showers in gyms, schools, swimming pools, hostels, etc. sometimes there are separate, curtained stalls, but that's generally the best one can hope for and often even that luxury is absent. more prevelant are big tiled rooms with showerheads spaced along the wall or protruding from a metal post.

public showers are good places to get athlete's foot. they are also good places to see strangers naked or to be seen naked by strangers. some people have no problem with this, others had neurotic parents and are still half convinced that the only people who need to see them naked are their lover and their doctor, and the latter only in a life threatening situation.

for example, i was forced to take a shower in the locker room by the school's swimming pool today and chanced to see someone who i didn't really want to run into there - this moderately creepy frat boy butch lesbian who looks me up and down every time she sees me. it's not as if i wasn't upset enough by the aforementioned phobia about public nudity and the circumstances by which i came to arrive in the public showers, i needed her naked and peeping at me to further heighten my discomfort.

but i wore my flip-flops, so at least i don't think i got athlete's foot.