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March 02, 2005
Quality Mall Time
As I may have mentioned, Wednesday is my shopping day to Tyger Valley: a huge mall about a 10 minute drive from my campus. Although I am very excited and grateful to be able to go grocery shopping once a week, it does not take me the alloted three hours to get my grocery shopping done. Those who know me at all know that I have very little tolerance for malls, and the prospect of wandering around for over two hours a week in such a place is rather discouraging. I know that if I were in a mall in South Africa with Miss Jenna Katz, she would be able to entertain me for much longer than the required three hours. But alas, she does not arrive in Africa until after I am back in the United States, and she is going to be in a different country several thousand miles away from South Africa, anyway. I guess I will have to find ways to entertain myself.
I'm not particularly fond of our shopping excursions partly because Bellville used to be a white suburb during apartheid, and the Tyger Valley mall is almost exclusively full of white people in a black-majority country. This is true of many beaches in the area, too, and it's a rather strange phenomenon to walk into such a place and feel like you've been instantly transported to the United States. As I've noted before: South Africa still has a long way to come, but sometimes it feels as if certain aspects of the country are going backwards...
Posted by rgutwin at March 2, 2005 09:08 AM
Comments
I'm sure everyone would appreciate it if you could speculate what Ms. Katz might do if confronted with the mall in South Africa.
Try this next time you have time to kill in a public place. Find a place out of the flow of traffic (alcove, unused doorway, etc.). Then pick out a person and stare at their eyes. Even when you do this with people far away or far into their peripheral vision, the will immediately notice you. It's fascinating. BTW, you can quickly look away – thus leaving your “victim” a bit confused.
I read someplace that there’s a special part of your brain that’s completely dedicated to processing other peoples eyes separate from the face.
Posted by: Paul Gutwin at March 4, 2005 09:28 PM
Interesting. I will have to try this experiment next week...
Posted by: Rebecca at March 5, 2005 02:45 AM
You know what's more fun? If you're ever walking in the opposite direction of a stream of people (i.e. they're walking to class, you're walking away), try this: Make eye contact with as many people as you can for just a brief instant.
It's the emotional equivalent of the snap-snap-snap feeling of running your hand along a picket fence. Pretty weird.
Posted by: Karl at March 5, 2005 09:11 AM
It's too bad I couldn't join you at the mall, I'll def. be sure to look for something like it when I am in Uganda.
ps. I got your lovely letter today!
Posted by: Jenna at March 7, 2005 01:25 PM