Numb to Understanding

Getting used to: No TP

Not used to yet: -10 degrees Celsius in the bathroom

There is never any toilet paper in the bathrooms here. I’ve become accustomed to carrying packets of tissues everywhere I go. This is an especially easy habit to keep in winter, when I have a perpetual cold.

At my school bathroom there are dispensers in the stalls (which were taken away, and then rigorously fought for and reinstated by my director.) At 3 p.m. on the dot, however, these are always empty. This is true even though we have a gaggle of only Chinese-speaking janitorial staff whose “office” as far as I can tell is the space on the side of the bathroom.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not complaining about these women. I appreciate that they keep my classroom clean and help me out even though all I can say to them is “xier xier” (thank you) and eyebrows up and hand palm up to signal “take one of these chocolates.” Nevertheless, I am curious about their cleaning practices.

I don’t know if I’ll ever adjust to their insistence on opening the window in the bathroom. It is literally freezing outside, and every morning when I go into the bathroom there is a giant window that’s been left open. I feel like I’m camping when I have to go in the morning.

The Chinese have a belief in changing the air. Even in the colder days of fall and early winter, my assistant said that she will open her windows when she leaves the house to “clean the air” in the apartment. In that season I could humor that, if not fully understand. In the dead of winter, it is simply too cold to understand.