Next to Godliness

As many of you know, I am not the neatest individual. Far from it. Those of you who have lived with me, might call me sloppy or even slovenly. (There was the never-emptying dish bin in college -- as in, we didn't do the dishes for a month.) I'm bad at setting up systems and even worse at maintaining them. So, my stuff ends up all over the place. My dust bunnies grow into dust rhinoceri.

I notice it. I mind it even (at some point), but I am lazy. Well, lazy when it comes to cleaning. I'd much rather read a good book, or watch a documentary, or take a nap.

This also extends to my personal habits. Anyone who has seen me during finals week or the summer knows that showering is not my favorite activity. Getting naked (and therefore cold) and standing in water (hot or not) just isn't the most thrilling thing to me. Oh sure, it wakes you up in the morning... but who the hell wants to wake up? I'm not saying that I do my best to smell, and I admit that a shower is awesome after a long day skiing or hiking, but if I'm not that dirty and I'm not working, I'll often skip the shower. 


Well, things aren't too much different here, except when it comes to that whole soap thing.

Moving to Beijing probably wasn't the best choice for someone who raises dust rhinoceri, seeing as the dirt piles up just from leaving the windows open. And I've mentioned before the thin layer of poo that coats everything. My response? Lots and lots of soap.

I wash my hands religiously. Not that I didn't wash them before, but I really wash them now. I shower every day. Maybe it's the awesome shower head I have. Maybe it's the low ceiling that help keeps the heat in. Maybe it's the super-bright heat lamps right over the shower. Maybe it's my giant, fluffy towel towel. Maybe it's the feeling that I'm coated with poo every time I've been outside. But, I am a much, much cleaner person.

And there's a benefit to all this hand washing -- I haven't gotten sick yet! At least four of my colleagues have come down with food poisoning and three of them have gotten colds. I've suffered from neither. I thought I had the beginnings of a cold earlier this week, but I think it was allergies from the horrible pollution we had during the weekend (more on that later). This doesn't mean that I won't get sick, but as someone who usually starts the year with a cold from the germ-factories, being cold-free is a pleasant surprise.