No Hot Water

The power went out today, at about 11:50AM. I thought it was just the circuit breaker in the dorm, but no, the whole city of Delft lost power for a good 15 minutes. But I didn't know that at the time, but I had my suspicions. A few minutes after the power was cut, deafening sirens rang out, not unlike the ones that the City of Chicago tests at 10AM on Tuesday. There is no water, the taps are sputtering. Great, I thought, something big is going on and I'm worrying that my milk will spoil.

So a few minutes later the power is on. Also, it turns out that in The Netherlands, they test their sirens at noon on the first Monday of every month. But there is still no water. At around 1PM we have water, but only the cold tap works. It is now 8PM and still, no hot water. This is a problem.

It is a problem because I pulled a muscle in my thigh playing soccer yesterday. The school has a team, which consists of all guys except for me. Last week I managed to hold my own, but this week I was a complete wimp and sat on the sidelines for all but the first 20 minutes. I think I didn't stretch properly (I guess my 20 minute ride over in the wind and rain didn’t count). Anyway, the gym had only ice packs, no heat packs. We couldn't find anything at three stores (Mijail (Ecuador) also pulled a muscle while playing), so as we slowly rode home in defeat, we decided that warm towels would be best. And they were, I felt great after a long hot shower.

Today my leg is still sore. After experimenting with foreign remedies, I finally found some warming balm at a drugstore. I now smell like menthol and camphor. The only way to heat some towels would be on the stove, and all my dishes are dirty. I now distrust the quality of the water because there was a pressure drop that could have lead to contamination (I’m studying without even realizing it). So there is no way I'm taking a cold shower. Hopefully this will be mitigated tomorrow morning before exams.