Tri-varsity!!

Here at Rhodes University the student are quite infamously known for being quite heavy partier and Tri-var , unfortunately, seems to prove that. Despite the fact that there are actually four universities involved instead of three and despite the fact that the sport isn’t even being played in Grahamestown this year Tri-var was one of the best weekends of my time here.

Rhodents, as we are commonly called, wear purple painted overalls as our official uniforms so the whole of last week the purple paint came out and the painting began! The Beit girls gathered together in our common room and we decorated our overalls together.

Friday night the party began and despite having to wait in the queue at Friars for about 20 minutes it was so worth it. (Those of you whose who have ever been in Friars will know that this statement is true.)  Friars may look like a lone wooden cabin on the outside, but on the inside it is pumping! And Friday night they decided to play 80s’ Classic rock for most of the night. It was amazing!! And I got to go with some of my new Beit House friends and with Jessica, one of my best friends from back home which was soooo special. I thought that rocking out to “Eye of the Tiger” was awesome, but it truly blew my mind when Journey’s “Don’t Stop Believing” came on!! I think that has to be the greatest song ever written.

In the words of one of my dearest friend Lisa Holtzhause: “Somewhere out there right now there is a group of drunken girls singing along to Journey’s ‘Don’t stop believing.’ ”

When you get so many students together you are bounded to hear some crazy stories, but I won’t delve too deeply in all our scandals. What happens in G-Town stays in G-town!

So as the dust cleared that Sunday morning and the fast food places were buzzing with hungry students who had crawled out of bed for some nourishment, it dawned on some of us that we haven’t done any work yet and as a way to punish us for all the fun we had during Tr-Var the university has doubled the amount of work for this week!!

But to address Rhodes’s bad reputation for being a university for drunks and stoners; all I have to say about that is that even though we do enjoy a good MARE* now and again we are also known for being one of the top notch universities in the country. If you don’t work+ party too hard= they kick you out, if they kick you out= Then you can’t PARTY! Rhodes envy is a scary thing!  Off to prepare for another night out!

(* The word MARE refers to a good night out.)

Harry Potter

One night during the vac, after a lot of begging I managed to make time to convince my friends to go watch the last Harry Potter movie. For some reason I was more excited than the rest of my friends, despite the fact that we are all fans. I jumped out of my skin; I got goosebumps; I laughed and I cried as it ended…

Now as a lover of the book series I naturally don’t love the movies as much as I love the books. I KNOW the acting is not that great! I KNOW that they changed things from the book, but I DON’T care. It’s more about the story than the movies.

Harry’s world is beautiful, filled with amazing creatures, interesting spells and heart-racing adventures. I wanted friends like Ron and Hermione; I wanted to be in Gryffindor; I wanted to play Quiditch and as the years went on I even developed a crush on bad-boy wimp Draco Malfoy and brave-hearted Neville Longbottom.

The story of Harry Potter is about loyalty, love, friendship, bravery despite the odds and the fact that good always over comes evil. A little magic in air is exciting…

 When I was 11, I read the first Harry Potter when Harry himself was 11. I grew up with Harry and I was 18 when the last book came out. I remember how, before I had read the books, my friends laugh at me for messing up the details. I remember racing my sister to the door when they delivered the latest Harry Potter book to our house. I remember sitting in the living room reading one of the Harry Potter books while my mother and my sister each read another one. These are parts of my childhood that I’ll never forget. Even to this day my mother will burst into my room with one of the books in her hand; reading a piece to me that I’m already very familiar with just so that we can enjoy it together again. 

J.K Rowling was just a poor, struggling housewife with a great imagination, who changed the lives of so many children across the globe. It’s going to take many years for another book series to make such a huge impact to young readers. Thank you Jo for my childhood. Harry Potter played such a large part in my childhood and now it’s over. What now?

So as the last few seconds of the last EVER Harry Potter movie faded to black so did the dying embers of my childhood fade to ash… From this point on there is no going back. I am official no longer a child. We spend most of our teen years trying to act older than what we actually are, but a part of me still wishes that I was still that little 11-year old hoping that I might one day get my letter from Hogwarts…

(PS I watched it again the other night with a close friend of mine here in Grahamestown and for those who don’t know, Grahamestown has a tiny cinema which can accommodate about 30 people and only three movies at a time. People may complain about this small cinema, but when you get so many students and Harry Potter fans together in one room hilarity ensues. We clapped when Neville killed the snake, laughed with joy when Ron and Hermione kissed, cheered when Harry conquered Voldemort and choked up when it ended. Jess and I got to nerd out and it was nice not to be the only ones. Wow, I love living in a student town…)

(PSS- I'll be doing character anaysises over the next couple of blog posts so watch this space...)

My own Taylor Swift songs

So while I was listening to my Taylor Swift playlist the other day I thought about the way in which Taylor Swift songs that are so personal and that any girl could actually write songs about their lives.

