Public bathrooms

I think I may have mentioned the mass availability of public restrooms in Korea before.  It's awesome...seriously, better than any other country I've ever been to in offering toilets to the general public.  Most of them are even cleaned and kept up by ajummas on the daily.

Toilets are actually more common than trash cans.  For some unknown reason, there is never a trash can in sight when you need one.  I've heard this is because  after 9/11 and other terrorist activities, the government felt that trash cans could be used for terrorist attacks...which really is just crazy.  Anything could be used in a terrorist attack.  Anyway, I'm getting off track...I have two complaints about public restrooms.

1.  Since toilets are so widely available, this means that some public establishments (ie: restaurants) don't have their own bathroom.  This means you have to go outside to some alley to use the bathroom which can be very cold during the winter.  These are also the ones that probably don't have toilet paper (this complaint is not that major).

2.  (not really a complaint about the toilets themselves..) but the obnoxious Korean girls who are either taking forever or throwing a fit because somebody else is already in there.  I was reminded of this 2 times in the past week, which is why I decided to write about this.

Example:  I was in the bathroom in a restaurant.  It only had 1 stall and a small area to wash your hands and/or wait.  I was audibly peeing when I heard someone come in.  I figured she obviously knew someone was in there, however, a few seconds later, she tugged on the door (luckily it actually locked).  I didn't do or say anything in response because, again, I thought it was obvious that I was busy in there.  Then I flushed the toilet and was, ya know, buttoning my jeans and belt when she said something and then knocked on the door and yanked on it AGAIN.  Come on, girl, really?  When I opened the door, I just gave her a death stare.

This kind of stuff happens ALL the time.  I will say it is usually alcohol induced at like bars or restaurants, but still, why?  Even if people are waiting in line, it's almost guaranteed some Korean girl will walk right up to the door and try to open it and then knock on it as well.  The only thing that does seem to work (at least for a few seconds) is if they knock, you knock back...from the inside.  This lets them know somebody is in there (because obviously the locked door or audible business doesn't do the job).  Certainly, not all Korean girls are like this, but a lot of them are, and I just don't understand.

where's the TOLLET?