Bathrooms

[Lotus Eater]

Johnny or Pat?

withCashthat'swhose

I'm assuming that you don't mean you do it for cash!

[acjade]

You altered my statement LE.

[Mr Nobody]

acjade said:

Cashwhose.

We need a smiley for when you spit coffee/baijiu/beer/breakfast onto the monitor.

[Dragonsaver]

Update

I told him I did not think I could deal with 'squatting', and here is his reply. ;D

I'm sorry I misunderstand you by the Chinese stlyle of bathroom. In cities you don't have to squat in the bathroom at all. The bathroom has showers, but no bathtube.
Each apartment has a washing machine.

Based upon that, I don't think I could reasonably turn down the offer. I will have someone check the contract to make sure it is ok and then ......middle earth will be my new home.

[acjade]

Welcome you to China, Dragonsaver.

Glad you can sit in comfort when you get here.

[George61]

I like the idea of a bathtube. I'll have to find one.

[acjade]

A bath... ooh lovely. It's my dream.

There's a bathtub { a very small one } at the kid's house but I wouldn't soak a lost sock in it. Out of everything from home I most miss a good long soak in a deep claw-foot bath. Not complaining about the shower here though. It's clean and spacious and the water pressure is so strong it's like having a massage.

And I can shower in peace. Queensland couples are being encouraged to shower together because of the drought. For details checkout the Australian News ABC website.

[Mr Nobody]

I thought the whole point of being married was to have someone scrub your back in the shower. Why would anyone shower alone if they didn't have to?

I think a bathtube sounds a little dangerous. What happens if you fall over? Can others get you out? Remember, most accidents may happen in the kitchen, but more fatalities happen in the bathroom.

And Dragonsaver, the no-squatting info is misleading. Your own toilet will be a western style one, but finding them elsewhere is very hard outside of hotel rooms. Unless you are miraculous and only need to go to the can at home, then you will be learning to squat. Sorry, but it is the truth. Although admittedly more upmarket or modern restaurants and airports, some trains and waiting rooms, and a few other places now do.

[Lotus Eater]

acjade said:

You altered my statement LE.

Wode???

[Dragonsaver]

The TESL school I went to here checked out the contract. Said it was standard for China, pay and hours was good. So I guess I'll sign and be eating 'real' Chinese food soon .

[Ruth]

And squatting in public facilities until your digestive system adapts to the 'real' Chinese food.

Just kidding, sort of. My body didn't have much trouble at all.

[Dragonsaver]

Many years ago I had severe stomach problems. The Dr. couldn't figure out what was wrong and suggested exploratory surgery. I told him where he could put the knife. Said I was going on a trip to China. Dr was worried and said not to eat any fried food or food from street vendors etc.

I went native. I ate only Chinese food. I wasn't sick once, at least not until the plane landed back in Canada. I barely made it to the facilities in the airport. Took me 3 days (jet lag) to figure out why I was not sick in China and sick in Canada.

I am allergic to milk and wheat

Dumb Dr's. Too bad they don't study nutrition in school. Their answer to everything is poison, slash and burn.

[Mr Nobody]

Noodles are often made of wheat.

[Lotus Eater]

My body adapts brilliantly to Chinese food. The times when I have been sick here are when I have eaten western food. Ended up in hosiptal once when the weterners returned from summer holidays with their favourite foods and we partied for 3 days on it. Not fun. Back to Chinese food - no problems at all.

Went home, hit with a mild attack, but my favourite food was also way blander than I remembered it, and I couldn't wait to get back here to have 'real' food again.

It would be interesting to know how much of this comes down to psychology. If you figure you are going to be sick on the food, do you 'talk' your gut into it? Maybe we look at the food, go ' this is way too oily, gross, smells funny etc" and set ourselves up to be sick.

Maybe I looked at the western food, said "this is too rich, too fattening and has no real taste" and away I went??

The mind can be an amazing tool!

The way to cope with ANY toilet in China/anywhere is to tell yourself you have been in worse. Sometimes you can't remember when and where, but just sit there saying - I've been in worse, I can handle this" and surprisingly - you do! Then that one gets added to your list of "worse", as a marker for others.

[Ruth]

but just sit there saying

or squat, as the case may be. But true, Lotus, true.

I was in a nasty one in a bus station yesterday. I chose the least offensive of the three stalls that were vacant. Rolled my pants up before I went in and thought 'the worst that will happen is the bottom of my shoes will get dirty'. As I came out, a Chinese lass was waiting to go in. She turned up her nose and left to check out the other stalls.

My cousin and his wife, both teachers in Canada, spent July in China. They landed in Shanghai where they toured a bit. Then they were taken somewhere outside the city to teach for 3 weeks. Then a few days in Beijing as tourists before going home. We met for dinner in August while I was home. I'm really sorry to report that they did not experience the China I have come to love. They were emphatic about not wanting to return. My cousin's wife said that one toilet she went in was so nasty that she threw up. Maybe it was worse than anything I've seen here, but probably not. Some people just don't have the constitution, or spirit of adventure, or whatever, to appreciate this country.

[Ruth]

Two bathroom stories from my trip this summer:

Scene 1: Bathroom at the Beijing airport. As clean as high traffic restrooms in airports can be kept. Western toilets, stalls with doors that lock. I'm sitting in my own little stall taking care of business when I overheard a conversation between two Canadian women. I KNOW they were Canadian by their accents. One lady was in her stall and realized she didn't have any toilet paper. She commented on this to the other lady. 2nd lady said she'd seen some on a big roll just inside the door of the restroom, would lady 1 like her to go and get some? Lady 1 said she would be okay, she thought she had some tissue in her bag. They commented on how strange it was to keep the TP out there. I was in stitches. My first thought was "Don't leave home without it." I ALWAYS have a pouch of tissues with me. My second thought was, "You will never have it this good anywhere else in China you travel." I mean, come on, they had tissue, flush toilets, western toilets, and cleanliness and they were having culture shock. My first stop in China was at a travel plaza on a toll road. Trench in floor, no doors, not a tissue or paper towel in sight. And it wasn't clean.

