More tips for first year happiness

Well my first year is coming to an end, so I thought I’d leave you with some general tips for your first year at varsity before I retreat into my room to study for exams. These tips don’t have a theme like the rest of my posts; they’re just random things I think are important for your well-being and happiness at varsity.

1. Keep things in perspective: Chances are, you’ll probably fail/almost fail at least one test / essay in your first year. This is not because you are stupid. It takes a while to get used to the marking style and expected format / tone / referencing system of a certain department. Your marks will probably dip a bit, but if you keep at it, they get better as you go along. So don’t get despondent if you fail a silly 10 mark quiz. Look at the bigger picture: it probably counts 0.5% of your year mark. So it’s really not worth crying over.

2. Check your quota: This is for future Rhodents. The university only gives you a certain amount of internet access, and if it runs out, you’ll have to live without Facebook for a while. This is not cool. So check your quota regularly to make sure you’re still free to surf at your leisure.

3. Make time for yourself: Take a break sometimes and watch a movie or go out for coffee with your friends. Working all the time does a number on your head. You get hyper-stressed, moody and walk around with a dark cloud drifting over you. You will get everything done on time, and a week later you won’t even remember what assignment was due or why you were so stressed. True story.

4. Go to res functions: They are a brilliant way to become better friends with people in your res and have a jol. And you won’t get all the inside-jokes and ‘remember when...’s if you don’t go.

5. Don’t tumble-dry your tops: Well, you can if you really want to. But don't blame me when your Legit and Mr Price stuff shrinks and goes out of shape.

Well, there is my practical advice. Hope it helps!

Meat_is_murder.

O-week: Things you should do

O-week is a very scary concept. Or maybe I am just a wuss (I have been told this before on many occasions). Well, I was scared for no reason at all, because your orientation week is absolutely amazing. Don’t worry your little head off. Here are some tips to make it even more fantastic:

1. Buy nice pyjamas: They have this thing at Rhodes called serenades, which involves singing to, talking with and making coffee for (if you are female) members of a residence of the opposite gender. Did I mention that this takes place at 5am in your PJs? Get nice ones.

2. Go on the library tour: Yes, readingrocks made me put this one in, but I must confess that they are very helpful. The library is quite a big, scary place, and when you’re sent there to get a reading for your Sociology essay and you end up in the English Lit section crying into “A Midsummer Night’s Dream”, you’ll wish you went on a tour.

3. Introductory lectures: These are also quite important. Philosophy might sound quite cool in theory, but going to the introductory lecture might stop you from sitting in an exam four months later kicking yourself when you’re faced with an essay question like: If a tree falls in a forest and there’s no one there to hear it, does it make a sound?

4. Smile: Smile, be friendly and talk to people. Everyone goes out of their way to introduce themselves to you and conversation is very easy: it usually revolves around ‘where-are-you-from-what-are-you-studying-what-res-are-you-in’?

5. Explore: Walk around campus and go check out where all your lectures are. This will quell your fear of getting lost and ending walking into the Computer Science building instead of your psychology lecture.

Enjoy it!

Meat_is_murder.

A reply to Pharoah's comment...

Firstly, my sincerest gratitude goes to you Pharoah for taking the time to visit our blog and more especially to read and respond to our posts.

Now for the matter at hand... Regarding the opinion pieces in all JMS1 blogs, I think it is fair to say that the opinions and claims expressed in these posts are: 1) merely that, opnions and 2) not referring to ALL South African or Rhodes students, but only a number of them. So what I'm saying is that the claims made in my opinion piece are like I said, not about " ALL Rhodes first yers, but MOST (in my opinion)". So NO, I am not the driver of a "Rhodents are hypocritical and xenophobic band wagon", but merely pointing out what SOME Rhodents are like.

On the point of the "recklessly thrown" statement that South African youth demand respect when they are outside South Africa... firstly what I said is that we demand FAIR treatment, and I do not think that I, or anyone else for that matter, needs to have some form of research to support such a claim. I do not think that anyone would not want to be treated fairly wherever they are. So we may not literally or actively DEMAND fair treatment, but I think it is fair (excuse the pun) to say that, fair treatment is indeed what we EXPECT.

I would also like to advise that careful reading is done by Pharoah, because nowhere in my post did I state that "foreigners only get jobs if no South Africans apply for it". Such a claim would indeed be, in your words Pharoah, a "careless assumption". Surprisingly so, it is an assumption that not I, but YOU have made. The point,that was clearly not so articulately made by me, is that it is extremely difficult to get a job in South Africa as a foreigner. If one clicks on the word foreigner in my original post, you will go to the South African Home Affairs website where one can read more on South Africa's policies regarding immigration.

True is that the youth have different issues to deal with,one of those being xenophobia, and indeed some of us are doing well with the issues and others not so well. To use your opinion Pharoah, not everyone is the same, so as much as some Rhodes students are part of those condemning xenophobic attacks and that indeed does count for something, some are not doing that. Sadly, for most, it is not at all difficult to say you're against the xenophobic attacks, but turn around and still pass comments such as the ones in my original post.

Once again, I must emphasise that these opinion pieces we have posted do not necessarily represent what we think of everyone but of some. The words in my post are definitely "pointing the guns" at the individuals in question and not everyone.

Xenophobia is indeed a real problem and I hope that this response renders as proof that we(I) are trying to end the ignorance through "FLAWLESS" arguments and NOT "RIDICULOUS" statements. I agree, more zen less phobia :)


Mad love
Mary Jane :)S :)

Stuff you don’t think you need but you actually do need for varsity

I went to my last lectures today (scary stuff!!) so I am supposedly finished first year, which means I should have some helpful advice. Well, I don’t know how helpful it will be, but I thought that I should give you tips to enhancing something that you have to deal with everyday… your res room. Hence my list of stuff you don’t think you need but you actually do need for your res room. Here we go:

1. Your own duvet cover: I know they say that your res supplies them, but those things are naaasty! It’s much better to bring your own. That way, you don’t have to be scared of the grucky res ones and you can add some colour to your corner of the world.

2. A clotheshorse: I know it might make your room look ‘lived-in’, but towels all over the floor in various stages of decomposition is not cool.

