Toilet Humour

Did you know that the French prefer their WC (water closet – aka the loo itself) separate from the shower/bathroom? According to my current French textbook, the BBC’s French Experience 2, “”Les Francais veulent des toilettes separees”. When they said it would be a cultural expereience for me, I doubt this was what they had in mind. :D

The fact of the matter is, though, toilets are one way patterens of living (an no anthropologist; do not know the technical term for it) differ, which I found out upon my arrival in London. First, there were the puzzling WC signs everywhere – which I later found out from my sister refered to “Water Closets” *eye roll*. Yeah, I figured those were the toilets, when I needed to find one, but what WC stood for I did not know. I had to wait three months for my sister to come and explain it to me. Quite.

<>Then, there’s the issue of wet/dry toilets; London being full of the latter. I realized it early on when I attempted to wash the toilet in the apartment; exceedingly puzzled to find the water not draining, I looked for a drain hole (should have done that before I hosed everything, innnit?). Much to my consternation, I did not find any. By that time I was so fed up with the process, Nazir had to mop up the water. Hee hee. I never did feel too clean in that old apartment, which am now not remembering too fondly, if you know what I mean.

Still, upwards and onwards for me – we have now been in this fantastic apartment for three weeks. The loo is great (I checked that out first!) – still dry type but the person we are renting it from is such a clean person (yay!) and a kindred spirit (the books, the ecofriendly cleaning fluids, the recycling – oh joy!) that it is not a worry for me anymore. Honestly, in that other apartment, I was turning into a basket case. :S

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