The day I learned too much about Korean drains..

This little suite has very nice wooden floors, a fact that I'm very pleased with.  What I'm not quite happy about is that the adjoining bathroom has nothing to stop water from coming underneath the door when I shower if the drain isn't working.  And lately.. boy, has the drain not been working.  I can usually shampoo my hair before I have to stop and wait 5 minutes for the water to go back down.  This typically involves some angry jamming of a chopstick or two into the drain while I wait, in a sad attempt to unclog it..  Surprisingly, that really hasn't fixed the problem.  That's sort of the thing about living alone, I suppose.  You're a bit on your own for problem solving.  So yesterday, I donned an exceptionally attractive outfit (read: ripped jeans, an old t-shirt also.. and with a couple of ziploc bags on my hands) pulled out my little pink booklight and scissors and went to work.  I ripped apart the u-bend pipe going from the sink, pulled out the hair trap and cleaned everything out.  It was revolting..  But the amazing part is that I got the whole thing fixed and snapped back together in the right order. 

People ask how it feels to study abroad, I always say, "It feels like I'm always one step from either falling apart or having the best day of my life".  It seems like an odd thing to say, but being alone and living in a country that doesn't speak your language is difficult.  Things that were difficult things cease to feel so difficult anymore and things that were simple back home often become almost out of reach here.  One smile or small kindness from a stranger in times of duress can pull you up and help you get through, but one ill word, one bad experience can make you feel desperately alone.

Today, I was alone in this world.  But I took the problem on head first and sure enough I fixed it. 

I say, it's the small things that always find a way of pulling you through.  Being alone isn't nearly so scary when you realize that no matter what happens, you can perservere, even if it just means that you have to redefine the word a little bit.