Donnerstag, September 29, 2005
How bizzare...
I know it has been a long time. It doesn’t seem like it though… The matter of fact that time is running away but nothing is changing very much (in terms of ‘work that still needs to be done’) is a bit scary. But I guess I can’t really do anything about it. So while people at university get very exited when they realize that there are only 3 weeks of the semester left (+ exams, + deadline for the research report… but still) I’m having a nervous breakdown when I think about the work and sleepless nights that means…
But I thought today I won’t write about work but about other things :-)
I don’t know if I have mentioned it before but the name of my university is ‘WITS’ (short for Witwatersrand). Germen readers now might wonder ‘hm, isn’t that a spelling mistake? Shouldn’t it be ‘Witz’’. (For non-German readers: the German word ‘Witz’ (pronounced: wits) means joke in English). And sometimes I really think that would be more appropriate :-) For example yesterday when there was an organized
(!) pillow fight on campus during lunch time. People especially brought there pillows to uni, and gathered on a certain place after they had registered and their pillows got checked as well (which was probably a good thing since some people definitely saw the emphasis on ‘fight’ and not on ‘pillow’). The registration was because they wanted to break the record from last year (5000 people!). Unfortunately I couldn’t participate. Firstly because I forgot my pillow (no, I don’t bring it every day, even when that would be very comfortable in class…), secondly because I had class just after it started and finally because I was hungry and not willing to sacrifice my lunch break for a pillow fight (strange enough that I even had the option…). Oh, apparently the record was not broken – so maybe I’ll get another chance :-) Another thing that I wanted to tell you for ages is that ants are behaving very strangely in this country. In Germany you would expect them to go to after sugar or any kind of sweet stuff. So I was quite surprised when I met hordes of them in the bathroom and around the washing machine (not the most sugary place one must admit…). But of course there is a very simple explanation for that: they are thirsty! Since it hasn’t rained for months they are obviously a bit dehydrated and start looking for water inside the house. And I learned from Hillary that we are not killing them for exactly that reason. It’s not their fault that there is no water in the garden! And since they are not greedy and want sugar we will be tolerant and share our water.
Ok, now you know what occupies my mind when I’m not involved in highly intellectual paper writing :o)