3. Kettle and mugs: You probably don’t down rooibos like it’s going out of fashion at home, but this stuff is important when you’re craving caffeine after an all-nighter, or need something to take the taste of res food out of your mouth.

4. Printer: Not completely essential, but most convenient when you don’t want to walk to the computer labs at 2am in the pouring rain/ run out of printing credit/ wake up late and want to print lecture notes / loose your flashdisk / have a laptop with Vista which won’t connect to the printing program… see where I’m going with this?

5. Superglue: I know it seems quite arb, but stuff breaks, ok? Shoes especially. You walk a lot. Bring lots of shoes.

6. An empty hard drive: If you come to Rhodes, you will find out why this is important. No, you don’t fill it up with work, don’t worry. It is for a whole other reason entirely…

7. Photos of your friends / family / cat: This type of thing really helps your room feel more like home and less like a blue-grey homeless shelter.

8. Some sort of dress-up outfit: I don’t know why, but there are constantly dress-up parties at varsities. Buy yourself some cute bunny ears or deely boppers / wings and you can be a rabbit (duh. What else would you be with bunny ears?) or butterfly. Or a moth if you’re emo.

9. Woolworth’s foods: No, not the whole store. Just your favourite stuff from those fancy shops they have in non-dorp towns. Mmmm, Woolworth’s apples…

10. Sewing kit: As I mentioned before, stuff breaks. This is a very handy thing to have, so you don’t walk around looking like a hobo in your ripped clothes. Unless that’s the look you’re going for, in which case, I apologize.

Meat_is_murder.

Blogging! My new hobby??

The fourth term of my career at Rhodes has consisted of me completely using up my internet quota and now having returned to the label of ¨significant delay¨ I can use the last few bits of quota which I have to describe the overall experience of being a blogger. Although I am determined on being an individual , I was forced on working in a group to create a blog about potentially similar or completely different experiences we may have had in our first year at university. Luckily I had an amazing group who could not of got on better together and ended up making four really cool friends.

I myself may have become lazy at times with the constant stream of work with deadlines creeping up on you nearly 3 times every week (like this week), but knowing that there were four others with the same issue, it made it a lot easier to make the effort for the group and even the topics started growing on me as for the first time this year I was able to voice my opinion in my very own opinion piece!

The story ideas were quite easy to come up with due to the fact that we actually were ¨five first years here to help you through your first time at University¨, and it was easy through the experiences, some of them being tougher than others, to come up with ideas to help the poor matriculants who have no idea of what they are getting themselves into. We were given freedom to write about our experiences to people which we can relate with, and in that kind of situation its easy to develop ideas and let your imagination run wild.

The meetings with our tutor were always really helpful, especially with the technical stuff, which is not exactly my forte, which kind of stifled my artistic nature as I was not as much a part of the design process as I would have liked to be. This is where I would have liked to see more practical examples in lectures and tutorials because once us computer illiterate few tried hyperlinking etc, we were completely baffled and had not seen it been done, but rather been told how.

The blog part of my first year at university has allowed me to reach a goal I had not known was a goal of mine. I was able to delve into a completely new territory where I had originally felt uncomfortable and the outcome has been satisfying. I now sit here on the last day of lectures and wonder where the time has gone, and in all honesty (as lame as it sounds), ¨time flies when your having fun¨, which is exactly what happened. I owe the fun times mainly to my amazing blog group, our ideas seemed to come from one, conjoined mind and together we have made My First Time a success! In saying that I have to acknowledge the fact that if it had been a different blog , I´m not too sure what the outcome would have been, but maybe I´m just biased.

how far would you go about telling lies!

Lies never build but destroy.

We all know that when it comes to impressing someone you are in a relationship with. When people are dating they want to impress the other party to the fullest. Lies comes in so hardy because the truth will push away the potential partner. Maybe you always had a crush on this guy and you just cannot stand the thought of loosing hi/her. When a guy starts bragging about his pay packet, it’s not true otherwise he would not have to brag about it. Once someone starts bragging about something, it looses its value. Lying about being related or being friends with a celebrity in order to impress a person it’s pathetic, be who you are and that person will respect you for you. Among a lot of articles that have been written about the disadvantages of lying is one by Cary Tennis. Who would want to date someone that makes up silly lies, it’s just unattractive. So I suggest you try to be the best person you can be and let the chips fall where they may.
I honour and respect those that stay who they and not try to pretend to be something or someone they are not to impress their partners. An honest person does not pretend to be a millionaire an Oscar-nominated screenwriter to score points with someone because when you lie to your partner about who you are you are not only basing your relationship which would probably wont last on a lie, but you are also denying that person the chance of getting to know you. Besides how long are you going to keep it up? Girls tend to go extra miles to impress a guy, I mean there is nothing as irritating than seeing a girl wearing hills she can hardly walk in instead of looking sexy she looks like a drunken idiot stumbling all over the place. If you never wore hills or can’t walk in them, then tell him if you think it’s important that he knows. However, lies can be told even by people who are already in a relationship and the funny thing is that the liar is always the one that get hurt the most. I believe most of us watch soap operas if not dramas or movies where they try to send the same message that lies never gets a person anywhere. A good example; just look at Grace from Generations, she lost Ajax the man of her dreams because of a stupid kiss that did not even mean anything.
People who lie are often those who lack self confident. My advice is STOP TRYING SO HARD. It has to start with you respecting and seeing yourself as an important person that people, then you can expect other people to respect you and acknowledge back. Because really there is nothing that mostly turns a person off than a confused soul. Wouldn’t it make you feel good about yourself when someone likes the real you not the person your trying to be? Its better to know that someone likes you for who you are that way you do not have to feel like you are in a competition, like you need to be productive everyday. “"Truth may be stretched, but cannot be broken, and always gets above falsehood, as does oil above water."

A day in the life of a Rhodent

I thought I’d enlighten you prospective first years to the life you’ll be living come February 2009. This is a semi-typical day for me, so I'm going to show it to you so that you can see what you’ll be doing next year.

