to think there is something wrong with Americans?

[TheBloodManCometh]

In Colorado, here for 5 weeks.

Why the HELL is there a half inch gap on either side of the door in all public toilets?? You can see everything going on!!!
This has been the case everywhere I've been in America?
AIBU to be both baffled and embarrassed

lighthearted btw. I don't really think there's something wrong with the Americans

There is an argument that the squat type toilets are healthier. In Japan, where they have the longest lifespan, it is fairly common to have squat type toilets in your house. Firstly, having your hips below your knees while having a poo is better for your bowel. Secondly, the act of having to squat a few times a day keeps your joint supple.

I love that up thread there is an American arguing that they are not prudish but then every other American in the thread has talked about washrooms or bathrooms, not toilets.
I remember being with a group of American who had only just arrived in the uk. We were about to leave to go somewhere when I said 'I'm just going to pop to the loo first' and they were shocked.

Oh and I happily pee or poo in whatever toilets are available.

And many toilets are like a little self contained room here. Often in small restaurants you will have a small room with a tiny sink in there with you.

I piss like a horse. Why try and hide it FFS

I think there's something seriously wrong with Brits. Do you honestly think people try to peer into toilet cubicles? I mean.... ewwwww. Trust me, it never happens.

Yeah?

I used a toilet in a pub in Manchester where there were too toilets facing each other in the same cubicle so you could do just that.

The idea of not knowing if someone was in a little closed cubicle, however, terrifies me. What if you opened the door and the lock was broken?!

If the door is closed and you are not sure you knock, you don't just open the door.

Hobbes there should have been a tap handle to turn on that would have allowed water to come through and so the person can then wash themselves. Its true though, sometimes they are in a bizarre position and can end up causing a lot of problems but in the right position its great!

Also agree about trying to be very quiet and waiting for people to flush/leave etc. I always wonder if people know that's what you are doing (esp if they have entered a cubicle next to you at the same time) and then wait to see what you are all about!

The worst is going to a public toilet that's busy and discovering the toilet doesn't want to flush and you have that panic of wondering how long it will take for the water to fill back up again or even if it will ever happen and you will have to casually walk out saying the flush doesn't work.

I care not if anyone hears me wee. Poo yes, like above time it with someone else's flush, or wait until you can be sure that no one else is in there.
Or poo with abandon but wait long enough that everyone who may have heard you poo has left.

I used a toilet in a pub in Manchester where there were too toilets facing each other in the same cubicle so you could do just that.

One place I know had a little hatch between the two cubicles so you and your mate could talk.

P

French loos are definitely the worst! Often no seats, no paper, no soap! And the disappointment when you are desperate for the loo to open the cubicle door and see just a hole in the ground (sometimes with a turd that has missed the hole lying alongside!) How are you supposed to use these holes? Surely you would have to take off all the clothes from your bottom half to avoid anything splashing on them?

Can someone let me know if in Greece you still have to put the paper in the bin? My DH hated this as a child and won't go back unless they have sorted the flushing issue, 30 years on!

In America I always use the last cubicle, furthest from the door, to avoid anyone walking past and looking in! Simples

I used a toilet in a pub in Manchester where there were too toilets facing each other in the same cubicle so you could do just that.

I've seen a toilet like that where I live - two in the same cubicle, facing each other. What is that all about?

I loved the loos in Chicago airport, they had a plastic coating that covered the seat, but then when you flushed the plastic got ravelled up and a new bit would replace it. It all seemed very hygienic

On the other hand, I got totally flummoxed by the varieties of milk choices while in a cafe. The lady reeled off about 20 different names of milk, I panicked and picked one at random (half and half, because it sounded non committal) and DH started asking me whether that was right, what was it like, how did I know I wanted that one...? To which I hissed at him 'shut the fuck up' and practically threw my money at the poor lady.

DH travels to the US a lot for work, he told me that sometimes the water level in his hotel room toilet is so high the end of his knob dangles in the water when he sits down to have a poo!

