartment.  I guess when it rains it pours.  Anyhow, I noticed that the hot water heater which is conveniently located in my shower was dripping water the other morning.  I saw my landlord the next day and he had a guy into look at it a day later.  Well.  He took off the bottom of the heater and sure enough it was broken and it wasn't something the repair guy could just fix--my landlord has to buy a new one.

So yesterday, I sat in my living room listening to all of the water drain slowly but steadily out of the hot water heater for the better part of two hours.  My landlord apologized profusely--as if it was somehow his fault--and I couldn't come up with any words to explain to him that it wasn't that big of deal to me.  Really, given the option, I would rather shower in the mornings with a fully functioning hot water heater.  The only thing that made me nervous was that on his way out, he asked me if I had any friends in the city and if I could shower at her house.  I said yes but forgot to add the "ka" on the end of the word--in effect saying that I a male friend whose house I could shower at.  My landlord laughed at me and said really?! Clearly teasing me and I corrected my mistake (but really, why does eveything have a gender here and why I can't I remember that!?!) It was only then that I began to wonder how long it was going to take to replace the hot water heater.

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After he left, the internet conveniently went out and now it's been more than 24 hours and it's still not back on.  I guess that my landlord's son called about it and the response he received was: we're having problems in that neighborhood.  Oh.  Great. I miss you too internet...just not as much as I miss the hot water.

This situation however, gave me plenty of time to sit around and think about what I should do with myself.  I decided to cut my bangs.  Clearly when you don't have hot water or internet, one should engage in self -improvement projects.  So this is what I did.  I cut my own bangs--a lot-- at least an inch and I have to say they turned out great.

After this, I got ready to have some of my new friends over last night to drink beer and hang out.  I laughed really hard at one point when I opened my fridge and there was beer, cheese, bread and some assorted veggies.  When did I become a college frat-boy? Anyhow, it was great to have everyone over and we had a lot of fun.  I also got a kick out of the fact that most of the propel knew one of the previous Fulbrighters who lived in my apartment.  Those who knew him came in looked around and it took them a little bit of time to get used to the apartment being mine because I don't think it's changed much since he lived here two years ago.  Well aside from the rent and I think that I keep the place cleaner.

However, this morning when I woke up I was beginning to feel like  not having water was impacting my quality of life--especially when i realized that last night I used every glass in my apartment to serve drinks in and I have no way to clean them.  I decided to line the glasses up in two neat rows and to try not let them bother me. Funny how, yesterday it didn't seem like that big of a deal not to have hot water for a day or two but today, it's kind of a different story.

So, this afternoon rather than engage in any more self-improvement projects, I decided to go to this great little coffee shop/bar in my neighborhood and to have coffee and use the internet.  I've checked my email, read up on world events (thanks Washington Post and New York Times), poked around on Facebook and now here I am writing this post.  I've got to go home soon to meet my landlord who hopefully has good news for me.

If not, my new Bulgarian friends are going to hear from me shortly when I begin begging to take a shower...or even better maybe I'll try to barter for a shower hopefully it won't cost me more than a beer or two.