Attitude Adjustment

As I described earlier, the shower in my bathroom is nothing more than a corner of a fully tiled bathroom. There is a shower curtain that separates the half of the bathroom with the toilet and sink from the half with the shower head. There is nothing on the floor to keep the bathroom from flooding when you take a shower. I had tried damming it up with a towel, but the towel got so soaked that it often wouldn't dry out completely. I then went to just letting the bathroom flood and using my feet to push the water back into the corner with the drain. I suppose the idea is that you construct the floor so that it slants toward the drain, but that’s not the case in our building. Anyhow, I had come to kind of dread taking a shower.

I noticed that some of my neighbors had squeegees on long broom-stick like handles that they used in their showers. I was told they purchased them at an establishment variously described as faux IKEA or Home Depot-like. It’s an hour’s bus ride from where we live. Sigh. I hadn’t wanted to spend another weekend trying to buy “stuff” for the apartment.

Last night as I was walking home from the bus stop I noticed our little local market had those squeegees for sale – for 2,60 TL, about $1.75. I bought one on the spot. This morning I didn’t even think about where the water was going. When I finished showering it took about 20 seconds to get all the water back in the corner of the bathroom where it belonged. Simple. Lesson: relax and go with the flow. I wouldn’t build a shower like that but that’s way they do it here. And it’s not so bad if you have a squeegee.