1. Lectures. Yes, I generally wake up and head along to those things called ‘lectures’. Even though they are not technically compulsory, they help a lot with exams and tests and essays. Although if you have a dawnie (earliest lecture of the day, starts at 7:45am) it is perfectly acceptable to sleep in the back somewhere. Or you can sleep in boring lectures too. Or if you’re tired (from staying up late doing all those assignments- cough cough). This isn’t a university rule, by the way. It’s just generally accepted practice (still, don’t make it too obvious. Lecturers can be mean sometimes).

2. More lectures. After your first lecture, you head along to your next lecture. Yes, this is a thrilling way to spend your mornings, and sometimes you can have up to four lectures in a row… *shudder*. Okay, I’m overreacting. They really aren’t that bad.

3. Food. After your morning lectures, you can head along to the dining hall for your nutritious and delicious meal. Yes, if you are lucky enough to live in res, this is your thrice-daily treat. *Meat_is_murder falls off her chair laughing*. Ag, I’m sorry, I couldn’t keep it up anymore! Dining hall food is generally as appetising and aesthetically pleasing as a lump of clay. Although they do have their finer moments (book fast food lunches, future Rhodents. They are edible, and even, dare I say it, nice!). But you’re usually so hungry after all those intense, physically draining lectures that you’d eat your stationery if it asked nice enough.

4. Tuts. When you are finished in the dining hall, you head along to the bane of many a Rhodent’s existence… tutorials! Tuts are eeeevil things designed by ‘The Man’ to keep us down! Ok, ok, I will stop hopping on the hyperbole express. Tuts are little meetings of 12-18 or so students, where you can discuss your course with tutors (these creatures vary from the mundane to the magical) and hand in assignments, get help, ask questions, etc. They give you the opportunity to ask a wiser being to explain the concepts you wouldn’t ask about in lectures. They are good. Mostly. And are usually compulsory, so it’s not like you have a choice, is it?

5. Evening! Yes, this is the time where you write an essay or seven (I feel like a printer sometimes. All I do is churn out assignments) or relax. If you like, you can toddle along to many of Grahamstown’s fine dining establishments and survey the menu with a bunch of friends. Most of the restaurants are open till late (they know us students well): my friends and I always end up at either Spur (open till 11pm, student discount!), Pirates (open till 3am) or Steers (does that place ever close?).

On the occasion documented alongside, we pooled our money and bought R11 milkshakes (250ml cup… it’s quite sad. I should really learn to budget properly). After spending a grand total of R33 (wow! We really kept Steers in business!) we then remained in the booth for a few hours because a) it was cold outside and b) it was fun. I also made the fantastic sculpture pictured here to express my creativity.

So. That is a typical day in the life of a Rhodent (me). It’s really quite cool, if you look at it. Yes, there are a lot of academic activities, but unfortunately, cupcake, that’s why you’re at varsity. Not to party, contrary to popular belief. But you get to do all of this with your friends, which makes it soooo much better! RU keen?

Later!

Meat_is_murder.

RUTV Rocks!

“Wow.”

That is seriously the only word which I can use to describe it. ‘Fantastic’, ‘amazing’, ‘brilliant’ and ‘awesome’ are good too, but they really don’t capture how utterly fabulous it was. I don’t have an adjective to describe it. What am I going on about? The RUTV documentary film festival, which was held last Tuesday night. It was wicked.

They rented out all three of Roxbury’s cinemas and screened 11 of the fourth year journalism student’s short films. I feel really sorry for all of the first years who are giving up on journ already, because it gets SO much better than Propp and Todorov (not a vacuum cleaner … haha, Sim & Alette)! Note to prospective first years: don’t give up your dream career just because your first year of lectures isn’t what you thought it would be.

The RUTV film festival was absolutely fantastic: the films were all so thought-provoking and professional. They included topics like love and marriage after being diagnosed with HIV, the life of a paranoid schizophrenic, a profile of a prostitute working in Grahamstown, celibacy, alternative religions (Wicca, paganism, etc), the Rastafari community living in Knysna and the near-extinction of Zimbabwe’s rhinos. There was also a really scary but extremely impressive undercover investigation of the illegal abortions that have been offered in Grahamstown recently.

To all you future first years out there, here’s a bit of advice: go to the extra shows / debates / film screenings / events which are held in the evenings. I know will probably just want to collapse somewhere soft in front of the TV after a hard day of lectures (cough), but these after-hours events are amazing. They really show you a different side of university life, and are really interesting and cause you to think critically about the wider planet Earth. I went to a vegetarianism debate held by the Rhodes Organisation for Animal Rights (ROAR) and a film screening of the movie ‘The 11th Hour” earlier on this semester. They were both very informative, and much more entertaining than an evening at home watching Days of our Lives.

Now go out there and change the world!

Meat_is_murder

***Photos by Activate photographer, Stacey Bruton***

How to survive long-distance friendships

New friends. Old friends. Which do you pick, when your new friends are with you at varsity, and all your friends from back home are scattered at various universities all over the country – or maybe even taking a gap year even further away? You start to think that maybe you should concentrate on the new friends you’ve made, who have so much in common with you and that you see everyday. Or maybe you don’t like the people at your varsity, and miss your friends from high school. Either way, this post is for you.

It’s easy to get swept up in the varsity vibe. You meet all these really amazing first years, and you start thinking that they are the coolest people you have ever met – way better than your old friends. While that may be true, there must have been a reason you’ve been friends with your mate from back home since you were both 5.

Chances are, the people you knew in high school knew you really well, and are trustworthy and fun to be with. Once you start spending time with your new varsity friends, you might start to notice their bad habits – like the way they don’t really listen to what you’re saying, only talk about themselves or how all your secrets mysteriously seem to become common knowledge.

It’s always good a good idea to keep in contact with your friends from school, because if there’s a crisis or you start having a mini-breakdown because you failed your third statistics test in a row, they are there for you. They know you very well and know what to say to make you feel better. And chances are, if you’re having major problems and you want to talk to someone, you’d rather talk to your friend of 4 years than the girl/guy you’ve known for 3 months.

Your ‘old’ friends know you well enough to tell you if you’re going off the tracks or over-reacting. They can help cure your Monday blues, just by talking to you. They’re a very important part of your life, and shouldn’t be replaced or discarded just because they’re a few hours away from you.

