Exciting Morning

What an exciting morning!  Woke up to realize that the toilet isn’t working properly - the water fills the bowl and ssssslllllllooooooowwwwwlllllyyyyyy drains.  We’ve resolved to quit trying to figure out ‘who did it’ and get it fixed.  Plumbing is quite and issue in China.  (Has everyone heard my story about trying to use the dishwasher?  To make a long story short - the open ended pipe that’s under the kitchen cabinets shoots out dirt and leaves as the dishwasher drains!  Needless to say, we wash dishes by hand.) 

I do have a plunger!  After spending twenty minutes splashing around I thought Justin might like a turn..  His solution was to call the service center!  Calling and trying to explain a problem in half English/half Chinese is usually as frustrating as trying to fix the problem myself!  As he left to go play basketball, I decided to give it one more try.  There is something about plunging a toilet, even when it’s just water you’re dealing with, that is SO disgusting!   I won’t be going into the plumbing business anytime soon.  I gave up and called the front desk.  

About ten minutes later, a nice little man showed up at the front door with a plunger.  He wasn’t quite as concerned with keeping the water in the toilet as I had been.  Actually, he didn’t even mind sticking his hands down the toilet drain!  As he plunged and splashed away, I realized that the drain in the shower was making a terrible noise.  I can’t imagine what kind of pipe maze hides under the bathroom floor!  Using hand motions, I asked if he wanted me to turn the shower water on to fill the pipe.  Great idea!  Didn’t help!  

When I came back to check on him, he was taking my trash can to the shower, filling it with water and dumping it with full force into the toilet.  Over.. and over.. again.  My bathroom is quickly becoming a miniature water theme park!  I suppose the water in theme parks here might not be much cleaner!  

He appears to have tried everything he can think of, starts to get a bit frustrated, calling on his radio for help.  The few words I can understand are:  not good, two meters, something, house, her, water, i don’t know.  Then, he looks at me and talks so fast in Chinese I have no clue what he’s saying.  I respond with, “I hear you, but don’t understand you.”  He smiles, and then just leaves the apartment.  I’m assuming he’ll be back with something that’s two meters long to stick down the pipe??  Who knows!