Whiplash

Today I returned to the chaos that was our apartment in transition mode--Karina moved out, Analicia moved in, and I faced finishing unpacking amidst the piles of stuff I'd bought from Ikea minutes before I left for Taipei and home. And then, to top it all off, this evening our shower decided it would no longer be turned off.

So yeah, that was fun.

We kicked off the excitement today with helping Karina hurriedly shove things into whatever bags we could find--she hadn't really finished packing--and then carrying said items, in the rain, down to the waiting van. When we'd finished that, we moved on to Analicia's previous apartment, picking up her stuff and transporting it over to ours--itself a lengthy process--interspersed with determining what other items could be taken from the old apartment to ours and apartment C, and which came with it and had to stay. Then, after watching Esther and Karina drive away to their new apartment in the van--Esther was sitting in a desk chair trapped between a pile of stuff and a table in the back, since they ran out of room--we returned to our own place.

As a side note, it turns out that Esther and Karina will actually be living in the city! Hooray! They'll be in Zuoying, which is fantastic because it's on the edge of the city (so easy for them); but still inside it (so easy for us); and the biggest bonus of all is that it's RIGHT next to the HSR/train/MRT station! Which is great for them and for us--easy transport anywhere, inside or outside of the city. Makes visiting much easier. :)

But back to today--the rest of the day, Analicia was bustling back and forth between the living room where we'd set her stuff and her new room, which she was deep cleaning and rearranging. All this inspired/shamed me into finally delving into my own stuff a couple of hours later, and now, I'm proud to say, all my bags are unpacked. (Though I still have cleaning and a bit of rearranging to do, and yet another Ikea/Carrefour trip to make--partly for returns and partly for a few things I couldn't/didn't get last time I went, like a comforter and bed risers.)

So around 11pm, Analicia goes to take a shower. A few minutes later, I hear her calling my name, and then she appears in my doorway.

"So, this is kind of embarrassing, but how do you turn the shower off?"

It wouldn't turn off. Not for her, not for me, not for Brittany--the dang thing was STUCK! We called Fonda, but she didn't answer. We tried a few times, and finally got a hold of her on Facebook. Soon, our landlord, a handyman, and Samia (for protection and translation, Fonda said) showed up at our door.

Our landlord is great! We hadn't met him before tonight, but he speaks pretty good English, and he is upfront and energetic. He introduced himself: "My name is Michael; I'm the landlord--you pay me." While explaining to us that he and the handyman were speaking Taiwanese, he told us that Taiwanese is the most pure form of Chinese, and that if you read a poem from the Tang dynasty, you would be reading Taiwanese; he went on to tell us that, if we called 911, we would reach Mr. Cheng, the handyman. He's a real character.

So, while Michael regaled us with stories, advice, and a request for a list of our names and what we'd found in the apartment that needed fixing, Mr. Cheng quietly turned off the water to the shower. He and Michael showed me how to turn it off if we need to in the future, and he promised to come back tomorrow around 10am to fix it. Which is great--it means I HAVE to be up before then! Requirements help me to adjust to the jetlag whiplash I've been experiencing. (Seriously--I got in last night at 1:30ish and couldn't sleep; when I did, I slept till 2pm and was still tired. And I'm awake again now.)

So that was today! Some crazyness, some exhaustion, but also quite a bit of accomplishment. Maybe some day soon our apartment will actually look like we live in it, and aren't just in a constant state of transition...