peeing in the dark and other activities

This should probably also go on my FYI for future students page, but I feel it is worthy of its own post. Mostly because I am running out of clever things to write about, and partially because I am worried that lots of other people who share my distaste for being alone in the dark might experience this if I don't post a warning.
I feel that perhaps this should be a public service announcement, although between the air traffic controllers striking and shutting down the Madrid airport and the Wilileaks creator being a sex offender, this might not get the attention it deserves.
It is a simple matter of turning on the lights, really. God bless the American light switches, that you can nearly always locate just inside the door, at the height your arm instinctively knows to reach for, and with one quick flick you have light. If only life was so simple... I'd understand things like math and the subjunctive tense and why my cooking always looks so ugly. I would also have escaped a slightly intoxicated freak out involving my first experience with Spanish light switches.
The tricky thing here is that electricity is expensive. I'd like to say that Spaniards are just very green-consious, but when it comes down to it, they just dislike you leaving the lights on. So bars, and restaurants and public places have timed lights... you push the switch in and you have about 20 seconds of light. Maybe it's just me but that just won't do, especially when I am trying to manage to make my tights look normal and stop bunching weirdly. Not to mention avoiding pulling the classic dress stuck down your tights scenario. For forgive me for saying this but twenty seconds just is not enough time.
Here comes the fun part two: if the person before you still had light left, chances are you are on such a mission to make it to the bathroom that you don't think about checking where the light is. And never count on it being in the same place. In Italy, it was behind me on the wall. I won't go into details on how I found that, due to the groping of bathroom walls being a low point in my life.
So please, for the love of sanitation and sanity, check where that damn light is whenever you go into a bathroom. Because trust me, when you are suddenly plunged into a toilet paperless darkness, the walls of a bathroom are the last place you want to be feeling around.