From my old blog, posted January 19th, 2011.  This was a total rant, but I LOLed in my office when I just read this again….

Korea is cold. Not like Cape Town 16′C cold. I think if we had a 16′C day tomorrow, everyone would die. Koreans would magically start sweating (something they apparently don’t – I beg to differ) all the snow and ice would melt and we’ll all drown.

Probably not.

Since we’re living in Siberia.. well close enough – I just googled it… we’ve had disgustingly cold temperatures. Proof: When I leave my apartment in the mornings I literally gag when the cold air stabs my lungs. = Disgusting. It’s just too much to handle. I’m from Cape Town, dammit! 2mm of snow on Table Mountain *once* a year if we’re lucky will be front page news! I have created a way to survive the 3 minute walk to school. Rooibos Tea. I walk to school in 3 minutes (because it’s a kind of a running-sh*t-I’m-cold-why-doesn’t-this-damn-hoodie-stay-on-my-head type of walk) armed with my starbucks flask and rooibos tea. Nature’s goodness.

Anyways, the only thing keeping me calm this week is exactly that. Tea. These lovely and mild Korean (or is it Siberian) temperatures has been dropping to around -15 degrees at night. Wake up, Google Weather with your pathetic -9 forecast. LIARS! In Korea we have this wonderful invention called 온돌 (Ondol). Traditional floor heating… pipes of steamy hot water running underneath the floors. Magical.

These temperatures have caused the Ondol pipes of the floor above me to burst. Yes.

I woke up Monday with a strange dripping noise on my bathroom ceiling. Wasn’t really bothered since I can usually tell what the weather’s like from my windowless bathroom anyways… When it rains, I hear dripping on the gas pipes. Wind? Just listen to that extractor fan go! Hot and humid summer?? I….can’t….breathe. So I wasn’t bothered by the stupid drops.

It wasn’t until my Facebook news feed got flooded with fellow Aliens-in-Korea statuses about frozen pipes / no water / the water in the toilet bowl is frozen etc.  that I started thinking about the new weather forecast in my bathroom.  I had a shower.  So I had water.  But. It wasn’t raining when I went to school.  And my toilet wasn’t frozen either, unless I missed that detail when I went for my early morning I’m-still-half-asleep wee-wee.  After some discussion with neighbours who went Rambo and drilled holes in their ceiling to relieve the water pressure, I made the “you should have figured it out by now, Mari” discovery.  Burst pipes.  I got home and did some inspecting and sure enough… One little drop, hanging from my bathroom ceiling, just WAITING for that perfect moment to free fall.

It’s two days later and I’m facing a wet wallpaper contest (not sexy at all) and about 7 drops every few seconds.  Yep… 7 little escape routes for runaway drops – all from my ceiling.

They’ve been fixing apartment 401 since 8:30 this morning…. so hopefully by Tuesday they’ll reach mine.    As for the dripping – I do *not* want to be awakened from my I’m-still-half-asleep wee-wee by a suicidal drop.  So this is my plan (I’m hoping that I don’t stab myself with the open cabinet door tomorrow morning, cause that would definitely wake me up):