Traveling is both life-affirming and changing. It is an opportunity to experience, first hand, the vast diaspora of humanity and the many forms in which it exists, thus opening one’s mind and broadening one’s idea of how life should, and could, be lead.
Among all of these differences, there are still some human universals that need to be addressed by every people. Everyone needs to eat. From this point, every group of people deals with the matter a little differently, resulting in incredibly diverse methods of fueling the human body. Though this may seem quite obvious, the differences between food styles from Indian to Chinese to American cuisine to South African to Argentinean to Middle Eastern to British (yes it is really that bad, by the way) incorporate startling varieties of plant and animal matter along with distinctive cookware and cooking methods.
These differences in culture often stem from human necessities, such as eating. Fundamentally, it is the idea that the need to do something results in many different methods because people will do whatever they need to, in their own way. Or more simply, as the old adage goes, necessity is the mother of invention.
It is from this perspective on people that I have taken notice of the interestingly varied toilet culture around Europe. Eating all of these assorted foods from different cultures inevitably results in another human necessity: that of needing to go to the bathroom.
Now, thanks to globalization, the shape and form of the toilet is fairly familiar to all, in its white ceramic grandeur (this of course has a few exceptions as some toilets are not much more than a hole in the ground) but the elements surrounding the actual toilet mechanism are distinct to the point of alarming in certain emergencies.
For starters, the silhouetted cartoon representations of a man with no clothes and a woman wearing a skirt, standing squarely erect, are unfortunately not universals. In a foreign airport, you may look for hours, crossing and uncrossing the legs, for these two familiar figures without any luck because they do not exist. When asking for the bathroom, an information clerk may tell you that there are none in the airport. Apparently, we Americans are the only people to use bathroom to mean toilet and the clerk may think you are looking to take a bath. As far as Europe goes, any sign with a “WC” (from the British Water Closet-it doesn’t make sense to me either) on it means the bathroom, even when you are in a country that speaks no official English.
Yet what I have found to be most interesting are the multiple methods of toilet flushing. In my travels there have been so many flavors of flushers that it became almost a game: go into the toilet, finish business, whatever the business may be, and then search the room for the button or lever or crank or pulley or pedal or handle or nozzle or wheel or whatever to make it flush and then figure it out like a Rubik’s cube (I am not bad at flushing the toilet, but I am very good at Rubik’s cubes). There were times when I was stumped at this game. Once, I searched the porcelain throne, then all of the surrounding walls for a flushing contraption and found nothing of the sort. Minutes later, after figuring out the puzzle, I proceeded to turn, counterclockwise, a handle resembling a door handle on an unrelated wall that flushed the toilet as I turned. Strange.
One is never supposed to rank different cultural approaches to the same problem because who is to say which is actually better? For right now, that person is me, as some flush mechanisms are far superior to others. I will describe my top three favorite of those that I have experienced. For the second runner up, there is the French double button: one for a light flush and then a larger button for turbo to really get it all out of there; ingenious in its knowledge of the human condition. The first runner-up is the familiar American bathroom handle system awarded for its simplicity, conspicuity and general aesthetic appeal; it works when you need it to and in the end that may be the most important part of using the facilities.
However, the winner of this very competitive, international contest goes to the Italians. There are Italian bathrooms that are completely operated by foot pedal, such that flushing the toilet is by foot and washing the hands is by foot, thus allowing a person the opportunity of using a gross bathroom without touching any surfaces with any skin, provided said person has ample leg strength to keep themselves hovering. In a world of uncertainties, the Italian toilet is for sure sanitary and easy enough for even the most confused of Student Life writers.
When I think of a prize, I will send it to them, but for now, I give them my undying gratitude and a hefty sigh of relief.
Christian is a junior in the School of Arts & Sciences. He can be reached via e-mail at ctsherde@wustl.edu.