> without losing track of which way north is.

I blame my childhood. Everyone always said the Pacific Ocean is to the west. So naturally the direction I went to go to the beach on the pacific ocean should be West. Especially when the north/south freeway crosses the street I take to the beach at a pretty good angle (well it's more like 45 degrees). Turns out I actually go south to go to the beach, the freeway is roughly parallel to the coast and north/south freeways sometimes travel due east/west and I have a real hard time with cardinal directions, and even if I understand where the directions are when outside, when I enter a building, especially if I go up stairs or an elevator, my sense of where the cardinal directions from inside the building is likely to be way off.

Thankfully, there's not a big impact from not knowing where room walls are relative to each other. :P

Similarly, I live in Seattle with hills everywhere, but the main path I used to go uphill was Southbound. But on maps, up is always North. I haven't recovered since!

> Thankfully, there's not a big impact from not knowing where room walls are relative to...

Let me tell you about the friend-of-friend, who was cutting holes in his dining room wall to install [whatever], oblivious to the bathroom on the other side, and the water pipes for that bathroom...