This Furnace Is Coooool…

Since spring, the school has promised they would install air conditioning in our apartments. By the end of May. By the first week of June. By the middle of June. By the end of this week. As hot as it’s been lately, the teachers were ready to stage a coup. I think the administration finally realized they needed to take action immediately or they wouldn’t have any teachers.

Four large men arrived at my apartment right as I settled down for lunch. I let them in; they began inspecting my tiny studio. After much discussion, they pulled out the power tools. This should be interesting, I thought to myself. My walls are concrete. Solid ce-ment. That did not dissuade them. As pieces of my wall flew through the air, they continued the drilling, the hammering, the finagling. An hour later, a small unit was installed over my sliding doors. Then there was the dilemma of where to plug it in. The cord didn’t even come close to reaching any of my outlets. A few minutes later one of the men returned with an extension cord. He wanted to move my wardrobe to plug it into the outlet behind that. I tried to convince him to run the cord a bit further to the outlet that was easily accessible. I don’t know what he said, but the end result was that two men moved my wardrobe a few inches and plugged the air conditioner into that outlet.

A separate fan unit was placed on my porch area. As they began connecting hoses, I noticed my closet doors would be permanently blocked once they finished (where my water heater and suitcases are stored). In pidgin Korean I asked them to wait a minute while I quickly removed everything from the closet. They resumed the assembly work. Everything in the closet now lined my walls. As they connected hoses and nailed nails, I noticed I wouldn’t be able to close my sliding doors all the way (because of the hoses running out to the porch). I pointed this out to them and they just shrugged their shoulders. I could hear my mother’s voice echoing through my head, scolding me when I forgot to close the door and the air conditioning was running, “What are you trying to do? Cool the neighborhood?”

They finished, I offered them juice, they drank and we smiled at each other, then they left. I began the process of putting my studio back in order. Okay, first, sweep the pieces of wall up off the floor. Check. Straighten suitcases. Can they be arranged in an artistic, deliberate fashion? Check. Clean the floor (with Pine Sol, no less). Check. Change clothes. I opened the doors to my wardrobe. I was met by an avalanche of clothes, knocking me down in the process. What the…..

It took me a moment to realize what had happened. When the men had not so gently moved my wardrobe, they broke the pieces that held the clothes rod in place. The rod had fallen, all the hangers (and clothes) had fallen, and when I opened the doors, they were freeeeeeeeeeeeee. I inspected the damage. Okay. Decision time. Do I call the school, and try to explain what happened, and ask someone to fix it? Or do I set out on my own, comb the neighborhood, and try to find this tiny rod holder thing on my own? Then I recalled how long I waited to have air conditioning installed. Okay, another adventure…

First was the problem of unscrewing the broken rod holder so I could take it with me (I wasn’t even going to attempt to look up the Korean word). No screwdriver. What else will work? Knife. Hmm. I only have sharp knives. I tried one, unsuccessfully. Bottle opener. Again, unsuccessful. Nail file. Hair clip. Random metal objects. Finally, I was able to pry the piece loose. Note to self: buy screwdriver. I set out, walking through the neighborhood, not sure where to go. I entered a dingy store that seemed to sell nothing but spare parts. Miraculously enough, they had a piece, while not exactly the same, appeared to be close enough. I bought that, a screwdriver, and a few screws. With a thank you, I exited triumphantly. A mere hours later, I once again had a working wardrobe, with clothes in order. And a cool apartment. Small victories are good. Very good.