Welcome to... Student Union in Canterbury!

written by Marco Apolloni

At the Student Union there are usually many people. Most of them are students, who talk about young problems in their free time. Meanwhile they drink something downstairs or upstairs; play pool, videogames, table football; watch Tv and Video-recorder or check their e-mails. One thing that I observe is that in prevalence there are - of course - English students, but also many Americans. Honestly I also prefer this place than other places more formal, maybe because the air that you can breathe here is very fresh and revitalizing for all senses; but I also feel inside very exciting and I desire that the places where I live in, study or do everything are more comfortable and transmit me good vibrations. Basically my ethnographic investigation concerns the behaviours and rituals that I can see in all sides of the Union, in two different and distinct part of the day: the afternoon and the night.
Therefore, the first substantial difference that I can see between the afternoon and night are the clothes of the people which are completely different; in fact, during the day, many students go to the Union, in the breaks between one lesson and another and then they generally look like worse than during the night, when instead everyone - especially a girl - is better, more attractive for approaching person of a different sex; for example, a male for approaching a female and a female for approaching a male: this is the rule of the game. Actually, what is the relationship between a man and a woman if not an ambiguous and hard battle? And what are local places, type pubs or clubs or other, if not the bloody battlefields where these fights happen?
One particular thing that everyone can see in the bar of the Union is the manner of girls drink for capturing the interest of the boys, they wet just their sensual lips and with the tongue they dry delicately the drops. Instead the boys laugh like the hippopotamus and talk about football, hockey or cricket match of the day, often also making a frightening belch for show your masculine powerful. Naturally the scene that you can see when you open the main automatic door of the entrance is the presence of many different groups of student usually there are: sport teams group, the blacks DJs and their respective blacks girlfriends, three or four rock metal supporters who loves that particular kind of noise rather than music for me, the cheerleaders all blondes with blue eyes and athletic bodies who are the principal attraction for the male crowd and finally you can see in the remote angle of the room some international student who speak regularly: Italian in Italian, French in French, Spanish in Spanish, Swedish in Swedish, German in German, Greek in Greek, etc…
It is very amusing every times that I check the situation in the Union, see like the cultural difficulties can influence one speech, for example, it is possible that an English guy can speak with one of your American mate but at end normally they prefer speak with people of their same country, because the thing that is good for one it is bad for the other one. So the cultural misunderstanding it can happen but much worse are the language misunderstanding that can create some comics situations, for example, between two guys whose are from two different countries and speak also two different languages.
In the afternoon many people are stand up and they drink very quickly their delicious drinks for go as soon as possible at classes, instead in the night most of them in prevalence prefer sit down in the comfortable sofas and listen peacefully good music - for example in the special unplugged night every Thursday - or watch anxiously some matches of their favourite sport team at the TV. Totally different is the situation upstairs the Union in the computer room where the people are the same or almost the same look during the afternoon and the night, the reason is very simple and I find it meeting every day this friendly boys and girls, most of them in fact have the girlfriend or the boyfriend and therefore every day they need to communicate, as well in this cold and distant manner, with their respective twin soul far from their. This component of people are not including in the eternal conflict that develop in every single moment of the day downstairs, but nothing is scientific at one hundred per cent in the complex discipline that concern the human relationship…
Near the computer room there is an other room for play pool, table football, for challenge your best friend at one match at the play-station (one of the most infernal object of the world, but patience it is the best for relax your stress brain) or if you prefer you can watch some programmes TV or some videos in the Video-recorder in a perfect atmosphere of calm, in fact, the people that stay in this room are also their out of the battle of the sex. This is about the general paint of the Student Union but an other interesting thing that you can see is the differentiation between verbally and non-verbally communication. In the zone of the bar downstairs for the approaching is very important the eye high contact and the body sensual language, if a girl look a boy for more of five or six consecutive seconds meaning that she like that boy and communicate this through some specific reaction of your body, for example, cross the legs and then she pass the assist at the boy who must attach the girl if he want…
Another typical episode that happen in the Union, but we can extend it at every local pubs or clubs for young people, is when a group of girls go to the toilet for put on one’s make-up, for comb one’s hair but in particular for talk together about the most beautiful boy of the dance floor and therefore for decide the approach technique details. Besides, an other interesting fact that you can see in the Union is the presence of two or three boys usually completely drunk who go around and try it with all the girl that breathe in the room also if with scarce success and whose are very funny to see them at the work...
Many people, especially during the night, are drunk for capturing the attention of the others and for give a specific impression of themselves but the only thing is that they want to hide your real feelings and your real fragility inside, in fact, the exuberance outside is only the other face of the medal that hide their insecurity. The leader of every group you can recognise from the security that give off and therefore other people are attract from your charismatic and in many cases also enigmatic personality. The silence is the main characteristic of a true leader of a group, the more one guy speaks the less he says, I know can seem a paradox but this is absolutely likely and plausible. Plenty silence is the speciality of every leader, in fact, this is possible to see also in the Union where for every group there is one leader, visible or invisible, the only thing is that you must pay attention for recognise him among the crowd from these his particular behaviours.
In short you can observe some different behaviours in the Union but nothing is too much strange at one inflexible observer, the world of young people is full of controversy but everyone of these are important for understanding better the interesting and daily change that we can see in this particular world that concern the pagans and sabbatical rituals of young people…