6/5/09 Grooming habits...

Many of my friends back in the US are in/finishing/recently finished graduate school, so they keep me up-to-date on PhD Comics.

This one made me laugh out loud because it's at least as applicable to Peace Corps Volunteers as grad students (although they at least have hot running water, so they have fewer excuses...).

I know PCVs who have leaned out their window, beckoned over a kid, given him a few dirhams and sent him to the store to pick up eggs and bread, so that they don't have to groom at all and can still eat.

The "Thesis Beard"? Yeah, I don't know *any* male PCVs who shave daily. Maybe there are some, but I don't know them. Most shave when they get to shower, which is once or twice a week for most of us, but nobody shaves every morning. And beards are common.

(Funny sidenote: One PCV buddy showed up for our six-month-in training session (In-Service Training, or IST, officially) with a full beard. He then shaved it down to massive sideburns and goatee a la General Burnside, then to trim sideburns and a goatee a la Sean Penn, down to a mustache, etc. His face looked different every time I saw him, which of course was the point.)

For the record, I've brushed my teeth every day, even when I had to heat water on the stove before I could do it. And I think I've brushed my hair every day, although there were a few weeks in the winter when I had a hat on 24/7, and I may have missed a few days in there. But showering? Putting in contacts?? Wearing makeup??? Ha. Hahahahaha...