Toilet Troubles

Like all apartments, there were a few problems when we moved into ours. One toilet does not have any water in it (yes, we have tried to turn the knob) and there looks to be some broken parts in the back of it. Another toilet takes about 10 min. to refill after you flush. Well, I called the real estate agent, who said she would call the landlord, who would then call a plumber. Thirty minutes later a man calls and starts speaking french. I say that I only know English and then I hear one more sentence in french and then the dial tone. Ten minutes later another man calls back to say, 'I am calling to translate for my friend the plumber and tell you he will be there at 7:30 tonight. That is all I know. Goodbye.'

I had two hours to look up as many words as I could find relating to toliet, broken, refill, water and anything else I could think of to bridge the language gap. Our plumber finally arrives at 9pm and luckily Kyle is home to help. I really wish someone had a videocamera for this experience. Kyle and I speak no French, and the plumber speaks no English. At one point, Kyle is holding three French translation books and flipping through them furiously and I still have to run into the other room and find our fourth one to see if it has a specific word in it. After the plumber called his friend to translate again, we finally got the one toilet straightened out.

The next toilet was where some sign language came in handy. Imagine me overly exaggerating flushing a toilet (with the 'wooshing' sound and all) and then raising my hand to immitate how slowly the water refills. Kyle is next to me with four French translation books trying to look up the word 'refill.' Somehow the plumber got the drift and he is going to come back and fix it.

After the whole experience Kyle and I could only look at each other and laugh and be reminded that we REALLY need to enroll in some French lessons!