Invasion of privacy...

Last week, I had an interesting invasion of my apartment. While I was hosting some of the other teachers in my program, a Hungarian maintenance man came to the door. With the help of Christie and Tara, we understood that there was some work that needed to be done on the radiators. He wanted to know when I was going to be home so they could return and do some work. I told him I wasn't free on Mondays until after 5 because of my lesson with Csenge. Tuesday I was free and he was to come after 2 on Tuesday. Or that's what I thought we decided on.

Monday afternoon I wandered into my apartment building after school, and the same maintenance man was there. He asked me if I was home then - weird question - I replied with "itt vagyok most" (I'm here now). So they paraded up to my apartment to get started. Um... ok? I was to leave at 3:30 for my lesson, and it was 1:30 at the time - it wouldn't take that long would it? Yup, it would. They had to detach the old valve controls from my radiators and install new ones. First they were surprised that I have 5 radiators in my apartment. THEN, they were upset because they were apparently pretty stubborn valves to work on. We tried to communicate a bit because they needed some things from me, but I wasn't understanding them well. I got out my dictionary and they couldn't read the print since they didn't have their glasses. Hmmm... well, I can understand school Hungarian, and food Hungarian and travel Hungarian - but I'm sorry I haven't brushed up on my radiator and heating Hungarian. Sheesh. Turns out they needed a towel and a bucket - both of which we found, though they ruined the only nice towel I have due to rust. Hmph.

I wasn't sure what to do while they were here so I parked on the couch and started to do some school work. Eventually I noticed that it was creeping closer and closer to the lesson time - so I sent Viki (Csenge's mom) a message asking if she could come to my place for the lesson. She (thankfully) agreed and the chaos continued. We set up on the couch and started singing the rainbow song, which was interrupted by occasional drilling noises or some sort of hammering from other rooms. Csenge was not phased, and kept focus while we were doing some new learning. I'm not sure how she did it - but props to her for wanting to keep going.

Eventually the lesson was over, and the maintenance men left - only to return the following day to adjust some things. It was quite an ordeal, but I have working heat and I can adjust the heat amounts unlike last year when it was a 24-7 sauna.

He's clearly not having any luck DRILLING my pipes to get them to come off... notice the small propane tank near the sparks... ahhhhh Hungary.