The “WC” - Universally Needed, Culturally Distinct
I love to observe people and their ways of living, and I have an innate sense of curiosity and fascination. It doesn’t take much to intrigue me. I think I got this from my mom. She’s always interested in learning about people and their lives. As we travel, there are many aspects of culture and life which we want to know about the place we’re visiting. Three that we are always specifically curious about right from the start are:
how they shop for food; ie., what types of places to they go to to purchase their groceries?
what is the water situation, ie., is the water safe to drink and, if not, where do we find clean drinking water?
what are their restrooms like?
Besides “please”, “thank you”, and “hello, my name is”, the first phrases you usually want to learn when going to a new country are:
Where is the market?
Where is the toilet?
In Indonesian and Malaysian - Dimana toiletnya?
In Vietnamese - Nhà vệ sinh ở đâu vậy?
In Hindi - Shauchaalay kahaan hai?
German - Wo ist die Toilette?
And French - Où sont les toilettes?
Of course, if you don’t know the correct way to ask the question in the language of the region you’re visiting, you can always just ask, “Toilet???”, and that will usually illicit some level of directions for you to follow (or at least try to) to get to the restroom.
The “WC”
We all know the universal signs for labelling restrooms: the little stick figures with circles for heads and sticks or triangles for bodies, denoting male and female, so this is what our eyes search for when we need to find a restroom. But there is one more sign that is used in many countries, and that is “WC”. We’ve seen it used in just about every country we’ve been to. Any idea what “WC” stands for? It is from the British, and it stands for “Waste Closet”. Appropriate name, right?
What in the World is This? Do You Know?
Have you ever seen one of these? It is, believe it or not, a soap dispenser! The white cyclinder mounted to the wall is like a bar of soap! The user is to get their hands wet then rub them on the soap cylinder to “dispense” soap for hand washing! This one was in a bathroom in a cafe at Besançon, France. It seemed a little too weird for me.
Why? Just Why?
The first time I went into a public restroom in France, I was dismayed to find the toilet was broken. Its seat was missing. Then when I went to try another one in the same facility, lo and behold, its seat was missing as well! Tried a third one; same thing.
A couple hours down the highway, we stopped to use of another public restroom. What the schnitzel?!!! Their toilets were missing seats also! Every one of them!
Duane confirmed it was the same in the men’s restroom, so we discovered this is actually a French thing. We’re still not sure why they don’t put seats on any of the toilets in their public restrooms, but we figure they must have some logical reason. Now, we only traveled in eastern France, so perhaps other parts of the country get to have seats on their toilets, but we wouldn’t know.
Needless to say, we were quite happy to get back to Germany, the land of toilets with seats!
A marvelous invention we'd never seen before! Located across Germany at select roadside service centers called "Sanifair". Search Google Maps for "Sanifair Near Me" next time you're road-tripping through Germany!
