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- May 14, 2005
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- 12,862
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- A Small Town in Germany
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- www.sharonmaas.co.uk
What are your light switches like? In the countries I've lived in they are all pretty similar - except in UK bathrooms, where you have a string to pull!
As for toilets -- well, the most -- interesting -- are Indian squat toilets; especially in--um--rural areas where people are not sure where they are supposed to squat etc...
WHat I love in some Asian toilets are the water squirts in lieu of toilet paper.
This.Yeah, the food is the one thing I do miss. I tend to forget how good REAL Italian food is, and then I go back and I realize all over again what I miss... But then there's drama, chaos, unemployment, crappy politics and all that stuff that I do NOT miss...
Ha, il bidet...
My kids never saw a bidet until we brought them to Italy and the first thing they said was: "Look! A sink for us kids!!"
I really enjoyed all the bits above. I'm happy to read I'm not the only one who moved from her own country to settle somewhere else. I'm Italian, moved to Ireland 5 years ago, now house hunting.
I'm a city center girl, grown up in the city center, living in the city center now looking for a house in the suburbs. Not sure it will be the right decision, I'm afraid to get bored in a flash.
Anyhow!
This.
And this.
I may get a toilet-bidet on Amazon, that kind of bidet that's used in Japan...
This.
And this.
I may get a toilet-bidet on Amazon, that kind of bidet that's used in Japan...
I came to the thread with Poetinahat's question and all seemed to be going along well in the first page...fast forward to this page and all of a sudden we're discussing the nuances of toilets??
That's just the logical result of the predecessing discussion, when we were talking about foods we've been missing after moving abroad. After all, what goes in must come out.I came to the thread with Poetinahat's question and all seemed to be going along well in the first page...fast forward to this page and all of a sudden we're discussing the nuances of toilets??
I'm American, came to Hong Kong in 1985 intending to visit for two weeks and never left. Except when I left "forever" to move to London. Two years later I was back in Hong Kong and ready to kiss the ground (if it was a bit cleaner).
Speaking of toilets (why are we?), my main peeve here is that Chinese, especially mainlanders, stand on the toilet seats. Raised with hole-in-the-floor squat types, they believe that it's unhygienic to sit on a toilet seat shared by others (you got to agree) and unhealthy posture to sit on a toilet western-style, since squatting is much better for passing whatever out of your whatever (they have a point there too). So all the time I find footprints on the seats of toilets in any office building. Gross.
Well, they also think that spitting is much more hygienic than emptying your phlegm into a cloth and shoving it in your pocket. Hm, they're right on that one, too.
Vive le culture clash!
When I lived in Japan for two years, the public squat toilets also came without toilet paper or bidets... So, you had to collect tissues from the advertisers who would hand them out and carry them with you for when you needed a public restroom. (Public like at the train station and scary places like that.)
Indian toilets in cheaper hotels and many homes etc come with a tap next to the squat toilet, a bucket, and a plastic jug for ladling it out. You use your right hand for retrieving the water and the lft hand for -- you know what.
Hmmm. We've been on this toilet theme for quite a while now!
I miss Australia a lot, try to visit as often as possible and intend to move back in the next five years. My husband, who is American, would move there NOW, but we have commitments over here. I love the US, have great friends here and it has been a wonderfully significant - and huge -chunk of my life, but I miss my sisters, Mum and all those things that say home more than anything else.
Oh man, the few months I lived in Japan left me with an almost compulsive tic of storing toiletpaper in my purse. Wherever I went, if they had enough toilet paper, I would rip some squares, fold 'em, and place it in my purse for, y'know, harder times in public toilets.
A friend told me she had accidentaly peed on her shoes while squatting. That never happened to me, but I think I can understand how it happened...
See I've only run into a second (non-light) string in private homes. In fact, there's a string pull in my bathroom (though the lights are switch operated). I have no idea what these things do, but they're always connected to a box in the ceiling with a little red light on it.The red string is for a medical emergency, speaking of disabled toilets I had one in a hotel room and pulled it out of curiosity!!
The opposite wall? Who thought THAT was a good idea?I had a well-travelled friend post on his Facebook status one night for help in figuring out how to flush the toilet! Folks from all over the world were trying to give him tips. It was the funniest thing ever And he was in NYC!! (The flush handle was across on the opposite wall!)
This is an american light switch:
This is closer to what portuguese light switches look like:
I don't understand how cultures live without biscuits, myself. Not the kind with tea, but the hot, flaky, food-of-the-gods kind.
I've always been back to the US South again to visit at least before that became an emergency situation, but I could imagine it.
We don't have biscuits in Portugal. Our bread makes up for it though. Every american I have met that has lived here says it's one of the things they will miss the most when going back home.