I've always found it slightly uncomfortable to be walking down the street and see a cute boy wearing sunglasses walking in my direction. Why? Well, you can never tell quite where he's looking. You can't perve over him and you can't tell whether he's checking you out. It's a difficult situation. I've since discovered that I react to cute boys in sunglasses in different ways, depending on how my day is going...
Way 1: Self-consciousness
I hope I look OK. Is my hair messy? Is there food in my teeth? Does this outfit make me look fat? Will he notice if I surreptitiously try to push my fringe out of my eyes? Or does it look cuter the way it is? If I move it, will he think I'm trying to catch his attention?
Way 2: Paranoia
Oh God he's looking at me, isn't he? He thinks I'm fat. He's wondering 'Why the hell is she wearing that??' He remembers seeing me drunk and falling off that table at Pirates on Friday. I'm not going to smile. He'll think I'm creepy.
Way 3: Confusion
Why is he looking at me? Do I know him? Did I meet him last weekend? Didn't he hook up with my best friend's sister's cousin's girlfriend? Oh shit, did I hook up with him? No. He's cute. I'd remember that. I think.
Way 4: Confidence
Of course he's looking at me. I'm f***ing hot.
Personally, Way 1 seems to be my most common response. Or Way 3. I'm not entirely sure why it only seems to occur around boys in sunglasses, but hey, that's the way of the world :) maybe it's just because any boy looks hot in sunglasses. Hmm. I see a social experiment in my near future...watch this space!
Thursday, August 25, 2011
Tuesday, August 23, 2011
Let there be water!
God giveth water, and the municipality taketh away. :(
You don't realise how much water you use until it suddenly isn't there anymore. For the past 48 hours the water in my residence has been off and on and off and on in a continuous cycle, and it's slowly driving me insane. Why? Consider the following...
1) Showering
Due to the lack of water in res last night, I had to take a fifteen minute walk (carrying towel, toiletry bag and clean undies) to a friend's digs in order to take a shower. This doesn't sound too bad, but consider the logistics of it: 15 minutes each way, 20-25 minutes to shower and make myself vaguely presentable for the walk back...that's a good hour that I spent just trying to get clean. And to add insult to injury, the water came back on half an hour after I got back into res. Not cool. On the bright side, at least I could shower this morning. Right before the water shut off AGAIN.
2) Washing hands
OK OK so for a lot of people, this isn't a big deal. But I am a total hygiene-freak, and I have to wash my hands before I eat, after using the bathroom and whenever I get back from lectures. Thank God there's still water in the geyser...for now. Otherwise I'll have to go and buy hand sanitiser. And it just isn't the same.
3) Drinking
I know all the stories about how Gtown water is dangerous to drink and that I'll end up with Alzheimers if I keep drinking it. But I am way too lazy - and broke - to buy bottled water and lug it back to res every week. At least there's water to drink in the dining hall; somehow I doubt I'll die of dehydration within the next few hours. But it is rather annoying not to be able to grab a glass of water when I want it.
4) Toilets
This is the one that most people don't seem to think about. If there is no water, one cannot flush toilets. Therefore, it is a bad idea to use the toilets in res. However, people get lazy. And as much as I hate to destroy the idealistic image that guys have of us ladies: girls poop. And when half the res can't be bothered to go to the res next door (or the library) to use the bathoom, the corridors start to smell pretty bad within a few hours. I really do pity the girls whose rooms are directly opposite the bathrooms; it can't be fun. Come on ladies, there are fifty-something of us living here. For the sake of consideration - and my nasal passages - take the walk next door if you have to use the toilet. It won't kill you, I promise.
When you think about it, 99% of our basic hygiene depends on our access to water.Yes I know I'm not in quite the same dire state as a person stranded in the middle of the desert, but having to walk next door every time you hear the call of nature does get a little frustrating. Especially when there's no one to let you in to the next door residence, and you have to then walk to the library. Or to the Greens. So to the Grahamstown Municipality: please, for the love of all things clean and hygienic, get our water back on! Otherwise this is going to become a very smelly res very quickly. With equally smelly inhabitants.
You don't realise how much water you use until it suddenly isn't there anymore. For the past 48 hours the water in my residence has been off and on and off and on in a continuous cycle, and it's slowly driving me insane. Why? Consider the following...
1) Showering
Due to the lack of water in res last night, I had to take a fifteen minute walk (carrying towel, toiletry bag and clean undies) to a friend's digs in order to take a shower. This doesn't sound too bad, but consider the logistics of it: 15 minutes each way, 20-25 minutes to shower and make myself vaguely presentable for the walk back...that's a good hour that I spent just trying to get clean. And to add insult to injury, the water came back on half an hour after I got back into res. Not cool. On the bright side, at least I could shower this morning. Right before the water shut off AGAIN.
2) Washing hands
OK OK so for a lot of people, this isn't a big deal. But I am a total hygiene-freak, and I have to wash my hands before I eat, after using the bathroom and whenever I get back from lectures. Thank God there's still water in the geyser...for now. Otherwise I'll have to go and buy hand sanitiser. And it just isn't the same.
3) Drinking
I know all the stories about how Gtown water is dangerous to drink and that I'll end up with Alzheimers if I keep drinking it. But I am way too lazy - and broke - to buy bottled water and lug it back to res every week. At least there's water to drink in the dining hall; somehow I doubt I'll die of dehydration within the next few hours. But it is rather annoying not to be able to grab a glass of water when I want it.
4) Toilets
This is the one that most people don't seem to think about. If there is no water, one cannot flush toilets. Therefore, it is a bad idea to use the toilets in res. However, people get lazy. And as much as I hate to destroy the idealistic image that guys have of us ladies: girls poop. And when half the res can't be bothered to go to the res next door (or the library) to use the bathoom, the corridors start to smell pretty bad within a few hours. I really do pity the girls whose rooms are directly opposite the bathrooms; it can't be fun. Come on ladies, there are fifty-something of us living here. For the sake of consideration - and my nasal passages - take the walk next door if you have to use the toilet. It won't kill you, I promise.
