so fresh, so clean

NOT.

sigh. i'm starting to feel like every time i come to europe there is some stupid issue that just kind of ruins the vacation. last year, it was missing luggage for FOUR DAYS. this time, its renting an apartment that just - all of a sudden - doesn't have running water. yep, no water, in very modern paris. it happened tuesday night. we checked in to our apartment on friday night and everything since has been fine (except for the apartment being much smaller than we saw in the pictures online). then, tuesday night, i went to the bathroom, flushed and went to wash my hands and there was no water in the sink. i went to the kitchen sink. no water. elaine poured brita water on my hands so i could rinse off the soap. we then went to dinner at a thai restaurant (i've been craving asian food). we came back at about a quarter to ten and found there still was no water. we call the woman who rented us the apartment and she gave us some instructions to check in the hall in case someone had turned off the water. we couldn't find it and we noticed that one of our neighbors' tv was on, so we rang the doorbell and he came out. we explained the issue and he mentioned that the neighbor between our two apartments had also mentioned he didn't have water. so we knock on his door and this other guy comes out. the four of us stood in the hall talking about it. we went and looked all around and finally found the original thing that our landlord was telling us about - it was on. it was not the problem. the four of us kind of putz around the apartment for 10-15 min talking about what the problem could be. we call the landlord back. she says "well, it's not my fault! i'm in the south of france, there's nothing i can do." typical french.

so elaine and i go to bed despite being hot and sticky. i got waxed yesterday and needed to rinse off, elaine walked for 5 hours and its super humid, so we were both gross. there is a random sink in the hall upstairs from us, so we have been able to flush - we flush the toilet like normal, then take the brita pitcher up to the random sink and fill it with water and come back down and fill the sistern with water. seriously. we have to make a few trips, though because the sistern doesn't fill with water after just one pitcher. i've also brushed my teeth upstairs. its silly, really. so this morning we wake up and the woman calls right at 9. there are construction workers in one of the apartments below us and she thinks that maybe they turned off the water. they came in around 10 (despite coming in before 8 every other day this week and banging and pounding to wake us up) and elaine goes to ask them if they've turned off the water. the man is a painter and he says "no, we haven't touched the water, besides, we have water." which they do. the neighbor from last night said that he would email the building association but it make take a week or more for them to fix it. we leave on sunday.

so elaine calls the landlady again, who hasn't returned our call from earlier in the day telling her that the workers say they didnt touch the water. the landlady says "well, what am i to do? these things happen and sometimes people just have bad luck." we would like her to pay for a hotel for us to stay in or give us our money back because this is a massive inconvenience. i am going to have to go to lisa's in the suburb's tonight and take a shower. then head back to town to sleep and get up and go to the wedding on thursday. if we dont have water on friday when we get back from the chateau (which is probably the day you're reading this), i don't know what we'll do. we want to threaten to go to the authorities because its technically illegal to rent apartments out for less than a year in paris. and we want to tell her that we'll plaster the internet with bad reviews and she'll never get another tenant again, but... i dont even know if that is right. doesn't it seem normal that if you rent out an apartment with certain amenities, you should provide those amenities and if not, then you reimburse or take care of the situation. the whole thing is just a massive joke and totally ruining my one vacation of the year.

THIS is the EXACT reason why i will never live in france. people dont care about others, they don't try to help.... and its so sad because paris could be the best city in the world if you had different people living here. i won't post this until friday, which means by the time you read this, i will have spent a few very uncomfortable and annoying days in gay paree. i'm already ready to leave.

[so fresh, so clean by outkast chosen because i am neither fresh nor clean and thats funny because i'm annoyed.]