a first time for everything...

so when i woke up on tuesday morning there was no power. i didn't actually realize it at first. the sun shines directly into the bathroom in the morning, and lights a lot of the apartment. it wasn't until i tried to put on the kettle for a cup of tea (we have an electric range) that i realized i wasn't just sleepy/stupid - the stove wasn't turning on. but whatever, not a huge deal. this is costa rica. the power goes out from time to time. i made a hot tap water cup of tea and got on with my morning.

by the time i left for work around 4pm the power was *still* out. that concerned me a little.

when colleen and i arrived home at 10:30pm and the lights were on in the hall and at our neighbors' - we were relieved. however, when we walked into our apartment the lights were STILL not working. then i started getting annoyed. we donned our headlights and grabbed what we could from the fridge - a little cold pasta, some leftover rice. we decided it was too late to call rita, our landlady.

so first thing in the morning colleen called her, and she sprung into action (she is actually very helpful). I, of course, was still sleeping at this time. Rita stopped by about mid-morning and we had a little chat. or maybe chat is too strong of a word. she talked and i mostly understood. i did manage to explain that we had *never* received any sort of electricity bill (the people downstairs are supposed to distribute them when they come). so she seemed to think that it was because of an unpaid bill.

so colleen gets home and we go out for lunch, since we've eaten all the cooked food in the house already. needless to say i was feeling a little annoyed. first of all with mail in general. seriously, important bills like electricity and telephone are just tucked into the gate or something. no envelopes, and there are no mailboxes. and in theory we could just go to the supermarket and pay the bills - but that only works if we have an old bill to present, so they know the account number (they don't really do mail, so sending checks doesn't work. you have to go to a supermarket or pharmacy and pay in cash.). so we couldn't exactly do that either.

i had to go to work, but colleen was going to be home and try to figure things out with rita. by the time i got home, the power was back. hurrah! cooking! hot water! rotting veggies and dairy products! so it turns out that our bill had not been paid for 4 consecutive months. last year. and obviously recently as well - since we never received a bill. but there you have it - i had my electricity turned off. though it wasn't really my fault. just an interesting life experience.