Showers

There are some pretty significant differences between the showers here and the showers at Brown [and the showers at home, of course].

The showers at Brown - at least the ones in West Andrews - were enormous. There were only two of them in the boys' bathroom. I think each of them must have been about seven feet by seven feet and probably a nine foot ceiling. There was only one curtain on each of the showers, and it was REALLY REALLY difficult to move the curtain to cover up the shower, but really really easy to move it back to expose the inside of the shower, which made for a healthy dose of paranoia. There was only one handle you could use to adjust the flow/temperature of water, and only one "compartment" of the whole thing, so you got dressed in the huge 7' x 7' shower compartment deal.

At Penn State the showers are MUCH smaller. I think they're probably about 4' x 4', and one of the showers has this stupid overhang thing right above it so it has like a 7' ceiling. I think that shower also doesn't have hot water - at least, it didn't the last time I checked. The showers here have two compartments though. First you step in and you close the curtain for the first compartment. There's a tiny little stool there for you to put your shower caddy on, and this is where you're supposed to get changed. It's supposed to be dry but it is ALWAYS wet. Then you step forward again and close the curtain and then there's the actual shower part. There's a hot spigot and a cold spigot and you need to adjust them and it's not a very fun game. The showers here also have a ledge to hold your soap - I don't think the ones at Brown had that.

The water in these showers gets SCALDING HOT if someone flushes the toilet - that never happened at Brown. Strangely, both of the showers have the same weird, semi-sweet, semi-dank smell when you turn the hot water on high... I don't know what it is but it seems specifically reserved for college showers. I guess you probably know the smell or will soon enough.

Peace out.