Poo Korea

Well, I debated on whether or not to write about a fairly embarrassing shituation that happened to me the other day. After a while I figured why not? I would only be making fun of myself.
Sungjoo's professor, Dr. Kim, offered to let us stay in her apartment this past Saturday night. It was just Kate, Sungjoo, and me. Dr. Kim was in Japan mountain climbing. Her apartment was pristine and I mean spotless. She lived alone and had no one to make a mess of anything. That was until I showed up.
In her bathroom she had a robotic toilet. It had buttons on the side of it that well, ehhem, clean you with various water nozzles and then air you dry. It was crazy.
Sungjoo used the shower and bathroom first. Then It was my turn. I do what you do in a bathroom and took a shower. (No I did not use the buttons. Good old fashion TP) I dried off and then went back out to the kitchen and started getting ready for bed. Kate then said the toilet was clogged and overflowed.  Apparently in my haste I did not notice that the toilet was clogged after my shower. She flushed it again and it overflowed. I was mortified. There was toilet water on the bathroom floor of some lady I did not know and it was my fault. She was obviously a clean freak. I did not panic., I just figured I would have to find a plunger. She has to have one right? Wrong! Nothing, nada zip. This made me worry just a bit. Normally circumstances like this are not a big deal. In Korea I have no clue how people deal with issues like this. What would Sungjoo say? Was he going to be furious? I messed up his professor's toilet and bathroom. He had gone to bed and I did not want wake him up. He had been falling asleep driving. To make things worse Kate had to use the amenities of the bathroom. Time was running out.
I am under strict orders from Sungjoo to always go to him with problems because he knows how to deal with them here. If I try to handle it I can compound the issue by not being able to communicate properly. I do not have a phone or a bank account. My Korean language skills are basic at best. I had to do something. I went out on my own in a new city I did not know (this is 6 hrs from my home in Bucheon). I did not go far but I finally found a security guard in one of the parking lots. He spoke no English. He did not know the word plunger. I created a a darn good drawing of one before I left but it was not good enough for him to recognize. I think he was drunk. It was Saturday night and he was in a little building all by himself. Then I got the idea to ask him where the bathroom was. I could possibly steal a plunger from there and fix the damn toilet. I went to the public bathroom about 100 yards away in a little building. They had everything, toilet cleaner, mop, broom, rags and trashcan, no plunger. I returned to the apartment and told Kate I found her a bathroom to use. I wrote Sungjoo a note and we left. We had to leave the door open a crack to get back in. There is a door code and we did not know it. That made me even more nervous. We walked down to the rest room and got back in 6 min. Complete disaster avoided.
Once we got back I tried a hanger to fix the toilet. It was not flexible enough and the last thing I wanted was for it to get stuck or break off. I decided to wait it out until morning. Well I woke up a little before 7:30am. The toilet had drained all the way down. I was sort of relieved. I was hoping the water had dissolved the blockage enough to fix the situation. Flushed it again and boom, heads were popping up like in the arcade game Whack a Mole! It almost overflowed again. I quickly got the lid off the tank and stopped the flow of water by messing with the valve. You would think with such a fancy robotic toilet there were be a super sucker Niagara Falls flush button. I checked and there was not.
Sungjoo then woke up. I told him about what happened. He was definitely not happy about it but what can you do. He just looked at me and said "What did you put in there?". A little bit later we went to the car and drove down the street until we found a place with a plunger. Drove back and I finally fixed the situation. I cleaned the floor and sanitized everything. We packed up and left. I guess the moral of the story is, you guessed it "Shit Happens". It is just worse when it happens 7,000 miles from home, you are not familiar with your surroundings, and do not know the language.
Let the insults roll.....
Deanie Poo