El Andalous - Disorientation

Birds Enjoying Some Shade

Each time I return to Egypt (or to Switzerland, for that matter), there are certain things I forget about everyday life during my time away. Strangely, or maybe not so strangely (because perhaps I learn!), they aren’t the same things each time.

For the first time in both Egypt and Switzerland this time round, I’ve had problems during my first nights knowing which country I’m in when initially waking up (or when waking intermittently during the night). I can’t quite figure out where the window is, which side I get out of bed, or exactly where I am until I take a look around me and it becomes obvious. I don’t know why this should suddenly happen to me now. I hope it’s not early senility. I suppose I was changing accommodation in Switzerland quite a bit, so perhaps my sudden confusion is all to do with the fact that I’m now more settled in Zurich with my own permanent flat.

One thing I’m continually forgetting is that in Egypt, when I make my bed, I need to tuck my sheet under my mattress (as indeed most people do, if they don’t just have a duvet); I’m forever thinking that I need to push the sheet down the hard side of the bed (wherein the mattress is tightly located), which is what I have to do in Zurich. It’s quite a bizarre sensation as it’s almost a motor memory, my hand just automatically goes to tuck the sheet down the side of the bed and then I realize that it’s not possible to do it like that. In fact, it’s too hot even for a sheet at the moment in Egypt, but I don’t like to sleep without something covering me (I just got awarded a badge on my Garmin watch because I’d done an activity in over 100 degrees Fahrenheit; but it’s not as bad as it sounds – actually, the weather is perfect).

Another point of disorientation for me is that I’ve got totally used to organizing my life round the fact that Thursdays are the days where I’m allowed to use the washing machine in Switzerland. So, I come back to Egypt, and I’m continually planning about how to do my wash on Thursday and then realizing that I have my own machine and can actually do my washing whenever I like. It’s also quite bizarre to have something in Egypt that’s better than in Switzerland, but we also have seven rubbish collections a day over here (but we don’t separate the rubbish out).

If you live in the UK, this concept of having a washing machine for one day a week may be a bit weird to you, so I’ll digress here for a moment. In Switzerland, flats generally have shared washing machines and driers in the basement and you are either allocated a day to use the washing machine, or you have to sign up on a timetable (and getting your desired time can be difficult). I’m very lucky in that where I live use of the machines is free of charge (well, included in the rent), which is unusual. However, because I’m often in Egypt, the other residents have got used to me not being there and I now find that someone else is using the machine on “my” day, and I’m unable to get access to the machine. I’ve ended up having to leave notes out the night before to say when I need to use the machine (because the Swiss are always up really early and have started their washing before I’ve had a chance to nab the washing machine myself). Anyway, in Egypt, I don’t have that problem.

Surprisingly, the noise of the planes didn’t disturb me when I got back to Switzerland and when I’m in Egypt, I don’t particularly notice the sudden silence at night either. That may be because I’ve always got my fan running in Egypt, so I’m just swapping one noise for another.

It’s difficult to adapt back to the beach life once I’ve been in Zurich. I find my head full of timetables and things to do and it’s hard at first just to have a day at the beach and switch off. I’m just about back into the routine of laziness and now it’s almost time to go back to Switzerland again. I can feel that tinge of sadness starting as I know I have to leave, but I know that Switzerland will also hold many joys once I return. The differences are what make it all so interesting.