The Hostility Phase

Bad news guys. The honeymoon is officially over.

I was looking at the culture shock graph that they showed us during orientation the other night, and I realised that actually the first stage of adjustment lasts a lot longer than I thought. I was under the impression that the period of constant happiness and ecstacy only lasts six weeks or so for most people, and then the homesickness sets in. That seemed to be happening to most of my friends. But actually, in a six month period, the first two and a bit are supposed to be spent in this stage, and then the 'hostility' stage begins, then there's the bit where you come gradually out of hostility and start finding everything funny again and then you go back to being really happy about everything.

So according to that I've got another two weeks or so of feeling a bit rubbishy. I know what you're thinking, and yes, obviously I'm still enjoying myself most of the time and the campus is great and the people are amazing and blah blah blah. To be honest, it's less the country than the immediate groups of people I find myself associating with. As much as I like them on the whole, I've been in some situations lately where I've felt myself really wanting a friend I can have a deep and personal conversation with, and the people I can comfortably do that with (without first consuming copious amounts of alcohol) seem few and far between. Now that I'm in the fourth month of knowing most of these people, and hanging out with them on a regular basis, it's gotten to the stage where I want to take the friendships to the Next Level. Where heartfelt confessions are made. But this takes work.

And lately I'm feeling very lazy. I seriously sat at my computer feeling hungry for an hour tonight before I could be bothered to go and buy a slice of pizza and some apples from the dining hall. I just sat here listening to my stomach rumble and thinking 'But it's so far away and no one's answering my teeeeeeeeeeexts'. It was pathetic. Other symptoms of the hostility phase, as far as I can figure out, include a renewed appreciation for sleep and general irritation. For example, why is it that the little convenience store by the dining hall doesn't sell any good cereals. I'll tell you why. It's because they want me spending two dollars every morning on a bowl of it in the dining hall. WELL GUESS WHAT, TOTEM PARK. I CAN EAT ANYTHING IF IT'S COVERED IN ENOUGH CHOCOLATE MILK. Actually, that probably only applies to cereal. But yeah, now that I've paid for it, my box of 'Original Alpen Weetabix' is not going to waste.

I'm also sick of barely lukewarm showers. The administration actually sent us an email about this earlier in the week (after a weekend of only cold water, during which I was thankfully absent), basically saying that the system operates in such a way that when the hot water doesn't run, there's a brief supply of lukewarm water, and then cold water. Thanks for that bro. They say it's difficult to determine why the system is turning itself off. On the bright side though, they're almost done replacing the light above the noticeboard which no one reads (since according to the workman the old one 'wasn't bright enough'). Good to know the really important stuff is still getting done.

On the bright side, this is a long weekend, and I have some social activities planned which hopefully will involve me making significant steps in turning a couple more of my friends into best friends, and maybe meeting some more people too. I could use some new guy friends. I only have a couple who I see with any regularity outside of classes.

I'm also buying a new laptop this weekend, since this one is currently making more noise than the construction used to and freezing approximately every seven seconds. I'm thinking about a mac, though I'm not sold on the idea. Pros: it's supposed to be a really good machine and you never hear anyone complaining about their mac acting up. Cons: they're elitist and expensive.

So yeah. Leave your computer recommendations in the comments.