Backpackers hostel in Oxford.
Subject A: English woman, Catholic, average height, but thin, with a gaunt face and loose skin. She is old, sixty maybe, or a very aged mid-fifties. Her hair is shoulder-length, white and stringy. It is askew upon her head, and looks as though it has already fallen out once and she has just glued it back atop her head. Her face seems to be permanently set to disappointment, or perhaps despair. She made me feel uncomfortable, as though she were judging my comments to her personal scale of upright behaviour.
She greeted me kindly enough and asked where I was from. I replied and then said that I was on my OE. I don't know if it was my tone of voice or something I suggested quite subconsciously, or perhaps the direction of the conversation was predetermined by her before I even spoke. As it was, she leapt into a fervent tale about how her youngest daughter's ex-boyfriend had suddenly dropped job, house and her daughter in order to travel the globe, leaving the daughter in (or so it was communicated to me) a state of utmost disrepair.
Said daughter is apparently now in a relationship with a man who (oh gods, wait for it) doesn't want kids! The horror!
Apparently the other daughter is going to be marrying a non-Catholic in a church of no denomination!! Yak yak yak. The fiance in question suggested that meeting his fiancee's mother (my lecturer in this story) was "an experience". She cannot imagine what he might mean by this.
I can guess...:P
Subject 2: It's 12:30am and they have just arrived at the hostel, at our room. Naturally this means that they should turn on all the lights - why do people do this?? Use the light of your mobiles, or turn on a light not directly over my head.
They were French, and one of them stunk up the bathroom in the morning. It had no windows, not even a fan. Lucky me.
Hostel in Cardiff from tomorrow. New people, new fun.
Ah, people. Can't live with 'em, can't live without 'em. And so rarely can we freely vent our frustration at them without consequences :P
ReplyDeleteHey, not as bad as one of my workmates. While we was staying in a hostel the people next to him were trying (and failing I'm told) to sneakily engage in 'adult relations at 2 in the morning.
ReplyDeleteWell maybe your encounter made her feel better. Did you nod and smile throughout? I've never understood the insistence of hostel lodgers of turning on lights at indecent hours. However, in their defense, hostel lights are usually not designed sensibly, so you can only choose between ALL the lights and no lights. We should start a campaign.
ReplyDelete