Kimchi, not for me

So, continuing with the story....

He returned with a plastic bag and tape. Like the wide super-sticky packing tape. Serious tape. Not some weak Scotch tape. At this point, I was totally mystified. (And here comes a parenthetical statement that would make Joe Brown yell at me all over again...)

The thing about living here in a foreign country is that so very many things are (say it with me) foreign. But having been here two years, it's semi-rare that I am totally mystified by something. There are many things that baffle me, but few that mystify me. The reason is this, there are many things that happen in Korea that make no sense to me, but I am usually able to at least venture a guess as to why they exist, or what is about to happen. Of course, I'm rarely able to know if that guess is right or wrong, so perhaps I just live in a bit of a delusional world. Being able to observe Korean culture for so brief a time as two years has given me the ability to understand and guess...for sure much better than when I first arrived. So when I said above that I was mystified, understand...I really was entirely mystified.

Okay, so he places the bag (think of the kind of bag a newspaper is delivered in) over the toilet, and begins to tape down the edges. He uses LOTS of tape. At this point, I am obviously still mystified, but am trying to remember everything that happens so I can give Lis accurate updates. (She was in her room reading, and I kept on popping back in there every 10-ish minutes to tell her what was going on. When Joshua left to get the tape, I stuck my head in her room and whispered unbelievingly, "I think he's going to stand ON THE TOILET and use the plunger!" See? I guessed wrong.) Anyway, he taped it all down, and then took a step back. Perhaps he was admiring his handiwork? "That was a good taping job you did there..." that's what I would have said if he spoke English and understood sarcasm.

Anyway...so the bag is most securely taped to the top of the toilet. Then he flushed the toilet. The bag sort of domed up, due to the air and all. Then, he placed both hands on the now dome-shaped bag/toilet thing, and pushed. AHA! I get it now! When I saw him do that, I let out an explosive guffaw of awe and appreciation. I think I scared him, actually. Then I kept on saying, "Wow, that's amazing!" Either he didn't understand what I said, or did understand and thought I was strange or a bit of a loser for being so easily impressed. All the same, he did the whole flush-then-push-the-domed-bag thing a few more times. Sadly, it did not remove the tomato clog. Then he told me in Korean that he would be right back. At this point I rushed to Lis' room, opened the door, and hissed, "Hetapedabagoverthetoiletandthenhepushedonitanditwasamazing! I've never seen anything like that before!" (And I did say it like that too, perhaps I am too easily entertained.)

He returned with a wire coat hanger, which he undid, and proceeded to stick up the pipes. Well, I felt quite smug in that I had already tried that and gotten nowhere with it. Yeah, but he did. He fashioned the end he was holding into the shape of a crank, and was just mercilessly giving those tomatoes the what-for. I was standing in the hall, still amazed at all the novelty, when - HORROR OF HORRORS, I saw the bottom half of a cherry tomato start to come out of the flushy hole. Joshua couldn't see it where he was. I stood there horrified...and mostly wishing I could disappear (but secondly wishing I hadn't flushed the darn tomatoes in the first place), and then it just popped out. Joshua stopped turning the coat hanger, looked at it, looked at me, and said, "Teresa....tomato?" (FYI, tomato is pronounced almost the same in Korean, except the middle a sound is more of a short o sound like in Octopus.) I nodded, pointed to myself and called myself an idiot in Korean, which cracked him up (works EVERY time...and believe me, I've used it plenty), and then just exploded laughing.

All in all, I think about four tomatoes came out of the pipe, thanks to the persuasion of his coat hanger. But the line was still clogged. So they had to send out a plumber today.

I think I may have just finally learned my lesson. At the very least, if I want to stop up a toilet, I'll make sure it's mine and not Lis'. :)