Scribbles

One of the adjustments I’ve had to make here in terms of living accommodation is the shower situation. No, it’s not what you think. Luckily for those around me, I didn’t reduce the frequency of it, merely the procedure. To give you some background, the main chateau has two floors of living space for students, five of us on each floor. There are two apartment/studio type rooms, one on each floor, that come with full kitchen and bathroom. For the rest, some of the rooms have private bathrooms, and others share a the bathroom and toilette (separate from the bathroom). I fall under the latter category, which really isn’t bad at all since it’s at worst two people per sharing.

Back on the concept of shower/bath, when I first saw the bathtub, I noticed the shower head connected to the faucet, but no curtain. The first time using it, I made a mess and splashed water all over the place. Not one to repeat my mistakes, I asked our chateau owner about it, and he replied, “that’s how we want it.” I didn’t get it. Why would we want a shower without a curtain? The other shower on the same floor has one.

So I asked my French neighbor next door on the proper technique of cleansing oneself, a-la old style. What he described is what I will coin here the “shower/bath.” The concept is simple, you sit down in the tub with the shower on (which happens to have very low water pressure) and lather yourself up. Proceed to clean yourself, and before getting out, take one final rinse. That made sense. But then I wondered, what about during the winter, where sitting in a frozen tub seems highly undesirable. This is where the “bath” portion of the technique comes in. You plug the tub, run hot water for a while so you accumulate like 2 cm worth of bath water, and then as you shower, the tub gradually fills up. Here my inquisitive manner got me into trouble, I blurted, “isn’t that like bathing in a pool of your own filth?” The retort, “what the hell do you do all day that you get so dirty?” Touché.

Final grade: low-medium efficiency, low water pressure, high on style points for chateau living.