May 23, 2007
May 22, 2007
May 20, 2007
Compare and Contrast: Water Closet Edition
Here is a list of some ways that Korean washrooms are different from ones way way back in Canada.
1) Many home bathrooms don't really have a bathtub or shower area, but instead you'll just find a shower nozzle sticking out of the wall and a drain in the middle of the floor. It took me a while, but I'm finally used to having the toilet and everything else getting soaked when I shower.
2) Public washrooms sometimes don't have toilet paper in the individual stalls. Instead it's kept on a dispensing roll on the wall of the bathroom, or even outside the bathroom completely. This can be hazardous to those not familiar with that setup. I break out in a sweat if I encounter an empty cardboard tube, but to find nothing at all is just puzzling. Wouldn't you begin to question the situation entirely? I can imagine a stunned man running his hands along the bare stall walls. Is this a restroom? Oh Jesus, have I just defecated in a janitor's sink?
Also, I figure the reason for that placement is to save from wasting paper and money. Just take what you need and that's all, right? But wouldn't most people take a lot just in case? That's not something you want to miscalculate and then crab-walk out into the hall to rectify. Pun intended.
3) I noticed a few public washrooms don't have a liquid soap dispensers, but instead have a clump of soap impaled on a metal rod sticking out of the wall. That's not a bad idea or anything, but if you have my childish sense of humour you'll understand why I crack up watching someone 'manhandle' a slippery phallic mass on a pole to soap their hands.
4) I've found a few washrooms with hand dryers that actually work. That's a big deal. I hate those hand dryers stuck up on the wall wheezing out cool air that does nothing. They're always placed high on the wall so as you "dry" your hands water dribbles up your arms getting your sleeves wet. Damn it. But anyway, there are excellent ones here mounted on the wall at waist level. You dunk your hands into them and they blast the water off in a few seconds. I'd like to get one for my house. I'd use it all the time to dry dishes.
5) Although I've never used them, many public washrooms have "hole in the floor" style toilets you squat over. I'm not worried about my aim, my legs giving out, or slipping on a wet floor (well, actually, I'd worry about all those things) but I think I'll just avoid using them completely. It's just a bit too 'lost in the woods' for my liking.
I find it interesting that washrooms will sometimes offer both standard and squatter toilets. Do some people prefer to squat? Is it a like a challenge; a test of physical efficiency? The way some Koreans exercise, I wouldn't be surprised. Maybe the standard toilets are intended for the handicapped?
How weak I must look walking into a "Sitter" with an armful of toilet paper.
1) Many home bathrooms don't really have a bathtub or shower area, but instead you'll just find a shower nozzle sticking out of the wall and a drain in the middle of the floor. It took me a while, but I'm finally used to having the toilet and everything else getting soaked when I shower.
2) Public washrooms sometimes don't have toilet paper in the individual stalls. Instead it's kept on a dispensing roll on the wall of the bathroom, or even outside the bathroom completely. This can be hazardous to those not familiar with that setup. I break out in a sweat if I encounter an empty cardboard tube, but to find nothing at all is just puzzling. Wouldn't you begin to question the situation entirely? I can imagine a stunned man running his hands along the bare stall walls. Is this a restroom? Oh Jesus, have I just defecated in a janitor's sink?
Also, I figure the reason for that placement is to save from wasting paper and money. Just take what you need and that's all, right? But wouldn't most people take a lot just in case? That's not something you want to miscalculate and then crab-walk out into the hall to rectify. Pun intended.
3) I noticed a few public washrooms don't have a liquid soap dispensers, but instead have a clump of soap impaled on a metal rod sticking out of the wall. That's not a bad idea or anything, but if you have my childish sense of humour you'll understand why I crack up watching someone 'manhandle' a slippery phallic mass on a pole to soap their hands.
4) I've found a few washrooms with hand dryers that actually work. That's a big deal. I hate those hand dryers stuck up on the wall wheezing out cool air that does nothing. They're always placed high on the wall so as you "dry" your hands water dribbles up your arms getting your sleeves wet. Damn it. But anyway, there are excellent ones here mounted on the wall at waist level. You dunk your hands into them and they blast the water off in a few seconds. I'd like to get one for my house. I'd use it all the time to dry dishes.