On the other hand, if you can’t seem to find the type of friends at varsity as you had back home, or you really miss your friends from school, that’s ok. It’s a big adjustment. One of my best friends is studying in Potchefstroom, and I only see her every few months or so. It sucks, but you can’t do anything about it.

You can simply try to email, SMS, phone and IM your long-distance friends as often as possible, and keep them up to date on developments in your life so that you don’t become strangers. Stay up an extra 15mins each night to check in with your ex bio-partner on Mxit. Email your friends funny jokes or pictures, or send them a post card from your university town. Message them on Facebook, or MMS them photos of the cute ‘I miss you’ teddy bear you spot when you’re out shopping. When you go home – even for short holidays – make a point of organising a mini-reunion.

It requires some effort, but when you see them in your December holiday and you have maintained your ability to make each other laugh until your stomachs hurt, you’ll realise that it was worth it.

Meat_is_murder

First Year Defined counter-argument

Bungee My Life: First Year Defined

I can't believe that someone with such an amazing opportunity isn't making the absolute most of it. You're at one of the best universities in the country, and yet instead of working hard and achieving the best possible marks you can, you're happy to sell yourself short and trudge along with 50.1%?

First year does not exist solely for the purpose of "drunken debauchery". Lectures are not "unnecessary", but a vital means to pass your subjects and learn the most amazing things while expanding your world view. If you're just here to spend your days in the Rat, then why don't you drop out and go work at Pick ‘n Pay? You’d save R50 000 a year on tuition and residence.

You’re supposed to balance work and play at varsity. How can you be content to wander aimlessly along, doing the bare minimum? You’re going to run into serious problems in later life if you have no work ethic, or sense of priorities. An education is one of the most invaluable things you can have, and you’re not making use of the chance you have to influence the rest of your life. It’s really sad.

“X RUNNIN OUTA THE LABS… LAMA ZIZIMBANA AYIVALILE LENDAWO NGEKWAPA.”

Loosely translated this means “X is running out of the labs, these Zimbos have closed this place up with their stinking armpits”. This is a facebook status belonging to a Rhodes first year. The rest of our first years may not necessarily have statuses such as this one, but most of them are just as xenophobic.

On arrival at Rhodes University, one of the things I loved the most about the varsity was its versatility in all forms. As a curious minded person, I am highly appreciative of opportunities to meet people from different walks of life. Rhodes offers this, there are students from all over the world here, especially from other parts of Africa. Zimbabwean students form part of the majority of foreign students. It was great too see that one’s home country has no significance with regard to how one is treated at Rhodes and which friends he/she has.

However, encounters with other first years revealed that not all of us are conscious enough to not be ignorant and intolerent. There lies a lot of ignorance in the mindsets of most of us first years, not all of us, but most of us. When referring to foreign students, especially Zimbabweans, I would often hear the following comments from my fellow first years:

“Oh shame, the Zimbos here don’t stink that much, I can tolerate that.”

“Wow, she’s actually quite classy.”

“He’s so cute hey; you’d never say he’s not South African.”

Someone once said: “No wonder you Rhodes girls go for them, the ones here are actually decent.”

Rather sad really, if not because of the mentality itself, sad because such mentality goes to show how ignorant we are, and how much we lack critical thinking and independent minds. This mentality is also sad because it shows what hypocrites we are. South African youth are very quick to demand fair treatment when they visit other countries and yet this is our attitude towards our fellow Africans. It is very arrogant of us to think that we are in a position to decide whether or not we can tolerate certain foreigners – what is it about foreigners that is so intolerable in the first place that we have to adapt to tolerating them? Put simply, it is extremely stupid of us to expect that a foreigner stink, be without class, be ugly and indecent. What do we define as decent anyway? Who are we to say whether or not a person is decent or not, solely based on their nationality?

Such is our mentality as first years. However, in defence of the first year; it is of no surprise that we are so ignorant and hypocritical in our thinking. Our parents refer to foreigners as “amakwere-kwere” and yet they’re up in arms when they are referred to as “kaffirs” or “boers”. The pro human rights nation of South Africa with its world renowned constitution condemns xenophobic attacks in the country. Yet the very same South Africa’s legislation is rather xenophobic in my opinion. Getting a job as a foreigner is a mission in South Africa. Should a foreigner be accepted for a job, he/she must get the job on grounds that there is absolutely no South African that applied that can get the job – this is regardless of the fact that the foreigner may be more qualified than the South African. I’m sure our Minister of Foreign Affairs, Nkosazana Zuma, wouldn’t be too chuffed if the same were to happen to her child.

Defences and excuses aside, it is sad to see that even though so many of us boast all this knowledge we have of the world and its politics, we fail to question the ideologies and stereotypes present in our daily lives. Instead we support these, both consciously and subconsciously. When one thinks independently and critically; it is obvious that the fact that I am a South African does not mean that I am classy, decent, beautiful, and smell good. Such idiotic and unfounded thinking from the same people who are outraged by Apartheid!

Who moved my cheese?

Before I came to Rhodes, I was warned about this scary thing called ‘change’. Apparently, people go off to the land of lectures and degrees, and return completely different. They come home, and their beliefs have changed, their attitude towards life has changed and they’re covered in piercings and smoking weed while discussing their decision to become an atheist. This can be quite a daunting idea to behold when you’re an insignificant matric whose life was regulated by school bells and uniforms. You start worrying about the big bad university that is going to turn you into some creature your friends and family don’t recognise.

When I was in my last year of high school, I was asked one question about 10 times a day: “What are you doing next year?” As soon as I mentioned Rhodes University, teachers, family friends and even relative strangers raised an eyebrow and gave me a knowing look. They knew Rhodes’ reputation. Yes, the university was one of the best in the country, but the students were notorious drinkers: strange artistic creatures with green hair who went to lectures barefoot. They’re the crazy kids described in Relient K’s 'College Kids'. Changing from a ‘normal’ teenager into one of these students was a bad thing, and this change should be resisted at all costs.

Having survived my first year at Rhodes, I can say that this scary ‘change’ which everyone speaks about is not nearly as frightening or dark and twisted as it seems. Yes, you do change. But it is good! Your ideas about the world change dramatically. You stop seeing it in the black-and-white terms that you categorised people and events into during high school. You’re exposed to different ways of thinking, different religions, no religions at all, and people generally enjoy fighting with you about why you believe what you believe. But living through it makes you a much stronger person.

