It’s funny the things that you become fixated on, almost obsessively, when you get out of your comfort zone, your zone of “everything is under my control.” When I first got to Peru, I laughed at how EVERYONE spoke at length about their showers. My shower requires a little bit of a turn on first, and then a turn off, and then a turn on again for the hot water. My shower only gives me hot water if I turn on so it’s just spitting a slight stream of water. My shower started spewing sticky stuff the other day. Oh I haven’t had water in my shower for 3 days, I finally went in there and fixed it. I think I got a shock in my shower yesterday when I tried to get more hot water out. I jumped out of my shower and fell yesterday, broke my finger, because the water went from lukewarm to icy cold to scalding hot.
After a little bit of traveling, I have now been fixated on showers. Until I can actually have a semi-decent one, it’s like a biological drive, my id of shower desire, if you will. I’ve crafted a pretty good superego that keeps this shower id in place for the most part, but every once in a while, my id will sneak out, craving nothing more in LIFE than a nice, hot, consistent shower. I haven’t showered for 3 days. Perhaps that’s why I feel dirty and rotten? I’m not a bad person, I’m not, I just feel like a bit (and smell like) of a hobo right now. One more day of no shower, and I might've felt like I’ve committed a crime and might not question the cop dragging me into his car. I’ve been fine with cold showers, when they have been a necessity so far, but that’s only when it’s hot outside. Right now it’s freezing and I don’t even have a heater. So the cold shower is as good as a dead shower. I think my id is taking over, because I’m starting to see shower heads in my dreams now. I need a shower.
After a little bit of traveling, I have now been fixated on showers. Until I can actually have a semi-decent one, it’s like a biological drive, my id of shower desire, if you will. I’ve crafted a pretty good superego that keeps this shower id in place for the most part, but every once in a while, my id will sneak out, craving nothing more in LIFE than a nice, hot, consistent shower. I haven’t showered for 3 days. Perhaps that’s why I feel dirty and rotten? I’m not a bad person, I’m not, I just feel like a bit (and smell like) of a hobo right now. One more day of no shower, and I might've felt like I’ve committed a crime and might not question the cop dragging me into his car. I’ve been fine with cold showers, when they have been a necessity so far, but that’s only when it’s hot outside. Right now it’s freezing and I don’t even have a heater. So the cold shower is as good as a dead shower. I think my id is taking over, because I’m starting to see shower heads in my dreams now. I need a shower.
I’ve just had a shower, I pounced when I tested the water and it was hot. So now that I feel like myself again, I’m starting to think about traveling and how different travels to the same place can mean so many things to so many people. Everyone judges, that’s pretty much a fact, but it’s interesting to study what some of these judgements/impressions of a place are based on, and what that could mean for one person’s travel experience (and ultimately, impression about the place they traveled to) versus another’s. So far I’ve gathered from people I’ve met, that they’ve judged a place based on:
- The weather that happened to be, when they happened to be there (I heard a couple say they absolutely hated Miraflores, the suburb of Lima that I loved, because it was overcast the whole time they were there, and it just looked blah. They didn’t actually say it was because of the weather, but that was the main reason I deduced after talking with them for a while, for their dislike of the place. I, however, had sunny days the whole time I was there).
- The composition of people on the plane heading to the destination, or the composition of people at the airport. (Believe it or not, I met someone who knew exactly what Peruvian people were like because of the type of people on the plane from Cusco to Lima, or Buenos Aires to Lima)
- The part of town you stay at. Ritzy versus with character, conveniences versus none, shopping malls versus street stalls. I’ve heard so many people say they hated someplace that I absolutely loved or vice versa, and it all boiled down to the part of town we were exposed to. I’ve even heart this from people who visit Toronto and only stay in the financial district on a weekend, and then exclaim, “there aren’t that many people in Toronto, it’s quite dead” and I’ve gotten so defensive for this type of comment, that I dare not pass judgement on a city, or country, now without spending a significant amount of time in it.
- Conveniences that you were expecting that were missing, like, say hot water. Or incidents that may have happened, like, say getting robbed. Not from personal experience or anything.
In the end though, all these form such a small part of traveling, because as soon as that id of showering was satisfied, my outlook on the day, and the place, got better. The sun came out too, and now, I’m glad I came here. And that’s the thing about traveling, you know that things are out of your control, so you throw up your arms and laugh about it, or cry about it, but you keep moving. Now, if we could only teach ourselves that things are sometimes out of our control even INSIDE our comfort zones of control, I think we’d be able to live a lot more stress-free in our day to days.
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