Use a little sense with your scent

Scent free zones or even the idea of such things is a completely ridiculous idea for any South African. In the past I have discussed this many people and they think that it is hilarious. I would say the majority of people here were perfume/ cologne on a regular basis and would never think twice about, it is unheard of that people are allergic to scented things. In most cases I have no problem with it, I haven't started wearing any just because it has been drilled in my head for so long that scents are bad and the only place you can really where them is going out to a bar, everywhere else is basically scent free. I just returned from a quick pee break and there was someone in the other stall, I was in the bathroom for maybe 30 seconds before I was inundated by the strongest perfume I have ever smelt, obviously the women next door was trying to cover up smells but for fuck sake I nearly died. I was only in the bathroom for about a minute and I left with a horrible headache, how is that possible. I realize that there is no rule against scents but give me a break there needs to be a least a little common decency.

It is very rare that people here have allergies it seems, there are some but nothing compared to NA. My old roommates were allergic to quite a bit, and gluten seems to be a pretty common allergy but really not much else. You never see packages that say may contain nuts, and half the time its difficult to even find out. I know I'm not allergic to nuts but they still bother me so I do try and avoid, so the other day a little outlet here on campus had cookies, you don't get cookies here you get biscuits so I was quite excited. They were even chocolate chip (my fave) so I ask the women is there nuts in them, figuring there would be, she kept saying no there chocolate and I said I realize that but do they also have nuts, no no no was the answer - guess what they did! Its not like they couldn't or shouldn't have know they were baked about two feet from where they were sold so really. But if I actual was allergic it could have been very bad. I don't blame the women she probably had no idea why I was asking and probably didn't even realize you could be allergic to nuts but still.

I wonder why the huge difference in the frequency of allergies between here and NA, is it that people are more likely to go to the doctor to find out, there just wimpier so they are bothered more, I don't know. But I was thinking (I have absolutely no proof or validation for this theory) that there are lots of people allergic to gluten here, and I was thinking that it has some connection to the fact that maize is used and is much more common than wheat for many. So people are not as used to it in there diets and have developed an allergy? Again no idea. But related to that, I read awhile back that there has been a huge increase in the amount of bread sold and a decline in maize (maize being the cheaper) so the government was using this to state that there has been an increase in low economic class income as they aren't resorting to maize and can afford bread. Crazy eh?