Splish, Splash I Was Taking a Bath

Koreans don't 'do' shower curtains. The first day I came and saw the bathroom situation, I thought I was expected to take baths instead of showers every time I cleaned myself. My host is my distant relative, Yona and she explained to me that Koreans just let the water run into a drain that every Korean bathroom floor has.

Me: But wait the floor will get wet

Yona: It's OK, it just dries

Me: radio silence

Normally, I am the type of person that towels off completely before I step out of the tub because I have a fear of slipping on a wet bathroom floor and crushing my skull on a sink. I know this is a weird neurotic fear of mine, along with my fear of balloons (I guess the balloon thing is more silly than neurotic). I would like to note for the record that this fear of mine was validated when watching a documentary about government funded funerals and they discovered a guy who had been in his bathrooms for days before discovery. But I digress.

Now I remember coming to Korea years ago in high school where some of my relatives didn't even have a bathtub and I had to just pour buckets of water over myself (cold water mind you) and it would run into a drain. I have a westernized apartment now and would think the shower curtain thing would catch on along with every other thing they have adopted but I was wrong.

I, as a born and bred American, took a few showers to get used to this. The first time I showered, I was sitting awkwardly in the tub with the shower head 2 inches away from me trying not to let a drop of water splash outside the tub. When I got out of the shower, I took every step as if it were my last to avoid slipping in the few puddles I managed to let escape. Yes, Yona left me a pair of rubber slippers in the bathroom but my feeble American mind did not put two and two together.

Bath times were stressful to say the least for my first few baths but now I am embracing this lack of curtain thing. I mean, shower curtains are usually ugly. They sometimes get slimey. It is one more thing to upkeep in the bathroom when cleaning. You have the added stress of picking out a shower ring and curtain design. Shower doors are nice, but in NY I have yet to afford an apartment with a shower door. And with the added plus of a drain in the floor I have realized that when I clean my bathroom I can just hose down the room in a bathing suit, mirrors, floors, walls, and all and let the dirt and grime go down the drain.

For me, this is one example of Korean brilliance. I would say up there with thundersticks but below taekwondo.

Editors Note: Koreans sometimes have shower doors but they have a gap so that the water leaks out anyways.