When you think about it, 99% of our basic hygiene depends on our access to water.Yes I know I'm not in quite the same dire state as a person stranded in the middle of the desert, but having to walk next door every time you hear the call of nature does get a little frustrating. Especially when there's no one to let you in to the next door residence, and you have to then walk to the library. Or to the Greens. So to the Grahamstown Municipality: please, for the love of all things clean and hygienic, get our water back on! Otherwise this is going to become a very smelly res very quickly. With equally smelly inhabitants.
Tuesday, August 2, 2011
The stickiest of spiderwebs
First off, I apologise for my extended absence. I was on holiday for six weeks :D and naturally it's taking me a while to get back into the swing of things in the new semester. Also, I had no idea what to write about. But as always, my friends have (unwittingly) provided me with much-needed material for a new post.
Ever heard of the term "gobweb"? Yes, it is one of the grossest-sounding terms I have ever come across in my life. It makes me think of stringy saliva...ewwwie. And yet, unfortunately, it seems that 90% of the Rhodes students - in fact, most students all over the world - are involved in a gobweb of sorts. It just becomes more prevalent here because Grahamstown is such a tiny little place.
For those of you who are now confused, imagine a gobweb to be rather like a spider diagram or mindmap, where people are linked via hookups. For example, say I hooked up with Bob. Then Bob hooked up with Julie. On the gobweb, I am indirectly linked to Julie. Gettit? It's not a complicated concept.
On Sunday night my friends and I were chilling in one friend's room, drinking tea and chatting. The concept of the gobweb came up, and we slowly realised that we were all connected by at least one removal. For example, Julie and Sue are my friends. I hooked up with Bob, Bob hooked up with Julie, Julie hooked up with Fred, Fred hooked up with Sue.
...
OK it looks way better if you actually draw the diagram. It's a rather disturbing concept. In fact, it seems to be almost impossible to find someone in Grahamstown who hasn't:
a) Hooked up with one of your friends
b) Been friends with one of your friends
c) Been hit on by one of your friends.
At first I thought that hey, maybe my friends are just liberal like that :P (you guys know I'm joking...) But then last night I met a girl for the first time and we started chatting. Surprise, surprise...we've both hooked up with the same guy at some point in the past. Myself and a complete stranger not only hooked up with the same guy, but (judging from our conversation about boys we know at Rhodes in general) have almost exactly the same taste in guys. That's downright creepy. Especially when you consider how dirty and bacteria-ridden the human mouth is. To put it crudely, hooking up with the same guy/girl as your friend implies that you've both had your tongue in the same mouth. Disturbing image? My point exactly.
What is the point of this post? Mostly to really, really creep people out :D seriously though, it's no wonder that colds, flu and stomach bugs travel so quickly around the students here. Hooking up with random people is bad (Yes, I am the ultimate hypocrite. Don't judge me :P ) and it is on this basis that I applaud one particular friend of mine, who has not had a single random hookup in the almost-two years that she's been here. Not for lack of opportunity, mind - she even had one hot boy taking his shirt off on the dancefloor to impress her (or so I've heard). But, as she said last night, "Drunk or sober, I have standards."
Words to live by.
Ever heard of the term "gobweb"? Yes, it is one of the grossest-sounding terms I have ever come across in my life. It makes me think of stringy saliva...ewwwie. And yet, unfortunately, it seems that 90% of the Rhodes students - in fact, most students all over the world - are involved in a gobweb of sorts. It just becomes more prevalent here because Grahamstown is such a tiny little place.
For those of you who are now confused, imagine a gobweb to be rather like a spider diagram or mindmap, where people are linked via hookups. For example, say I hooked up with Bob. Then Bob hooked up with Julie. On the gobweb, I am indirectly linked to Julie. Gettit? It's not a complicated concept.
On Sunday night my friends and I were chilling in one friend's room, drinking tea and chatting. The concept of the gobweb came up, and we slowly realised that we were all connected by at least one removal. For example, Julie and Sue are my friends. I hooked up with Bob, Bob hooked up with Julie, Julie hooked up with Fred, Fred hooked up with Sue.
...
OK it looks way better if you actually draw the diagram. It's a rather disturbing concept. In fact, it seems to be almost impossible to find someone in Grahamstown who hasn't:
a) Hooked up with one of your friends
b) Been friends with one of your friends
c) Been hit on by one of your friends.
At first I thought that hey, maybe my friends are just liberal like that :P (you guys know I'm joking...) But then last night I met a girl for the first time and we started chatting. Surprise, surprise...we've both hooked up with the same guy at some point in the past. Myself and a complete stranger not only hooked up with the same guy, but (judging from our conversation about boys we know at Rhodes in general) have almost exactly the same taste in guys. That's downright creepy. Especially when you consider how dirty and bacteria-ridden the human mouth is. To put it crudely, hooking up with the same guy/girl as your friend implies that you've both had your tongue in the same mouth. Disturbing image? My point exactly.
What is the point of this post? Mostly to really, really creep people out :D seriously though, it's no wonder that colds, flu and stomach bugs travel so quickly around the students here. Hooking up with random people is bad (Yes, I am the ultimate hypocrite. Don't judge me :P ) and it is on this basis that I applaud one particular friend of mine, who has not had a single random hookup in the almost-two years that she's been here. Not for lack of opportunity, mind - she even had one hot boy taking his shirt off on the dancefloor to impress her (or so I've heard). But, as she said last night, "Drunk or sober, I have standards."
Words to live by.
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