Being faced with different perspectives on a situation broadens your mind. You start thinking critically about different issues, and don’t just passively accept the opinions of others. You become open to other beliefs and understandings of the world, and become more tolerant of them, instead of being judgemental or condescending. University does change you. But it changes you for the better. You become more independent, and learn more about your character and opinions than you would have in one year at varsity than you would have if you spent 10 years at high school. The change isn’t some grotesque transformation that you are simply subjected to. You can stay yourself. If you still want to believe in the religion and morals you grew up with, then you can. You have a say in what you choose to believe and no one can force you to go along with their radical world views.

The thing to remember is that university isn’t real life. The majority of people in the world wear shoes and don’t walk around campaigning for some strange new cause. You can incorporate the new ideas and views which you are confronted with at varsity into your life, or you can choose to ignore them. You don’t have to be one of those crazy students whose best friend doesn’t recognise them after 8 months apart. As Relient K say at the end of ‘College Kids’: “do what will make you happy, do what you feel is right. Only one thing matters: learn how to live your life”. Embrace the change, but only so far as you are comfortable. You’ll be a better person because of it.


Meat_is_murder

Ten non-alcoholic activities for non-alcoholics

*Crash!*
“Oops!” your friend giggles, staring down at the shards of glass on the ground and the cane seeping into the grass. “I dropped the bottle!”
You sigh and take her arm, trying to move her along the street. “It’s ok,” you say. “Come, let’s go home. This way.”
“Ok.” She nods slowly, starting to shuffle along the pavement. “Wait. I don’t feel good” she says suddenly, then covers her mouth with her hand. You know what’s coming. You lead her to a gutter, where she proceeds to regurgitate that evening’s spaghetti bolognaise, along with half of SA Breweries’ alcohol supply. You lean against a wall, and wonder how your awesome night out ended up like this.

Well. While some people think that nights spent slowly poisoning your liver are the best thing since Steers veggie burgers, there are also some that don’t. Contrary to popular belief, not all university students are like this. Yes, unfortunately the large majority could match a rock star glass for glass *fake cough* Captain Morgan *fake cough*. But if you look hard enough, you’ll find people who don’t hop on the beer bus every weekend. This post is for them.

While all the students who have a deep love of fermented sorghum/ grapes/ barley/ wheat go out and crawl back home, the non-alcoholics are left with nothing to do. So I thought I’d come up with some fun non-alcoholic activities to make sure that your social life doesn’t dwindle and die. Here’s my list (feel free to add to it!):

1: Movies: Yes, I know it sounds simple, and it’s sometimes expensive for those with the traditional ‘broke student’ bank balance, but a decent movie with a bunch of awesome people is a fantastic event to attend. Chick flicks, sci-fi, comedy: whatever. Sometimes it’s nice to actually go out and see a movie… I know you’re all going “What? Pay for a movie?” but at least you won’t be distracted by some strange Iranian subtitles.

2: Paintball: Yes, it is painful. You get dirty. And you might have a big blue bruise the next day. But it is wicked fun. Shooting people with little balls of paint? Genius. And guess what? There’s a paintball place in Grahamstown! *All prospective Rhodents fall off their computer chairs in shock*

3. Coffee: Coffee shops are amazing. Especially the kooky ones in G’town, with their crazy décor and arb drinks… on that note, let me tell you the steps to happiness. Step 1: Go to the Red Café. Step 2: Be seated. Step 3: Order a peanut butter / Bar One milkshake. Step 4: Come back here and thank me for changing your life. Dulcé’s ice cream scoops are also fantastic, and not too expensive. Chat and chill with friends on a rainy day/ hot day (take advantage of the aircon).

4: Rrrrroadtrip: Get everyone to chip in for petrol, hijack a car (I mean borrow) and jump in for an amazing adventure. You’ll get lost, you’ll get un-lost, you’ll arrive. Rhodents: PE is just over an hour away. Jbay (Billabong factory shop, people!) is 80kms from that. And if you’re really bored with your lives, you can head over to lil ol’ East London (2hrs drive). Oh, and the beach in summer (Port Alfred: 30mins away).

5: Ice skating/ ten pin bowling / go carting: For you lucky, lucky people who are going to study in cities, not lost and forgotten dorps.

6: Shopping: Also kinda for those blessed with a shopping mall and of the XX chromosome variety. But otherwise, you can spend many a happy Saturday morning strolling down High street. Kisma Kreative (see picture) has some fantastic new ‘upcycled’ stuff. This activity can also be combined with activity number three (see ‘coffee’).

7: Movie night: Ok, I know I was just saying you should all head out to your nearest Ster Kinekor/ Nu Metro / random independent thing (Roxbury), but sometimes TNT plus a bed full of pillows plus friends equals happiness.

8: Picnic: Totally memory-making. We had one last week… we grabbed a bunch of grucky res blankets and food and parked off under the stars on the grass in front of Rhodes’ clock tower. I promised Pink Monkey that she could blog about this, so all I can say is that it involved 20+ naked men, a fire dancer and me almost stealing a car.

9: Games: Now don’t all start thinking “Damn, this girl is really scraping the barrel to get to ten”. 30 seconds rocks my socks. And of course the oh-so-fantastic-reason-the-play station-was-invented Sing star (karaoke+game. Genius). Screa- I mean, sing along to some insipid pop hit. Hilarity ensues. Promise. (Our res has a console, so you can bring your disks from home. Don’t think I’m crazy).

10: Go out: This is Rhodes lingo for going out to a pub/ club. Going to print your sociology assignment at 11pm does not constitute as ‘going out’ just because you left your res/digs. You can go out, just to dance, not to imbibe alcoholic beverages. And when it’s 2am at Friars and the DJ starts playing rock instead of that usual R&B rubbish, and you don’t have to babysit your drunken friend, the world seems wonderful. True story.

P.S. This post is in no way a slight to all the friends I’ve babysat when there was blood in their alcohol stream. I still luv you guys!

