Back rubs in the WC...enough already!

First... WC = Water Closet. If you come to China, you should know that (I didn't my first time), but that's what they call the bathroom here.

Anyway, in my first month of living here, there are a few things that I'm not very fond of. Yeah, there are the typical ones like traffic, spitting everywhere, taxi drivers, etc... but I won't complain about those, because actually, it's just as bad as any major city in any country around the world.

Some irritating things:

• BACK RUBS/PATTING in the bathrooms. This doesn't happen everywhere, but you will find it at some of the bars in Beijing. A lot of places have bathroom attendants...use a comb, take some mints, hand you a towel. But here, while you're standing at the urinal letting it flow, they sneak up behind you and start giving you a back rub. Come on, is that really necessary & how many people actually like that? Not to mention, when you start punching my back, it hurts my aim, so you might get some on your shoes (they don't care). So bathroom attendants...no more back rubs at the stalls. Relax, I'll give you 10RMB, just give me a clean towel to dry my hands.

• Ordering food. Why does it take so long for people to order food here and why do the waiters & waitresses stand over you as soon as you sit down to wait for your order. Give me some time, then I'll order and it will only take a minute, rather than the 10 minutes it usually takes people here to order food.

• Cell phones in meetings. I hate this. Everyone carries their cell phones with them around offices...and a lot of companies have "cell phones" as their office phones. In any given meeting, with any given company, there are at least 10 phone calls during the meeting. Many times, people answer the calls & some times even walk out to take the call right during a discussion. This is far worse than doing email or chatting on IM during a meeting. Cell phones off!