So, I spent the rest of the Rome trip trying (and pretty much succeeding) to not think about my apartment-turned-swimming pool. When I got back, however, I was faced with the reality- I had, essentially, nowhere to live.
The school had set up the "nanny apartment" for me while I was gone. Now, let me explain. The nanny apartment is a mid-sized room with a bathroom on the second floor of the apartment part of the Headmaster's house. This is confusing, I know. Basically, the Headmaster has a huge house, but the third floor of it is made up of four apartments for faculty. Under these -real- apartments, but not part of the Headmaster's house, is the nanny room. It's used usually for people coming to stay for a short period of time. I had heard all about this space from others who had stayed there, so when I found out that it was my turn, I decided that I'd stay with Chris in Somerville instead. So, after he picked me up from the airport, Chris and I headed out to Concord, where I saw the ruins of my apartment for the first time. The floor had been completely ripped up, furniture stacked on top of each other piled into corners. I almost wept at the sight, though the good thing was that there was no standing water. Then. So, I grabbed some clothes and we headed back out to Somerville.
I spent the week there, commuting 45 minutes each way. It was strange- I'd been living on campus the whole time, and now I had to get up earlier and spend a significant amount of time in the car before getting to work. I definitely felt more isolated from the community during this time, which I really didn't like, in addition to the fact that half my stuff was still in my place on campus. So, after a week, I decided that I didn't want to commute anymore, so I moved into the nanny room.
I say "moved into" because, by this point, my apartment had about three inches of standing water in it again. It hadn't stopped raining since we had gotten back from spring break, and it didn't seem like it was going to stop anytime soon. So, to prevent all my clothes, etc, from getting moldy, I moved everything perishable into the nanny room. That was definitely tons of fun, since I had to wear big rubber boots the whole time, wading in and out of my place, and that room was barely big enough to hold everything.
By now, I despaired of moving back in before the end of the year. The head of operations kept telling me, "Next week! We'll get you in by next week, I promise," but it kept on raining. I became used to spending every weekend with Chris, getting out of Concord - and the nanny room - whenever I could. Finally, however, the rain stopped. My apartment slowly started to drain, and now all we waited for was for the place to dry out completely before work could start.
And start it did! Last week, the operations crew was able to start putting the new floor in. They raised it an inch or so, just in case, and are going to put a pump in outside my door, just in case. This past Saturday, I moved all my stuff back in. The new floor is beautiful, and I am just so happy to have my place back. There is still a bit of work that will be completed tomorrow, but other than that, I'm back in and snug as a bug in a rug.
I'm just praying that it never rains again.
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