Showering

In the spirit of my on-going quest to record all things banal and quotidian while I'm here, today's blog is about my daily shower ritual. I use the word ritual not only to denote the precision of the process that I go through, but also evoke some of the discomfort (ritual sacrifice) that my body undergoes. For those in the academy, it's a chance to consider how knowledge is made through the body. For those who are not, this post may make you wonder why you are being told about all of these things in such detail...

Firstly, I should point out that I'm quite lucky, in that I am able to heat my water supply, a luxury many people here don't enjoy. All I have to do is flick a switch as soon as I get up, and the water is heated electrically. There have been a couple of occasions when there hasn't been any power in the morning, which simply prevented showering altogether.

The water takes about 1/2 hour to heat up, and there have been mornings when I've been in a hurry, and had to deal with luke warm water. However, mostly the water is hot. While the water heats up I eat breakfast and do a sudoku, then the trial by cold begins. First thing in the morning, my room is always warmer than the rest of the apartment, and so leaving it in my PJs is always a slight discomfort. The bathroom is the furthest room away from my bedroom, and on the side of the building that doesn't get the sun. Hence, getting undressed in there is a process of exposing my body to the cold air.

Nipples like diamond cutters!

The shower water takes maybe 30 seconds to warm up, and then I can get in. However, there is no real water pressure to speak of here, so getting in the shower means sticking different parts of your body underneath a stream of water that might have well have come from a tap. Due to the intense water shortages in the West Bank (and the associated expense of running water), you should spend as little time as possible in the shower (or using any tap), so taking a shower turns into a bizarre form of exercise for me, as I attempt to wash different parts of my body and my hair as quickly as possible.

Then, just as you begin to warm up, it's time to turn the taps off, get out and undergo an even more physically rigourous drying process. (Imagine you're dry and cold, then imagine how cold you would be if you were wet!) After doing this crazy quick-hop-on-the-spot drying/exercise routine, I leg it across the cold kitchen floor, and back into my bedroom, where my electric heater and clothes offer a world of warmth for the rest of the day.

Not even as a child did I mind washing as much as I do currently. Brrr.