Hull, England: If one were to think of British architecture, the first thing that would come to mind would probably be Big Ben, Hadrian’s Wall, or any one of the many castles and palaces. Many of these long standing classic examples of British architecture have been around since ancient Rome, and their influence and remnants still stand today.
With that being said, I must pause and ponder my own housing situation. I live in one of the many student houses that border the campus of the University of Hull. It is by no means a bad place to live. I have my own room with a sink (very cool and convenient), a decent sized kitchen with an oven and two refrigerators (sweet), and a nice common area/living room. I would also like to add that our house is very close to the bus stop. I also live with an amazing group of international students.
With all of these points being true, I must share the events of Oct. 19. It started off as any other Monday. I had one class, and as usual I was on Facebook with the thought that the day would be normal. When I returned home after my lecture, I found, in my living room, a few buckets and a solitary frying pan oddly placed on the ground. I looked up and saw that the ceiling was dripping water. Apparently, the drain in our shower had backed up, and there was crack or leak in the water pipe from the shower that flooded our bathroom upstairs. The result was a tidal wave of gushing water from the ceiling. It was too late in the day to report the matter to the accommodation office so buckets, and the token frying pan, were placed on the floor to catch the falling water.
Problem solved for now? No. Around 1 a.m., I was working on a presentation (okay, I was on Facebook) when I saw one of my housemates posted two photos of a common room whose ceiling had collapsed. It took me a minute to realize that it was the ceiling in my house. I ran downstairs and it was confirmed. A portion of the ceiling that fell was around my feet, in the various buckets, and some of it was in the frying pan. Two of my other housemates were there and we all spent a few minutes looking at the sight. The silence was broken when my one housemate, who studies engineering, stated that in his classes at his home university English architecture is often considered poor. He said that he always thought his professors were just being mean to the English. This comment of course helped us laugh at the situation. There was nothing that we could do at that point, so why not try to find the humor in situation (and of course, take pictures and post them on facebook)?
The accommodations office quickly sent someone to fix our ceiling (as well as the shower drain) early the next day. When I returned from my class on Tuesday, we once again had a ceiling and everything was back to normal. That situation, as weird as it may seem, gave us something to laugh about.
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