If I was in America it wouldn’t take 7 months and 5 different repair men to make sure we had hot water. I have lived in a home in the US where the hot water heater is broken or old, but it has never taken more than a day for someone to come fix it…worst case maybe a week. Now, it may require a lot of cash to fix but I can tell you I would have paid just about anything for someone to believe me when I told them that the water wasn’t fixed. Here is a little history…When we moved in we had hot water in the kitchen and in the master bedroom. Our nice shower didn’t have hot water but we were happy to use the tub shower. Thinking that I needed to have these problems fixed I asked the landlord’s friend to come look at it. Repair man number 1 turned up the temperature on the heater. A few weeks after we moved in the hot water in the kitchen stopped working. Repair man number 2 came and turned up the temperature on the water heater, which I tried to mime to him that the temperature level wasn’t the issue because we had hot water in a different room, but the problem had to be something else. Our water in the kitchen was warmer (not hot) for a few hours then was broken again. Repair man number 3 (and this guy came with tools) came and saw that he needed to replace a part. He came back the next day with the part and our hot water worked for 1 day in the kitchen and the flow in the master bath had less pressure. I was worried that if anyone else came we wouldn’t have any hot water or any water pressure at all I figured I would suck it up and boil water for dishes and not mention it again. Well when we came back from Japan we no longer had hot water in our shower. I organized the repair man without the landlord and made sure my Chinese teacher was here to explain the whole history. Repair man number 4 came and said since it wasn’t a pipe issue there was nothing he could do but so he didn’t leave without doing anything he turned up the temperature on the hot water heater. This did NOTHING. I asked Adam to contact the landlord again because a cold shower is not something I want to just deal with for another 9 months. Adam, rather than calling the landlord had the Cree facilities engineers come and fix it. Turns out the problem was the hot water pipe was mostly closed, and the hot water heater was overheating because the temperature on the heater was too high (hmmmm…yes the other repair men made the problem worse). It took him 5 min to figure this out and fix our heater. We now have hot water in both bathrooms and our kitchen…7 months after moving in.
If I was in America it would be rude and unreasonable to have 3 straight weeks of people banging hammers on my ceiling or on what sounds like sheets of metal and using jackhammers all day long. Normally living in an apartment means you can hear your neighbor’s music, TV, vacuums, and sometimes conversation. In China apartments are owned and renovated without notice to neighbors or consideration of people. This morning it was extra loud and I was extra frustrated. I got out of bed and threw on the first t-shirt and jeans I found and ran upstairs to yell at these workers in English. Just to clarify I have lived near construction before, I have had noisy neighbors (hello…the criminals that lived next to me at the townhouse), and I totally understand that there are some noises that are unavoidable. However construction (at least the loudest part) is usually over in a couple months. This construction has gone on since the day we moved in however up until 3 weeks ago they would work a couple hours a day a few days a week. I knocked on the door because the doorbell was not hooked up and of course they didn’t hear me. I was able to look through the peep hole, which wasn’t installed and saw basically the most torn up apartment I have ever seen. You see they do a lot of construction with concrete meaning they are tearing it all up (the hammering). I have a brother who plays the drums so I know the sound well. Basically it’s like having a group of snare drums follow you around all day. The sound is not muffled and cannot be avoided unless you leave. I try to leave as much as I can but there are days when you need to do stuff at home and honestly I don’t want to be kicked out of my house every day. I used my friend’s helper who speaks English to go with me to the management office and to have them contact the owner and make sure that he is mindful that there is an angry, pregnant, foreign lady that lives below him. Yes I played the pregnancy card (hey, I only have 9 months of the pregnancy card). The worst part is the look the apartment tells me that there is no end in sight. Apparently this happens and people are just supposed to move. Yes I am supposed to move because of someone else’s renovations. If I lived in an apartment in the States I would have to sign something saying I will not disturb my neighbors and if I did I would get a letter like the management office. Any neighborhood with a HOA or management office has rules that keep the neighborhood clean and peaceful. We live in some of the most expensive apartments in Huizhou, because of the location, the size and the safety. I believe I also pay for the right to a decent living situation…this noise is not decent. I would have had to contact my neighbors and tell them about the construction, if for some reason they objected they could sue me or report me. In China they would have to move. The noise may not seem like a big deal to anyone who isn’t living in my apartment between 8 and 6 everyday but I have never heard anything like this before continue all day.
I am done venting now, and I have to say this (as I do in all my venting posts). I really do love living in China and I totally wouldn’t have it any other way. There are just some days where I wish some of the western culture could come to China. There are so many positive things about our lives in China verses our lives in the states.
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