Strange People @ MindSay

Wow, what a beautiful country we live in. All the green... covered in rain. Lots of very wet trees, a soggy dog or two and a lot of very, very damp people. I love it, though. I prefer the rain to the sun for some strange, yet possibly wonderful reason. It is much more calming.

 I went to Coleraine yesterday for a wee nosey. It was great, although I still prefer Queens. Coleraine is definitely University number two. We spent about an hour looking around the place and the rest of the day walking about Coleraine and enjoying the atmosphere. It was very nice and peaceful, completely different to Belfast with its hustle, bustle and very “have to work, have to do well” attitude. I did like Coleraine accommodation although, to be perfectly honest, I wouldn’t be happy in the slightest sharing my stuff with five/six other people. I’d rather go to Queens, live at home and have my mummy there to look after me.

 Meh, University choice is tough.

Despite my A in the exam, I got predicted a B in English which I thought was slightly odd although I can see their reasoning. I got 270/300 which is 30 marks over the A boundary so, not to sound in any way arrogant, I think I was really expecting to get an A predicted. I personally have a theory that they think my obvious dislike of English will, in some significant way, make me do badly. I mean, to be fair, I don’t do anything. I just sit for the entire year, staring into space until the exam when I don’t do a hell of a lot but always do well just because I can read, analyse and communicate in a sensible and coherent way. It is true, I really do dislike English but I’m pretty good at it. And my friend, Sarah, got predicted an A despite the fact I got a higher mark than she did in the exams. She works hard, though. I really, really don’t.

It sounds kind of petty and childish, especially given the fact I only need an ABB to do my course and I have AABB, as well as not liking the subject, but I have always believed that if you do well you should be rewarded accordingly. I did do well, I got 100% in a paper, and still am expected to only achieve a B. It really puts a dampener on your spirits. It just makes me feel like I’m working for nothing now.

Except, of course, I’m going to get an A and prove them wrong. In fact, I rather prefer it this way. It knocked me off my high-horse but I’m climbing my own way back up.

(Not that I need it and not that I care but it is the principle behind the thing.)

I also had my first class with the Spanish assistant. Her name is Lucía and she is from the Asturias region. She was lovely, although she spoke much faster than the assistant from last year, but I don’t think it was impossible to understand her. I actually understood most of what she was saying, although I couldn’t remember how to reply. Her first question was “How old are you?” to which I replied, smugly and brilliantly “28”. It really broke the ice, though. She laughed for ages while I was trying to stick my head under the desk and die. It happened last year too. Why do I exist only to make Spanish people laugh as I try, and fail, to speak their language? I digress, she was lovely. She really was prepared and I think that I’m pretty much willing to take the challenge of this year. Apparently I speak very well, very clearly and very poshly, just not very quickly or sparklingly.

I planned my holiday in History using a 1919 map showing the territorial gains after the war. I felt strange and yet ever so hexagonal.

 I, somehow, got roped into writing an Agony Aunt column for the senior school magazine in a fake, sarcastic and hopefully witty way. I also seized power in an obvious way which Jimmy, the chairperson, wasn’t too chuffed about. Bloody people. If they don’t want to do it then don’t do it. Don’t just sit in the meeting, moan, bitch and make it dull for the rest of us. Yes, we know that our Year is hardly going to appreciate the finer details of the Labour leadership contest despite how entertainingly and satirically we present it but, in the name of all things sensible, have some self-belief. It is their loss if they are too thick to understand it.

I’m someone who commits 100% or gives nothing. I can’t understand when people lose faith and become deluded half-way through something important. If it is worth doing, kids, it is worth doing fantastically.

Cynical?

Overachiever?

Bossy?

Organised?

All or nothing?

Punctual (to a fault.)?

Critical?

Arrogant?

All of the above?

Going. To. Need. Therapy. One. Day. Soon.

Argento.

Like you all probarly know I travell by train to school. Sometimes there are delays, sometimes not. But so far so happy. And always you see different people. Strange really. Cause you would expect that people all take the same train. Well, not always. You see all kind of people there.

I once saw a guy who had a very very big box with him. And he sat like two chairs futher then me. Then you heard all the bird singing. And what is it? In that box that guy had little birds. I was really suprised. I believe he needed to be Vlissingen. So for him that was after Roosendaal another hour or so. I also once expierenced that I was talking to a classmate of me. She got of in Breda. We had been talking about her broken MP3-player. Cause I had one, she showed me how to wear it around my neck. I am pretty happy about that, cause I use it now. My MP3-player is my tool to stay awake in the train. But anyways. We were talking about that. She got out. And then suddenly a guy began to talk to me. What was it? He worked for a multinational in electronics. He knew all about that kinda stuff. About waranty's etc. I was really suprised he even talked to me. And then about that. But like that guy with the birds, he didn't need to be in Roosendaal. No, he even hasn't been in Vlissingen that day. He needed to go to Paris. So, I guess he was there at the evening.

