RUN, FORREST, RUN!

Yes, I have finally done it. I have managed to get off my lazy butt and start running again! Will it last? Probably not. :P I decided that it had been far too long since I last exercised and so I began on a 6 week 10km programme (which, incidentally, I may have to extend to seven weeks. Or eight. Or possibly a few months). So far, it's been a week and I've been on four runs. Go me.

One thing I'm beginning to realise is that I don't think I'm a natural runner. I've heard so many runners speak of this elusive thing called the "runner's high", a supposed moment during a run where your endorphins kick in and all the pain and wheezing goes away and you feel like you're flying. The only high I feel is that moment when my alarm goes off and I realise that I can stop. Even then, stopping sometimes hurts more than carrying on. During the run my general thought process is something like this...

It feels good to be running again! Whooooo I'm flying! I love downhills! (pause) I wonder how much my butt is jiggling in these running shorts. (pause) Who cares?? At least I'm exercising! Whoooo! (pause) OK time to leave the downhill behind! Onto the straight! I can do this! (breathing becomes a little heavier) Whew. Running is tougher than I remembered. Shit. There's the first hill. (breathing becomes heavier, pace slows) Hills SUCK. (panting, moving at just above walking speed) God my calves HURT! I didn't know I HAD so many muscles there! They feel like they're on fire! (panting hard) F***ing hill. WHY WON'T YOU END?? (starting to wheeze) Wait, is that...? Could it be...? OMG THE HILL HAS ENDED! WHOOOOOO! (checks watch) What?? I've only been running for three minutes? I can't stop yet????
Dammit.

School v Varsity

Lately on Facebook I've noticed a lot of varsity-aged people complaining about how the workload at varsity is terrible and how they wish they were back at school where they had less work/worked shorter hours/had closer friends and so on. So I decided to make a list of school life v varsity life (from my own experience) to decide whether my school or varsity life was better.

School life

• The school bus left by 6:45 and school started at 7:30 sharp.
• I wore my unattractive school uniform every day, come rain or shine.
• I tied my hair up in a ponytail.
• Lunch break was about 15 minutes for the first one, and 25 minutes for the second.
• The school day ended at 15:00, when I could go home.
• I took the bus to school and back, which got rather hot and sweaty in summer.
• I saw my boyfriend on the weekends.
• Lessons were an hour long.
• I had seven subjects in Matric.
• I had seven lessons a day.
• My mom did my laundry.
• I wasn't allowed out on school nights.
• School was a twenty minute drive from home.
• I had to learn between 5 and 20 pages for a test.
• Tests were during lessons.
• Lunch was usually a sandwich and something extra ( a cereal bar, a packet of nuts, grapes...)

Varsity life

• On most days my first lecture is at 8:40 or 9:35.
• I choose my own outfits every day: long pants and scarves in winter, cute skirts and tops in summer.
• I wear my hair loose most days.
• Lunch is from 12:00 until 14:00 on weekdays.
• I go home (back to res) between my lectures.
• I walk to lectures and back, which is tiring but good for my legs.
• I see my boyfriend most days.
• Lectures are 45 minutes.
• I had four subjects in first and second year, and am doing two subjects this year.
• I have maybe two lectures and a tutorial on my busiest days.
• I have to do my own laundry.
• I can go wherever I want, whenever I want, regardless of whether I have lectures the next day or not.
• My lecture venues are a five minute walk from home.
• I have to study 120 pages for my next test, as well as several law cases
• Tests are usually at 7pm.
• Lunch is usually a full cooked meal; good for the tastebuds (depending on the day), not so good for the waistline.

I could go on for ages, but I'll stop here as I have to leave for a lecture in ten minutes. Reading over these lists I can safely say that I am much happier at varsity (even if I have to do my own laundry). And despite the full cooked lunches, I've lost quite a few kgs since starting at varsity. So viva la varsity! Maybe growing up isn't so bad after all :)

Breakfast giggles

Shortly after my boyfriend and I started dating we developed a 'tradition'. We would go out on Friday night, get relatively drunk, sleep in on Saturday morning and then go to Wimpy for a late breakfast. Their R19.90 Streaky Bacon breakfast special is amazingly good value for money. We'd order exactly the same breakfast (Streaky bacon, soft eggs, brown toast). I'd get a pot of Five Roses tea and he would have coffee. Nowadays my Saturday doesn't feel complete without a Wimpy breakfast (usually eaten at around lunchtime :P). In all the times that we've been there, we've had some interesting run-ins with the waitresses. I now present three...unusual...moments that made our Wimpy breakfasts that much more entertaining. :D

Scenario 1

Dave: "I'll have a coffee, thanks."

Waitress: "A Wimpy coffee?"

Dave: "...yes...?"

(Waitress walks away)

Dave: (bewildered) "What other kind of coffee would you get at Wimpy??"

Scenario 2

(Waitress clears away my tea cup, the remaining sugar and the milk jug)

Waitress: "Can I take this?" (points to the teapot)

Me: "Sure..." (thinking: What does she think I'm going to do with the teapot if she's already taken my cup? Drink it out the spout?).

Scenario 3

Waitress: "Do you want anything else or can I bring the bill? Because I'm going to go and have my tea now."

