Bathroom demons and televisual bliss.

I've been living in my new apartment for a week now.

The highlights:

--Living with Kyle.  Kyle is awesome.

--Not living with a school administrator.  Kevin was a very courteous roommate, and he was super-helpful with the language and cultural barrier while I adjusted...but being roommates with one of the higher-ups at your job is a bit awkward.  Not that it kept me from being comfortable or anything; I just always had a slight feeling of "I need to be on my best behavior."  It's nice to be completely at ease when I'm at home.

--HAVING A TV WITH MORE THAN TWO CHANNELS.  AND A COUCH IN FRONT OF SAID TV.  Oh my lord...I mean, everyone knows I'm a TVaholic, but I didn't realize the extent of it until I moved into an apartment with, like, 70 channels after a long dry spell.  I've hardly been able to pry myself away.  It is glorious.  More on that in a minute.

The lowlight (only one):

--OUR BATHROOM.  It is......blargh.  Something inside me dies every time I think about it.  First of all, you must understand something about many Korean bathrooms: there is no specific shower or tub area.  There is only a shower head and a drain in the middle of the floor.  You shower in the whole bathroom.  And in the case of our own bathroom, the shower head is attached to the sink, and you turn a little dial to switch the water back and forth between the shower head and the faucet.  (An added bonus to this system: if someone uses the shower and forgets to switch the water back to the faucet, the next person comes along to use the sink and gets blasted in the chest by the shower head.  SWEET!)  Also, like many Korean bathrooms, ours contains the washing machine.  And again, as is the case with most Korean households, the washing machine drains out onto the floor instead of from a pipe directly into the sewer system.

So, to recap: our bathroom has a sink, a toilet, a washing machine, a shower head attached to the sink and hanging on the wall at stomach-height, and a drain in the middle of the floor.  When you take a shower or run the washing machine, the whole floor gets flooded, which means that walking in afterward (to go to the bathroom or hang up your wet laundry) gets your feet all wet, so you track muddy footprints into the rest of the apartment.  We have some designated bathroom flip-flops to help with the situation, but it's still disgusting.  And I'm someone with a high tolerance for filth.  Oh--and the height of the shower head holster-thingy means that you always have to hold the shower head while you're taking a shower.  Awesome!

Despite all the obnoxious qualities I've already mentioned, the worst one is still unspoken.

Y'all.  There's something screwy with the way our drain pipe is set up; Kyle says there's no S-curve (or whatever those things are called).  Because of that, the stank sewer gas below floats up into our bathroom, and there is a permanent stench.  It's hoooorrible.  Our two lines of defense against the smell are both flawed; we leave the window open--which makes the bathroom cold in the morning when you want to take a shower--and we leave the door closed--which means you never know for sure if someone is in there.  I know I'm being all Whiny McWhinypants about this, but if you had to use a similarly crappy bathroom, I'm sure you'd be cranky too.    :c)

This concludes my bathroom-related whining.  But I'm not finished!  The aforementioned televisual bliss must be shared!

Because I am feeling particularly list-y today, here is a rundown of the wonders I have discovered on Korean TV in the past three days.  All of them filled me with glee.  I may have squealed once or twice.  (Okay....maybe thrice.)

--CSI: Miami (this just in: David Caruso is still a terrible actor)

--Law & Order (YES YES YES YES.  Even though it's usually my least-favorite L&O flavor: the one with the dude from Sex and the City.  You know the one.)

--Mythbusters

--the movie Two Weeks Notice (one of my all-time favorites!)

--a Korean TV show named Franceska, whose titular character is disturbingly Morticia Addams-like and is involved in a complicated web of unrequited love (also involving her fake-husband, her daughter, and a schizophrenic pop star).  Oh, and she happens to be a vampire.  Of course.

--a commercial that informed me that BILLY JOEL WILL BE PLAYING IN SEOUL ON NOVEMBER 15TH.  OH MY LORD OH MY LORD OH MY LORD.  And may I repeat: OH.  MY.  LORD.

--America's Next Top Model!!!!  (Thankfully, no marathons; I love me some ANTM marathons, but they have swallowed entire weekends of my life.)

--The Office.  DUBBED OVER IN KOREAN.  When I stumbled upon that last night, I sprinted across the apartment, grabbed my laptop, frantically skyped Margaret (who, thank goodness, was online), and showed her about 5 minutes' worth with my webcam.  It was amazing.  And hilarious.  And a testimony to why best friends exist (clearly, it's so that you have someone to watch crazy TV with over a webcam).