It's *what* time?

Yeah, that's right. It's about 2:20 local time. Unfortunately, it feels like I'm coming down with a cold from the flight over (I ALWAYS get sick when we fly. Maybe I should stop licking the fixtures in the bathroom in the plane. Hmm, I'll try that on the way back.)

Anyhow, I'm up so late because of roommate issues. So, a little bit of background on our living quarters. We live in a house dedicated to our study abroad program. There are a bunch of us punk-ass american students living on this nice quiet block. Sorry, neighbors! Anyhow, our group of 13 is split up into three different flats. Each flat (except the guy's flat) has two rooms, and each room has either two or three girls. There are 10 girls split between two flats, and the three guys all share one flat. I've mentioned drippy girlfriend, I think. She has a boyfriend on the program, and I think she was under the impression that they were going to be together 100% of the time during the program, and that she would have his undivided attention. He's an ass for not setting her straight on that. Anyhow, drippy girlfriend was down in the guy's flat with asshole boyfriend (aside to Chris: he's the guy who wouldn't shut the fuck up during the orientation meeting). The other two guys were up in our flat, hanging out with the two girls who are inseperable and won't talk to anyone else. Actually, it's pretty cool: one of the guys, Cap't Smarmy, took it as a project to get the two doublemint twins to come out of their shell. He did a really good job of it, too. So anyhow, it ended up that everyone up here in our flat: Cap't Smarmy, the Double-Mint twins, Party Girl, and Token (he's a token because he's religiously conservative). We were all hanging out and chatting, and then it got late. Really late. I went to bed, and essentially broke up the little swaree. The two guys went down to their flat.... then came back in like 3 minutes. Bear in mind, they're two floors below, so it takes about 2 minutes to go down there. Guess who caught the little lovebirds in a compromising position, and they forgot to hang something on the door. Again, total asshole behavior in my mind. So yeah. They came back up here, and they're going to just sleep in here.

This whole things is fascinating to me because I never had that quintessential college dorm experience, and I never noticed things like this when I went to camp in high school. It's very funny viewing it from (what I feel is an) outside view. I mean, I'm automatically outside the drama because I'm always off doing my own thing. I don't feel like doing what they're doing? No one reads anything into it. I want to go to bed early (heh, still hasn't happened)? I certainly can do so without any drama. Everone, myself included, already recognizes me as "not one of them" and so I don't get wrapped up into the so-and-so said this, and isn't this other person being a bitch, and blah blah blah. It kind of makes me realize that high school didn't have to be as miserable and cliquey as it was... well, if I had been a different person. It's also interesting to watch the interactions of other folks and be able to pick out what's going to happen and why about 5 minutes before everything does. Kind of a weird sociology experiement, I guess. Like living among the natives, don't you know?

See what I did there? See, I did the two meanings in one. (Oh, and it cracked me up that one of our orientation people, a Londoner, did the "see what I did there?" schtick. It really is a global community!