A different kind of problem

The wonderful and crazy thing about Antigua is the kind of problems I have here. Back home my problems seemed fairly mundane: I'm worried about money. It's raining so I can't forget my umbrella. I'm sick of studying by myself. I wish we weren't having fish for dinner.

But there is such a different set of problems here. For example, I think I just sat on a pile of goat poop when I lay down in the grass. Uh oh, I forgot to filter a jug of rainwater for tomorrow morning. Can I recall the 20 essential amino acids for my test tomorrow? Oh no, I locked my keys in my room and there are no spares and the maintenance guy is gone for the weekend. (Thankfully one of my housemates is an expert lock picker.)
Last night I had a funny sort of problem. After classes, which ended at 6:30, I went with my classmate Burton to go get some groceries. By the time we got back it was dark and I was hot and sticky and tired. While I put my rice cooker on to boil, I hopped in the shower. I was in the shower, enjoying the cold trickle, when suddenly the water doubled in velocity and just shot out the nozzle. I tried to turn it off. No such luck. I rinsed off and got off, turning the handle as far as I could. That old shower was still going. I knocked on the wall to the room next to me.
"Excuse me Burton, could you come help me turn off my shower?"
"Sure, ma'am."
(These Americans all say ma'am and sir all the time like it's a proper name.)
Burton used to be a football player and he's got guns that would make Chuck Norris jealous. He squeezed into the little 2x2 bathroom and wrestled with the shower fixture for a minute.
"That's about as far as I can get it, ma'am."
The darned shower was still on. How on earth does that happen? So far here in Antigua I've only had the problem of the water not turning on.
Oh well. i lay in bed last night listening to it trickle, but only for a moment. Between the little frog who lives outside my door, the long classes, the heat and a bit of jetlag, I haven't slept a full night since I got here. Which is not necessarily a bad thing- if I don't sleep well for long enough, pretty soon I sleep like a baby cause wherever I put my head down I'm just gone.
Sort of like in Biochemistry class yesterday. Except there I wasn't lying down, I was just sitting there with my mouth hanging open.