Showering with Drinking Water or Figuring Out Clever Ways to Adapt in China

Last Tuesday, one of my days off from teaching, I had graciously offered to help my friend Mike out by being a procter for his algerbra test. We need a lot of procters for tests here for various reasons, but I don’t want to get into some of the issues at the moment.

So I woke up and was having a nice start to the day by doing laundry. Guess what happened? In the middle of the cycle, the water shut off! Much to my dismay, this left me with both soapy clothes and with a lack of a shower.

I don’t know about you, but personally I cannot stand to go without a shower for a day. I seriously need to shower every day or I feel gross. Yes, I am a bit of a neat freak and I am very aware of hygiene. I already was not happy that it was only a few weeks ago when my water heater was broken, so I had no hot water for days.

If I were in the States, I could probably skip the shower and be done with it.

But here in Dalian, I really feel gross without a shower for two reasons. First, EVERYONE SMOKES EVERYWHERE. Given that I eat out lunch and dinner, chances are very strong I will come home reeking of smoke. Second, the mighty winds of Dalian carry all the pollutants, so I get dirty. If I go to the middle of the city, I feel like I was in a sandstorm somedays. So to not shower and go to the test and then go out to lunch to the CLP afterward did not sound fun. But I give my word and do not want to bail out when another professor, especially a friend, is in need.

So I looked around the house and realized I had a few liters of drinking water.

And I used it to have a very short, odd, but better than nothing shower.

One thing that China does to a person is teaches you 1. how to adapt to change 2. how to let go of what you think you can control 3. how to relax and realize that very little in life is worth getting upset about.

Yes, in these ways China is good for the soul

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