There’s nothing like a good Chinese meal on a cold damp winter evening.
Twenty years ago I partook in this dinner out in the Jiangsu countryside with my friends the Chens and their extended family.
Mr. Chen’s father is the gentleman facing my camera, wearing the furry hat and blue padded jacket. We spent the afternoon and evening in his house.
Here were are eating in Old Chen’s living room, dining room, and family room all rolled into one. It’s brightly decorated with red posters of couplets celebrating the new year.
That little wooden hutch was a place to keep leftovers. During the hot months, the screens in the hutch prevented flies from contaminating the food. Old Chen didn’t own a refrigerator, but that wasn’t an issue when the temperature indoors remained in the low 40s Fahrenheit.
At one point during dinner, I asked Mrs. Chen if she could point me in the direction of the bathroom. Mentally preparing to pull down my three layers of pants (jeans, knitted long underwear, and silk long underwear), I choked on hot green tea when she told me Old Chen didn’t have a bathroom.
“Just go outside, but be careful,” she said. “It’s dark out there.”
I stopped drinking tea for the night, even though it was the only way I could stay warm after we finished dinner. I didn’t want to make another trip outside in the dark if I could help it.
Ack, I was so not teaching Chinese! I was teaching English! Yeesh. Major typo there. 😛 Yeah, indoor heat is bonus! Oh, and speaking of peeing in unusual places – I presume you had the pleasure of taking the train while in China? Ever go “first class”?….
On the train to Shanghai (from Shandong Prov.), there were Western-style loos in the first class section – unfortunately for me, the Chinese weren’t keen on sitting on it, and had decided to use it in the same fashion as the squat loo….To my horror, there were footprints all over the toilet seat! With a lurching train and freezing air blowing on my bits, trying to hover my tush gingerly over the mud-flecked toilet was impossible. Reluctantly, I hopped up on the seat and, like all of my predecessors, assumed the frog position. Nothing like squatting on a Western toilet while flying through the Chinese countryside!
Oh, I knew what you meant! I had the pleasure of taking the Trans-Siberian from Beijing to Moscow. Six days of those train toilets and not a shower to be had. It was July, but Siberia was still cold. But I think the worst Chinese toilets I experienced were on a boat from Wuhan to Shanghai. I was the only foreigner among 500 people and after the western toilets clogged the first night, I used the steerage trough toilets. No privacy whatsoever. I was on that boat for a couple days. Aiya.
Hahahahahahaaaa! Nothing like having to use the loo outside the house, in the yard, in the dark! Been there. Reminds me of visiting a student’s parent’s 1-room “house” outside of Qufu, Shandong Province, where I was teaching Chinese. My student’s mother, however, was delegated the task of ushering the slightly tipsy foreigners into the yard to relieve themselves. Oh, good times! Lol.
Yikes. There’s nothing like peeing with an audience. I don’t know if it’s worse to use the loo out in the open or in a nasty enclosed ‘toilet’. No matter, indoor heat trumps all and as long as I have that, I don’t really care where I go!!