Cultural learnings: be careful in the bathroom

(More dispatches from the Future by the Alien)

Although redbox challenged my karaoke preconceptions(videoke!), the office restroom helped me get to know my fellow man a little bit better. It all started with a routine trip to the "comfort room" to relieve myself of some pressure. I had just come from a meeting, so I had a notepad and my blackberry. Since I needed my hands to take care of the business, I placed my stuff on top of the urinal.

Important cultural note: phillipino males do not flush when they finish their business. They flush before they start. Perhaps it's left as a "how do you do?" for the next visitor. Not yet fully acclimated to local tradition, I did not participate in the pre-flush.

Cut to slow motion: my blackberry begins falling from its precarious perch. I reach to break its fall, my notepad falls to the floor, and my blackberry plunges into a miso soup of my own making (and the guy before me). It sits there quietly next to the blue deodorizer that does seem to be the same around the world. My dignity is 13 timezones away as I realize that I can't just leave it there.

I fished it out as delicately as I could and rinsed it in the sink while trying not to destroy the delicate circuitry not designed for multiple underwater immersions, neither salt nor fresh. This leads to my next discovery - no paper towels.

With my dripping wet blackberry, I head to the "pantry" . Office life revolves around the pantry. Office policy prohibits eating at your workstation so the pantry is constantly packed with people who don't look like they're going anywhere soon.

Nothing is self serve, as there are three gentlemen lounging at a table waiting for someone like me to show up and ask for something. So I oblige and ask for a paper towel. One of the guys smiles and nods and returns shortly with a glass of water.

I don't think I'm going to get a towel.