Red Nose Diaries

First Impressions

So. People are arriving one by one.
And everyone is sniffing around.

There is that friendly: "how do you do, where do you come from, oh how interesting" tentative hedgy thing that we all do. Yes, of course. The diplomatic, let's give everyone a chance because after all we don't know anything about them yet and we are going to spend a whole year (or more) with them after all, thing. And when asked by my friend, Lily, about one of these new arrivals I usually say: “He seems nice… kind of reserved”, or “she seems funny...”

But Lily will have none of this. She demands: "Cross, or Tick?"
A cross being an "X", a tick, a check mark . She mainly gives crosses straight off, but allows that they might redeem themselves later--others have (I haven't asked, but I have a feeling that when we first met, I may have been a cross).
So I have picked up her method:"I just met so and so. Definitely a tick!"
She looks suspicious. She asks a few questions.
"Mmm. Sounds like a cross to me."

But I have learned how to count to ten in Swedish and to say the equivalent of "Break a leg" in Spanish. It really translates into: "Lots of Shit".

So there's that.