You Can't Be Serious! part 1

Every day at school I see countless things and situations that are different from the way they are in American schools. By now, most of them seem normal, and I usually pass right by without giving them a second thought. BUT-- there remain several things so odd that I still can't believe they exist. Here are a few...

hanging nets containing bars of soap at the sinks
The soap isn't removed from the nets. They hang from the faucets, so you can easily wet the slimy, full of grime, used-by-a-hundred-other-people soap and nets and wash your hands with them just like that. Can that really be called "wash"ing your hands?-- slathering slime on them under cold running water?

a "stove"
This circa 1910 metal monster connected to the ceiling by a winding, coffee can width pipe is the only means of heating classrooms. (Well, actually, some of the kids bring their own warmth-- in the form of self-heating pads, which Americans put in their ski boots.) Kids from each homeroom are assigned to go out to the shed to fill up a jug with kerosene then bring it back to the classroom and pour it into the "stove"-- which is not used for cooking anything. This fuel ensures that the 2 kids sitting in front of the stove will be sweating all day and that the 4 kids right behind and next to them will be warm. The other 34 kids might as well be sitting outside because the heat doesn't radiate any farther than 3 feet. Welcome to the land of technological superiority! The other thing that that fuel, carried by 13-year-olds, does is create enough heat to nearly boil the water in the metal bowl that sits on top of this mysterious contraption that looks like a torture device or something in a horror movie science lab. I've been wondering why that bowl of water is a necessary component, and what I've discovered is that kids use it for heating up their hands and their cartons of milk-- both of which they put into the water.

Part 2 will soon follow...you won't believe it...