Week nombre uno..

So, we've been at it for a week now. At what, I'm not too sure. Some of us have been at Friars and the Rat and others at lectures and the library and all the goody-two-shoes shit that must be done at some point. It was an interesting week with a lots of ups and a few downs, but it really is good to be back. If you had told me this 2 weeks ago, I would've told you to stop BS'ing me.

So on Friday night we went to De Beers (our brother res) for pre-drinks and started playing "Never ever have I ever..." For anyone who has ever played that game you will know that you learn a LOT about the people in the room with you. For those unfortunate few of you who have never played it, you go around the room saying "Never ever have I ever..." and then you say something after that, whether or not you have done it before. For example, "Never ever have I ever been skinny dipping" and the people who have been skinny dipping before have to take a sip of their drink. PLAY THIS GAME. It can get you pretty drunk pretty fast if you've done a lot of arb stuff though.
Anyhow, it was probably the nicest pre-drinks this year as there were about 10 or more of us squeezed into a little res room (not as small as ours, but decently small). We got told to shut up a few times but it was a good night all round apart from some guy in Friars trying to punch me because I elbowed him in the gut after he trampled my toes and pushed me into someone. He swore at me, I swore at him and then he raised his hand, at which point I pushed him again and told him what an asshole he was and walked away. Needless to say he was very drunk.

Then on Saturday morning a few friends and I went down to the soccer field on campus to paint our overalls. We take plain white overalls and go nuts on them with purple paint and then wear them for inter varsity (this is the PC term as it is between 4 universities now, but we all still call it Tri-Var). They get very dirty and very purple. Lots of purple paint being thrown around at the tri-var parties and they can get pretty out of hand so do not hope to keep them clean. And washing them is a sin. End of story. Your overalls will be siff and gross but you will learn to accept this.
So we spent the better part of Saturday afternoon on a sunny patch of grass with a bunch of other people getting covered in paint and jazzing up our overalls. Mine aren't doe yet but I will endeavour to get a picture up when they are done (I don't have a camera which is what I mean by endeavour). My legs hate me now though as we had to stand over our overalls and bend down to paint as the grass was wet and muddy and rolling around on it wasn't the greatest of ideas. The muscles in my leg want to boycott my body right now from all the stretching and bending.

And then on Sunday, 2 of my friends and I went to a naked photoshoot called the "My Body, My Choice" photoshoot. The deal is that you get naked with a message either written on your body or on a placard that you can use to hide a few, uh, distinguishing features as well as portray your message. As long as you bare a decent proportion of your bod and your photo has a message, you're good. It was done in protest of the fact that women are often pushed into boxes by today's society with regards to their bodies and that certain men objectify women according to what they look like. It was real art in motion and some of the photos that were taken were really touching with the messages they portrayed. None of it was pornographic at all and was very appropriate.
The 3 of us got topless with our undies on and decided to write the message on our bodies. The first message was written on Ayanda's tummy saying, "More than just my boobs" and she was covering her chest with her hands. Stacy had "More than just my ass" on her back and had her back to the camera and was looking over her shoulder and I had "More than just my vag" on my tummy, covering my chest too and having my little shorts unbuttoned. All 3 of us have, at some point in our time here and even in high school, felt as if certain types of men have not seen who the real person inside is and just regarded us as a face with an ass, boobs or vag. So this had a heavy meaning for us and I think the way in which we did it was effective.
Very excited to see the photos in the exhibition!!

At the moment though I have to run and do some work.. Not feeling too productive though.. HAVE TO FIND A LIFT TO THE BOYFRIEND THIS WEEKEND!! Eeek!! Speaking of the boyfriend:

You sink into my skin
Ever deeper with every breath.
This convenient, connecting slumber
Joins you and me.
I dare not move
Lest I shatter the fragile
Structure of this moment,
The most delicate,
Most powerful.
Your familiar face
Blushes and curves,
Talking, whispering, a mere mutter
Of my name.
My slumber has become yours
As I struggle fruitlessly, unwillingly
To break from my addiction.
Your warmth penetrates my skin
Saturating me in
The most fragile, most powerful
Comforts of addiction.
              -by me

Shweet. Cool.

Wise words...

I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character.  - Martin Luther King, Jr.

Is it because I'm white???

I hate living in a country that will forever be obsessed with race. No matter where you go, people will say that they aren't racists but everything they do relates back to the racial ideologies that have been conditioned into us simply because we live in South Africa, even if we grew up in the post-democratic version of it.

