Potty Talk

What do you notice first in a new city? The beautiful landscape? The people? The dialect? When we arrived in Calgary in July to search for a house, you might think that I would notice the beauty of the Canadian Rocky Mountains. Or, if not that first, than perhaps the French translations on every sign. And, if that wasn't the first thing I noticed, than surely the "welcome" folks in the airport with the big white cowboy hats might make the list. Well, I'm sure I noticed all of these things, but the one difference that stuck in my mind was the lack of toilet seat covers in the public bathrooms. Yes, there are no seat covers in Canada. To an American with a small child who uses public bathrooms a lot, this was cause for concern. I have no idea why Canadians (at least Calgarians - I can't say that I've traveled widely in Canada), don't provide those tissue paper covers for their toilets. I even googled it to see if I was the only one who had noticed this. Apparently not. After reading this hilarious article on the subject, I have to say that I agree. Canadian toilets are much cleaner than their American counterparts. As soon as we landed in Houston on the way to South Carolina for the holidays, Katherine and I headed to bathroom - three stalls later we found a "clean" seat that I immediately covered with paper. American toilets are nasty - I don't care what the Dateline report says about toilet seats being cleaner than sinks. Oh, and on a related note - Lauren is beginning to be interested in potties - and sitting on them. Here's to a new year full of potties and no seat covers.