Natalie's First Chinese Toilet Experience

Yesterday Natalie, Tom, and I attended a Deplhi team event that his team held. It was at Oriental Green Boat Park which is adjacent to Dingshan Lake. It is about an hour and a half outside of the city. But as you can see from the title, the highlight had more to do with the Chinese toilet. It is possible that many of you have heard us describe what is a typical public toilet in China, but you haven't seen one. I found a picture this is pretty close. The only was that the toilet in this story had a a two inch rim around the outside. Helps with the foot splashing I guess. Most hotels, our home, and restaurants we frequent, all have western-style toilets. But everywhere else, the squat toilet is standard. So, Natalie has not had to experience or attempt to use one yet. Yesterday though, we had to. The first time we entered the restroom (which seems like an oxymoron in this case as there would be no resting there) she got to the stall door and said "no way". The floor in the whole bathroom was wet, but I think that is because they just hose everything off periodically! After we left, I realized there was no way she could not go to the bathroom before we left, so I promised her ice cream and told her we HAD to go. So, we headed back in. We were joking before we got in there how funny it would be to tell Gammaw how she had to squat to pee. We got into the stall and closed the door. I explained to Natalie, albeit briefly, that she would have to pull down her pants and then squat. I pulled down her skirt and underwear, grabbing it between her legs so I could pull it forward when she squatted. I looked up to tell her to squat, and suddenly I felt wet on my arm. She peed on me! That made me try to move my arm which was really almost behind her, which resulted in pulling her feet out from under her! Her crocs, which thank god stayed on feet, shot right out like they were on ice! And BAM she landed on her back in the toilet! Wow. I would not have thought that 15 seconds of time could have gone so badly. The result was the back of her skirt caught the pee that didn't shoot down my arm onto the floor. Not good. But she had no bruises that showed! Ha ha. We cleaned up and left. Outside I explained that while that was a horrible experience, she will have to learn how to go on that type of toilet. As awful as it was, I knew that she would have to do it again sometime. I told her next time we will plan a little before we start to pee. She was still sniffling, but she nodded. We went and got ice cream which finally put her back into a better mood. Within a half an hour, she had almost forgotten it. I guess you could say this was a real immersion into the Chinese culture for her....