Today I got the internet hooked up in my apartment. Yes, that is a big thing, if that sounds lame well then I meant not for me, but for this Blog it's a big deal. I've already started putting up pictures, and I plan to write as close to daily as I can. Okay, continuing on from earlier. Where were we? Oh yes, "The Smell" it was like when you can't find your glasses because you are wearing them.
The smell was coming from the drainage hole in the middle of my bathroom floor. I wanted to imagine it was just like every other shower drain I'd ever come across before, but I was only lying to myself. The thing is that Korean bathrooms don't have a "shower" as most westerners have come to think of them.
Imagine your bathroom, then take out the shower, and put the shower head on the wall across from the sink, that’s really the only difference...Oh yeah, then put a drainage hole right in the middle of the bathroom floor too.
So really the whole bathroom is your shower. Everything gets wet, the toilet, the floor, the walls, the sink, the mirror, and this really scared me (but almost 2 weeks in, I can tell you now that my fears were without merit). Next, I thought I'd outsmart the smell by hanging a scented thing below my sink, much like New York taxi cab's hang the scented trees.
Well, it had about as much effect as the trees do, none. It took a few days of dealing with the smell until I realized, like a child who finally saw the way he could climb to get the cookie jar, that simply placing the plunger over the hole utterly and completely takes care of the smell.
There is no smell, the smell is now dead, thanks to my trusty Excalibur. That wasn't the only bathroom mishap though. The first morning I showered before work at 7:30 AM (only hours after arriving in Korea) the water was a bitter cold temperature. I swore to myself I could take it, I had to get used to it because I'd already signed up to do this for a year. I told myself I had done it before. The month spent in Mexico, Belize, and Guatemala was full of cold showers, and i got used to it there. I kept telling myself this, but it didn't help. After cupping freezing water onto only my most necessary body parts, and washing at least most of the soap off, I cried a little as I put the "big towel" around myself. The biggest towel in the store I bought the night before was no bigger then the ones you get at the YMCA. You know, the very suggestive ones that barely cover all the elderly men? However, my fears of a year spent showering splash to splash were put to bed when my teachers told me I had to change my heat setting. Just a simple button on the thermostat means hot water. It's as simple as that (even though I had my doubts at the time). Now I take nice long hot showers.
It's a million times better and everyday I don't take them for granted, as if showering right in front of a mirror isn't enough to put a smile on my face, coupled with the hot water, believe it or not I've become a morning person :)
The smell was coming from the drainage hole in the middle of my bathroom floor. I wanted to imagine it was just like every other shower drain I'd ever come across before, but I was only lying to myself. The thing is that Korean bathrooms don't have a "shower" as most westerners have come to think of them. 
Imagine your bathroom, then take out the shower, and put the shower head on the wall across from the sink, that’s really the only difference...Oh yeah, then put a drainage hole right in the middle of the bathroom floor too. 
So really the whole bathroom is your shower. Everything gets wet, the toilet, the floor, the walls, the sink, the mirror, and this really scared me (but almost 2 weeks in, I can tell you now that my fears were without merit). Next, I thought I'd outsmart the smell by hanging a scented thing below my sink, much like New York taxi cab's hang the scented trees. 
Well, it had about as much effect as the trees do, none. It took a few days of dealing with the smell until I realized, like a child who finally saw the way he could climb to get the cookie jar, that simply placing the plunger over the hole utterly and completely takes care of the smell.
There is no smell, the smell is now dead, thanks to my trusty Excalibur. That wasn't the only bathroom mishap though. The first morning I showered before work at 7:30 AM (only hours after arriving in Korea) the water was a bitter cold temperature. I swore to myself I could take it, I had to get used to it because I'd already signed up to do this for a year. I told myself I had done it before. The month spent in Mexico, Belize, and Guatemala was full of cold showers, and i got used to it there. I kept telling myself this, but it didn't help. After cupping freezing water onto only my most necessary body parts, and washing at least most of the soap off, I cried a little as I put the "big towel" around myself. The biggest towel in the store I bought the night before was no bigger then the ones you get at the YMCA. You know, the very suggestive ones that barely cover all the elderly men? However, my fears of a year spent showering splash to splash were put to bed when my teachers told me I had to change my heat setting. Just a simple button on the thermostat means hot water. It's as simple as that (even though I had my doubts at the time). Now I take nice long hot showers.
It's a million times better and everyday I don't take them for granted, as if showering right in front of a mirror isn't enough to put a smile on my face, coupled with the hot water, believe it or not I've become a morning person :)
1 comment:
Hot water! Your apartment IS nice!
Almost every foreigner I know here withstands ice baths.
Unless I wake up at 6AM (and nobody, other than you, apparently, is awake yet) it's like an extreme sport.
Makes me think I can do anything- fight mountain lions... that sort of thing.
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