Air Conditioning Leak... Must Remove Marble Floor?

We have an air conditioner leak - more like a drain leak from the air conditioner. Our A/C's are up at the top of each wall in each room. See the air conditioner? All of ours look like this and each are controlled with a remote control. This one started leaking when it is left on high for a good while.

Thankfully it is just one a/c in the extra bedroom leaking -

...but can anyone tell me why the EIGHT "noah speakah englisah" men are tearing out my marble bathrooom floor? ( I snuck in when they went to lunch to take this picture.) Here is how they are fixing my air conditioning unit - that is near the ceiling in the bedroom...

I have heard the hammering all darned day! Marble must be very difficult to remove. They started at 9am and it is 3:10pm and they are still working in the bathroom. MY HEAD HURTS! Across the street, they are tearing up the concrete from the old building area with a concrete smasher, then the men hammering in the bathroom, and of course our building is not finished yet - so we still have construction noises going on here :-( I wanted to go shopping to get away from it all...

Oh, and can you imagine my amusement when I opened my door and there were all these barefoot men waiting to come in? Can you see the foot prints I have on the floor from all the dust? I took these right after they arrived. You should see it now!

They do this to keep your floor tidy. Allrighty then!

So... can anyone give me insight? Why are they ripping out my marble floor in the bathroom to fix my air conditioner in the bedroom?

Take as many guesses as you want. I have tried all day to figure this mystery out. I will be happy if someone comes up with a good, logical answer :-)

PS: ICK eeeee aaaaah is out today, as is Giant. I wanted to go shop to get away from the noise. Imagine that - I want to go shop. You KNOW it is bad if me, Euvah, WANTS to go shop!

Today

Today is a down day. I really overloaded today. I wrote a letter to a friend and this is just a tad of it:

Oh, man! Yesterday was overload city! I am still suffering a bit of jetlag, and Steve took me to his office to get started on the process of getting a green card. We left there and headed to Giant in the mall. What a nightmare! Everyone in the city was there, elbow to elbow. It was late, I was exhausted, tried to find food for supper; found fish everything, dead ducks hanging upside down on rods, fish heads floating in soups, fish and clam shells on top of noodles, and finally settled on a burger king, but even that tasted like something the cats drug in.

Shopping in Giant was an enormous shock! The myriad of odors of durian (?), dead and dried fish, cheeses, and fruits made me gag - so food was not even an option at that point... rofl...

I was so encouraged the first few days; Cold Storage, IKEA... then reality struck!

Steve wants me to get in a cab. I have no idea where to tell them to take me! He said Giant yesterday, then named several asian street names and they took him. I would just be able to say Giant. Period.

Thankfully he copied a piece of map for me to use to get BACK to where I live. Maybe that will help if I ever brave up the taxi deal.

Does it get better? lol...

I am going to show you what keeps me getting through the days:

My hubby had these sitting on the table when I first got here, and I love them. I am here because I need him, I love him and I don't want to be seperated from him. The end.

Today, I am taking it easy, listening to all the construction sounds beneath me and beside me (the condo's we live in are new and they are still working on them), listening to the pile driver nearby (they are building a park for the school across the street) and finally catching a bit of the Olympics - held on my side of the world.

I might even make it to the 13th floor breezeway, to the pool outside and to this odd tree I see from my office window.

Reality Check in Progress...

Standing in line to go to Tokyo, I look around me and notice several things. 1. I am the only non-asian looking person getting on this plane. 2. I am the only English speaking person getting on this plane and 3. It says the plane is going to Tokyo Japan. Can this be real? I pinch myself again - OUCH!

After a super long flight through the US, over Alberta, British Columbia, the Yukon, Alaska, over the Bering Sea, part of Russia and finally into Tokyo Japan. I peeked out the window as often as possible, but the people around me gave me the evil eye, so for the most part, I just watched the screen and saw where we were headed. I could not stop myself in Canada and Alaska though - and there were huge mountains and LOTS of snow. I even got to see an avalanche from above - though it looked like it ws in the middle of no where in the Yukon. I was not sure what it was at first, but realized it after watching close. I thought it was a storm at first, then I saw the whole side of the 'mountain' collapse - leaving the real mountain.

Arriving in Tokyo was an experience. I began to realize just how different this was going to be. The food on the plane was horrible - all overcooked and oatmeal consistency rice. EWWE! There were FISH on my cucumbers on my salad. Yeah, I did not eat that. No picture - mean evil eyes again. We have a snipy stewardess too - so I was not ruffling any feathers. I didn't eat. In Japan, after finding my gate, I found a food place. Nice pictures. Have no idea what it said next to them, but the standard VISA emblem was no where to be seen. I wandered around some more. I am not one that likes to appear stupid, so I try to figure out the whole thing on my own. This is what I saw:

And finally the food:

I had the best Ramen I have ever had. Real Ramen and yes they took VISA, I finally got hungry enough to show them the card and they nod!

Was my plane on time?