Also that same train was responsible for my entry "Panic", about that I lost my wallet. Yes, everytime I travell by station Gilze-Rijen now I am really thinking back at that day. And always, before getting in to the train I feel if I have my wallet. And well ofcourse now I always have it with me. Same reason why Roosendaal has my attention now. Just before I got on to the train to Tilburg for my school that day, I found out I lost my keys somewhere. I was totally paniced (..again). And I first drove the entire road between the place I last had them and the place I was then (station Roosendaal). Nowhere to be found. So in tears (of the panic) I phoned my mum. And she told me to go to the police and she would come there. Still when I arrived at the police I was totally paniced. So when my mum got there, we went in. And wented to reported my missing keys.

"How do they look?"

"Erm..with a silver mouse caring a P"

At that moment I looked a bit besides the woman behind the counter and there they were. I totally got excited

"Are this them?"

"Yes!!"

So, that's why I always check my pockets for my keys and wallet before getting on the train to either Tilburg or Roosendaal.

But you also encounter all kinds of weird people in the train. I told you about bird-man and the electronicsguy. Well there are more. The most annoying are foreign people. Don't understand me wrong. This isn't a rastic thing. But they pick up the phone more loud then anyone and then go talk in there own language. That's annoying. Very annoying. Can you imagine sitting in a train and all you can hear is talking that foreign language. Ofcourse I think you should be allowed to phone, but do it silent please. Also once that same friend with the MP3-player, she also got a sort of a bible from someone. She was sitting next to a guy. And suddenly he began to talk about how good her beliefs (in the church were) and that kinda stuff. And when he got out, he gave her a mini-bible. She was really suprised by that. I think it now burns in her fire-places or is laying beneath an unstable chair. Talking about books. The train is perfect to read in. A newspaper, a book. I once even read an entire book between two places. Not Tilburg and Roosendaal, but 's Hertogenbosch and Roosendaal. I believe it's a ride around 1 hour and 30 minutes. But I actually finished it in that time. I was pretty suprised about that. And you see a lot of people read and sometimes people even ask: "What are you reading?". And then you are stunned about it, you look up. And people say: "Oh, I already see". Most populair book? I don't know really. Most populair writer? Ha, I know that one. Dan Brown. Really strange. But 7 out of the 10 people you see with a book are reading one from Dan Brown. And not only "The DaVinci Code". Anyways back to strange people. Like I said with those books, all kind of books. Dan Brown, some girl named Jill Mansell (is that correct), I once enough saw a Russian book. Magazines. From sportingmagazines till opinionmagazines. But most populair in the train is puzzling and the free newspapers "Metro" and "Spits". Entire piles of Metro and Spits are lying in the trains. And do you know? People put sandwhiches, chewing gums etc between them. That's like really...ewwy.

Now from ewwy to even more ewwy. This happened to me yesterday. I was alone this time. Normally I have people travelling with me. But they had to be at school at another time. So I was travelling back from Tilburg to Roosendaal. And there I was...shocked. There was sitting a guy there, with his hand down his pants. And no, not like Al Bundy. More like...sexual down his pants. He was...mastrubating. Yes, indeed. I was totally shocked about it. And I immediatly looked the other way. I pulled out a writing block from my backpack and began to write total nosense. I draw a duck, a table with chairs. The symbol of a supermarket, the symbol Opel and the symbol of the public transportation company. As long as I didn't have to look at that guy. The problem was he also needed to go untill Roosendaal. I never ever looked outside the train that long. Never. And I never saw such total nonsense on my writersblock. Then he also got out at Roosendaal. He went luckly a different direction then me. I really had to control myself to not say: "And satisified?".

In the Metro you always read about people who complain about other people who are listening to loud music or who are talking loud on the phone. But I can ensure those people nothing...really nothing is worse then what I saw. And I wouldn't wish anyone else to see it. Next time I just go and see if there is no guy sitting somewhere alone, where I sit and only then I go sit.

Wallet? Check

Keys? Check

MP3-Player? Check

Book? Check

No guy mastrubating? Check. Double check.