Day 95: No Water For Three Days???!!!

So Tuesday was an uneventful day, until I got a phone call from Steven that night after work. He informed me that starting Wednesday morning, I was going to have no water for the next three days!!! AND THAT'S NO WATER AT ALL!!! No tap water! No toilet! And no shower!!! What the fuck!!?? You've got to be joking, right??? RIGHT!!!?????

At first I just thought either I was confused or that his English wasn't translating over well or that he was misinformed or something, cause I just couldn't believe that the water was going to be turned off for three whole days! I mean, what on Earth would cause such a thing? Was there a war or earthquake happening that I wasn't aware of?
Apparently 'they' (no idea who 'they' are - the waterworks company I'm assuming) are going to be replacing a water main, and so that's why I am going to lose my water. But it isn't just our house, or even just our street, or even just our neighbourhood... But it's ALL OF SHIHUNG CITY!!! And no only just that, but also Anyan, which is the suburb next to us, and even some parts of Seoul!

JUST HOW BIG IS THIS WATER MAIN!!!???

And if it's just *one single pipe* that separates a million Seoulites from being without water at all, then man, they've got some serious problems underneath this city! Talk about a fragile waterworks system!!! Where am I? Seoul, or Calcutta???

Okay, so let's say that it's the biggest mother of a water main there ever was that needs to be replaced, fair enough. But what? You can't figure out a way to re-route water through another pipe so that the lives of a million people aren't disrupted (as well as businesses and schools and such) for three whole days? I mean come on!! Seoul is a modern and high-tech city! Korea is an advanced and industrialized nation! This is the sort of thing that I'd expect to happen in Third World countries, not in a country with the 12th largest economy in the world! I mean get it together people! You can build high-speed bullet trains across the country, you can have the most crazy advanced futuristic cell phones I've ever imagined in the hands of every citizen, you can even be the first country in the world to clone human stem cells (the Koreans accomplished this back in February), but you somehow can't figure out how fix one measely pipe without shutting off water completely to entire suburbs!!??? What kind of crazy place is this?? LOL!

What's even funnier is how accepting and complacent and non-chalant everyone here is about it! Steven's tone on the phone was the same as if he was telling me that my classes were going to start an hour early the next day, or something insignificant like that. The only people who seem to be freaking out about this are the foreigners! I phoned Ailish up the street and she was as confused and surprised about it as I was! We both commented how this is something that would NEVER EVER happen in Canada or Ireland! CAN YOU IMAGINE if like Dublin or Ottawa were cut off water for three whole days? Entire governments would be impeached and respective parliamentary buildings would be burned to the ground by angry rioters! haha!! But hey I guess this kind of event is 'normal' (?) here in Korea, so when in Rome, I guess...

Susan came down shortly after the phone call to help me prepare for the next three days. We filled up my washing machine with water so I'd have a reserve for washing and stuff, and she also gave me a giant-ass basin to fill up as well. So I will have water in my apartment, it just won't be running. Or heated. I'm still not sure how this 'no shower' thing is going to go over with me. I mean I haven't showered for a couple consecutive days before, like while camping or something, but never in a situation like this. Like is the whole city going to SMELL come Friday? And more importantly, what am I going to do about my hair??? I simply can't have *bed head* for three straight days in a row!!!! haha!!!

Well, it should be an interesting three days, that's for sure! Stay tuned for more drama from this side of the Pacific! Wish me luck! :-)