Or Am I Dreaming?

No, unfortunately I’m not. That is a fire alarm blaring at 3:06 am.

When we had our first dorm meeting we were informed that at some point “in the coming weeks” there would be a fire drill. No one would know what time it was coming since “a fire doesn’t care what time it is”. We all suspected the worst – a middle of the night two hour fiasco in which they would break into your rooms to wake you up if you weren’t accounted for outside. At least that’s what our RA told us to expect. Needless to say we were all extremely enthused at the prospect of this.

Well, Thursday night was finally the night. After a beautiful sunset hike up Lion’s Head (the smaller extension to the right of Table Mountain), I decided to be responsible and get some well-deserved sleep. I passed out by 11, and was happily dreaming until that god-damned fire alarm shattered my peaceful slumber. I begrudgingly walked downstairs, pretty much fell asleep standing up waiting to be accounted for, and walked up to my room an hour later after everyone had been accounted for.

Though it wasn’t as bad as expected, this fire drill was still horrible. I liked nothing about it. Except that the dorm warden warned us “in the case of a real fire you need to keep left so the fire marshals can go by you on the right.” Really? I’m pretty sure if there’s a real fire everyone is hauling ass out of that dorm without paying attention to which side they’re on. Or maybe trying to go back to sleep.