The nice guard with the BIG gun at the check in point pulls me aside and say, "Why you go to Singapore?" "My husband works there" "How long husband works there?" "30 days", I say (I was told to say that because I have not yet gotten a green card). He looked carefully at my paperwork and passport and I shake. He says "You go!"

Yeah, this is a reality check. I was here and I have to learn to adapt. God has me in training.

The last flight in to Singapore is a blur. The stewardess woke me twice and made me drink water, "You DRINK!". Yes mam. I go unconcious again. Another stewardess wakes me. "You MUST DRINK!" I drink. I slip back into dream world. Finally they wake me and say "you must fill out customs form NOW!" What the heck? I fill out customs form and start to panic. Yes, I am really going to Singapore.

As Steve says, customs was a breeze - a hot one - but easy. They had already searched my baggage. I have little papers snuggled in every nook and cranny to prove it. Ugh. No privacy laws here I guess... lol...

I am 'home' on the other side of the world. I miss you all and please don't forget me. I speaka no asian.

Yet.

Airlines, Airports and Flying...

Already late for our 3:40pm take-off on the Dallas to New Orleans flight, I glance out the window as we were boarding. They have the engine covers off of both the engines. I thought how reassuring this is to us passengers getting on the plane - after all we are already late and they are working on engines?!

Finally boarded I am pleasantly surprised to be flying with an open seat in the middle. Looking forward to a few minutes looking out the window seat, I realize immediately I have a 'chatter' on the next seat over - separating us by one seat. Rambling on about everything under the sun, he just chatted away about divers, robot subs, deep sea whatevers and so on.

We take off. He is still rambling and it is getting hotter and hotter on the plane. The stewardess explains they "thought they had the air conditioner problem fixed, but apparently not" and keeps on trucking down the aisle. Mr Chatterbox keeps chattering. He is loud and obnoxious, but he is entertaining all six rows in front of us and the six behind us.

The flight crew come down the aisle with our free drinks. They go back to the back. They come back down the aisle collecting trash (all three of them) and paused next to us and all 3 together. This is what I hear: "Why did they put this plane back on the line?" "I don't know, it is falling apart! The air conditioner doesn't work, the brakes are always locking up, the engines give us trouble - heck the whole plane is falling apart!" "I know! I can't believe they would even consider putting the plane back on line." "Oh well, hopefully it is all fixed now". "Yeah, OBVIOUSLY they did a good job - the air conditioner works rather nicely, doesn't it?"

They roll their eyes and walk away, merrily collecting trash again.

I am sitting 4,000 feet up in the air feeling quite reassured. Thinking back, the engine doors were open...

Then Mr Chatterbox, bless is heart, says laughing to me... "I noticed the yellow tape on the doors as we were boarding - did you see it?"

"no..."

"Well, it said VOID all over it, and there was a big X that said CAUTION! surrounding the opening of the door."

"Niiiccceeee..."
*thinking in my head, last plane-same airlines, the back of the arm rest fell off in my hand, and Liz points out on it how dirty (black sooty) the wings were on it. Now this one had some delays for air conditioning problems - or was it?

Mr Chatterbox begins again. I found out way more about oil, divers, robots, bottom of rigs, barnacles, steel and hurricane damage than a normal person should ever have to know.

Mr Pilotman comes over and announces we are getting ready to land, store all items, upright the seats, prepare for bumpy landing and secure seatbelts. Mr PILOTMAN - not his crew says this. I think yeah, this is looking reeeeeal good.

Not so bumpy landing, beginning to feel much better now - just as the brakes LOCK UP.

Have you every bumped down a runway at a bizzillion miles an hour with brakes locked? (Angie don't read this - this is the FIRST time I have ever had this happen - k?) Our bodies were jack hammered the entire length of the runway.

We got stopped - by the grace of God and His angels, we got stopped. The cute little tow buggy came and pushed us to our terminal. It was a long way, we were at the end of the runway, buy the grass - and the interstate when we got stopped. The good thing is, we DID stop.

Everything fell out of the baggage departments on poor innocent passengers as they opened them to claim their personal belongings. Yes, this shows me the landing was as rough as I thought it was. You could hear a pin drop in that plane - if you had not been hearing the stuff falling out of the overheads. No one spoke. Not a peep as we exited.

I did not thank the flight crew.

I did not thank the pilot.

I did not thank Mr. Chatterbox.

I did look at the door as I exited the plane. Surrounding the entire door opening (as if it had sealed the door closed - and then a pocket knife had cut it open), there was yellow tape saying "VOID VOID VOID" and then a huge X that had been placed over the entire door and off the edges that said "CAUTION! CAUTION! CAUTION!"

I DID thank God I was planted safely on the ground - and I am saying lots of prayers to muster the strength to go to Singapore. Honestly, nothing like this has ever happened to me before... rofl... and it WOULD happen right before my big flights.

I suggested to the nice lady at the counter when I got off the plane that her crew hold their plane bashing conversations in someplace other than the isle, strongly suggested they remove their death tape from the doors as you enter - and fix the brakes. The air conditioning was an option. I dropped it.

I wonder how long a boat would take?