Mwa mwa

Meat_is_murder

I am pissed off!!

I got mugged last week at knife-point. Yesterday, I was told that I am a victim. Today, I was sworn at for speaking my mind. Truth be told, I am angry. I am furious, but not with the people that mugged me. What makes me so livid is the indifference and naiveté of everyone else.

These men didn’t attack me because they wanted to hurt me. They attacked me because they were cold, hungry and tired of being trampled on by everyone around them. They were tired of living in poverty, hopelessness and pain. It is all too easy to place the blame on them. Even the police officers called them “bastards”! To all my global subscribers let me tell you that Grahamstown is a place of great contradictions. For 8 months of the year the affluence of upper-income society parades its way through the streets of town, lavishing in their freedom, yet blissfully unaware of the intense poverty surrounding them. Maybe it’s just me, but when I see a drunk, fat student swearing at a street-kid because he asked for an “onion roll” I feel acid in my veins.

Too many people in society struggle to see past their own private gratifications because, as always, while we curse the effect, we continue to nourish the cause. Something needs to be done, some sort of responsibility needs to be taken. The problems facing society need to be addressed at their core because we created these problems. Or as Shakespeare uniquely observed, "The fault is not in the stars, but in ourselves."

The solid reality is that in South Africa and across the world we are forgetting that we are one people, with one destiny. Our false belief is that whilst fuelling our insatiable material greed we can casually and effortlessly walk past those in plight. George Orwell said, “sooner or later a solid reality bumps up against a false belief, usually on a battlefield”. If we are not careful the “battlefield” Orwell so eloquently relates to will be our own homes.

This problem is not a new one for South Africa, it started long ago through unequal governmental action and unjust social practices. The previously advantaged are beginning to fear the implications of any change from the status quo. Poverty, racism, xenophobia and violence can be overcome. Many young people are acutely aware of these problems in South Africa and are subsequently leaving our beautiful shores in search of the Pound and Dollar. Do not turn your back, do not shy away from your conscience. We need a moral rejuvenation, we need to find the moral strength to stand up for what is right.

If you don't like how things are, change it! You're not a tree. You have the ability to totally transform every facet of your life and the lives of others. It all begins with your very own power of choice and whether you have the determination to see it through. I speak mainly of the problem in my own country, but the issue of intense poverty and inequality can be observed around the world. It is a global problem that will require a global solution and you can start right now!

I know one thing for sure, I am no victim. Rather, I am blessed to be alive in the right time and place to make a difference. Think about it, please, before we tear each other to pieces. Personally, I love Africa, Captain Morgan and my life so I’m not going anywhere!

Take it easy,

Captain Morgan

We're Superheroes!

We thought it was about time you saw what we all looked like... and we wanted to have some fun... so we made you this photo comic which we are all so proud of! Check it out and let us know what you think!

Click on them to see them full-screen. Hope you like it!

Meat_is_murder

Holidays, new cars and domestic workers

Poverty. It’s not something you think you’d encounter in university. I mean, everyone knows that university is for the elite. The fees alone can set you back more than R50 000 a year. So, only rich people go to varsity, right? Um. Sorry. Wrong.

You can’t generalise like that. Poverty is a real issue everywhere: no exceptions. You need to learn to be sensitive to others. Don’t go around bragging about your holiday in Italy or the new car that your daddy bought you. You just make it harder for those from underprivileged backgrounds. How can they compare with your lavish overseas holidays, when their mother is a domestic worker and they’re only at varsity because they worked so hard at their under-resourced school that they landed a scholarship? People become ashamed of their parents and their history: they start to lie to others, so that they can fit in with the spoiled Sandton snobs. You never want to cause anybody to do this. To be embarrassed about a mother who probably works really hard to give them everything she can.

I was in Pick ‘n Pay yesterday, and I was complaining to my friend while the cashier rung up my groceries. I was telling her how I was annoyed with my dad because he’d given me a bigger advance on my allowance than I’d asked for, and now I was probably going to spend it all in Jeffery’s Bay this weekend instead of saving it like I should be (I’m terrible with money: if it’s in my purse, I spend it. If it’s in my savings account, I don’t). The cashier just looked at me like I was crazy. I could see what she was thinking: This girl is complaining because she’s been given too much money? What is wrong with her?! I quickly picked up my groceries and walked off. But I felt terrible. Money is so important to so many people. You really need to be very careful what you say, so that those who are not as fortunate as you do not feel emotionally inferior as well as economically inferior.

So. What am I saying here? Just this: some people aren’t as fortunate as you. At the risk of sounding like your high school principle, be grateful for what you have. Some people live on the streets, wondering whether someone will be kind enough to provide them with a meal today. Being at university is an amazing opportunity: appreciate it!

Well, that’s my lecture for the day!

*Meat_is_murder*

Vac Work saved my dream

the Journalism and Media Studies course is seen as the best in South Africa, you just need to look at the Africa Media Matrix to see that a lot of emphasis is put on this degree as the best Journalism degree in the country and is even internationally renown. If there is one thing that this course has taught me it has been to have an opinion. In my opinion the course is not what I expected at all and has been, although fun, very disappointing because it has completely changed my mind about the career I wish to follow. The competitive nature of the course has been the biggest issue for me. One of the first things you are told at the beginning of the year is that just less than half of the class will not be proceeding forward to JMS 2, which is a great way to scare the procrastination out of many of the students, but is also an off putting trait to those of us who are not as academically inclined as others and were just trying to follow a dream.

I was disappointed further that first year has consisted mainly of theoretical work and ideological studies. We have learnt about Thompson and Castells and their opinions on media within society but not enough on the ´hard core´ writing aspect of the career. I don´t feel that we are subjected to the realities of the Journalism industry. Every student must do a week of work shadowing in the year. I had not been excited for the idea of ¨vac work¨, but it ended up being a very good experience and the best experience of my JMS 1 career. I felt that through one week being in the industry I had learnt more than Id learnt in the entire year of lectures. Experience is a major factor to a career such as journalism. Some of the people working at the newspaper agency where I did my work shadowing did not even have a degree in journalism or a degree at all. This did not make them worse off as they had something which all good journalists need and that is talent.

