Old Faithful Redux

An old friend who's more widely traveled than I am tells me that water heaters like the ones I have in my apartment (one for each bathroom) are more common around the world than not.

Apparently, my experience of water heaters in the United States and Western Europe is atypical. And I should not have been so surprised by my Geyser water heater (it's pronounced "geezer" here, by the way).

This is one drawback of writing from the viewpoint of a newcomer -- many things that are new to me are old hat to a lot of folks.

But I'm writing for people like me. And these things are new to me are new to them, too.

So, my apologies if you some of this stuff already. If I write something that's old, silly or just plain wrong, please add a comment.