Tuesday, November 26, 2013

Trying Vs. Not Trying

At some point, I will begin doing some Scotland blogging, but in the meantime, I'll just say that one of the interesting things about living in a foreign country that is, overall, quite similar to home is that the subtle differences stick out. In particular you can see what a difference it makes when a country simply tries to do one simple thing that the other does not. For example, in Scotland, they make some effort to have public toilets available in places that are convenient to the public. They aren't perfect or omnipresent, or I imagine evenly distributed, but having some public toilets is a hell of a lot better than essentially none, as in the US.

If you never leave the country, you aren't aware of things we might be doing, but simply don't. Teaching science fits into this category, too!

1 comment:

garrett said...

I shared a kinship with the character of George Costanza on the TV show 'Seinfeld' when he started naming several 'public' toilets one could find in Manhattan buildings. When i lived in Seattle, without a car, I often combed through the city exploring it by foot. Toilets were always around the corner, if you didn't mind being in the vicinity of homeless men. Public libraries were some of the most unpleasant,and designated Public toilets weren't much nicer, though pinching off a loaf anywhere (Gas Stations, Barnes & Noble, McDonalds, etc) isn't exactly a bed of roses in any scenario.