Reveille and "Rock" Music

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So, I've started wearing earplugs to bed. I hear reveille every morning at 6:15. Not to mention the rumbling and clanking of food delivery trucks to the cafeteria (what they call the canteen, which dovetails with reveille, I suppose) across the street, and what I take to be morning salutations among the maintenance staff. Chinese still sounds unnaturally loud and barky to my ear, and when the volume is raised, well...let's just say my gut reaction is to want to tell them to shake hands and make up fercrissake, people're trying to sleep here.

There are several take-me-serious-looking military installations within nearby blocks and, call me crazy, I first assumed the trumpets blared from there. Too hasty. The unwelcome music actually comes from the campus rocks. (Think amusement park, where manmade rock-like objects dot the landscape and relentlessly pipe out feel-good music to the masses.) It's not that I didn't know they were here; the four-note descending bell tone coming from their guts marks the beginning and end of class every 45 minutes all day every day 8:15am-9:20pm seven damn days a week (you can tell that doesn't bother me at all). I just didn't think to source the martial wake-up call to them, nor that it might not be abnormal for a college to subject its paying, unearplugged customers to such an unbidden intrusion at such an ungodly hour.

These rocks sporadically offer long-winded monologues as well, which are, needless to say, beyond entirely lost on me and, so far as I can tell, totally ignored by the auditors capable of comprehension. This makes me feel less out of the loop, somehow. At least I'm not missing some dire call to action, which I suspect no one would trouble to tell me about.

But, best of all about the rocks (given their strict purposing)? They randomly play totally unexpected music. Like, last night and once a few days ago, I heard "Listen to the Rhythm of the Falling Rain". No shit. A hand-bell version, I swear. And last week? I heard Taylor Swift singing in the campus rocks. Not a whole rendition of either one either time, but...what the hell is that about? Who's pulling those levers and why? I think I have to prepare myself for not being able to get to the bottom of everything. Inquiring minds don't always get to know.

I can hear everything, by the way, because I live in an uninsulated, cement box with single-pane glass windows and doors sporting gaps you could slide a legal pad through. But I'm fortunate. My personal icebox has heat in one room, a countertop gas ring, refrigerator, microwave and washing machine, is unshared by three roommates, and has hot water and a western toilet in the bathroom. None of these niceties is enjoyed by the students. Not that they miss the western toilet, mind you, but you can bet they don't love walking across campus to take a shower and do their laundry. Now I know why the wide, shallow plastic tubs were such a hot item for sale on move-in day. Goes to show that sometimes inquiring minds do get satisfaction.

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Comments

[Jane Day]

bugles
Cyn, I can't help remembering the reveille played every morning in the main square in Mexico City. You may remember that the flag raising ceremony was taken very seriously. It woke me every morning atthat hotel we stayed in on the plaza. Love, M

[Kathy]

Are there earplugs big enough?
You may have to alter your sleeping schedule to go to bed at 9:30 and wake up at 6:00 - sounds like that must be what the students are supposed to do. I wonder if you could put in a request for the "rock" music? Maybe it is a student run project of some kind. A little creepy to think, however, that propaganda is being shouted from the rocks. Although it may fall on deaf ears...it probably has a sneaky way of entering the brain until it is implanted there permanently. Maybe this was where the idea of the U.S. created catatrophes came from...?