I Always Feel Like Somebody's Watching Me

It snowed kinda bad last night, so classes were cancelled today. I'm glad about it, but not. I'm glad because:

1. Usually during weekdays I don't have time to lotion thoroughly after my showers before I go to class, so I got to do that today.
2. My Aunt Flo arrived last night and I'm happy to have this time to just rest and spend time with her.

Reasons why I'm not glad:

1. I actually wanted to go to class (Linguistics, specifically) and learn a thing or two.
2. Plus, I was supposed to have a meeting with my Study Abroad advisor regarding finishing my application and scholarship opportunities. THIS IS BULL.

Anyway, I'm afraid. Last night my dorm had a hall meeting, mostly for the new students that don't know about the policies that the rest of us already knew. The meeting was mandatory so I, unfortunately, had to attend. The meeting was boring for the most part, but at the end our dorm director informed the ladies of our building of some very scary goings-on. See, my dorm and another dorm on campus are co-ed. In both buildings, there are three floors of girls and three floors of boys, so opposite sexes are seen frequenting opposite floors quite often. We have visitation hours and other rules (like, opposite sexes aren't supposed to go in the bathrooms), but no one pays attention to them...not even the RAs. So, apparently, a few boys were recently caught in the girls' shower areas taking pictures of girls while they shower. Of course, these girls don't know that they've been seen.

In the shower area, there's an outer curtain followed by a small area with a ledge where you can set your towel, keys, phone, body wash, etc., then there's an inner curtain and the actual shower stall inside. I should mention that there's around 6 or 7 stalls on each floor and the set-up is in each individual stall. The outer curtains close pretty well, but the inner curtains are all stiff and stuck together in some parts. They close too, but it's pretty easy to see your stuff on the ledge and even the outer curtain.

I'm afraid because in the 3 weeks that we've been back, my outer curtain has been pushed open TWICE. The first time it happened, I figured that some rude girl couldn't tell if someone was showering in the stall I was in or not, so she opened the curtain to see, saw someone there, and didn't bother to close my curtain back. The second time it happened, I kind of thought the same thing may have happened. There have been a few times when I took the time to dry off in the ledge area and some girl pushed my curtain open, thinking that no one was there. Apparently, I'm the only one that checks for feet around here.

Anyway, I've been thinking about it and I think someone may have taken pictures of me. Because the inner curtains don't close THAT well, I could always see out, and if someone pushed my curtain open, I'm more than certain that they could see in.

This is the first year for this co-ed thing and, to be honest, I never had a problem with it (I was happy when I found out about it). My only concern had been the safety of my underwear when I did laundry. But now, if boys are not only in the shower area, but filming us as well, I don't think I like it so much anymore. Who's to say that these boys don't take pictures of us and then show all their friends? This is a small school, so I'm pretty sure that whoever is doing it knows who they're taking pictures of. I'm severely uncomfortable with anyone knowing my body without my consent. What's underneath my clothing is my business. Plus, if they've been taking pictures, what if they one day decide that pictures aren't enough, that seeing and feeling for themselves is the next step? It's all very scary, especially when some guy was seen beating the crap out of his girlfriend of six years a few nights ago on the floor below me...and no one did anything about it. I do not have time for all this. Pray for me, that girl, that guy, and everyone else at this school, PLEASE.

On a much lighter note: Sometime soon, I'm supposed to be working in the Writing Lab. Basically, my job would be editing/revising papers for students, which I happen to enjoy. I'll get to work there as soon as the two professors that I ask finish my recommendation letters and they draft a contract for me. Hopefully, it won't take long. I am oh so eager. Really.

Also, I became a member of Sigma Tau Delta, the International English Honor Society, yesterday. I'm so excited about it. I'm preparing to be the best English major ever, obviously.

I've really been getting into my Linguistics class and I've been thinking about and looking into pursuing a master's degree. With that, I could officially be a translator and SHIT ON EVERYBODY. You know, since that's kinda my thing.