We had a house meeting tonight with the Vice Chancellor of Rhodes because of our naming issue. I'm assuming you want the short story to this saga. So, in 2009 this residence was opened as New Residence 2 and the students have the privelege of suggesting a name for the res to the Naming Committee. The name the students back then came up with was Jean Sinclair (click on her name if you know nothing about her). She was basically against any form of oppression against a certain group of people ("non-whites" and women) during apartheid (click on that word if you live under a rock and don't know what that means). So, she rocked. But the naming committee rejected our name because they want more diversity in the names of buildings. Which is all good and well. So we had the VC telling us all this tonight. But we are still without a name.

Rhodes was one of those universities that only accepted white students during apartheid and is known for that. This is not the case anymore though and that reputation of "the white university" is slowly starting to fade. So most of the buildings names are named after white people who did good in the country and helped develop our country and lead us out of apartheid. But this is a "problem" because there aren't any black hero buildings. Except Chris Hani house and Nelson Mandela hall. No Indian or Coloured people who did good. No black people.

And I understand that we need more diversity in the naming of our buildings but it bugs me so much when you realise how much race actually matters to people. Race is not meant to exist. Your culture exists and that is what is meant to matter to you. It's like the crap that happened during apartheid is being cast on this generation to fix and I know that what happened back then was ridiculous and that it should never have been tolerated AT ALL. I am glad that I was not around during apartheid because I would've hated my counrty so so so much and would have tried to assassinate people or some such thing. It was a sick place to be. The thought that someone could believe that just because you had more pigments and maybe believed different things than you that they could be regarded as the scum of the earth.

I want to cry every time I think about it and I'm ashamed to be associated with the group of people who implemented this system. It is disgusting.

I hope I am alive to see the generation that is not concious of "race" and that a hero is a hero and the race of that hero doen't have to be considered. Black or white, Indian, coloured, Chinese or Spanish. Male or female.

Wet shoes

So I got caught in a torrential downpour.
Story of my life.
My shoes got soaked and thank god I had an umbrella with me.
Was bitching about wet shoes.
Then went to Journ class and we were talking about the impoverished people in the country.
My wet shoes aren't so bad.
I now have my feet warm and dry and encased in boots.
I am lucky.

Heeellooo............. O.o

So my amazing boyfriend reminded me that I have a blog!!
Hehe, what would I do without him, really?
Well, Its been a while and everything that I kept thinking, "I should put this on my blog" is no longer relevant to me or my life. Not much has happened since the holidays. I only got to spend 5 days at home and the other 5 days i spent in Port Elizabeth with the man of my life so I was still feeling a bit icky about missing home. Also, never let anybody have any kind of hold over your relationship unless they are directly involved. Don't do it. It is not worth all the stress. That is all.
The Easter break was awesome because with all the public holidays I managed to get 6 whole days off (ok, so i bunked 2) at home and got to spend some proper time with my family.

So, today I read my friends Facebook status and Nicky, if you ever read this, thanks dude ;).
It goes like this:

When you walk by a group of quote-unquote normal people you chuckle to yourself, patting yourself on the back as you scoff. It's the same superiority complex shared by the high school jocks who made your life a living hell, makes you a slave to the competitive capitalist dogma you spend every moment of your waking life BITCHING about!

Well that got my mind going. How true is this!! I am going to put myself into a group now for mere practical purposes, not because I am deeming myself part of this group. Us "different" people think we are so above the normal lot of people. How narrow-minded that is. We pity the people who picked on us in high school because we were just slightly different to what they were used to and thought that they have no right to think that they are above us and now that we are in a neutral environment where nobody cares what you do and how you do it, we think the exact same way as said jock did in high school; I am better than you and therefore have a reason to look down upon you. Isn't that what we tried to be rid of in high school? Isn't this the exact system we so gallantly fought against? I say why think yourself above anybody else? Why even bother with judging somebody on how they choose to live? Don't we have better things to do?

The world works because of the different people in it and it would just become a monotonous, dreary, malfunctioning blah of a planet if we worked that way. Thank God we don't!! Let them be gay, let them be Lesbian, let them walk barefoot in a kaftan to lectures, let them be "Like, OMG, I mean how could she even like...OMG I can't even explain it..OMG, like seriously", let them wear black and have a huge afro, let them wear shirts that promote one thing or demote another. Who gave you the right to say that they couldn't or that it's wrong that they do? Yes, you are entitled to your own opinion, but others are not entitled to the judgement they receive because of you opinion. Not on, bru.

Thanks for reminding of the existence of my blog babes.. (I think you are the only one reading this)