Tuesday, July 6, 2010

The best part of waking up?

Hello dearest ones!

What do you all think of the morning time? Good? Bad? What! That exists? Well, usually I abhor it, I stay in my bed until the last possible second and then move about my habit like a roming zombie until I am able to focus my eyes in my corrective lenses and then to use my hand-eye coordination in order to feed myself.

But I have found that I enjoy the mornings in Santiago. My mother has probably fainted from shock at this point, she who had to drag me out of bed moaning and groaning (those of you who have lived with me are familiar with my morning performances) every day until I graduated high school. But seriously, I am usually the only one awake at 8 AM and I can leisurely shower and eat breakfast at my own speed before leaving to catch the metro at 9:15AM. I was thinking these exact thoughts as I tranquilly ate breakfast this morning and continued as I walked to the bathroom to brush my teeth. However, I became distracted when I heard the sound of water from the men's bathroom (yes, in this house, like most public places, there is a bathroom for women and men. I think it is for my benefit and/or privacy but I still find it a bit odd). I thought to myself, how odd that one of my host brothers is showering with the door open (let's recall that I do not have rational thoughts in the morning time), and went on my way to brush my teeth only to return two minutes later and find the entire hallway submerged in a puddle of water. Let us recall that I am a) the only person awake and b) have only lived in this house for a week and a half. So, in a state of sheer panic thinking that I had begun to drown the entire house in completing the simple process of scrubbing my molars and after taking thirty seconds to translate the following sentence in my head, I timidly knocked on my host mother's door and said "Umm...I just brushed my teeth and now the whole hallway is covered in water. Ummm...what shoul I do?" At this exact second, my host mother bolted out of bed having heard the doorbell signaling that la nana (nanny/housekeeper) had arrived, stepped in the rapidly growing puddle and, rather than begin to scream out a list of choice words, asked me if I had eaten breakfast yet. I kid you not.

In broken spanish, I asked her if there was anything I could do to help but she told me not to worry and that I needed to be on time for class, and seriously, had I eaten enough for breakfast? Because yesterday I only ate one piece of toast instead of two and it's important to start the day off right.

With that, she bid me goodbye, pulled out a broom from the store closet and began sweeping the water out onto the patio, still clad in her high-heel patterned pajamas and rubbing the sleep from her eyes.

Needless to say, this woman is amazing. If I had been jolted awake by the idea that my house was being flooded, I would have a) said something vulgar or b) cried, only adding to the amount in the house and clearly not helping the situation. It turns out a pipe had burst at about 9AM and within a matter of ten minutes had gushed out enough water to cover half of the first floor of the house, thankfully no one has carpet in their rooms!

So, even though the experience sucked, I now have even more confidence in my host mother than before. Seriously, I'm pretty sure a volcano could erupt next to her bed and she would just calmly stand up and get the vacuum to clean up the ashes. I should try and learn from her example.

Shout-out of the day goes to all of my homeboys/girls on Pine Street. When I saw the inches of water floating down the hallway, all I could think about was our poor photo albums, files and in my case American Girl dolls which have been ruined by year after year of flooded basements.

Here's to my host mother who, inspite of water cascading from her bathroom, can enjoy a peaceful morning.

Cheers,

Abby

3 comments:

  1. Ah, the sounds of flowing agua in the morning. Makes one think of Frank McCourt's river flowing through the living room in the Dublin flat. Maybe with overhead sewer's and battery back-up sump pumps, Pine Street has seen the last of liquid cellars.

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  3. Also, I wanted to let you know that, after administering smelling salts, your mother has regained consciousness, and is amazed that you are up in the morning AND, most importantly, enjoying it.

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