Shanghai postcard #9
Living here is great because it's always a cultural experience.
Living here is also occasionally unbelievably horrible because it's always a cultural experience. Expat shorthand for this phenomenon is having a "Bad China Day."
I am currently in the middle of a run of Bad China Days.
Right now, there are 2" of raw sewage flooding the tiny closet bathroom downstairs where we dry laundry, and where I dry my yarn.
It's a 5" step-down, and I'm thrilled it's not worse, but this will be the second day in a row that I can't take a shower. I'm making due, but not exactly a happy camper right now.
This is the fourth time the sewer line has backed up in the nine months we've lived here.
The first time it happened, we got an emergency plumber to come snake out the main sewer line. We paid the dude ourselves. When we tried to get our "charming" landlord to reimburse us, she responded "you foreigners poop to much" and refused to pay.
It came out yesterday that the sewer line is actually the wrong diameter of pipe, and she's known about this problem all along.
So today, foreign friends and locals with working plumbing, flush with gratitude. May your bathrooms be ever free from unhappy returns, and your landlords honest and true.