Sometimes I feel like I'm living in a third world country. Today is one of those days. It started yesterday with the lack of hot water. I know some of you were confused as to why a bit of snow would knock out my hot water, so let me explain. The water heater here is located on our roof. Yes, that's right, outside on the roof. It really doesn't hold much water and while the water is heated electronically, the temperature is quite dependent on solar heat. In the winter, our hot water supply is terrible. Two short showers will drain it for hours. When it snows, the entire tank freezes and we thus have no hot water at all. But today, things went a bit further. We no longer have water at all. It seems as if a pipe on campus has burst (at least that's what I'm getting from the fact that water is pouring unchecked from the fire hydrant and has been all day). So now we're in a real mess. Now it's not just hot showers we can't take, it's showers at all. Now the issue isn't flushing toilet paper (which you normally can't do in Greek bathrooms), it's flushing toilets at all. We can't brush our teeth, wash our hands, do the dishes. We really can't do much of anything. But we also can't just leave our dishes lying around, because Greece has serious roach problems and we don't want those in our house. So we've resorted to collecting snow, boiling it, and using it to wash dishes. Neat, huh. I went down to the kiosk and bought 4 liters of water to take care of personal hygiene as best as I can, but right now I'm hoping and praying that come morning my water is back and I can use the water for its intended purpose - drinking. The Little House on the Prairie/Living in a Third World Country adventure is neat and all, but I'd really like to return to living in the modern world soon. Keep your fingers crossed for me. Here in Greece, it's going to take a miracle...especially if I think someone might even consider doing work on a weekend.
Oh yeah, isn't Valentine's Day sweet? :-)
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