That building is cursed!
I really need to go look if someone has nailed a dead chicken on a door or something, because it's starting to look like something's amiss in that building's karma!
So, let's see, how shall I tell this story?
Thursday evening, Strasbourg. A regular evening of doing some grammar exercises. At 00:15, I decided to go to bed. I needed to get up at 7 this morning, after all.
Middle of the night, loud voices and odd noises coming from the corridor woke me up. At first I thought it was some of the neighbours coming home late and completely high, but something sounded odd in all of this. When one of the guys bangs at my door and says 'It's the firemen', that's when I knew it was going to be another long night. Inserts here the Yza sleeping all naked and needing to grab something to cover herself while still half asleep, and the picture might look quite funny.
A quick glance at my mobile phone told me it was actually 1:23. I turned the light on quickly, got up, and splash--my feet landed in water. About 2 cm of water covering my room's floor. The fireman still asking me to open.
And in the middle of the room, in all its electronic glory, the transformer of my laptop, quietly sleeping underwater.
Brain went --bzzt-- at this point, and I entered "OMGWTFBBQ???!!!" mode. I already had to get said transformer replaced back in May/June, and I seriously can't afford spending 3 weeks without the laptop, because it'd seriously hinder both my job and my studies. Fortunately, the transformer was only plugged onto the PC, not on the electric system. I put it on the desk, grabbed the the garment I like to call my 'yukata', and let havoc enter in. Sort of.
The situation was very confusing at first, but from what I could understand--all the while trying to salvage the couple of bags and shoes I had on the floor without making them drop even more water everywhere, AND without having my yukata slide and conveniently show more flesh than it should--it was one of my neighbour's fault. Well, he didn't do it on purpose, evidently. He came home earlier in the evening to find a leak in his room, near the lavatory, tried to fix it as best as he could, and it the end, the whole pipe blew up on him. As a consequence, half of our floor was inundated.
We were five people running amok, doing their best to help the firemen evacuate all that water. I shit you not, that was a pretty bizarre scene. I guess my knee-high boots are sort of ruined now, everything in my school bag looks like I found it in a dumpster (including my translation class notes and Sanctuary >.<), my nice pink driving license has lost its pristine appearance forever, and my keys reek of old water.
I can't tell much more about the laptop transformer. The Acer support recommended me to let it dry the natural way, near a source of heat if possible, before trying to plug it again. Since I had to go back to 3F today to pack up some books already, I left it for the time being not too far from the stove, and I really, really hope this will be enough to save it (it's supposed to be sort of waterproof. Sort of). I very well know my insurance would pay for any damage caused by flood, but my problem with that is, as always, time. I can't afford not using my laptop for very long, and with such risks of leaks, there's no way I want to bring my desktop computer, with its tower on the front line for the next inundation!
On the bright side of things, none of my school books, homework and notes have been damaged, save for the ones I mentioned above. It'd be terribly messy to have to catch up on all classes since September just because I wrote with an ink pen and not a ballpoint one.
Now's to hope that the floor won't get covered in mould in the weeks to come, and that the awful smell of 'old water' in our rooms will go away fast. It's quite a disgusting smell--somewhat sweet, but with that nauseating sweetness that clearly reveals that the floor and/or walls are rotting from the inside. Yucky.
And with that, today was filled with not enough sleep, classes, oral language practice (at least Malcolm X's speeches are easy enough to understand), and running everywhere to get the papers done for my insurance company. I also had to call the landlord, who was quite nice about it (he used to be a fireman too, hehe), but he said that we can't do much more about it for the moment, and need to wait for the insurance to come back to us.
I'm getting the feeling that December will be a very, very tiring month.
So, let's see, how shall I tell this story?
Thursday evening, Strasbourg. A regular evening of doing some grammar exercises. At 00:15, I decided to go to bed. I needed to get up at 7 this morning, after all.
Middle of the night, loud voices and odd noises coming from the corridor woke me up. At first I thought it was some of the neighbours coming home late and completely high, but something sounded odd in all of this. When one of the guys bangs at my door and says 'It's the firemen', that's when I knew it was going to be another long night. Inserts here the Yza sleeping all naked and needing to grab something to cover herself while still half asleep, and the picture might look quite funny.
A quick glance at my mobile phone told me it was actually 1:23. I turned the light on quickly, got up, and splash--my feet landed in water. About 2 cm of water covering my room's floor. The fireman still asking me to open.
And in the middle of the room, in all its electronic glory, the transformer of my laptop, quietly sleeping underwater.
Brain went --bzzt-- at this point, and I entered "OMGWTFBBQ???!!!" mode. I already had to get said transformer replaced back in May/June, and I seriously can't afford spending 3 weeks without the laptop, because it'd seriously hinder both my job and my studies. Fortunately, the transformer was only plugged onto the PC, not on the electric system. I put it on the desk, grabbed the the garment I like to call my 'yukata', and let havoc enter in. Sort of.
The situation was very confusing at first, but from what I could understand--all the while trying to salvage the couple of bags and shoes I had on the floor without making them drop even more water everywhere, AND without having my yukata slide and conveniently show more flesh than it should--it was one of my neighbour's fault. Well, he didn't do it on purpose, evidently. He came home earlier in the evening to find a leak in his room, near the lavatory, tried to fix it as best as he could, and it the end, the whole pipe blew up on him. As a consequence, half of our floor was inundated.
We were five people running amok, doing their best to help the firemen evacuate all that water. I shit you not, that was a pretty bizarre scene. I guess my knee-high boots are sort of ruined now, everything in my school bag looks like I found it in a dumpster (including my translation class notes and Sanctuary >.<), my nice pink driving license has lost its pristine appearance forever, and my keys reek of old water.
I can't tell much more about the laptop transformer. The Acer support recommended me to let it dry the natural way, near a source of heat if possible, before trying to plug it again. Since I had to go back to 3F today to pack up some books already, I left it for the time being not too far from the stove, and I really, really hope this will be enough to save it (it's supposed to be sort of waterproof. Sort of). I very well know my insurance would pay for any damage caused by flood, but my problem with that is, as always, time. I can't afford not using my laptop for very long, and with such risks of leaks, there's no way I want to bring my desktop computer, with its tower on the front line for the next inundation!
On the bright side of things, none of my school books, homework and notes have been damaged, save for the ones I mentioned above. It'd be terribly messy to have to catch up on all classes since September just because I wrote with an ink pen and not a ballpoint one.
Now's to hope that the floor won't get covered in mould in the weeks to come, and that the awful smell of 'old water' in our rooms will go away fast. It's quite a disgusting smell--somewhat sweet, but with that nauseating sweetness that clearly reveals that the floor and/or walls are rotting from the inside. Yucky.
And with that, today was filled with not enough sleep, classes, oral language practice (at least Malcolm X's speeches are easy enough to understand), and running everywhere to get the papers done for my insurance company. I also had to call the landlord, who was quite nice about it (he used to be a fireman too, hehe), but he said that we can't do much more about it for the moment, and need to wait for the insurance to come back to us.
I'm getting the feeling that December will be a very, very tiring month.