When I imagined this trip, I always hoped that it would feel like I actually live in New York and that I would not be „just“ another tourist. I pictured myself sitting at a desk by the window, freelancing a bit in the morning, then going out for lunch and checking out cool exhibitions, that only real New Yorkers knew about. What I didn’t image was that I would have to deal with a case of water damage.
But hey, it’s definitely not touristy, so I take it!
I noticed water coming out of the heating pipe a few minutes after my AirBnB host left on my first day here. At first, I didn’t think much of it and wrote it off as condesation or something like that. A few hours later, however, there was more water and it was not the transparent type anymore but instead resembled a murky, brown substance. I took some photos and sent them to my host but he replied „no worries, Katja, it’s an old New York apartment. It’s totally normal. That’s just the heating“. Alright, I thought. After all, I am staying in an old building. And to be honest, the constant sizzling of (brown) water evaporing on a steaming hot pipe and the (almost christmassy) scent of burnt caramel it caused, had a calming effect on me. I guess, a leaking radiator pipe could be a poor New Yorker’s equivalent of a cozy fireplace!
Last night, however, I noticed that there was water actually dripping from the top of the pipe and that brown stains had formed on the ceiling, which could very well be used for a Rorschach test. I texted my host again and he seemed a bit more concered about the situation, saying that he’d swing by with a plumber around noon today.
This morning I was actually doing some freelance work and sitting at „my“ desk (sadly not facing a window) in my pyjamas, when the doorbell rang and the plumber (without my AirBnB host) was standing there, asking where the problem was – in Spanish. I had to face the terrible fact, that my once decent school Spanish had deteriorated dramatically. Basically, all that is left is that I can order beer in Spanish and sing along to Loona’s „Bailando“. However, I caught fragments like „agua baja“, „apartamento arriba“ and „solo pintar“ (accompanied by the plumber mimicking a painter). So I took it, that he means, the problem comes from the apartment above and that my AirBnB host would only have to paint the pipe and ceiling. (The German in me highly doubts that a little paint helps with water damage but I am generally a very hopeful person. I just hope that the ceiling collapses on the next tennant and not on me.)
Anyway, no time to worry about it. I have to go out for lunch and then visit a cool exhibition, that only New Yorkers know about (as if!).
Update: As I was uploading this post, it suddenly started to rain from the ceiling. This is not normal, even for New York, right?
Couch Potato Chronicles 