Inmate #475621

Alternative Title - Duck, Duck. Duck, GOOSE

Next year I go here. Which is cool, really cool, and exciting, and various other adjectives. The other day I had a session where all the kids who are going had to get together and become friends, presumably because we are going to be spending a fair bit of time with each other next year. And I was really happy because they are all really really nice guys. But then I realised there was a problem. They are all dudes. And I am a girl. And we are going to live in a Muslim college. SO, whilst the guys are all free to hang out together, opposite sexes are banned from going into each others rooms. Or apartments. Or even floors of the condo on which the opposite sex reside. Or their common areas. And there are wardens to ensure this is all adhered to.

Caption: Living on campus is fun

I know I'm just being a whinger - I knew I was going to be in an predominately Muslim country, albeit a fairly liberal one. And I knew I would be living in an Islamic school's accommodation, and that they were fair hard arses. I'm just struggling a little with some concepts, such as gender segregation, and having a curfew, let alone a VERY EARLY curfew.

Just to clarify the situation, we were shown a montage* of what wouldn't be going on amongst my fellow expats and myself.

Namely, there will be none of this ...

... or this ...

... and certainly none of this ...

Whoa. The most disturbing thing about that last one is not the picture itself. I mean, that still is very disturbing, but there is something more disturbing to it. Like the fact that somebody feels the need to have the image engraved in stone and presented on a plate to display somewhere in their home. Imagine if you actually received this as a gift. And the person came round to your house all the time and you had to keep it on display or they would be offended. I mean, what the freak would you do? This is hurting my brain just thinking about it. I think I'm going to go have to have a lie down and a Bex to recover.

PS - I made the montage up for the sake of my story. However, if Monash had provided us with a montage, the images would have been way dodgier. I mean, until recently, I had to look at this guy on the Monash website almost every day! Even he hated looking at it!

See what I mean!