Gotta Love Concrete
I expect their to be some bumps in the road and hopefully those bumps won’t cause injury to myself or my friends here on the compound! Envision a few teachers, a few students, and a few pilots sitting outside “on the patio” of the Russian built concrete living quarters basking in the moonlight and taking in all the stars (without any freakin’ beer or wine). Don’t forget to also envision the fluorescent lighting that allows us to see our tea, snacks, and mini iPod player, too! As quiet hours are approaching, it’s time for all to head to their rooms and call it a night. After cleaning up, one would think you would find the area the same when you wake up in the morning — except for the moonlight, of course. Well, no one heard a thing, no one smelt a thing, and no one stirred in the middle of the night. As I open the door to my room, and turn right to put the combination into the bathroom door (which is located right next door), the lighting has caught on fire, burnt the ceiling, burnt the wall, melted the plastic, glass all over the ground, and all the wires are hanging out of the ceiling — with part of metal still hanging from the wires, too! Thank goodness no one was out there and concrete is all around the sh0tty wiring in the building! Yes, our room has a smoke detector in case one of our four fluorescent lights and its casing opts to explode… hopefully not while any of us are in the room since we all have one smack dab in the center of bedrooms! Never a dull moment around here — well, not never!!
Sand Through My Toes 
Well, as Tom Bodet (sp) would say from Motel Six, “We’ll leave the light on for you”. Guess that is not true everywhere.
We keep the overhead light use in the room to a minimum 🙂
Yes, from your lovely sister….I am a bit worried that you are teaching English to people and you don’t use there instead of their….I don’t think there is such a word as smelt….but as long as they understand pilot lingo you might still have a job 🙂 Love you. Another package is on the way.
The spelling misteaks when I don’t where my reading glasses! How do I keep my job??
Boy that Nat is a tough cookie…….LOL
Glad that you are safe! I guess the BOSE headphones that you sleep with did their job. You have wonder if you room lightning was hung around the same time the patio lights were installed…. just beware!
Time to hook up with an electrician 🙂
Probably the ballast giving out. A ballast fire can be rather spectacular ( lots of sparks, crackling and smoke but usually not too dangerous). Can you imagine having one on one of Delta’s airplanes while inflight??!!??. We trained for them and usually a quick suirt from the CO2 Fire Extinguisher would handle the problem quite nicely…..
Uncle Craig
Holy cow! Aren’t you guys lucky that the fire wasn’t bigger. Concrete does come in handy now and then!