Plumbing Break

This morning I woke up to the sound of running water, as if someone were taking a shower in my apartment. When I got up to investigate, I stepped into a half inch of water. I ran to the kitchen & saw that one of the pipes had broken. Water was spouting all over the floor!

I quickly shut off the water main, grabbed my Chinese-English dictionary, & went to the apartment management office to try to communicate my problem:  我要一个水暖工。Wo yao yi ge shui nuan gong. I need a plumber.

One of the men followed me back to my apartment. When I opened the door he gasped at the amount of water on the floor. He rattled off something in Chinese to me & hurried off. A few minutes later he was back with another man who also gasped. They held an excited discussion & were off again. A few more minutes & there was an urgent knock on the door. The two men had returned with a third man, who brought a mop & bucket with him.

All morning & afternoon there were people in & out of the apartment, one of them presumably the plumber. The water was mopped up & someone brought a dehumidifier to help dry up the water that had seeped under the floor boards. But since it's Chinese New Year, all the plumbing stores are closed, so I will be without water for several days. I wonder if one of my fellow teachers will let me use their shower.