Bathroom Difficulties

The public bathrooms here are pretty much holes in the ground that can flush. With a flushing mechanism, one would think that these might be pleasant: the liberty to squat without having to worry about splash. However, in China, I never half to ask where these bathrooms are because I can smell the feces from a mile away.

I was happy to find a regular toilet at my new home: this lead me to believe my bathroom experience might be relatively easy here. On the contrary. About a week in, I was in my bathroom getting ready for bed when I saw a silhouette pass the frosted glass part of my bathroom door. (My bathroom door is wooden, with a fairly large oval of frosted glass in the center, and there is a mirrored design intersecting this glass.) After spitting out my mouthwash, I went to check the reverse side of the door to make sure that nobody could see inside my bathroom. To my surprise, I discovered that the "mirrored design" on my door is actually a one-way mirror: so that passerby's can see perfectly clearly into my bathroom, while from the inside, it just looks like a mirror.

To clarify what I mean by "perfectly clear": from the outside of the bathroom, I could see the bristles on my toothbrush at the sink. To add to my uneasiness, I do not have a shower curtain in my bathroom, so for the week-or-so that I had been there, I had been showering openly for anybody curious enough to take a peek. 

I do not want to know why my family installed a one-way mirror in the first place. Perhaps to explain, I will share another uncomfortable story: one day, I was waiting in line for a public restroom, when one of the stall doors swung open. The woman inside was still urinating, and made no effort whatsoever to re-close the door. Then we made eye-contact.... I started blushing, however her face remained calm and unembarrassed. She finished her business, wiped, and walked past me to the sinks to wash her hands. I cannot generalize this experience to claim that all Chinese people are open with their bodies, however, I would imagine that this woman I made eye-contact with wouldn't mind having a transparent bathroom door in her home. 

After my discovery about the door, I waited until everybody had gone to sleep, then stole back to the bathroom to tape up a cloth I found in my room. For the whole next week, I was anticipating questions about the cloth, so I prepared my Chinese phrase, "ni ke yi kan zai wo de ce suo", meaning "you can see in my bathroom". I was so excited to use this phrase, for which I never got the chance to say. Instead, I came home tonight to find my cloth replaced by a pitiful newspaper covering. Obviously, the person doing the taping didn't realize that the border of the oval was the most transparent part. Because nobody was home, I took the liberty to finish covering the glass with scrap wrapping paper. I am proud to say that my job of it would satisfy a person with OCD; my family members probably think I'm crazy, but my privacy is worth their silent judgements.