Oh, public toilets!

I forgot: if there is one thing I HATE about France (and possibly Europe as a whole), it's the public toilet situation.  The lights are on timers, and motion detection.  When I walk into many of the toilets at restaurants, or at school, the lights go on. 

Well, imagine this.  Which happened last week.  Not for the first, or the last time: I walked into the bathroom in the café at school.  Lights came on.  Walked into a stall.  Sat down.  Began to do what I needed to do.  And then... LIGHTS GO OUT! 

No big deal, right?  Just wave my hands? 

Let me assure you: no amount of hand waving will turn those lights on again.  So imagine me, sitting on the toilet, in pitch black, with my pants around my ankles, frantically waving my hands, and my torso back and forth.  After 60 seconds, and stretching in every possible direction, I realized I had no choice.  I had to wipe in the dark. 

At least in the Army when I had to do that, I had the light of the moon.  But not in Europe.  Europe won't even afford me the light of the moon!