My main argument comes down to studying journalism at all. There are skills that you need to learn but once again they can be learnt so much more effectively through experience and a more ´hands on´ and practical way of learning. This has not been offered to me through this degree, therefore I must change.

I will not however be giving up on my dream to become a journalist. This year has taught me that there are other paths to follow that will still lead me to a career in journalism. Before I got into Rhodes I was nervous and in trying to compensate for what might not happen (me getting accepted into JMS 1), I used to say that, ¨it is the person who makes the journalist, not the degree!¨, so on that note I must stick with my opinion and change my degree. I have had a year where I had been initially disappointed with my course but then given new vigour once I experienced the real life of a being journalist.

This is YOUR life!

With deadlines looming, a huge amount of work mounting up and exams just around the corner it is very likely most students are feeling the pressure. If not, have another beer because you are probably in shit-street anyway, mate! It is, however, so important to remember one very important thing... You are still breathing.

Sometimes we forget that life is just passing us by and the things that don't truly matter are worried and fretted about. I am not trying to say studies are not important, because they are! I am trying to say that you need to stop! Take a breath and remember that there is a whole world unfolding around you and if you just slow down for a second to take a breath you might find it... beautiful.

So for one day or even one hour, open your eyes and take a look around. Have a little fun, have a little excitement! Find the adventure, because this world is full of it! Remember that while you still have breath in your lungs and a beating heart you owe it to yourself to embrace everything. Make all the experiences, all the moments in your life unforgettable!

Shrug off the negativity and misery of this world. Find an epic adventure and have a good fucking time in the process! This is your life!

El Capitan

A li'l something one should get up to on Fridays

So it’s Friday night and everyone has gone out, either to EQ or Friar. And of course that is a good thing for me because it means I get to have the library; my favourite place all to myself, I mean; I’ve got a pile of books next to me and the panic button is just outside the library, so what could possibly go wrong! Last night I slept at three in the morning doing my Athro assignment course I had to write a comment on another’s student profile, write a story for ES and also read for my AnthroTUT ...WOW!!! I couldn’t ask for better. I decide to go get something to eat at BP and on my way I see some girl stumbling all over the place and I am thinking to myself why do people prefer wasting time and getting wasted from booze yet that essay or assignment would still be waiting for them in the morning and we all know about the enemy “babalaz”, the headache makes getting up in the morning becomes a mission and a half, while you can get wasted from a pile of books without stumbling and without waking up in the morning and feeling like you’ve been running a comrade marathon .....readingrocks!!!

When you miss your mommy

Homesickness.

It’s a big problem, which is totally underestimated. When you’re in matric, you can’t wait to get away from home and your parents. Their rules seem stupid and restricting (believe me, the Simple Plan song ‘One Day’ was my anthem) and you spend a great deal of your time dreaming about varsity where you can go wherever, and do whatever your little heart pleases.

Then varsity comes. The fantastic independent you will be sitting in the dining hall at the end of an awful day, faced with some unidentifiable grey food product. All you’ll want is your mom’s lasagne and a day at home with your cat and DSTV.

It’s true. Don’t scoff. Homesickness hits you hard.

Your first year is full of ups and downs. You’ll love the freedom, but you’ll get stressed and miss home. This is natural. And here’s a secret: if you miss home, don’t go home. I know it sounds strange, but the more you go home, the more you’ll want to be home. The first week or so back at varsity will be tough, but you adapt and get used to it.

If you hang around with friends who single-handedly keep Greyhound in business because they go home every weekend, you’ll start wanting to go home too.

Then again, if its term 3 and your homesickness is still so bad that you spend most of your nights crying in your room and/or on the phone to your mom, then cupcake, maybe you should think about studying closer to home. I know people who are leaving Rhodes next year to study in their home town, and I know that it’s the best thing for them. They’ll be much happier.

So. Be prepared, and don’t let it get the best of you.

Ciao for now

Meat_is_murder

First Year Spread...

We have all heard of it at sometime, that almost inexplicable tightening of clothes brought on by one too many late night King Pie‘s. Many diets are being replaced by “liquid diets” and I am not talking about fruit smoothies either. Introducing the “beer-boep”, that anomaly of human physiology. A fairly common trait amongst South African men. It is almost as common as a Saturday morning hangover.

Now let’s be honest a boerie roll outside the Rat at midnight after a few too many beers goes down about as quickly as a Russian prostitute. For most first years that have come directly from home or boarding school food is provided three times a day and packed with all the protein, vitamins and carbohydrates needed to be healthy. In addition to that most people are involved in some form of sport at school which keeps the fitness levels up. Now suddenly that is not the case. Shock and horror sets in, you are alone now, fatty!

If you want my advice on sports to keep your fitness levels up, I highly reccommend base jumping, bullfighting and swimming with Tiger Sharks when the water has been chummed.

P.S. With summer coming, drink more Captain Morgan. Mosquitoes hate it, not sure why?

See you later

Need love??

Hey there blog friends. Id like to talk about a very important change which you may experience when coming to university, and by that I mean your taste in music. University opens your soul to the world of music and allows you to find your genre or love of all genres, through the means of res-net and swapping with your crazy, hippy, house junky friend. There are opportunities to watch live bands of all types or even just chill to something mellow while you sip on a coffee. Although at some stage you have to stay true to that band which you friends started in their garage and now have the potential to blow your mind! That band for me is Madlove. Based in Joburg they have a new, fresh sound that is waiting to explode onto the stages of Vfest, yes my friends, they have an opportunity to play on the same stage as talents such as Snoop Dogg and Maroon 5. You can help make this possible by voting for them (to vote please register and then search Madlove)! So lets stay true to our talented friends but remember to explore the explosive world of music! Its the only thing that can make sense of our confusing lives...

2000 and what?!

Ahoy Maties! I trust you all had a good weekend. As for me, it's Sunday evening, my Philosophy Tut is done and I am pouring myself a last night-cap. Captain Morgan of course!

Having read through all the profile articles of Journalism students, I noticed how many tough competitors there are in university. It seems, Journalism is a hotly-contested field for many youngsters here in Grahamstown. But, this principle can be extended all over the world and in a variety of different faculties and departments.