I hate being heard so I do try and hide it! Sit further forward or put toilet paper down first, cough or just leave without going if necessary!

loving this thread.
dreading already our camping trip to france. having been flooded by a self-flushing hole-in-the-floor toilet at a motorway service station.
it flushes automatically when you get up from the suatting position (which is not too bad once you have the hang of it).
thing is, I needed to get up to change my pad.
and what about helping a small child?

maybe I should take wellies?

I used to travel to Hong Kong a lot for work. In the office, you used to have to ask for a key to unlock the cupboard that kept the loo roll in,every time you went to the toilet.

It was just weird

I think you still have to use bins for toilet paper in Greece, Ohanarama. Colleagues who have holidays in Greece have mentioned it. I don't know if it is everywhere, or maybe depending in how long ago building was built/plumbed?

I've also seen it in one or two restaurants in Tenerife, but that seems quite unusual - maybe isolated places had problems with blockages and that was their way of dealing with it.

We've stayed in new build apartments in Andalucia quite a lot and we blocked a few toilets until we realised that they can't cope with nice British toilet paper (we get giant packs from Costco so often threw a couple of rolls in the suitcase rather than buy it there). You have to use quite thin Spanish stuff.

I also learnt by accident that outside major cities, large areas of Spain don't have mains gas. We were staying with friends in a not out of the way area and found that there was no hot water - they had to change the gas bottle.

I love that up thread there is an American arguing that they are not prudish but then every other American in the thread has talked about washrooms or bathrooms, not toilets.

I'm not even arguing we're not prudish but this particular thing is really a language difference.

A toilet is an object, it is the white porcelain thing you poo in. A bathroom or washroom is the room you go in to use it, so you say, "I'm going to the bathroom" because that's the place you go. A toilet is an object, not the place, you can't say, "I'm going to the toilet."

Is that to stop people from taking a break to go to the toilet?? How strange.

And several posters mentioned swinging the door open without knocking, hence my concern!

I have been to a toilet in the us which not only had no doors but was also outside with people walking past (Canyon de chelly in Colorado(?)) very disconcerting. I have also used a toilet in a public building that had no cubicle door in the US (somewhere in Colorado in a national forest office), the usual gaps faded into insignificance.
On the cream in coffee thing, it would help if there was some acknowledgement that cream is a liquid, not a powder, coffee mate is not cream. We once had a lovely waiter bring us a cup of milk and whisper "I know british people like proper milk in their coffee not creamer". And tea is made with boiling water! Otherwise I love the US can't wait to go back.

Turkish squat toilet, much like any other, but included a foam stick in a mug of water to wipe - it was shared between all users.

In the movie "Full Metal Jacket" the barrack toilets are a single large room full of commodes, so I guess a whole platoon can take a dump while looking at/chatting with each other. I assume this is/was just a military thing.

Toilet is even more a euphemism than "washroom" or "bathroom"

Toilet originally meant getting oneself ready: washed and presentable. eg from Gone with the Wind, "when Ellen was dressing for a ball . . . it frequently required two hours, two maids and Mammy to turn her out to her own satisfaction; but her swift toilets in times of emergency were amazing"

This getting ready presumably involved doing a wee at some point, so "attending to one's toilet" became a euphemism for visiting the loo. The white porcelain throne you sit on was not originally called a toilet and probably still isn't. Lavatory pan?

The British have hundreds of euphemisms for going to the loo: powder one's nose, spend a penny, see a man about a dog, etc etc

I have noticed that the toilets cubicles are bigger and doors seem to have a few inches missing from both ends but not the gap at the sides. Does seem at odds with the conservative culture even in California I am often surprised how conservative the culture is

Squat toilets are better to use if you are having problems you do feel cleaned out after

I too have used village loo in Vietnam i was half way through peeing when the biggest ever cockroach decided to come and join me