A big stir went through the office today because apparently the water supply for our zone of the city is scheduled to be turned off for two days starting tomorrow.

Let me say that again in case your eyes skipped over it: apparently, the water supply for our zone of the city is scheduled to be turned off for two days.

How much this “zone” covers is difficult to say (especially considering that everything is hearsay), but it includes the whole of the University campus and a lot of the nearby suburb in which most of the foreign professors live. We’re not even sure what the whole story is, as it’s gotten over to us in bits and pieces, but I do know from talking to someone here at the building (since I got home, long after people were talking about all of this) that some kind of local water shutdown will begin tomorrow.

As you can imagine, this caused quite a stir. People reported seeing older women of the neighborhood preparing for the trouble by filling garbage pails full of water, and speculated about what might be the reasoning (or even the legality) of such a move by the municipal government.

Well, it may be all for nothing. I’m not sure, but I do know that when I got home, I asked the caretaker for the building and he seemed to be trying to assure me that, if people in the building were not wasteful, the gigantic water tanks that service my apartment block should hold out for the full two days. Who knows if that’s true, of course; it could be mere optimism. I don’t think I’ve seen a notice about water conservation in the building—though there’s a possibility that the thickly worded (and probably-ignored) note in the elevator is all about this… but then again, unlike my in flat, plenty of flats have working speakers installed that allow the caretaker to make public announcements at will.

At any time he pleases. I am so thankful the speaker in my flat is out of order. (This has been the case in both of the flats I’ve lived in here in Korea.)

In any case, I am just a little less freaked out about the possibility of needing to cross town to get a shower tomorrow night. It’s still possible, of course, but it might not be necessary. Funny that this should comfort me.