Toilet Trivia (Bathroom facts and stories about shower situations)

1. The advantage in Japan is that they give away tissue everywhere! Its a form of advertising. For women who have difficulty with the Eastern toilet (squat ones), it’s best to wear a skirt so that you just bundle it up and squat! - Joan Tiu, Sophia University, Tokyo

2. The wonderful thing about shared bathrooms in Britain is that they were not too often used by most of my European dormmates, at least in the way that I was used to. For the most part, I really never had to wait in line to take a shower even though there were five of us sharing a single shower. The typical bathroom is truly that -- a bathroom -- a room with a large bathtub and faucet, and no overhead shower.

I did get my first glimpse of bathroom culture shock, or more aptly, my bathroom naivete, when I was made to wait for the shower for the first time late one Saturday morning. I needed to catch the bus to London that morning and I was irritated to find myself waiting more than twenty minutes to use the shower. The moment I heard the bathroom door open, I ran out from my room, just to see the bathroom door slam shut and lock itself in front of me. Given that my room was but a few steps from the bathroom, I could not imagine how anyone could have gotten into the shower ahead of me. Upset, I asked my dormmate who had just finished his bath who got into the shower in front of me. When he said it was his girlfriend, I realized for the first time that not all people bathe by themselves. Though I was able to finally shower ten minutes later, I could not help but still feel dirty, and at the same time feel so alone. - Robby Galang, Oxford University, Oxford

3. The one thing I couldn't quite stand was the co-ed bathroom. I knew it was going to be an interesting experience the moment I went to orientation: The dorm proctors warned all of us NOT to have sex in the shower stalls. Patay! Over the course of the year, the daily bathroom encounters became worse, e.g., shaved facial hair was perpetually present in the sink...and there were days when [shock-of-shocks!], personal items were left in the toilet for the next user to clean up. Yuck! - Michael Campos, University of San Diego, Harvard Divinity School, US

4. There are a couple of things that I like about our communal bathroom. 1) My floormates and I didn’t have to clean it. Someone came and cleaned it twice a day! 2) Since all of us at our floor had different schedules and classes we hardly got to interact with one another. Bumping into my floormates at the dorm while brushing our teeth or washing our faces was a good way to make friends. – Cecille Capistrano, Fashion Institute of Technology, New York

5. If vacationing or studying in Europe, you might need some change for the bathroom, in French, "La Toilette." Never say "La Salle de Bain," that means an actual shower and bathtub-a literal bathroom, so in the Louvre, you do not want to be asking for that. In museums, bathrooms are free, but on the street, depending on what street corner, you have to pay to get into washrooms.

6. In Rome, though the bathroom is somewhat clean, and can cost a price, they are hard to find. It is best to go in the hotel, or the apartment, and then do your errands. A restaurant will also have a clean bathroom, but it depends what kind of restaurant. By the way, if you are studying in Rome, some places offer rooms for students with shared bathrooms. Other apartments, if they have bathrooms, are annoyingly small.