john amato

I have decided to begin a new segment for the blog that will hopefully be occurring regularly. Not Joe Pa regular (I’ll call it
Noel and Liam are here on the 26th. Will you be?

regular but only run it thrice), but more like OC regular (hopefully every week, but a couple weeks off to regroup and rebuild on occassion). This section, titled as above, is being created to point out some of the little differences between France and America. These will be things that have created an unexpected and, at times, significant culture shock and things that make France such a great place. Seeing as how I am more particular about little conveniences than I thought and that I am fairly observant about things going on around me since they are so new, I hope to live up to my contract to produce this weekly episode for the next month at the minimum. So here goes…

BATHROOMS

I didn’t expect bathrooms to be so different. I mean it’s a bathroom, how much different can it be? Well the Europeans sure found an answer to that one. I have experienced many varying forms of bathrooms since I’ve been here and no two have been alike. There has been the WC and the bathroom combo (toilet and shower/sink are in separate rooms), the tag team (Nate’s place: two bathrooms, one small with shower/toilet, the other with shower/tub/bidet combo – careful with the bidet, which may be confused for a toilet by the unsuspecting visitor), the shower/toilet/bidet combo (Milan hostel where it was possible to go to the bathroom and shower simultaneously – I think Silas actually did), the pay only public toilet (Spain and Milan’s version doesn’t require a deposit…or a toilet for that matter), the double stall mens bathroom at work (no urinals, are you serious?), and the Charpentier’s rather normal American bathroom.

Hopefully the descriptions above clearly show the discrepancies between the European way and the American way. I think American bathrooms for the most part are more consistent across the board, with the traditional 1 bath and 1/2 bath options.

Now my shock with the bathrooms isn’t so much with the design of them, but the differences with how things funcion once inside. For me the most glaring difference has been the showers. Someone should have given me a users guide before my first shower at the Charpentier’s. The thing was confusing. First off, it has this tri-fold door that you open to take a shower and collapse close after. This replaces the sliding door or curtain that we have in America. The tricky thing about it is positioning it so water isn’t all over the floor when you are done. The user must be very agile in such a cramped space. The second major difference is the shower head. The shower head is one of the wand type shower heads, or handshower, that is not stuck to the wall and you can move around. This is nice except for the fact that it does not attach to the wall. You have to hold the shower head the entire time, so you only have one hand free, or set it down and lose all of the benefits of the water. You can imagine my confusion when I first realized this. And third is the bar of soap in the Charpentier’s shower. It is huge. I mean Gramma’s beastliness couldn’t even use this up in two years. I think its called family size because it lasts an average family one full year, money back guaranteed. I can hardly fit this in my hand to clean my body. And Mark probably couldn’t pick it up since he doesn’t have opposable thumbs.

It’s OK though. I think the French mostly take Mexican showers by dousing themselves with their fancy perfumes.

See how Teapot feels after a nice shower.

Disclaimer: This post is not meant to show that John is in anyway unhappy with the Charpentier’s, their shower, or France and Europe in general. Nor is the length of it evidence of Chris Schwinden rubbing off on him, or his boredom and complete lack of friends in the country of France due to his inability to be social or to speak French (which for some reason he thought wouldn’t be entirely necessary before he came). It is merely a reflection on his absence of things to do while at work.