It is only week three and I have managed to make some enemies. I didn’t set out to make them, but it happened. I was really just after a good night’s sleep. My medical condition makes me tired enough on its own, but adding no sleep into that mix and I float somewhere between a zombie and a piece of the furniture. It started last week with a tutor (the equivalent to a TA) called me an idiot because I asked for some clarification on an article that I could not make heads or tails of. This evil wench told me that she was not there to answer questions (as my bestie pointed out, she is German and that is very common for them to just be flat out rude and insulting to students) and that I should not be expected to be spoon fed answers. She copied the director of the program on the email, and all I had really asked was if we could discuss the readings before class got started so that I would have something to contribute to the discussion. The whole group feels this way, but I was the one who was nominated to email Claudia the Horrible, so I am the one who feels insulted. I wanted to huff and puff and tell the bitch this wasn’t my first graduate degree and that if she is being paid $100 an hour to be in the classroom, I better leave her room feeling like I would have learned more from a monkey speaking Greek. The only thing that this did was make her academic enemy number one and she is about to get eight weeks of me in bitch mode. Claudia the Horrible is an enemy I am making on my own decision. She doesn’t have to be an enemy, but I have decided that I will not tolerate the way she treated me. The other set of enemies that I made were not by choice.

I happen to live with the most rude people I have ever encountered. They run and shout in the hallways at 3 am, they mess up the toilets and break into mailboxes, and generally walk around like they own the place. The other day I kindly (or as kind as I can be at 3 am after three hours of listening to them talk about who they had had sex with so far this term) asked them to just go into one of the rooms that they were standing in front of because the rest of us were trying to sleep. They laughed at me like I was absurd, but I assume eventually went to one of the rooms. After the mandatory house meeting where I suggested that rules, curfews and timetables needed to be reviewed, they now do everything they can to be disruptive. They slam doors, hangout outside my room and chat loudly about prissy postgrads having fun studying while they get smashed, and generally make sure that nothing productive is happening between the hours of 6pm and 7am. I was not trying to point out that these fucktards were raised by wolves, I merely just wanted to be able to sleep at 3am. I was 18 and dumb once. I’m sure that I was loud on occasion. I know that I never disrupted anyone’s studies though, and if someone told me to shut up, I shut up. I guess it is a difference between American college kids and English college kids. All I know is that I am starting to feel like I did that first year in San Diego. I hated that year, and it is not one that I wish to repeat.

To deal with these children though, I have decided to get on their level. Anytime they breath too loudly on the floor after 10pm mandatory quiet hours, I am calling security and having them written up. Three strikes and they are out, and some of them are already on strike two. I’m guessing that I can get them out before the term ends. The cleaning ladies have also given Jade an alarm clock and permission to get the vacuum out for 6am hoovering, so I think I may take them up on that and start setting the alarm clock for 5 am every morning (seeing as they usually stumble to bed around four, they will not enjoy it.) I am also open to all manner of suggestions, and I am not the least bit concerned that by posting this online I am showing premeditation for mischief. My revenge may not be swift, but it will most definitely be sweet. They picked the wrong scamp to mess with.