I’m mentioning this now because I have a feeling that I’m going to fail just before my flight back home on Saturday (and I’m trying to jinx my future failing by calling it now b/c that’s just how my life works). Since I’m flying from Shanghai, my uncle is going to drive me (and his fam) tomorrow (our Tues morn) early to go check out shanghai. It’s a 6-hour drive from Linyi to Shanghai and fortunately, we’re planning on leaving at 7 am because if it was after lunch or something, I would most likely not be able to make the entire trip without having to pee at a rest stop. My plan is to go to sleep at like 230 am so that I’ll be so tired and zonk out for the entire drive there (so only enough eating or drinking to keep me alive til we reach the hotel). My main concern with this plan is that I usually have to pee after I wake up, but hopefully this won’t happen b/c I’ll probly end up taking several short naps instead of sleeping for like 2 hours…
For yous guys who’ve never been to China, I feel like this picture is all you need to know. (no worries, nothing scarring here. if you want to be scarred, google chinese toilets or chinese hole in the ground bathroom).
Squat toilets. Hole in the ground. FML I'm so jealous of guys. I could go on forever about everything that I hate about these things, with the extreme of the extreme being (aside from falling) losing my balance and stepping right in the middle of the hole to prevent myself from falling in. I would have to burn off my leg if that happened. It wouldn't be so bad if I didn't already kind of really hate public restrooms. Like, really hate them, especially the ones with tiny stalls with doors that open in (like the airplane). Is there a word for public restroom phobia?
And even if there is a toilet, China has too many people, who knows how many people use the bathroom at the WangFuJing McDonalds in an hour? Plus, not all of them know how to use a toilet, and not all of them are considerate because there are so many people. And nobody here likes to wait in lines. So what many people do (or at least in the past, I wouldn’t know because I’ve pretty much avoided using public restrooms all summer) is that if there is a line for the holes and there’s line for the toilet, they just stand on the toilet and squat, thereby missing the bowl. And you wonder why theres poop on the back of the toilet seat. Well now you know.
And you know how certain images and memories are just going to forever be ingrained in your head until you either die or get Alzeheimers? Well maybe I was really impressionable as a kid during our road trip to Qingdao(? It has to be, I don’t remember any other car trip), but let’s just say that that trip to wherever it was has scarred me forever. There’s a reason why I hate traveling in China—car rides, train rides, buses (all of these are directed at long distance traveling, but going anywhere in china takes hours of preparation in advance). Sigh, no way around it this time. I just had to see the stupid expo and decide to book my tickets from Shanghai instead of Beijing. Now with all my luggage, there’s no way I could go to Shanghai by myself. -_-. STUPID STUPID STUPID ME.
To all my friends who are reading this and are religious, you should pray that I make it without having to pee in a hole. Non-religious people, watch your clocks closely and wish on the clock for me. I’d rather die than have to pee at a rest stop in China.
PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE be many mcdonalds on the road to Shanghai. Or some woods.
Ok, nearing 230 am, time to sleep.
Hope you made the 6~7hrs trip OK. It is really not worth it, as you could get URI from not going to the restroom for longtime. I have not heard any stories that people fall into the bathroom hole or step into the hole. It is part of people's life and your healthy is more important, you can change your mind set which will make yourself more easily to accept this fact.
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