As I stepped into my apartment my nose was offended by an extremely putrid smell. At first I thought nothing of it, offensive smells are not an uncommon occurrence in my building. It wasn’t until I stepped into my bathroom that I came across the most horrific sight. An exploded toilet!
Now it had been threatening to erupt for weeks like Mt Vesuvius ready to bury Pompeii. In the night I would often hear loud gurgling noises like some kind of monster living in the depths of the sewage pipes.
When this volcano finally erupted the damage was colossal and widespread. Dare I describe the contents that were flung onto the walls and floor. How bits of newspaper found themselves lodged on the wall is anyone’s guess. Apparently someone took reading the newspaper in the toilet to that next extreme level!
Now as if the day could get any worse when I came back to the apartment after a days teaching all I wanted to do was jump on Skype and vent. But alas that was not to be. The power was out and for how long who would know!
Being in the dark is great if you’re camping, sitting by the shimmering fire roasting marshmallows. Unfortunately for me my apartment lacked both campfire and marshmallows. The novelty lasted for about 30 seconds and then I realised that I would have to shower in the dark with the torch tied to a down pipe so I could see enough to not fall in the squat toilet! The power was off for a total of 19 hours and out of the whole four story building it was only mine and one other apartment without power!
To top that (I know who would of thought) the next day while doing a load of washing I walked back into the bathroom to find the floor covered in water! Somehow the drains had got completely blocked up and now my washing machine was draining straight onto my nice clean tiles leaving behind a film of black filth! At this point I’m starting to think the sewage and drainage system isn’t so good.
So in the game of Sasha Vs Chinese Apartment the score is currently sitting at 4-Apartment 1-Sasha (1 point to the apartment previously gained from the shower leaking into the living room and 1 point to me gained for redecorating). Hopefully I can gain some ground soon!
You can check out pictures of my apartment on campus at Shaoxing Primary School in China here.
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Oh my gosh! That's horrific!!!! All we've had to deal with is a toilet that regularly blocks...but we can fix it with a plunger (can be a prtty gross job to be fair..) Gotta love the Chinese sewage system...
You've definitely got a unique story there! ;-) Over 50 year ago when my parents lived in the bush in the Canadian north, my Dad's company was having some big shot execs flying in to inspect the line. It fell to my father, being the Chief Engineer on the project, to be the one to have them for supper, since it was really just a camp and as such there were no restaurants.... My dad broke the news to my mom on his lunchhour. She dashed out to get ingredients, and upon coming home - like you - was met with a, shall we say, not very pleasant odor... when she unlocked the front door she was met with a very similar sight as your bathroom, only it was caused by their cowering and ashamed labrador retreiver who had had severe diarhea while she'd been gone. It was now 2 hours before said Execs were due to arrive. My resourceful Mom called her neighbour and, to make a long story short, just before my Dad was due to leave the office at 5 p.m. with his guests in tow, she called him and instructed him to bring himself and guests to the neighbours house and act as if it was his own house.... He could tell by the stress in her voice not to question her further, and those Execs never found out that the house they had supper in that night was NOT the house of their Chief Engineer. lol..
Ah yes well luckily i discovered the toilet between classes so i hosed it all down with the shower and then sprayed the whole place with the strongest cleaning products imaginable!!! Thank goodness I still had power when that happened and thank goodness for wallmart having orange scented Mr Muscle!!! It wasn't all so funny at the time but looking back now i think how many people can say 'when i was in china my toilet exploaded!'. Still not sure how it was physically possible! lol
Oh my, Sasha. Did you have to clean up the Brown Spots On the Wall by Hoo Flung Poo in the dark?????
And your stoicism is admiral, to say the least!
Oh no - sounds like something off one of those DIY nightmare shows! Hope it all got fixed up OK!
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