Scene 2: Fast forward 30 or so hours. I'm now in a restroom in the Toronto airport. I had just finished washing my hands and was getting some papertowel. Little, elderly Chinese lady enters and sees me. She approaches to get papertowel to take into the stall with her. Well, that's normal behavior in China - get the paper as you enter (if you are lucky enough to be where there IS paper provided). I was able to communicate to her that there was paper in each stall. Culture clash in the opposite direction.

Warning to DS and JJL and anyone else traveling to China for the first time: bring a packet of tissues with you. You'll surely need something before you have a chance to buy some here.

[George61]

I've been here almost 4 years and have NEVER had to use a squat, other than for taking a leak. Planning ahead is good strategy. The only time I have ever used a squat was at "Le Gare Du Nord" in Paris, France..







Touch wood!

[Ruth]

But you see, George, that's where guys have a distinct advantage. You can 'take a leak' without squatting. Those of us of the feminine persuasion have to squat over what's available. I griped about the bus station bathroom I was in yesterday. Lei Shan came back from his trip to the facilities and I asked him how it was. He said, "It's good to be a guy."

Maybe you have great control over your bodily functions, but not everyone is so fortunate. You'll pay for that bragging some day.

[acjade]

I visited a student from a village last Spring Festival. No toilet whatso ever. Just the back concreted yard and a heap of ashes and a drain hole.

[George61]

I wasn't bragging, Ruth...merely stating a fact. Everytime I board a train I pray to whatever God that looks after my case, that I won't have an attack of the runs.

[hankuh]

Man, I've squatted numerous friggin' times--on trains, in middle school toilets, campus toilets, restaurant toilets, squatter toilets every damn one of them. It's just a part of my life here and it's nothing new! I don't know much, but goddamn I can squat in a moment's notice, which is all you got when the BIG D hits!

I spent a week out in the countryside where I had to squat in a community cesspool, where the sides were piled knee deep with sanitary napkins and cheap toilet paper and all kinds of refuse from all kinds of vaginal and anal cavities.

Everytime I go to my wife's hometown, I squat.

After Suzhou, I went to Hangzhou to my sis-in-law's apartment. That's right. I had to squat there too.

I've even squatted in a Buddhist monastery toilet.

Man you come to China thinking you gonna spend a holiday at the Ritz, putting your foreign ass over a porcelain, squeekly clean western toilet most of the time, and you're dreaming, and it's a good dream or else you aren't teaching here or living in one of those expat conclaves.
I once squatted in a public bus toilet surrounded by at least 30 men. I know ladies..I was lucky!

The squatters stink, they're filthy, they ain't private, and you see the world in a grain of poo!

I squat all the time! I squatted Friday between classes.

When I returned to states this summer, my mother got a little pissed when she found my footprints on the seat of her western toilet. Uh, I had some difficulty explaining why I did that.

[con's fly is open]

Let's face it: squatting is anatomically superior. But I'm a spoiled Western creep, and I'm too old to adapt. I've squatted Chinese style twilce in 15 months in-country, because I've regulated my bowel movements.

Women adapt to China more easily, because they've had to squat whilst camping.

[Lotus Eater]

A friend and I were travelling in Inner Mongolia and stopped for a toilet break. As there were only the 2 of us there, we decided to be polite and allow each other the privacy of 'going alone'. (Dragonsaver - you may also have to get used to going in company!). My friend came out. "There is a pig in the toilet." "Oh, OK, but I still need to go - I can hanlde pigs.".

Went in, looked around couldn't see pig anywhere. Squatted over 1 of 3 holes (no partitions) in the floor. Looked down - about 4' below me there was a pig - a dead one. Had another look. Finished necessary actions. Came out - said to friend "There are 3 pigs in the toilet" - there were 3 dead pigs underneath the toilet. We then spent some time trying to work out the required velocity for droppings from on high to kill the pigs.

In Vietnam, I was stuck in a remote village while the road was being blasted (literally) before us. Needed to go to bathroom. Asked local farmer who had taken pity on me where his loo was. He pointed round the corner. This loo was cool - no roof (usual for country toilets,) 3 sides of plastic about 2' high, over sloping rocks - 4th side - open wooden fence with massive pig - waiting eagerly for any contributions to roll down the rocks to him. Nice to chat to while doing the necessary.

Worst one I can remember is a toss up between one on a trip to Ningxia - the trenches were FULL, and people had then used the space between the door and the trench - so the only way to use the toilet was to literally walk in the deposits. Took one look and opted for the slight protection of the hill behind it - directly in view of the farmers below!! Other one was popular tourist site, but one that had no water, so the toilets couldn't be flushed. Build up was pretty high by late afternoon!!

We will all have horror stories to tell about toilets!! Bush toilets are the best - clean smelling, nice views.

[Jollyjunklass]

Dragonslayer,

There is a review at Nate's you may want to have a look at. It is not about your school in particular, but it is about a school in your city. I thought I saw this a while back and looked for it, at some point; to tell you about it, but I couldn't find it. Anyway, Nate's is directly connected to Raoul's, you can get to the site from here, just click on Nate's.

[Lotus Eater]

On the up side of toilets. There are some with spectacular views in China. The toilet at Potala Palace in Lhasa looks over Lhasa city and across to the mountains. A view that would command millions in other places in the world.

And the peak toilet view has to be the women's toilet at the monastery hotel at Everest. Squatting there looking out the window at Mt. Everest is beyond belief!!