Bad things are inevitable.
"There are NO MORE ice cubes in the ice cube tray!"
"There's NO MORE toilet paper!"
"This ISN'T decaf!"
Things could have been worse. Like you could have mistaken hair inhibitor for hair growth tonic. Or extra dark self tanning lotion for Fair & Lovely face cream. Or laxatives for diarrheoa medicine. Or Super Glue for eye drops, or worse yet, for contact lens solution.
Or you could go through everything I did for the past one to two months.
Everything that could go wrong with my transfer to Clayton, well, did.
Gee, You're Stupid
So having known that I'd have four papers in the first week of my exam and that two of them are on the same day, I studied weeks in advance so that my friends and family wouldn't have to see me torture more cats. Guess what, I got a gastric attack 30 minutes into my first paper. Ended up not being able to do both papers well. Sigh. Results were released about two weeks after, and found out that both those papers were deferred. Then I started to wonder if this would affect my transfer application to Clayton.
Reject!
It did. Monash Clayton so sympathetically put it: "We regret to inform you that your transfer application to Clayton has been unsuccessful. Thank you." THANK YOU?! Why thank me? And trust me, they don't regret at all - except maybe for the fact that they were potentially going to be $AUD20k poorer. So, being someone who doesn't take no for an answer, I went straight to Monash International to see if they could reconsider my application. They couldn't, but they gave me the contact of someone who could - the International Student Admissions Officer in Clayton. So I emailed her and she offered me a conditional offer - the condition being the successful completion of one of the two subjects that I had deferred - Electromagnetics.
The Doctor Goes to the Doctor
I quickly went to see my lecturer to arrange for appointments in advance. I was going to need all the help I could get to pass that subject. She gave me quite a positive answer, and even gave me a list of dates on which she was available to tutor me. Hell broke loose when she was admitted into hospital for some unknown condition.
The Dying Passport
It had to happen to me. My passport expires on the 16th of November this year. The last day of exams is on the 17th. It doesn't get any more frustrating than this. I only realised this a week before I was scheduled to leave. And that was quite worrying, because the Australian Immigration needed more than a week to update my new passport details. They also warned me that until they update my details, I will be denied entry into Australia. After talking to some people about it, I just decided to go ahead and renew my passport, inform the Australian Immigration, and board the bloody plane anyway. So did I mention earlier on that nothing was more frustrating? Wrong. Queueing up and waiting in PKNS for 7 hours was definitely a hell lot more frustrating. Throw in half a million shower-deprived people shoving and pushing, and it gets worse.
I'd Like to Buy a Visa
Results for the deferred exams were scheduled to be released on the 8th of February. And I only managed to get a plane ticket for the 12th of February. That would leave me three days to get my medical checkup and visa done - which was impossible. So I went down to the Australian High Commission to see if any other arrangements could be made in advance. The lady took forever to check my details due to some complications. I swear, any 99-year old woman could jet ski faster than that. After what seemed like four years, she got back to me and told me that my visa was still valid. I exhaled a breath of relief as I wiped the cobweb off my ears.
Delayed Transmission
So you noticed I said that the results were SCHEDULED the be released on the 8th of February. Well, they were, but only for one subject. The OTHER subject. How ironic. So while Electronics 2 says 62, Electromagnetics still says DEF (for deferred). I decided to email the examiner. He replied saying that he couldn't tell me my results because it would be unethical. Wow, all of a sudden, someone decides to be professional after failing to release the results on time.
Money Matters
My dad and I went to the bank to buy a bank draft, only to realise that there was no money in there to buy one. So after a few phone calls, we were told that the bank made an error in spelling his name and so it looked like there was going to be some delays in wiring the money over. I don't understand what sort of an uncompetent moron could spell someone's name wrongly. And it had to be my dad's. At such a time as this.
CoE Schmoey
Went over to Monash International to confirm my offer and pay my tuition fees, and they tell me that their system is down - and so they won't be able to issue me my CoE (Certificate of Enrolment), without which I will not be able to enter Australia. And this was Friday morning. The following day was Thaipusam, which meant that the office would be closed. And I was leaving on Sunday.
The Morning After
As you may well know by now, everything worked out fine because I am typing this in Melbourne, Australia with the sun shining brightly through the naked-bluer-than-blue skies (naked because there aren't any clouds here), while eating Four and Twenty Meat Pies.
My results were released on Friday morning, and I actually did quite well. The Australian Immigration informed me that my new passport details had been updated. The money was wired over in time. My CoE was issued on Sunday morning. My visa was valid and I entered Australia without any problems. In fact, they didn't even want to check our bags even though we had loads of stuff to declare.
There's no point crying over spilt milk. Our God is a Cow.
