I really never do learn...
Edit: I started this post a few days ago, but have since lacked the time/energy/desire to finish it. So it'll have to be one of those installment thingys...so there's giving you something to look forward to. And I find it entertaining...so be careful not to fall off the edge of your seats, okay?
I'm pretty sure I would have mentioned this at some point in the past, but just in case I haven't, allow me to share that Korea has some really strict rules as it relates to garbage. The majority of trash is recycled, then there is food trash, and then just regular garbage (scraps of paper, used paper towels, etc.). I think recycling is great. But food trash...I just can't handle it. This goes back to when I was a child, and was either told to clean out the fridge, or had a temporary lapse of sanity and decided I wanted to do so. Seriously...I just couldn't do it. I never could finish it, and usually I never got far enough into the process to make much of a difference. I couldn't ever even go in the kitchen when my dad was doing it though. When it comes to gross, rotten, moldy food, I have a super sensitive gag reflex. Anyway...how does this translate into my life now, as a supposedly mature adult? I'm flush-happy. I would MUCH rather flush food down the toilet than put it in a bag and try to not look, gag, or vomit as I dump it into the food trash bin. What is the result of my flush-happy-ness? Lots of clogged toilets.
Everytime I do it, I say to myself, "Well, that was embarrassing. I've learned my lesson. I won't do that again." But inevitably, I forget, and then I do it again. Today the culprit was a thing of cherry tomatoes. They were old enough that I wanted to get rid of them ASAP...and so I flushed them. Not only did I flush them, I flushed them in Lis' bathroom. Needless to say, the toilet is clogged. I tried my hand at the plunger, but the water in the toilet is so cold, that it makes the plunger all stiff, and very hard to...plunge (doesn't seem right to use that word as a verb). Then I went and got a wire coat hanger, undid it, and stuck it up in the pipes (didn't get very far). At one point I put my arm in a bag, then stuck my bag-cladden arm in the toilet and dug around to see if I could pull any of the tomatoes out. There was a hole in the bag, so it filled up with freezing cold toilet water, and I didn't even succeed in removing any tomatoes.
It was about at this point when I reverted to a mindset like that of someone much younger than 25, and decided that if I didn't say anything about it to Lis, it would go away. Needless to say, that didn't happen. So I tried more plunging...this time sticking the plunger under the scalding hot water of the faucet before plunging...still nothing. I then remembered the time that I had clogged the toilet by flushing cat litter (one of the three or four times I did that, to be specific), and Adam came down, used his muscle, and plunged the problem away. So I went next door and rang the bell. Our neighbors are a delightful Korean couple, they work at the same place as we do. They are so very kind. Well, they weren't home, but their son said he would tell his dad to come over when he returned. So Joshua (his English name) came over, tried to flush the toilet, and then asked me for the bathroom mat. Mystified (though that's not an usual feeling for me here in Korea), I gave it to him, and watched him carefully clean the rim of the toilet bowl. After he cleaned it, he took some toilet paper and wiped it down. Then he said he would be right back.
This would be where things get interesting...he came back with a plastic bag and tape.
