A Dig's Disaster

I can easily say that my first two encounters with Sarah Couch are nothing to be proud of. My first encounter with her was in the Psychology Department. While I was handing in an assignment I noticed I had not stapled it together. So looking around I saw a girl who I now know was Sarah. Being very tied and very grumpy I asked her if could use her stapler before snatching it away from her and then to add insult to injury I tossed it back to her and left without a thank you, how rude. The second time I met her was during a paintball game. Unfortunately Sarah had the unfortunately luck of being on the other team and the receiving end of a large amount of paintballs courtesy of me.

However this time is a lot different. We arrive at the Red Café and we order a pair of Peanut-butter milkshakes, being a little conservative when it comes to my milkshake flavours I find it a little surprising but tasty. However before we even get going on the interview she decides she wants to move outside. She says she “likes sitting in the sun next to the trees”. I agree but sunlight had never been my friend and I try (to no avail) to find a seat that has a little shade. But the interview soon shows me that Sarah is one of those people that have truly survived first year and if I was in her place I would have most likely have gone postal.

Straight out of Benoni, Sarah would not have come to Rhodes University if she had not been able to go into a digs with a friend as “res life was not an option at all”. Sarah describes the house has being like a “flat out of Sandton” and her two digs mates, her friend Jonathon* and Garth. Her new life at Rhodes was getting exciting and for a time it was good. Sarah got on really well with both her digs mates but there “was always tension between Jonathon and Garth”. Finally in second term Garth left the digs after his request for a lowering of rent was rejected by Jonathon who owns the digs. However Sarah would be the next to leave.

However still things were good between Sarah and Jonathon but over time the situation started getting worse and worse. First he would always eat her food which irritated Sarah and ended up getting expense. Jonathon soon started using her car without her permission and did not even bother to refill it with petrol. On some case she had “to walk back home in the dark” after her car had been borrowed. After the internet cap was used up he made her buy a new one and started switching of the geezer to save money. Sarah also started to notice that the atmosphere in the digs was getting less and less friendly. Jonathon soon stopped talking to her and in one case asked “one of his friends to stay in the house while he was out”.

During her vacation Sarah received an angry phone call from Jonathon asking why she had locked her door before she left as he had wanted his friends to use her room while she was gone. Finally when she returned for 3^rd term she found herself locked out her digs. So she made her choice and bit the bullet, after staying in a friends digs for a couple of nights she moved into res. Which she found to be not as bad as she thought it would be. Sarah was indeed thinking of leaving Rhodes University but has now decided on staying at Rhodes and “is definitely staying in res”.

And with that the interview is over. I can already feel the Peanut Butter making its revenge in my stomach. However even worse I feel far more apprehension about moving into digs next year and res is looking far more alluring. And even worse than that my own sob story of being too shy to leave my room and instead play loads of Half-Life and DOTA on my PC is far less inspiring than Sarah’s digs disaster.

* Not his real names (to avoid him from being booed in public)