Tuesday, February 27, 2018

drip, drip, drip redux

I recently wrote about a water-leakage problem. The repair guys came and went yesterday, while I was out of my place, and since they didn't leave any notes or text messages, I assumed they had finished their repairs. By the time I came back to my place yesterday evening, it was around 10PM, and therefore too late to call the plumbers to confirm that repairs had been made. I decided simply to wake up the following morning (today, actually) and shower as per usual, knowing that—because this is Korea, where things never go straight from A to B—Murphy's Law would always be waiting in the wings to work its evil work. Sure enough: about an hour after I got to the office, the HR guy from yesterday appeared again, with an apologetic look on his face. "The downstairs neighbors say they had a big leak today," he began, "and I need to ask you not to use your bathroom until this coming Saturday."

"Not even the toilet?" I asked.

"Not even the toilet," the HR guy said. "We have a guest room that you can move into temporarily." He handed me a slip of Post-It paper with an apartment number and a four-digit keyless-entry code on it. "You can stay here through Saturday, to give the silicone time to dry."

"Can I come back on Saturday?" I asked.

"Best stay through Saturday and go back to your place on Sunday," he said.

"Just one thing," I said. "I took a shower this morning because I assumed my bathroom had been fixed. I'd had no word—nothing—from the repair people about what was going on, so I assumed I'd be able to use my bathroom again. This time around, could you have the repair crew please leave me a memo or something to indicate whether they've finished the job? Just a note on a piece of paper is fine." The HR guy quietly nodded. In Korea, nodding yes doesn't necessarily mean agreement or a promise of action, so I'm on my guard.

Anyway, this evening, I'll be moving to my temporary guest room and will be staying there until Sunday morning. I'm going to be severely pissed off if the guest room turns out to be nicer than where I'm currently housed.



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