2 interesting things happened recently:
1. A guy was mugged at knife point in broad daylight in the park I walk through every day to go to school.
2. I ran into an empty ladies restroom busting to pee, and knowing the stalls were barely wide enough for an average-size human to squeeze into and close the door, I dropped my backpack outside my stall door, locked it, peed, flushed, and came out to wash my hands. An older lady who'd just come in was standing by the sink, staring at my bag. She looked at me, wide-eyed and said "Is that your bag?" I said it was indeed, and she gaped at me, shook her head, and then said "You are so trusting." I wish I could say this came out in a sort of jovial, complimentary tone, but it was more like she was chastising a toddler for wetting its pants. It didn't end there. "I would NEVER leave my bag unattended in here. Do you know how dangerous that is?! Someone could come in SO easily and grab it." and, one more time for good measure, with her eyes narrowing this time: "You are soooo trusting!" I wasn't sure whether to laugh or cry. What do you do when someone's insulting you with a compliment? I explained that the stalls were awfully narrow and my bag was in eyesight the whole time I was peeing. And then another thought dawned on me: we were standing in the second story restroom of the University of Sheffield's School of Health and Related Research. Hardly gangsters paradise. Even this didn't dissuade her. "I'm not trying to be funny," she continued (still trying to work out what she meant by this, because I certainly wasn't laughing). "I just think if you had ANY valuables in there... cash, camera, phone... they'd be gone SO fast..." I mumbled a confused 'thank you' and ran out the door to class.
First I must say that I do appreciate that people are looking out for me. Secondly, one of the biggest challenges living here is knowing how and when and where and why to trust people. It seems that either you live in constant paranoia of being robbed while going about your daily business, or you try not to let all the news headlines and police sirens get to you and wind up being chewed out by someone in the women's restroom. If anyone knows where the happy medium is, I'd love to hear it. Until then I'll be peeing at home and trying to avoid university bathrooms.
3 days topping almost 70 degrees (f) this week. In March. So fantastic. Also, there is an unfathomable amount of daffodils blooming in Sheffield right now. The sun came out and BAM, out of nowhere, they shot through the ground in lines like little neon yellow armies taking over the city. In some random places, too. Below are sights that have made me happy this week, aka my artistic photo series entitled "Spot the daffodil in every single picture". Except for the last one, which is proof that I am actually in grad school over here, not just wandering around taking pictures of daffodils all day long. 
