Black Out

It’s been a chilly winter here in Shanghai ever since I got back about 10 days ago. My apartment was a refrigerator when I got back last Tuesday. I’m not sure why, but Eva thought it would be a good idea to open the bathroom window, which was a little bit of an angering surprise after what was already a long, arduous flight back home. Maybe she thought I would like some fresh air? At below freezing lows at night I don’t think so.

After leaving my close-to-worthless air conditioners on for two days straight and not feeling any warmer I decided it was time to bite the bullet and get me some space heaters. Luckily I remembered the $100 gift cards to some department store the newspaper gave us (in lieu of a bonus, I assume). So on New Years Day I pried myself off the sofa and out from under the four blankets I was wrapped in and set off to buy my heaters. I arrived home two heaters richer and my apt was finally warming up. I wasn’t really too concerned with how much electricity I might be using and just let everything go.

Everything was fine for the first two days. But then on Monday night I made a fateful mistake. I wasn’t really thinking as I had the two heaters, all air conditioning units and most of the lights on in my apartment when I decided it would be a good idea to dry a pair of socks with the ultra high-powered hair dryer I had recently acquired.

After about 10 seconds my entire apartment (all 50 square meters of it) went black. Uh oh!

I knew exactly what I had done. And luckily I knew what to do. I keep up with a good friend’s blog and she had a similar experience, although I don’t think it was in sub-zero weather. Dressed in my finest PJs I went down to talk to the (almost worthless) guard/I-sit-here-because-they-pay-me person. In my limited Chinese I explain that I have no electricity and she says I need to call an electrician. Electrician? I just need to know where the fuse box is (or so I thought). Who knew how long it would take for an electrician to show up … and I was sure it wasn’t going to be that night.

After a frantic phone call to Eva, some bickering with the guard/I-sit-here-because-they-pay-me person and after a few more phone calls, we wake the electrician, who emerges from some underground cave-like place under the apartment complex. Unfortunately it was not as easy as flipping a fuse box switch… or maybe it was and he just made it look like it was harder than it appeared to earn his 20 RMB reward. Either way, 20 minutes after I had foolishly turned on every possible appliance in my apartment, I was up and running again.

And now I’ve learned my lesson about the hairdryer... but those heaters will stay on!