Saturday, October 4, 2008
Presenting Kiarin Lee Gillies
Walking into the room of Kiarin Gillies, one is bombarded by snippets of countries and faraway places all over the world. Kiarin is a twenty-year-old Joburg girl who has a farm in Magaliesberg, a Kaiser Chiefs black and yellow Beetle named Flora and a jewel stud glinting in her nose. She is definitely not your ordinary first year.
Kiarin is welcoming and hospitable as she lets me interview her, breaking out into belly laughs and cheekily grinning whenever she gets embarrassed or amused. The character described by her friends corresponds with the girl sitting cross-legged on the bed in front of me. She is open, warm, genuine and full of humourous anecdotes about her time spent in London during her gap year.
DJ Fresh (her idol) plays in the background, providing a soundtrack to Kiarin’s stories of the North. London was “amazing, original and cold!” she squeals, widening her sky-blue eyes. “Everything was enormous. The clubs, shops and the pints of beer. We were at a McDonald’s very late one night and a woman was fast asleep in a booth!” She giggles and shows me the photo. “London is just crazy.” Kiarin could not believe how many different friends she made who now all pinned to her notice board. “There were Australians, French people, Germans and even people from Denmark.” She points them out in her many photographs. “I see myself as a true South African though,” she says seriously. “I love my country and I needed to come home and study. I really missed it. I will visit other places but never leave South Africa. I hate it when South Africans are so negative about it. We live in a beautiful place.”
There were difficulties for Kiarin this year such as having to get back into a studious mode. “It was hard but I have persevered, made wonderful friends and the campus is just awesome,” she says with a smile playing at the corners of her lips. “I never imagined Rhodes to be such a”- she cocks her head to one side and tries to find the right word- “unified place.” Kiarin looks pleased. “That’s definitely the right word. At rugby, at boat races and around campus it seems like everyone belongs. I’m proud to be a Rhodent.”
This atmosphere has made Kiarin glad that she didn’t carry on travelling. “At least for now I can be here, get my degree and go back to roaming. I think I’m a gypsy!” She laughs heartily. “But South Africa is just as amazing as anywhere else in terms of travel. Over vac I went to Coffee Bay and in December I’m off to Mozambique.” Kiarin’s eyes shine as she tells me about her upcoming trip and plays with her braided hair as she gets lost in a Mozambique world. “The downside is that I don’t get to see my family that much but I make a lot of friends that I’m still in touch with.”
“I don’t understand how people can stay in one place their whole lives,” she says shaking her light chocolate tresses. “There is so much to see. Even if it’s the Big Pineapple on the way to Coffee Bay!” She erupts into giggles again and asks if I want a cup of coffee. Kiarin seems to have conquered the laziness that follows a gap year and become a fully-fledged Rhodes student who looks as if she will evolve into a world-class traveller one day.
http://www.new.facebook.com/home.php#/profile.php?id=678575602&ref=ts
Labels: Kiarin, profile, student life, travel