When I moved to South Africa ten years ago, I really wanted to get to know the country: Get to know the people, taste the food, understand the culture, dance to the music. It was a wonderful time and I really got to know, feel part of and home in South Africa.
After a year and a half, I went back to visit family and friends in Germany for the first time.
Coming home was amazing: I was in love with every little piece of Germany. As strange as it may sound, every small random detail did and still does make me happy every time I visit: the pavements, the letter boxes, the bakeries, the barbeques, the recycling stations, the signs of doctors outside houses. It is a strange, but powerful high.
But being away from Germany didn’t just help me appreciate all sorts of meaningless things about my home country, it also twisted my mind entirely unexpected ways.
With the majority of black South Africans living in desperate poverty, it is not surprising that most services are provided by black people. Every waiter, bus driver, cleaner, nanny, shop assistant – every one of them is black. And if you like it or not, living in this kind of environment does something to you.
When I travelled back to Germany and got on the bus to go home, I was surprised to see a white person drive the bus. I had lived the vast majority of my life in countries where I had seen more white people drive buses than people of any other descent, but suddenly noticed it and was surprised by it. It was a strange and awkward feeling that didn’t leave me for a long time and that I consciously had to work on to no longer feel.
Flash forward.
I’ve lived in the US for just over a year now and have subconsciously been on the lookout for a similarly strange, unexpected and possibly unwelcome shift in mind or perception. And recently, I found it. In a rather surprising place. And once again it hit me just after having landed in Germany.
I got off the plane, cleared customs and went to the bathroom to freshen up. I did what people do in bathroom cubicles and was about to step out when I realised I’d almost forgotten something: I’d almost forgotten to flush.
A back off the envelope calculation suggests I’ve used the bathroom about 75,000 times in my life and flushed pretty much the same amount of times. So I was somewhat baffled, even shocked that I was now about to leave a public bathroom without having remembered to flush. But then I realised: the majority of toilets in public restrooms in the US flush automatically these days and you very rarely have to worry about flushing yourself anymore. So it only took a year of living here for me to forget a habit that had been ingrained in me all my life…
It makes you wonder – or worry – what’s next. It also makes you understand some things a bit more.
PS: To all my friends who may be concerned about having me visit: the above is not a recurring forgetfulness and most definitely not in private homes, where even in the US people still have to flush themselves (outrageous)
PPS: I’m not sure why one would want to, but if you did continue the calculations and assumed an average of three minutes in the bathroom, then this means I’ve spent about 150 days of my life using toilets…
After a year and a half, I went back to visit family and friends in Germany for the first time.
Coming home was amazing: I was in love with every little piece of Germany. As strange as it may sound, every small random detail did and still does make me happy every time I visit: the pavements, the letter boxes, the bakeries, the barbeques, the recycling stations, the signs of doctors outside houses. It is a strange, but powerful high.
But being away from Germany didn’t just help me appreciate all sorts of meaningless things about my home country, it also twisted my mind entirely unexpected ways.
With the majority of black South Africans living in desperate poverty, it is not surprising that most services are provided by black people. Every waiter, bus driver, cleaner, nanny, shop assistant – every one of them is black. And if you like it or not, living in this kind of environment does something to you.
When I travelled back to Germany and got on the bus to go home, I was surprised to see a white person drive the bus. I had lived the vast majority of my life in countries where I had seen more white people drive buses than people of any other descent, but suddenly noticed it and was surprised by it. It was a strange and awkward feeling that didn’t leave me for a long time and that I consciously had to work on to no longer feel.
Flash forward.
I’ve lived in the US for just over a year now and have subconsciously been on the lookout for a similarly strange, unexpected and possibly unwelcome shift in mind or perception. And recently, I found it. In a rather surprising place. And once again it hit me just after having landed in Germany.
I got off the plane, cleared customs and went to the bathroom to freshen up. I did what people do in bathroom cubicles and was about to step out when I realised I’d almost forgotten something: I’d almost forgotten to flush.
A back off the envelope calculation suggests I’ve used the bathroom about 75,000 times in my life and flushed pretty much the same amount of times. So I was somewhat baffled, even shocked that I was now about to leave a public bathroom without having remembered to flush. But then I realised: the majority of toilets in public restrooms in the US flush automatically these days and you very rarely have to worry about flushing yourself anymore. So it only took a year of living here for me to forget a habit that had been ingrained in me all my life…
It makes you wonder – or worry – what’s next. It also makes you understand some things a bit more.
PS: To all my friends who may be concerned about having me visit: the above is not a recurring forgetfulness and most definitely not in private homes, where even in the US people still have to flush themselves (outrageous)
PPS: I’m not sure why one would want to, but if you did continue the calculations and assumed an average of three minutes in the bathroom, then this means I’ve spent about 150 days of my life using toilets…
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