Monday, July 29, 2013

An Anthropology of Dormitory Space: A Rant

I am grateful that I'm staying in a clean, quiet, comfortable apartment with an adopted aunt. But I miss living in Sampaloc, Manila on certain occasions...

There's something about this part of Diliman which is naturally creepy... I've spent eight years in Sampaloc, Manila looking at walls and buildings, and the sound of vehicles were my lullaby. But Here, in the day my window looks out into glorious green trees and unspoiled fields, with blue and on occasions paper white skies; at night a menacing black against red cola. It does not invite a look --- for fear of finding something standing or hovering on a high limb, staring back. Never thought I'd be grateful for horizontal blinds...

And while I do know that my building does have students, it's being separated from them by units and not rooms; not having a lobby or some adjoining structural feature. I feel like it weakens a sense of morale either the night before exams or during that all-nighter for that "awesome" paper.