One of the things I've always loved about Grahamstown is how chilled the fashions are. If you feel like rocking Friars in denim shorts and slops, no one is going to judge you. If you want to hit lectures barefoot, go for it! If you're not keen to take your slippers off (you know who you are...) then you'll probably start a new PJ trend by wearing them out. Generally, anything goes.
Except for heels.
For some obscure reason, wearing heels in this town is frowned upon. I always assumed that this was because it implies some kind of shallow-girl, poppie status which is rarely seen at Rhodes. In winter, boots with heels are OK and for formal nights out (dinners, hall balls etc) they seem to be acceptable. But a general night out in Friars or the Rat? You get judged hard. Now I found this depressing, because in the last holiday I managed to buy a gorgeous pair of hessian wedge heels that I've fallen in love with :D But I hadn't had an opportunity to wear them here yet. So one Friday about two weeks ago I decided to bite the bullet and wear the damn things out. I learned two important things that night.
Firstly, heels hurt. For a formal dinner or dance they're fine because you spend most of the night sitting down, but when you're traipsing between clubs or wiggling your butt on the dancefloor all night, your feet start to feel the strain. By 11 o' clock I was dying a slow and painful death feet-first. When I woke up the next morning, I had blisters on my toes. :( it was also near impossible to dance. The closest thing you can get to dancing in heels - short of a waltz - is a kind of retarded bouncing-up-and-down-at-the-knees with a lot of arm action. And the moment someone bumps into you, you face a huge risk of losing your balance and ending up sitting on Friar's dancefloor (which, from experience, I would definitely not recommend. It's rather sticky).
Secondly, when wearing heels there is an ever-present chance of falling on your ass. Unless you're the kind of girl who wears them 24/7, there's always that chance of overbalancing and faceplanting. Normally the solution to this problem would be to not get drunk, but I can claim from personal experience that you can bail just as hard when you're perfectly sober. While walking down the stairs into the Friars bottom bar, my heel caught at an odd angle on the second-to-last stair and I performed a very undignifed tumble into the room. Talk about an entrance...thank goodness it was still early and very few people saw it. I did have some epic bruises the next morning, but I'm not entirely sure whether those came from falling or from some other mysterious source (You may laugh, but it's rare that I wake up after a night out without at least one bruise...). On the bright side, my heels were unharmed.
On the other hand, there are many many reasons why wearing heels out is a good idea. They make you look taller (which a shortass like me finds endlessly useful); they look delicate and feminine; and they make your legs look fan-bloody-tastic :D So allow me to present you with a few hard-and-fast rules for wearing heels out in Grahamstown:
1. Don't get drunk.
2. Don't expect to be able to dance.
3. Avoid stairs at all costs.
4. Prepare a soothing foot spa treatment for the morning after.
Oh and don't wear a very short skirt with them. If you do as I did and decide to bail downstairs, you may give the boys in the room more of a show than you intend to. Or if you have to wear a short skirt, don't wear granny panties. If there's a chance you're going to accidentally flash the whole room, you may as well make it pretty :P
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