The Toilet Saga, continued!

So, for many of you, this will be the first you're hearing about the catastrophe that was my toilet (water closet) over the weekend. Let me quickly recap, although nothing could capture what happened.

Thursday: came home, found leaking pipe, etc. Then, water started pouring out of the pipe and I had to leave my apartment because A) I needed a functioning toilet and B) it was not clean water. Gross. I called the landlord, who wasn't picking up his phone, so my pseudo-landlord's assistant left a message for him. I crashed at a friend's.

Friday: Group excursion to Vaux-le-Vicomte. It was rainy out, so that didn't help anything. My pseudo-landlord (Chuck) called at about 10:30 saying it would be fixed by the time I got home. So, I got home, and nothing was fixed. It was actually worse. I fled once again to a friend's house, and my actual landlord (Steeve) came by and assessed that there was nothing that could be done until Monday. Fantastic!

Saturday: Steeve came by and said he would try to at least stop the problem from getting worse. I guess he did, because when I came back on Sunday to make sure no disaster had happened, it hadn't.

Sunday: Nothing happened with the toilet, but France kicked Georgia's ass in the Rugby World Cup, moving into the quarter finals. YES!!!

Monday: PROBLEM FIXED. At least for now. The pipes are still exposed, but that should be fixed soon. I just don't know when.

Ok, so typed out, it doesn't look as dramatic as it was. But imagine coming home to find a bucket of dirty water accumulating on top of a toilet, stinking up my apartment like the most disgusting metro stop after everyone's been on a bender (people who live in Paris will get this). It was totally uninhabitable. Even if I'd had water and a working toilet, there was no way I could stay here with the stench. But it's mostly gone now - I just need to leave the windows open a little longer, and it should be fine. PLUS! They washed my towels for me! I mean, they didn't wash them the way I would have liked them to wash them, considering they spent the better part of a week on the floor soaking up a mixture of urine, water, and wall shavings, but still! I'll just wash them again tonight and all will be well.

I'm going to go enjoy my apartment now. Did you know you can actually claim insurance benefits for "perte de jouissance" (loss of enjoyment)? I may actually try that. Oh, and I think I can get government aid for rent. Thank you, remnants of socialist France. Thank you oh so very much.