5) Although I've never used them, many public washrooms have "hole in the floor" style toilets you squat over. I'm not worried about my aim, my legs giving out, or slipping on a wet floor (well, actually, I'd worry about all those things) but I think I'll just avoid using them completely. It's just a bit too 'lost in the woods' for my liking.
I find it interesting that washrooms will sometimes offer both standard and squatter toilets. Do some people prefer to squat? Is it a like a challenge; a test of physical efficiency? The way some Koreans exercise, I wouldn't be surprised. Maybe the standard toilets are intended for the handicapped?
How weak I must look walking into a "Sitter" with an armful of toilet paper.
May 18, 2007
May 16, 2007
May 14, 2007
May 11, 2007
One Small Step for Man's Best Friend
I was having some students do a simple writing exercise today, as is the procedure for Fridays, and I spent much of the class reading over and helping them correct their writing. The assignment was to write a short (incredibly brief) story using a list of characters (robot, dog, student, etc) and settings (moon, forest, shopping mall, etc) that I'd given them.
I read over the girls' stories, which were cute and adorned with little pictures, and then checked to see if Jack had finished his tale. Jack is the only boy in the class and he usually seems generally unimpressed and uninteresting in anything I have to say. I asked him if he had finished the story and he held up his sheet of paper drowsily. Here is his entire story, verbatim:
"One day a small dog the moon play. Leg hurt. So died."
I think you can agree that it is a moving piece of writing. It brings up many questions. What was this dog doing on the moon? How did it hurt its leg? Is that what resulted in its unfortunate death?
And what does 'So died' really mean? Is it like "and so, as a result, the dog died", or does 'so' mean 'extremely', as in "The dog so totally died right then".
I like to imagine that this story takes place in a future where travel to the moon is commonplace, and humans have begun living and working there in small communities. Perhaps animals, with the aid of technology, are now more like humans. They've acquired a human like consciousness, an intelligence that is controlled by a small chip implanted in the animals' body.
But this technology is frowned on my many people. Is it ethical? Is it playing God? Perhaps the whole process had been outlawed on earth, so the only place to turn was our moon. Yeah, that's it! The moon had become home to rogue scientists who tamper with animal brains and cover monkeys with make-up by the thousands.
Then one day, a small semi-intelligent dog who longs for freedom, escapes his tiny lab cage and escapes the facility. Making his way into a large domed area of the moon's surface, the dog begins to run about, enjoying the simple pleasure of playing outdoors.
Sadly, he runs too fast and too hard, damaging the intelligence chip that had been implanted in his hind leg. The shattered remnants of the chip enter his bloodstream and it's already too late. The final thoughts to pass through his brain are broken and incomplete: Leg hurt.
Then the dog sooo totally died.
I read over the girls' stories, which were cute and adorned with little pictures, and then checked to see if Jack had finished his tale. Jack is the only boy in the class and he usually seems generally unimpressed and uninteresting in anything I have to say. I asked him if he had finished the story and he held up his sheet of paper drowsily. Here is his entire story, verbatim:
"One day a small dog the moon play. Leg hurt. So died."
I think you can agree that it is a moving piece of writing. It brings up many questions. What was this dog doing on the moon? How did it hurt its leg? Is that what resulted in its unfortunate death?
And what does 'So died' really mean? Is it like "and so, as a result, the dog died", or does 'so' mean 'extremely', as in "The dog so totally died right then".
I like to imagine that this story takes place in a future where travel to the moon is commonplace, and humans have begun living and working there in small communities. Perhaps animals, with the aid of technology, are now more like humans. They've acquired a human like consciousness, an intelligence that is controlled by a small chip implanted in the animals' body.
But this technology is frowned on my many people. Is it ethical? Is it playing God? Perhaps the whole process had been outlawed on earth, so the only place to turn was our moon. Yeah, that's it! The moon had become home to rogue scientists who tamper with animal brains and cover monkeys with make-up by the thousands.
Then one day, a small semi-intelligent dog who longs for freedom, escapes his tiny lab cage and escapes the facility. Making his way into a large domed area of the moon's surface, the dog begins to run about, enjoying the simple pleasure of playing outdoors.
Sadly, he runs too fast and too hard, damaging the intelligence chip that had been implanted in his hind leg. The shattered remnants of the chip enter his bloodstream and it's already too late. The final thoughts to pass through his brain are broken and incomplete: Leg hurt.
Then the dog sooo totally died.
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