A Tribute to Scholars, Part I

Naturally, I would have to study for my first major test on Monday. Typical Rice schedule. Any plans involving lab coats and facepaint have been bumped to Wednesday. Today is dedicated studying...

Not to say I didn't do anything. Rather, I decided to acknowledge the long-standing tradition, started by monks, of studying while wearing a cowl. While long robes are less necessary in the Houston heat than in dank European monasteries, I still feel that it helps the learning process somehow. Plus it's a lot of fun. :)

I got a few double takes just on the way over to Fondren, which was encouraging. However, once inside, I got very few reactions. Given that silence is recommended in libraries, I really shouldn't have been surprised. Also, I noticed that even people I knew weren't saying anything. (People actually focus on their work sometimes, who knew??) I figured that I could have probably walked up to half the studiers in there while wearing a gorilla suit, and they still wouldn't have noticed. Yes, I will try this if people get me a gorilla suit.

I checked to see how people reacted to being in an elevator in Fondren with a monk. Apparently, the protocol is just to ignore monks. It took me six tries before a person actually asked me if it was a costume.

I monked the 6th floor for 1/2 an hour while studying, but ultimately decided Fondren was too serious to yield many results. As I left, I checked out a few books that I thought seemed appropriate. Sadly, the librarian did not even comment about the fact that a guy dressed as a monk was checking out books on medieval warfare...

I moved on to Coffeehouse, where the staff and a few customers were entertained by my costume and choice of literature. I explained to a Junior from Martel how it kind of made since for college students to dress as monks, considering they were equivalent scholars from their age. He was quick to point out, though, that while his studies might be the same, his weekend activities varied drastically from those of monks.

I finished off the day by riding the entire inner loop on the bus and observing people as they got onboard. Most of them just took one look at me, then tried to pretend like nothing was out of the ordinary. I did catch one football player looking back at me 5 times during the one stop that he took the bus. Considering that "normal" Daniel gets maaaybe one look, I considered this an accomplishment.

Overall, the first experiment was effective, but did not generate much feedback. Most of the people I explained myself to were friends. And even then, a lot of my friends weren't surprised. I think Marie summed it up best when she walked by and said "Hey Daniel! Being a monk again?"

...

Yeah, apparently I need to step things up a notch.