spoke too soon!

I am going to write about sewage and things that smell. Finish eating. Then read.

Well, it seems as though I prematurely turned my nose up at my gift of plastic gloves and baggies. I arrived home this evening, and my apartment smelled. I hadn't had time to clean my breakfast dishes, so I thought maybe that was where it was coming from. So I cleaned the dishes. Still smelled. Ok, I thought, maybe it's coming from the drain. There is no garbage disposal here, but rather a nasty basket that I only touch with tongs. Everything that goes down the drain that is not liquid is caught in the nasty basket. So I emptied my nasty basket, but the smell was still there, and getting worse.

Garbage? No.

And it was getting so bad I thought either a sewage line had exploded outside, or there was a dead animal rotting in my apartment somewhere.

I moved furniture. I cleaned. But the smell would not go away. It was so mad it was making me feel physically ill. Suddenly, it hit me. I had flashbacks to last summer. Sewage.

I don't exactly understand it. But it's something about the pipes in Seoul going straight into the sewer, rather than having that efficient S curve full of water or whatever that traps the smell. I also don't understand why I didn't get this smell allllll winter. But now that the temperature is FINALLY getting warm, my apartment is filled with the smells of the sewers again. And I guess I just pushed it from my mind, because my apartment smelled like this ALL the time last summer...rather, my bathroom (kitchen has a plug on the drain the keeps the smells to a minimum) smelled like this all the time last summer, and on the bad days, it wafted into the rest of my apartment.

I panicked. I'll have to move. I can't live like this.

In time of uncertainty, when the future is hazy, and I don't know what to do or who to turn to, I go to my computer, I open a browser, and type in those magical 9 letters-Google.com. On Google, I found a suggestion from someone living in Korea to put a plastic bag filled with water over the shower drain. Initially I thought "shucks, I don't have any plastic bags!" Then my eyes moved to the spot on the floor where I threw the box after taking its picture for last nights blog! SUCCESS! And it actually worked. My apartment does not smell anymore!

Or else I'm just used to it.

Embarrassing side note-In order to get to the actual hole where the shower water drains (and the source of the smell) I had to pry off the two feet long decorative cover. I didn't even know it came off. I've tried removing it before, but it was so stuck on there with years of grime, I initially thought it was cemented down, a permanent fixture. Needless to say, when I got the cover off, it was in need of a good cleaning. I wished I had gloves, because it was gross. I cleaned it, gloveless. BLAAAUUUGGGHHHHHRRRRRRRRRIIIIIIICCCCCKKKKK. Then, I excitedly put my bag of water over the hole, and waited for the smell to stop. It wasn't until I sat down to write this blog that I once again looked down at the box of baggies on the floor, and remember that the box was also full of gloves.

36 hours until Hong Kong! And I am no longer traveling solo! WoOt!