Electricity, Where Did You Go?!

Well, I got back from a lovely Christmas/Advent concert on Saturday night and proceeded to start a load of laundry (so that it could get a head start on drying overnight).  Unfortantely, 3 minutes into the cycle, the electricity in half of the house went off.  I have no idea how this place is wired because the lights on switches in the kitchen, hall, living room, and bedroom went out, and everything in the room with the fridge, washing machine, and water heater stopped working.  At least most things that were plugged in, like the computer, tv, and smaller lights, in addition to the bathroom light (go figure) still worked, so it wasn't too bad.

Hmmm, anything look familiar?

Yeah....no.....

Just like when my computer stopped working, I crossed my fingers and hoped that everything would magically start working in the morning.  Alas, again like my computer, there was no such luck.  I was beginning to feel a little abandoned by my family during this process since my dad hadn't responded to my email (about the lack of electricity) from the night before; I hadn't gotten to talk to my mom about my Bucharest-Cluj indecision; and my sister hadn't contacted me about the Istanbul travel book that I wanted her to get.  I know that none of those are a very big deal, but it can feel like a big deal when you are thousands of miles away and basically have to rely on other people to get back to you (since you can't exactly pick up the phone and call very easily or cheaply!).  And, as we all know, when something breaks, I feel this sense of abandonment even more acutely.

Luckily I know some people here (both foreigners and Romanians), and I started to make some calls.  Some people from the women's group came over, and we started unscrewing all of the fuses to see what was going on.  But, we couldn't tell a thing!  However, we did find a button and pushed it, and all of a sudden everything came back on and the laundry started working.  Yay!  But, that only lasted for a couple of minutes and then everything went off again.  I cannot fathom what is happening because I certainly have done laundry before without any problems or hint of overload to the circuits.  I finally unplugged the fridge in order to at least get the laundry to finish, and we will see what is going on after that.

And, apparently I am not the only person in Romania to run into this problem.  Probably the most useful information I found online about this issue was on a blog of another American living in Romania.  For the rest of you that might run into this problem during your time, here is the link to that: http://travelogue.travelvice.com/romania/scary-antiquated-edison-fuses/

Here is a little more information if you are going to try to change the fuses yourself: http://ths.gardenweb.com/forums/load/wiring/msg0915030020836.html. Unfortunately, that information didn't seem to be as relevant for Romania.  According to someone in my American Studies department, you need to unscrew each of the fuses and look for the one with the burnt wire.  Then, you need to have some wire (where this comes from, especially on a Sunday, I have no idea!) and replace the broken wire.  Screw everything back in, and it should work.

Update: It appears that I do have a type of automatic system hidden inside the antiquated edison fuses.  Who knows.  But, what this means, is that I was able to push a button and have things reset instead of having to deal with replacing wires and things like that.  Thank goodness!  We will see if I continue have problems, but for now it is fixed and the laundry is clean!!!!  This just made me so happy I was in Cluj where I had lots of people to call for help (and everyone did help).  Thank you to everyone!