"The Joys of Homeownership"

November 25th

I got up early at 8:00 having good intentions to run in spite of the cold.  Instead the doorbell rang and the plumbing crew came to fix our heating.  To give a bit of background, last year my landlord had put in a brand new 6,000 euro heating system that has broken and does not work at all.  After going back and forth with the plumbers, they finally were able to come out.  We do not have heating in our apartment, but our landlord is really good and has bought all of the rooms personal space heaters and has told us that we will not have to pay for any of the utilities until everything is fixed.  In order for them to replace the pipes, I had to move around everything in my room. 

Unable to study in my house, I grabbed my books and computer and went to the library where I logged in solid studying time.  I stopped by the UC study center and added a grammar class for the next semester.  My original plan of just taking poli sci classes has been working well so far, but I feel that I am putting myself at a disadvantage by not taking a grammar class.  My speaking and comprehension has improved but my writing ability and grammar I feel has stayed the same.

I went with Heiko to the "comedor" and after he showed me where the very nice public library of Granada was.  I talked to my Public Policy professor about how I feel a little lost in the class and she said that its understandable that I'm not understanding everything due to the language barrier.  She said that I had done a good job on my presentation and should focus less on worrying about the grade and more on my personal improvement with the language.

Back home, I saw the destruction left by the plumbers.  The heating still doesn't work and we now have holes and dirty hand prints in the walls.  My wall had a hole that let light in from the hallway but Antonio's was far worse.  His room shares a wall with the shower and the plumbers had left a hole between his room and the shower.  Water could easily come in.  We called the landlord and he told us he would be over in the morning to fix what he could and was going to call the plumbers right now.  Living in my own place is a good learning experience.  Its stressful for us, but I know its nothing compared to being the landlord who actually owns the piso.