Part 49: Plumbing, Hiking, and More Plumbing October 23, 2012

Plumbing: 
Apparently there is a massive water leak somewhere in the police academy and since we share a campus, it’s our problem too.  We have been sporadically without water/attached to the old undrinkable well for the last 5 days.  On the up side, the well has great water pressure.  On the down side, Pink House has old pipes.  We found one leak as it was coming through our kitchen ceiling.  Oops.  It was quickly fixed however, and I enjoyed the best shower I’ve ever had in this house.  Oh water pressure, how I’ve missed you.  J 

Hiking: 
I wasn’t too concerned about our lack of H₂O at home because on Sunday I was going hiking!  The Hiking Club is my favorite chaperoning activity so at 7:15 am, MR and I were off to the bus stop.  We met up with TV  (wait a second, both of their initials are also abbreviations) to go to Zheleznitsa (or something to that effect) to begin our climb up to the peak of Cherni Vrah, the 4^th highest mountain in Bulgaria with an elevation of 2290 m/7500 ft. 

The weather was beautiful and the climb was great.  The hut we stopped at even had soap in the bathroom.  Soap!  We reached the summit ahead of schedule and had lunch before beginning our descent.  We were going down a different way so we could take the Simeonovo Gondola, which comes down right behind IKEA, which is right behind campus.  Convenient. 

My friend and Hiking Club supervisor, DZ, keeps a running count of how often I fall when going down a mountain because I always fall.   This time, I rolled my ankle on a relatively flat part of trail and went over.  After getting back up, a small child grabbed my arm, and according to the student next to me, called me his princess, told me he was from Plovdiv, and told me his mother once broke her leg hiking.  Thanks, kid.  That’s just what I wanted to hear.  He then asked me why I didn’t speak Bulgarian. 

The rest of my downward trek was uneventful in spite of the fact that the student leaders of the club chose to follow a series of boulders left behind by glaciers that sort of made a trail even though the actual trail was 100 ft to our left.  At the bottom, the teachers managed to procure 6 lev student tickets for the Gondola, rode down, and proceeded to walk home.  On campus we passed the adorable puppies at the back gate.  (please feel free to "aaaahhhh" over the picture)

More plumbing: 
This morning, the well connection to Pink House ceased to work, but I didn’t realize this.  I got up, used the toilet, and washed my hands.  All seemed normal as I left for my morning run.  From now on, I can guarantee that you were not doing the same thing at 7:30 am that I was.  I got back from my run, turned on the shower, and …. nothing happened.  So, at 7:30 in the morning, I was running through my yard to my boss’s house wearing flip flops and my swimsuit cover-up shirt and carrying my towel and shampoo to shower.  They had water, but it was cold.  Then, I could be seen running back across the yards.  Same story, except now my towel was on my head.  I’m just glad I didn’t have to go to work as a sweaty mess and I still made it there on time.