The Super (Intendent)

When something's strange in your neighborhood, Who ya gonna call?
Ghost Busters!
When your toilet's overflowing in your apartment, Who ya gonna call?
The Super!


I went downstairs to his office and said, "hwa jang sil, mul! 화장실, 물!" Then I motioned with my arms. I was trying to recreate the atomic bomb explosion. He looks at me, points, and says, "you." He points to himself and says, "me, no." Saddened, I tried again. Maybe he didn't understand when I said, "Toilet, water, boom!" Again, he said, "anio 아니요."

With my heart breaking in two and a confused look on my face I left. I called my friend Eun-ha to tell her what happened and minutes later my super came buzzing at my door. He rushed in to look at the bathroom and motioned for me to get a bucket and scoop the water out and throw it down the drain in the shower. Luckily, my boyfriend, Nebi, was there too. He put on some pink rubber gloves and went to work.

While he was busy doing that, the super took my hand and led me out of my apartment. Obviously, I was meant to follow him. In an Alice and Wonderland swirl, I followed him as he was running around corners and racing to the supermarket near the apartment building. We went in and he asked the woman at the register something. The next minute he is waving a bottle of some magic liquid in my face that I took to be the equivalent of 'Draino'.

"Yogi yogi. Sam bun." "Here to here then wait 30 minutes."

I got it. I have to pour a certain amount in and wait 30 minutes. The super left and I did what I was told. Then after two minutes I hear a knock at my door. He had come to inspect my work and then tell me one more thing. (Note: All English had stopped after "me, no" at the very beginning of this whole ordeal.)

He steps into my bathroom again and point to the toilet and then to the garbage can. Next, he starts speaking Korean and makes a motion like he is wiping his butt. I start to laugh and then realize he is telling me that I need to throw all tissues in the garbage, not the toilet. He starts again. For some reason he wipes his butt in circular motions, but maybe he was doing it just to make a point for me. Either way it was hilarious.

Nebi and I went out to get a plunger and as soon as we got back and tried it, the toilet water went down. Our toilet was back to normal. If we had only done that to begin with we would have saved a lot of time. On the flip side, I would never have seen my super pretend to wipe his butt in my bathroom...