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.

Save 100 Lives

Greetings to all my fellow vegetarians! I know you might be a bit stressed about how your whole I-don’t-eat-dead-animals philosophy will go down among the predominantly carnivorous students at your chosen university, but guess what? I’m here to help!

First and foremost, if there’s an animal rights group at your university, join it. It’s an amazing way to mix with like-minded people, get involved in something you’re passionate about and make new friends. I joined Rhodes’s ROAR society (Rhodes Organisation for Animal Rights) at the beginning of the year, and it’s really opened my eyes. They gave us a lot of PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) activism materials and information, which really encouraged me and strengthened my passion for this cause. I especially loved the animal rights stickers they gave us – they’re a fantastic way to spread the word and interest people in your ideas. A cute sticker on your notebook or a poster on your res room door is a great talking point and may even sway one of those meat-eating friends of yours!

If you’re staying in a residence, you can usually pick what you want to eat. There are different menus you can choose from, so it’s easy to simply book ‘vegetarian’ or even ‘fast food vegetarian’, if you’re lucky enough to attend a university which allows you that option. Dining hall meals are notorious: my friends are always complaining about how terrible the meat looks/tastes (or discussing what exactly it is that they just found in their chicken), so you’re much better off.

If you’re living off-campus in a flat/house (‘digs’ in university lingo), you’re going to have to do your own cooking (unless you want to live off Margherita pizzas from Debonairs. Which is cool too. But probably not good for your cholesterol level). But this isn’t a problem, thanks to those fantastic people at Fry’s. Their vegetarian boerewors / hotdogs / mince / sausage rolls / schnitzels / hamburgers are probably the reason I haven’t died of malnutrition over the last 6 years of my herbivorous life. They are the easiest things to make – you can stick most of them in the microwave for a minute and ta-dah! Edible soya protein! And you can stick them in almost every dish to replace the meat. Best thing since Mugg ‘n Bean’s frozen mocha coffee.

So there you go. You’ll survive just fine. And you can carry on on your merry vegetarian way and save the lives of more than a hundred animals a year.

***For all you omnivorous readers out there, you should see where your meat comes from. And then we’ll see if you still enjoy your Big Mac. Go veg! ***

Mwa mwa!
Meat_is_murder