The Grass is Always Greener In Someone Else's Field

Now that I have had my first homemade latte, I am all caffiened up and ready to go!

In the past three years that I have lived on my own away from home, I cannot help but unite all my troubles under one common enemy: ENTROPY. Yes, entropy. According to what I was taught in Mrs. Silverberg's grade 12 chemistry class, all matter in the universe proceeds towards entropy, towards randomness and disorder. In personal terms, what this translates into is that without any outside force or intervention, my entire world will proceed towards chaos. Here is how I have been combating it:

First example: today I actually cleaned my room, vacuumed the floor, folded my clothes cleaned the sink and the bathroom floor. However untypical of me this may sound, I blame entropy. In just two weeks my room had already proceeded towards maximum disorder.

Second example: It just seems like there is so much to do that I have to write it all down or else I will forget it. I have to keep an academic journal and write down all my classes, meetings, tryouts, etc. I tried out for the ultimate frisbee team looking like sporty spice, but it's more of a club as they will only cut and recruit for tournaments. I'm thinking of joining the rugby team instead.

Third example: my hair. My hair and this weather just do not get along. I mean, without any gel or mousse, I have the world's largest and unruly afro. In this crazy English weather, and I do mean crazy (it was damp and foggy and mucky this morning, then the afternoon was filled with bright sunshine and sporadic rain in some spots on the frisbee field), now in this crazy English weather, my hair is just hopeless. btw- look at the picture of me and Amy, just the two of us. We are long lost- recently reunited conjoined hair twins (except hers seems to have evolved to better adapt to this rainy English weather). Although mine doesn't seem that bad from the pictures, just remember that pictures are edited and sorted and posted according to maximum aesthetic quality. So just remember that the pictures you see are selected from a formidable selection. That is my 'daily defense' against entropy.

Fourth example: Culture Shock. Now, all the international advisors have warned us against the torments and ails of culture shock. They describe it in several stages: the honeymoon stage, the depressed/sad/bad stage, the anger stage or rage against England, and the acceptance stage. Now maybe I'm still in the honeymoon stage but I personally feel that the idea of culture shock is directly related to your previous conceptions or perceptions about that other culture in relation to yours. I've been to Israel, and now I've seen England, and I somehow assumed that I would feel different, and I think the shock in clash/contrast of cultures comes from finding how similar the two respective cultures actually are. I don't mean that Israeli and Canadian culture or British and Canadian culture are both very similar; what I mean is that every culture is intrinsically similar in a sociological sense. It's the realization that although other cultures may be founded on different values or principles, the underlying framework is essentially identical. So although you have been geographically displaced, your sensory interactions with the environment do not change. Although your surroundings have changed, you have not changed. And I think the moment of impact for me is when I realized that I will eventually settle into the same seemingly mundane routine of the typical university student. The people may have changed, the hangouts may have changed, the campus may have changed, but the system, the inner workings, the lifestyle is still one and the same. All is still intact. So many Israelis and one British guy I met today all discuss how much they'd like to move to North America. And here enters the age old cliche: the grass is always greener on the other side. The impact of culture shock occurs when you realize that just maybe it is not. It's an appreciation of the diversity of culture and the acceptance of each for what it is. Although England may have lush sports fields of healthy green grass that remind me of Harry Potter, metaphorically speaking, how one personally interprets it is solely a matter of choice.

Now, tomorrow marks our first day of school. I believe I have literature at 10 am and will have to sort out chemistry before then as I was not assigned to a lecture or tutorial. I have a couple of other classes after lit, a job interview at 2 (I forgot what the interview was for and asked Anna to phone in for an interview on my behalf, because I can't hear too well on my mobile, to discover that ironically it was an interview for telemarketing... oy) I begin work as a residence advisor at 6 and I think there's a JSoc pancake event squeezed in there somewhere. Oh, and probably a workout at the gym. It's going to be a busy day!

p.s. the pix are from a couple nights ago- my last hurrah before my retirement from the party scene, just to explain/justify the pictures. p.p.s. those are the fab 6, my posh, awesome, adorable flatmates!