Yesterday, N and I went to the memorial service at our funeral home. I knew I was going to bawl, so, as a truly Soviet person, before proceeding into the room where the service was to be held, I went to the bathroom and stole some toilet paper to use as a napkin.
In the memorial service hall, however, I discovered that every seat was provided with its own box of napkins.
And this, my friends, is the most profound difference between Americans and Soviet people. It took me years in North America to unlearn the habit of carrying some toilet paper with me wherever I went.
Clarissa's Blog 
Having a napkin box for each seat is the most civilized thing I’ve ever heard. And I totally get you about the toilet paper.
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Secondary to main point but in USSR do you flush toilet paper or put it in waste basket?
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Flush. Unless one has old pipes that clog at the slightest provocation like I did at my apartment in Kharkov. I felt I’d never get the stench of toilet out of my skin after having to clean the spillage so many times.
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Putting it in waste basket is the big distinction between US and Lat Am. When I have trouble reconverting to flushing is when I know I have been gone a long time, or that I am still inhabiting the Lat Am version of me.
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This is a great example of how really speaking a language means becoming part of an entire universe. I’ve been trying to explain this to my students but, for now, they look at me like I’m crazy. 🙂
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Maybe this is insensitive. If so, I apologize. Whose memorial were you attending?
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The funeral home was conducting a collective memorial service for people who lost somebody in the past six months. I didn’t have a memorial for Eric back in September because I wasn’t ready for something like this, but now I am ready for it. And it helped to go.
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