Dazed and Confused (Not when she's drunk though!) wrote about the first year habit of procrastination not so long ago (check her post out). It is true that we all do have our moments of procrastination but I reckon if we were to see how far an education could truly get us and how big the playing field becomes, many would work a lot harder!

With 2008 almost over, many students have survived and triumphed their way through first year. I am sure many are the wiser for it too! With just a few weeks left of term, it is worthwhile for any student, anywhere to look back and ask what they truly learnt from their first year and what they want to take with them.

It seems this year has gone past ridiculously fast, but as they say, "time flies when your having fun! and getting drunk..."

El Capitan

who's your hero????

A young woman on the path to success.

As I was sitting under the Arch, my memories were disturbed by a tall and light lady with her black hair combed straight back; Phakama greets me with a big smile and prepare myself to take a journey with her as she shares her journey with me. Phakama Nyakaza, who was born in a small town in the Eastern Cape, called Mound Fletcher in a rural area where she was raised by her single mother. “I was comfortable there until my mother decided to go back to school, I then moved to Cape Town to live with her friends whom treated me like their own daughter,” she said with a silly smile. Hardships started taking it’s tall on Phakama after her mother’s death in 1999. “My older sister then had to look for work to take care of both myself and my younger brother,” says the 20–year-old, while she plays with her shades. When I asked her about her father I could see that she doesn’t like to talk about the subject as she looked down and took a few minutes to respond, “after disappearing when I was still very young, my father come back in 2006; my sister had to nurture him as he was very sick and she also helped him find a job which he couldn’t keep for long. “My father cannot handle responsibilities, he does not like the fact that we all have to depend on the little money that he earns because he got many jobs but would stop working without a reason,” she continued.
The optimistic BSc student matriculated in a disadvantage school which was situated in the township of Cape Town, “people got robbed inside the school premises, boys did drug dealings and you would find them smoking in the toilets; they was no good education, it was just not a safe environment, and that stopes me from asking questions in lectures and tuts whenever I don’t understand because I know my English is not good,” she adds before almost bursting in tears. Phakama shares her feelings about her one year gap before coming to Rhodes, “after completing my metric I had to stay at home because I did not even have the money for application forms I was so lonely and depressed because all my friends had gone to Universities, but my faith in God helped me as I was tempted to give up school and go look for work, she adds.

When asked about her best and low memories in first year Phakama responded with a silly smile, “mmmm..my best memory would be O-week; we were given a special treat especially the cheese and wine and the chocolate extravaganza”. After thinking long and hard about it Phakama said her low happened during O-week when she went to serenading and had to make tea for this white boy who could not stand her, “I know I’m black and I’m a women but he didn’t have to make it so obvious, I was so crashed,” confesses the young lady. Phakama admits that she gets pressure from people in her res in terms of going out and having boyfriends but stresses that she will never sacrifice her studies for anything; if there is one thing that encourages her to press hard on her studies is her background because she never wants to go back there again.
“I’ve always seen myself succeeding and told myself I’m never gonna die poor,” she said whipping her tears that were steaming down her chicks. As we both prepare to leave, I asked her if there is anything she would like to add. She stands and said, “I would advice people who grew up like me to stop using that as an excuse and manipulation to other people instead it must encourage them to work even harder,” words coming from a vibrant first year who is determined to pass all her subjects.

"Old Sea Dogs", a true first year story...

Timothy Gabb (inset) is not your typical first year student. Throughout his high school, the poetry and prose of The Beat Generation developed in Tim an insatiable appetite for different kinds of inspiration, experiences and passions. After finishing school he said, "I needed to take a journey to discover myself, and to ask the questions that gnawed into the deep recesses of my dreams". A "crowbar of words" had formed, which had pried their way into his life, meat for the butchery of university. His inspiration for the future, grounded by two sea-faring years in the Mediterranean, had permeated the will to write what is real, and initiated a past interest into the methods of Tom Wolfe and Hunter S Thompson. This path has led him to the AMM building a top the old wise hill of Rhodes University.


To understand Tim’s journey is to understand his experiences and to see what truly brought him to the knowledge that is giving a voice to his dreams. Three short months after finishing school, Tim found himself aboard the "Francesco Petrarca", a three mast classic sailing ship, of the Spanish isle, Palma de Majorca. A new world of excitement opened up to him: "I had to adapt and transform all that I knew. At the same time I revelled in my new-found independence, getting drunk with old sea-dogs!"


Quite surreptitiously, the power of writing and journalism was growing in strength, due to his dive into the works of "New Journalism" and the childhood memories of Mark Peters, a family friend and Newsweek war photographer. According to Tim, it was "the sheer courage, determination and lengths to which [Mark] pushed himself, in order to reveal to the public what was really going on throughout the world, that ultimately moulded my ideas of what journalism should stand for."


Tim wasn‘t sure what university life would be like, it was an impulse, an instinctive feeling that led him to apply to Rhodes. "Grahamstown was not the place I thought I would end up, it is really different from the adventure and excitement of Croatia and Majorca but for some reason that I just can‘t explain it feels so right", he says. However, it has not all been plain-sailing. Seemingly lost in thought, Tim stares out over the golden ocean as if searching for some lost memory, a fragment of a past life. "There have been tough times, university is a process of growing and moulding. I, like many other first-years, have experienced my fair share hopelessness and anguish," he says.
It could be easy to stereotype a man with long blonde hair, a unique sense of style and that calmness that only comes with having grown up in a small, coastal town. " I grew up on the beach, yet that is by no means a grip on categorising me. He is a man that rebels against anything that is not his own: "I will chart my own course in this life, I will be the creator of my own destiny." Saying that with great conviction, Tim illustrates his sever from any ideology or practice: "Subjectivity is the only truth that I understand. No words of man will I take as absolute!"


As the stars begin to canvas the night sky and the wind whispers its last chords, all that is left is the serene music of the ocean. "Sometimes I miss the salt on my skin, the adventure of travelling the open ocean, but I am here for a reason and I aim at maximising my chance", he says. Tim is not a stereotype, he has charted his own course through the stormy waters of first year. Tim Gabb is determined, set like stone amongst the clay: "There are stories out there that blaze in their need to be found, secrets, the findings need to be illuminated."