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Published: September 14th 2008
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Today I went to school and had a pretty normal day there. Outside of school was a different story. The Kinders didn’t do anything special. They just did their seat work and practiced writing. I also noticed that the elevator numbers were 1, 2, 3, F, 5, and I wondered about why they didn’t put 4, but instead put F. I found out that it’s like our number 13. The number 4 means death, so they put an F instead! Weird!
I had previously mentioned to Mrs. Ahn that my apartment was dirty when I arrived and she said that she would send a maid. Well, today was the day of the maid. Even though I had a class at 1pm, she wanted me at my apartment to meet the maid. Mrs. Ahn is such a wonderful lady. Bless her heart, she goes out of her way to make her teachers feel comfortable and well taken care of. Well, I go home at noon and finish my lunch of my staples: Grilled cheese and bananas. Then a little before 1pm, the maid shows up…with nothing in her hands. Culture shock! In the States, if you hire a maid, they bring
all of their supplies with them. Here, nope. You must supply everything. Well, that was just grand news to me because I have been here a total of 3 and a half days and have only been to the E-Mart once. Luckily, I had bought dish washing liquid, had a rag on hand from the last tenant, and had a scrub brush in the bathroom from the last tenant. Tom loaned me his rubber gloves, but didn’t have any cleaning stuff I could borrow. The lady also needed slippers, so she wore a pair of my flip-flops in the bathroom. Seriously. Then she held up my wash cloth that was drying in the bathroom and I specifically told her not to use it because that’s all I had and I left my bath pouf at home. So what did she do when I turned my back? She washed my bathroom floor with my wash cloth! GRRRR. I thought, “Okay, not the end of the world, I can do laundry after school because I did buy detergent tabs.” She also told me to get a toilet brush because it was stinky. Okay, I’ve been here for 3 days and I really
don’t have any food. I’m sure a toilet brush is my top priority. Really, it’s not that it’s stinky, well it is, but it’s because it smells like mold. Since the shower sprays everywhere, basically everything gets wet. What I really need is some bleach to kill the mold and hopefully the smell will cease. She was there for about a half-hour or 45 minutes and then she left. It was a little awkward because this is the same lady who cleans up the school before it starts and when she goes around with her swiffer mop thing, she will hit your feet if you don’t get out of her way!
Anyway, I go back to school and have a pretty normal day and decide to just go home after school and vegetate since I’ve had a pretty long week so far. I throw my shirts, undies, bras, and socks into a laundry bag and put my towels and pants on top in the washer. Here, washers tend to rip up your clothes if they’re not in bags, so if the clothing is delicate, it needs to go into a bag. There is no agitator in the washer and
it turns opposite ways at the same time. Luckily Tom had given me the low-down on what exactly to do to get it to work properly. He said that I must put my clothes in bags, crush my detergent tabs and put them in the drawer, throw the drainage hose out the door, hook up the water hose, turn the water on, and then press the green button and then the red button and it should start. He even came over for my first time to make sure I did it right. It was very loud as it was working and I was working on the computer with my back facing it and talking to Mom and Dad and then Mikey on video chat. The washer buzzed and was done and I was going to show Mikey my place, so I got up with the computer and my sock got wet! I was PEEVED! I was so mad. I couldn’t figure out what I did wrong and I didn’t have a mop or anything to clean it up with! I immediately went over and got Tom and he couldn’t figure it out; he said I did everything right. He then
told me how to get to E-Mart via taxi (“E-Marta”) and then how to get home (Bone-byong-won: Bone Hospital and then use hand signals for right, left, right, right). So I gather my purse and head out at 9:30. Tom thinks the E-Mart closes at 10, so I am pressed for time. I get there and from experience, I refused to get a cart because if you remember, I had just entered cart HELL. I turn the corner and go up the moving flat escalator to the top floor for my quest for a mop. I’m by myself, of course, and children are jumping out of aisles and yelling “WAYGUK! WAYGUK!” Then they run away only to return a few minutes with more of their friends to yell at me. Remember how I said you have to be in the mood to go to E-Mart? Yeah, I was definitely not in the mood! In addition to my mop, I picked up some more laundry bags, a toilet brush, tooth brush holders, bread, juice, and bagels. I carried it all in my arms and probably looked even stranger to the locals, but at this point I am very anti cart. I
check out and go out to hail a cab. I get one and say, “Bone-byong-won,” or at least I thought I did. He obviously had no idea what I was talking about, so I said it again…and again…and again. Finally, I said, “Bone Hospital,” and he said, “OHHHH bone-Byong-won!” I just rolled my eyes and chuckled because if you get the emphasis wrong, they won’t know what you are talking about, and apparently that’s what I was doing.
I finally get home and stagger up to my apartment where there is still a puddle stretching from one end of the room to my entry way and it is an inch deep over by the washer. I rip open the mop and use the garbage can I had bought the other day as a bucket. I am pleasantly surprised that I had bought the most absorbent mop on the planet! It is like a latex feeling sponge that isn’t very porous, but it absorbs water better than anything I have ever seen before! It also came with a mechanism that when you pull the lever, it squeezes out the mop head! It only took me less than 10 minutes to
clean up Lake Victoria that was in my living room/bedroom/dining room. So not everything is as awful as it may seem. Now my floor is cleaner than when the maid left! I am also 38,000 Won poorer. I just have to tell Mrs. Ahn about it in the morning, and she’s good about this kind of stuff, so I’m sure it will be okay!
Well it’s time for bed after another great adventure! An-nyeong-hi-kye-se-yo!
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Aunt Marshy
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keep smiling!!!
This won't be the last of terrible happenings! If ya need another vocation some day there is always cleaning to be done! HEHE!! Smile !!! HUGS!!!