If I were Taylor Swift the songs on my album would be called:

1.     Why did you pick her instead?

2.     I wish I could cry about you

3.     I thought I didn’t need you

4.     Why don’t you see me?

5.     Love from afar

6.     Not ready for you

7.     Always remember the first love

8.     Trying to get over you

9.     So close to a kiss

10.  Flirt failure

11.  Where are the good guys?

12.  Waiting on my Hero

13.  I’m not Damsel in Distress

14.  Family first

15.  Don’t what to hear about your new girl

16.  Jealous much?

17.  Green-eyed bitch

18.  Man up!

19.  Always a bridesmaid

20.  Hate missing you

21.  Missing what you never had

22.  Hope you’re happy now…

23.  I know you’re out there

24.  Romantic loser

See anyone can write Taylor Swift-like songs titles; you give it a try…

Taylor Swift

The last couple of weeks I’ve seriously been trying to remember what young women used to do to get over emotionally hard times before Taylor Swift stepped onto the scene. Seriously, this girl just gets it. Her music has strong country music undertones with a pop-like nature. At the age of 22 Taylor Swift has been extremely influential in the world of country and modern popular music.

What makes Taylor Swift unique is her daring, yet still innocent, honest approach to song writing. She writes about things she, herself, has experienced and that way her songs become relatable, because truth be told at one point in her life a young women will go through something similar to what is described in one of Taylor Swift’s songs. All young women have faced or will face rejection, heartbreak, desperation or hopelessness and sadness at one point in their lives. In her songs she tackles universal themes such a unrequited love, forbidden feelings, cheating boyfriends, abusive relationships, growing up and that feeling of finally meeting the right person for you. I used to sing “You Belong with Me” loudly throughout most my pre-teen and young teenage years…

 I also find Taylor’s approach to song writing clever and witty in some songs. It’s often been said that men should not mess with Taylor Swift, because she’ll write a song about them. She has become known for directly addressing guys who have wronged her in her songs. For example in her song “Teardrops on my Guitar” she mentions her friend Drew you she had a crush on, but he was in love with someone else and never knew. This song was one of her songs that I related to the most…

 In her latest album she as a song called “Dear John” which is clear address to her older ex-boyfriend and known ladies’ man John Mayer. It is also a known fact that her song “Forever and Always” is about her famous ex Joe Jonas and Taylor’s song “Better Than Revenge” is about Camilla Belle, the girl Joe left her for.  One of my favourite Taylor Swift songs is called “Back To December” in which she talks about how she wishes that she had never broken her ex-boyfriend, Taylor Lautner.

Many of her songs speak about hope and standing up for what you believe in, even though you sometimes go through hard times. She sings all the things we want to say. I think she is an amazing role model for the modern young women… and I will always enjoy her music!!

(PS I cried like a baby while watch her “Mine” music video. I really don’t cry for music video often so that says something. PSS  Toby Hemingway is in it… <3)

It’s Friday! Friday! Gotta get down on…

If you have been living under a rock for the last couple of months it’s time for you to brush off the moss and reconnect with the world. Now unless you are one of those people you have most likely heard of Rebecca Black and her song about Friday. Friday has often been labelled the worst song ever written, which, at first, might sound a bit harsh, but once you hear the song then you’ll understand. Understandably it was written by a 13-year-old whose voice has been viciously auto-tuned, but seriously wasn’t there an adult there to jump in and save this poor girl who clearly thought that she would be the next Justin Bieber…

The video and songs start off when Rebecca wakes up in the morning and the proceeds to describe the process of getting up in the morning, but doesn’t seem to get to it in the video. Then she walks to the bus stop urgently, but when she sees her friends cruising she simple ignores the fact that she rushed to the bus stop and then decides to join them. Firstly I would drive around with a group of kids who don’t look old enough to drive and secondly during this whole scene Rebecca seems to have this big crisis about where she has to sit when there is only one seat actually available. There are kids in Africa who don’t have an education and Rebecca’s biggest worry, while missing school is that she doesn’t know where to sit.

Patrice Wilson, a co-producer at ARK Music Factory, also randomly shows up and begins to rap and this rap really baffled me. Firstly why would a grown man be following a school bus?! AM I the only one seeing the potentially paedophile-like nature of this?? Not only that is disturbing, but the lyrics to his rap are so bad that I can’t believe that an adult actually wrote it. 

The whole video hints to the fact that Rebecca’s parents are most-likely stinking rich and bored and thus pushed her into doing this video…

BUT there is another side to the story, even though it is most-likely the worst song ever written* so many LOVE it due to the comic aspect of it! Seriously it is hilarious to watch and the brilliant spoofs and cult references that have emerged, because of it have been truly amazing. Katy Perry’s little homage to Rebecca Black in her music video for “Last Friday Night” is proof of that…

Benedict Townsend from the Youtube comedy duo “CupofTeam” did the funniest analysis of the Friday video and his video actually inspired me write this blog. Please go check it out:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tz0F5q5XBx0

(*This blog post was written before I even heard about Jenna Rose and her terrible song “”My Jeans” and I must admit that any Jenna Rose song is ten times worse than “Friday” , but not as entertaining or worth writing about.)