Sh*t Happens

On Friday morning I was looking forward to going on a tour and talk at the American Consulate in Shanghai through the American Women's Club. It had taken a week to get clearance, and I had made arrangements for the boys to be picked up at the bus stop since I wasn't going to be home before school let out. Well, the best laid plans don't always work...

Our master bathroom toilet had been running slow, and that morning, it clogged, and overflowed. I called the management office and told them the problem, explaining that this wasn't a "plunger job," knowing that they would send a guy with a plunger. (See, the Chinese think we're stupid and that we wouldn't have tried using a plunger before calling them. This is typical of most problems. Just because we don't speak their language means that we are stupid.). So, at 9am, the maintenance man shows up, yup, with a plunger. I rolled my eyes at Matt as I opened the door for him and let him in. Five minutes later, he was convinced that it was more serious that a plunger job, so he left. The management office called me and said that they would be sending over a "professional" at 10am. At 10am, the doorbell rings, and I opened the door to find "the professional" - the same guy from before, only this time he was armed with a wrench!

Eventually, the professional did show up with an electronic vibrating "snake" that shook the whole house and sprayed nasty toilet water all over the bathroom. After a half hour of this, and a lot of discussion and yelling back and forth in Chinese, they finally gave up, said "bu hao" and went to lunch. Well, I know what that means... "very bad." By this time, I had kind of figured that out.

After lunch, some guys came back and started digging up my side yard. The sh*t really hit the fan when the pipe burst in two places and literally covered the Chinese guy with sewage. He laughed and went back to work. Only in China!

Before the explosion... thankfully it didn't happen while I was taking this photo!

Needless to say, this was a whole day affair, so I missed my chance to go to the American Consulate, but at least my toilets are working, my garage is clean and organized (as this was going on, I decided to organize my garage!) and my bathroom is disinfected and spotless - I put my new can of Comet to good use!