And for the record, these were three different waitresses on three different Saturday mornings. Usually an experience like this would cause me to assume that Wimpy waitresses were just a little strange. But last night we stopped at KFC so that Dave could get supper. As we approached the door a cashier darted from behind the counter, practically sprinted across the restaurant and slammed the door shut, locking it in our faces. We stared at each other, confused, and then burst out laughing. Apparently KFC closes at 21:30 and hey, it was 21:30 on the dot. So in short, we have now established that the majority of people working in fast food restaurants are very, very, very odd.

Also, Dave reckons he's going to ask for a Steers coffee next time we go to Wimpy. I look forward to seeing the look on the waitress's face. :P

To eat or not to eat?

As I was heading to lunch one day during O-week earlier this year, one of the first years asked if there were any problems with anorexic girls in the res. From what I understood, she was asking whether there were girls who would shame others about what they eat or whether girls would compete with each other to see who could eat the least. Naturally I told her no. But as the year progressed, I began to realise that I may be wrong.

Perhaps it's inevitable in an all-girls dining hall, but I've begun to notice disturbing trends. Girls comment about missing meals and losing weight as if it's a normal occurrence; the concept of "first year spread" is thrown about as both a joke and something to fear. I know that when I first came into res I lost weight. This was partly because I didn't really like the food, partly because I didn't know how to change my meals and partly because I was convinced that I would not get fat (then I discovered the fast food meals and quickly became rather chunky).

One night last year I didn't like the meal I'd booked and took one of the leftover rolls. I was still hungry, so I took another one. The girl who had been sitting next to me came back from making tea and the conversation went something like this...

Her: "What's that?"
Me: "A roll. There's a few leftover from lunch."
Her: "What happened to the other one?"
Me: "Um...I ate it?" (thinking: what does she think I was planning on doing with it?)
Her: (horrified) "So you're having a second one??"
Me: "...yes."

She promptly raised her eyebrows, laughed and turned away. I was tempted to point out that a) I'd missed lunch and b) she couldn't really laugh because my stomach was way flatter than hers, but I realised that that would mean I'd allowed her to get to me. So I ate my roll quietly and then spent the rest of the night wondering whether I should have or not.

But in the end, I was hungry so I ate the damn roll. And you know what? I'm glad that I did. But we need to learn that mindless comments like that can have a greater effect than we expect. And I'm not only talking about girls; guys are equally - if not more - guilty of making such comments. Call a girl an "oompa-loompa" and she may end up hospitalised two years later for anorexia. Maybe you meant that she was short, or wearing orange clothes, but she took it differently. Tell a girl that you're not attracted to her and you could find that she starts dieting, exercising and blogging excessively on Tumblr about weight loss and food. Maybe you meant you were not interested in girls at all, but she doesn't necessarily know that.

It's far too easy to look at someone else and assume that you're better than them just because you ordered the health meal and they're eating a pizza, or to comment because someone ate a second piece of buttered toast. But at the end of the day, it's their body and they can do what they like with it. I eat perhaps one or two fast food meals a week, I rarely exercise (except for the occasional game of squash), I have a wide butt and heavy legs and an increasingly wobbly stomach. But you know what? I like to think that there are more important things in life for me to focus on than trying to achieve the look of the airbrushed models in Glamour  and Cosmopolitan (for the record, I love both magazines). Come on girls, join the body revolution. Learn to love yourself as you are :) if you want to diet and exercise because you feel unhealthy, go for it! But don't start starving yourselves and obsessing about having your hipbones stick out just because some idiot took it upon him/herself to comment on your appearance or eating habits. Stand up for yourself. Tell the world that you like who you are. And eat that extra roll if you want it. :)

The Digs Life

As you guys probably know, I haven't quite made the leap to digs life yet; I'm still happily in res. However, my boyfriend moved into digs this year and I've discovered that dating a guy in digs has both its advantages and its disadvantages...

Advantages:

1. I don't have awkward run-ins with random guys on my way to the bathroom.
2. There is no fear of a walk of shame (although at this point I think we're far enough into the relationship not to consider it a walk of shame :P )
3. We can chill and watch movies with the guys who live with him (which, incidentally, has so far included comedies, rom-coms and rugby matches. Interesting combination)
4. I can convince him to feed me in the morning :D
5. I can avoid res food by cooking decent meals in his kitchen.
6. Hungover throwing up can be in the privacy of the bathroom and not in his res bedroom sink (yes that happened. No I am not proud of it)
7. There are no worries about being caught with vodka etc. (which are forbidden in res. My res, anyway).
8. They have an epic blackboard that I can draw stickmen on :D
9. They have couches that my drunken friends can crash on if necessary (which has not happened yet, but it's a possibility).

Disadvantages:

1. He frequently runs out of money and so has no petrol to give me a lift to his place.
2. Thus going to visit him usually involves a 20 minute walk.
3. The above walk is not particularly fun at 7:30 in the morning.
4. Or when I'm drunk at 3am.
5. His kitchen is a permanent health hazard. Seriously. The floors are sticky. A colony of ants live in there. And apparently there has been the occasional cockroach. Blagh. The same applies to the living room after predrinks.

As you can see, the advantages far outweigh the disadvantages. Which is why I can't wait to get back there at the end of this vac :D I may not live there but I spend enough time there to miss it. So shout out to the awesome boys from the Wreck, for making the first term of 2012 so much fun :D