"There are NO MORE ice cubes in the ice cube tray!"
"There's NO MORE toilet paper!"
"This ISN'T decaf!"
Things could have been worse. Like you could have mistaken hair inhibitor for hair growth tonic. Or extra dark self tanning lotion for Fair & Lovely face cream. Or laxatives for diarrheoa medicine. Or Super Glue for eye drops, or worse yet, for contact lens solution.
Or you could go through everything I did for the past one to two months.
Everything that could go wrong with my transfer to Clayton, well, did.
Gee, You're Stupid
So having known that I'd have four papers in the first week of my exam and that two of them are on the same day, I studied weeks in advance so that my friends and family wouldn't have to see me torture more cats. Guess what, I got a gastric attack 30 minutes into my first paper. Ended up not being able to do both papers well. Sigh. Results were released about two weeks after, and found out that both those papers were deferred. Then I started to wonder if this would affect my transfer application to Clayton.
Reject!
It did. Monash Clayton so sympathetically put it: "We regret to inform you that your transfer application to Clayton has been unsuccessful. Thank you." THANK YOU?! Why thank me? And trust me, they don't regret at all - except maybe for the fact that they were potentially going to be $AUD20k poorer. So, being someone who doesn't take no for an answer, I went straight to Monash International to see if they could reconsider my application. They couldn't, but they gave me the contact of someone who could - the International Student Admissions Officer in Clayton. So I emailed her and she offered me a conditional offer - the condition being the successful completion of one of the two subjects that I had deferred - Electromagnetics.
The Doctor Goes to the Doctor
I quickly went to see my lecturer to arrange for appointments in advance. I was going to need all the help I could get to pass that subject. She gave me quite a positive answer, and even gave me a list of dates on which she was available to tutor me. Hell broke loose when she was admitted into hospital for some unknown condition.
The Dying Passport
It had to happen to me. My passport expires on the 16th of November this year. The last day of exams is on the 17th. It doesn't get any more frustrating than this. I only realised this a week before I was scheduled to leave. And that was quite worrying, because the Australian Immigration needed more than a week to update my new passport details. They also warned me that until they update my details, I will be denied entry into Australia. After talking to some people about it, I just decided to go ahead and renew my passport, inform the Australian Immigration, and board the bloody plane anyway. So did I mention earlier on that nothing was more frustrating? Wrong. Queueing up and waiting in PKNS for 7 hours was definitely a hell lot more frustrating. Throw in half a million shower-deprived people shoving and pushing, and it gets worse.
I'd Like to Buy a Visa
Results for the deferred exams were scheduled to be released on the 8th of February. And I only managed to get a plane ticket for the 12th of February. That would leave me three days to get my medical checkup and visa done - which was impossible. So I went down to the Australian High Commission to see if any other arrangements could be made in advance. The lady took forever to check my details due to some complications. I swear, any 99-year old woman could jet ski faster than that. After what seemed like four years, she got back to me and told me that my visa was still valid. I exhaled a breath of relief as I wiped the cobweb off my ears.
Delayed Transmission
So you noticed I said that the results were SCHEDULED the be released on the 8th of February. Well, they were, but only for one subject. The OTHER subject. How ironic. So while Electronics 2 says 62, Electromagnetics still says DEF (for deferred). I decided to email the examiner. He replied saying that he couldn't tell me my results because it would be unethical. Wow, all of a sudden, someone decides to be professional after failing to release the results on time.
Money Matters
My dad and I went to the bank to buy a bank draft, only to realise that there was no money in there to buy one. So after a few phone calls, we were told that the bank made an error in spelling his name and so it looked like there was going to be some delays in wiring the money over. I don't understand what sort of an uncompetent moron could spell someone's name wrongly. And it had to be my dad's. At such a time as this.
CoE Schmoey
Went over to Monash International to confirm my offer and pay my tuition fees, and they tell me that their system is down - and so they won't be able to issue me my CoE (Certificate of Enrolment), without which I will not be able to enter Australia. And this was Friday morning. The following day was Thaipusam, which meant that the office would be closed. And I was leaving on Sunday.
The Morning After
As you may well know by now, everything worked out fine because I am typing this in Melbourne, Australia with the sun shining brightly through the naked-bluer-than-blue skies (naked because there aren't any clouds here), while eating Four and Twenty Meat Pies.
My results were released on Friday morning, and I actually did quite well. The Australian Immigration informed me that my new passport details had been updated. The money was wired over in time. My CoE was issued on Sunday morning. My visa was valid and I entered Australia without any problems. In fact, they didn't even want to check our bags even though we had loads of stuff to declare.
There's no point crying over spilt milk. Our God is a Cow.
posted by ikewauhc at 7:57 pm
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home