Skip to main content

Don’t nobody wanna see that


So a few grievances I have with my school. The top of the list would be the bathroom situation. They do have a teachers’ bathroom, which is quite a nice upgrade from my past schools. However, this bathroom, like many Chinese bathrooms, has no toilet paper or soap. Grr.

But on top of that there are no lights! There is one window at the end of the room and 8 stalls. So if you close the stall door there is no light! Also of the 8 stalls only 2 have working locks. I have figured this out by accidently opening the stall door to find one of my co workers crouched down inside. And then they wanna talk about it later! No thanks I am working as hard as I can to erase the entire memory.
So the unspoken rule is that you never open a stall door, ever. If they are all closed you assume they are all full and wait for someone to leave the one with the lock. But even with this fool-proof system, yesterday I walk in to the bathroom with all the doors swung open and one of my coworkers doing her business. What’s worse is she was in the ONE stall with a lock! Come on! Don’t nobody wanna see that. And I have heard this same story from other foreign friends. I just don’t get it. Do they have no modesty? Were they in a hurry, too rushed to close the door? Is it a cultural thing and I’m the weird one for closing my eyes and scurrying away? Yea that must be it, my bad.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

No room at the inn: Shanghai edition

About a year ago my husband and I decided to take a babymoon to Hangzhou and Shanghai. Yes, babymoon is a real thing where expecting couples take one last vacation together before the baby comes. Genius idea that I wish I could take credit for. I was bummed because I was too pregnant to fly back to the US like I had planned but figured a 3 hour flight to Shanghai was safer than an 18 hour flight the DC! Surprisingly, after 7 years living in China I had still never been to 2 of the major tourist attractions, West Lake or the Shanghai Bund. We decided to spend a few days in each city and take a bus between the two.   West Lake was beautiful but the main attraction of walking around the beautiful scenery in the heat and rain was not a good match for my wobbling state; especially with my pregnant bladder and distance and numerous stairs between each public bathroom. We arrived in Shanghai after what seemed like forever on the bumpy bus and I was so glad to be back in a major city. We

10 Things China made me love about America

These things may not make the thanksgiving list of the average American, but they are definitely on my lips every time I come home for a visit.   The things I comment on missing seem to be strange to my friends and family, who then roll their eyes at yet another story beginning with, "where I live in China..." Nevertheless here are some simple joys my life in China has made me love in my homeland. 1.   Hot sink water Washing your hands in cold water during the winter makes the surprise of warm tap water all the more delightful. This comfort would be seen as a wasteful luxury in China where most homes have only one water heater for the shower and even that is only turned on 10 minutes before you hop in the shower, and then switched off immediately after. 2.   Outside air I have noticed the difference in air quality moving around the US between city and country, but even the big city air seems glorious compared to China. Not to say that all of China has the pollut

Make yourself at home, but don't touch anything

Not long ago I got this text from my husband, "My sister called, she's at our house. My dad let her in." I was automatically filled with questions; Did you know she was coming? How long is she staying? Did she bring the kids? Is everything ok? His answer, "I didn't know and I don't know." As if that would satisfy my unrest! Now I like my sister in law, Meimei, she is probably my favorite of the in laws. She makes an effort to speak to me directly even though my Chinese is not good enough to keep up with the group conversation. She is kind and playful. Her 2 children are sweet to me and mostly well behaved. I enjoy her visits but cannot understand why she would show up unannounced when it takes at least 4 hours to travel here! And she is a repeat offender. The most intrusive occasion was when my daughter was less than a month old and Meimei called from the bus, announcing she and her 2 small children were on the way. I was st