Olé!

I had the misfortune the other day to be caught on a downtown bus on the last day of exams at about 11:30pm. For those of you who are not familiar with the city of Guelph, it's a relatively small city and at least half the population is comprised of university students. Maybe not half, but that's what it feels like. Regardless of the exact proportion, the city is literally taken over by students, especially at night.

Now, I myself am a student so you would think I'd join in and enjoy it. However, you'd be wrong. I find it difficult if not impossible to simply shrug my shoulders and join in the madness. My pride, dignity and self-respect is too valuable to throw it away just for the sake of the 'university experience'. For example, regardless of how fun it may be in the moment, I'd never let myself forgive and forget if I was swinging from the bars of a bus, possibly singing Lady Gaga, while others watched, laughed and recorded it on their iPhones.

Yes, that exact incident happened. Except it wasn't me, it was some poor drunk student gone half crazy from the peer pressure. She swung from the handle bars, danced on the seats and I'm sure she exposed herself a number of times as she was wearing an incredibly short skirt despite the frigidly cold weather.

About two minutes after she'd had her fill of dancing, the bus stopped somewhere (I was unfamiliar with the route and the windows were impossible to see out of) and suddenly the bus went from holding about 15 people to suddenly being so packed that I was squished between the window and a very skinny, less annoying girl who at least had the decency to apologize for the inconvenience. The bus smelled like alcohol, in fact, I saw at least one person drinking an open bottle of some sort of hard liquor, not even attempting to hide it. The mob sang a number of indecipherable Christmas carols then perhaps realized they were indecipherable and switched to singing "Oléééééé! Olé! Olé! Olééé!."


The girls were wearing dresses so short you could almost see their asses, but oh wait, they were also tight enough you could essentially see them anyway, so what does it matter? Don't get me wrong, I like to look hot, too, but there's a better way. Especially when the body/skin you're showing off isn't exactly in mint condition. Hide your flaws and accentuate your assets. I think they all misheard that tidbit of advice and thought 'Oh, I need to accentuate my ass! Maybe I should accentuate everything I can...or just, ya know, wear less clothes than a lingerie model.' Yeah, that must be it. The guys were slightly better, but only slightly. They at least were likely to be warm. However, their pants were pulled down so far and the belt was tightened just so, so that they essentially framed the bulge in their very visible underwear. There's no way that's comfortable.

I don't know if this is a familiar scene in cities with a smaller proportion of students, but it is one aspect of university that I will not miss a bit. I long to ride the bus in relative peace.