Jason & Susan

When it comes to living in China (for a very long time), we’ve learned to not take certain things for granted. It’s a long list of the simple things in life that can make our day really great (or really crappy).

• Clear, blue skies
• Clean air
• Strangers who smile at you (and we’re not talking about the creepy ones)
• Good customer service
• Getting a taxi
• A cup of hot chocolate
• Taking a hot shower
• Internet connection
• A heated room
• Getting things fixed around the house
• Drinking icy cold pina colada in the winter
• An empty aisle at Carrefour
• Things that haven’t broken yet
• Quality anything

And many more.

Today, we finally got our shower head fixed. It had been defective for a long time, since the weather started cooling down in October. Back in April when we zhuangxiu-ed our master’s bathroom, we bought this really expensive Moen shower head. It was expensive because it has a temperature control dial with an auto latch that prevents scalding hot water. The only reason we got this was because water pressure/temperature in China is spastic and unstable. Or at least, that was the case in every place we’ve lived so far. The water would be either scalding hot or lukewarm/cold. Sometimes it would go from a trickle to an explosion (picture someone who just ate really bad street food running to the toilet). In any case, taking a shower ranks up there among some of the stressful things about living in China.

That’s why we decided to invest in a quality shower heads for our master’s bathroom. We found this really good Moen shower head that stabilizes the water pressure as well maintains steady temperature. The temperature is set to our preference and we never have to adjust the temperature, only to turn the faucet on or off. In the summer time, it was perfect because we wanted to take lukewarm showers. Not too hot but not a cold shower either.

However, around September/October, we noticed that the water temperature was slightly on the colder side. The hottest setting was perfect, but that was already above the safety latch. Then, as the weather got colder and colder, so did the water temperature. In November, Susan was taking lukewarm showers and Jason stopped taking showers in the master’s bathroom. It was too cold for him so he used the downstairs shower. By December, the water temperature was barely warm and we both stopped using the master’s shower altogether. We didn’t know what was wrong and when we asked our contractor to fix the shower, he said it wasn’t his responsibility. He told us to call Moen customer service directly.

Well, that’s another stressful thing about living in China. Customer service is a nightmare here! On the weekends, nobody would answer the phone, and during the week, we were too busy to want to deal with that. So we’ve been running up and down the stairs every day between taking showers and dressing up. Thankfully for floor heating, it isn’t cold at all!

Then finally, we got through to Moen customer service three weeks ago, and today, the repair guy came. He took apart the shower head, replaced some parts, and voila! Our shower head has hot water now! We were so happy our lips cracked from the dryness in the air.

Ah! Taking a nice, hot shower—the simplest pleasure in life.