Money Matters

I'm supposed to have my placement today, but I've had a stressful week and haven't even thought about the questions I want to do for my educational study essay thingy... So I rang and cancelled, means I'll finish on Tuesday week, rather than this time next week.

Not going gave me a chance to relax for a couple of hours, but more importantly, go back to the international office. I went to ask about my OSHELP application, he went to look for my paper work and said that I put the 1st of January on the form... so I wouldn't be getting it until 6 weeks before that.... I said.. "oh... I just came to see if I had been approved or not"... he kinda laughed and said "yeah, all I had to do was tick a box.." haha... how awesome!! So I've been approved for centrelink!! AND I have my student loan!!! :D .. which is great! Cause without it... I probably could have still gone... but it would have been HEAPS harder, and I might have had to ask mum or dad for some money. But yeah, the loan will easily pay for my application fees, my flight and my travel insurance!! .. and whats left will pay about half of a laptop!! Which is also awesome!! Cause I really wanted to get a laptop for when I'm there!! Still gotta save as much as I can tho, just means I'll be able to pay for it on my own! :D so happy about that!!

I have three things left to do now...
- Go to the post office and get a money order for the application fees
- Post my application
- Wait til the announcement in October

:)

Finally there..

I should be studying for the Japanese test I have in 2 hours... but I just wanted to say

Centrelink Approved!!

Application complete!!

:D

byeee

$79 and one sore arm later

Oooohhh yeaaah! :D

Doctors DONE!! My blood tests came back good, he said I had the lowest cholesterol he'd ever seen! (which is quite amazing given how badly I can eat sometimes) everything else was pretty normal... except I have liver disease... yes, I am dying... but so are we all! haha... get this.. its called "Gilbert's disease" and it doesn't do ANYTHING!! .. except apparently I may turn yellow on occasion.. what a crazy thing to have! haha... so he said I was healthy and signed my "letter of good health"... I was stabbed by the nurse and I just need one more jab before I go.

インドネシアへガジャマダ大学で日本語とインドネシア語をべんきょに行きたいです。and it looks like I'll get too!! :D ...I emailed ACICIS, even from Yogya Phil (the Resident Director) replied instantly! He basically said that its impossible to get a course outline for any subjects in Indonesia.. So Shoko spoke to her people and said we can work around it... I'll just have to do a placement test when I get back.. :D which meant faculty approval and a form signed by Vicky, and the lodgment of my application for OSHELP... dunno how long it takes for them to let me know if i can get it or not... hopefully I hear from them soon..

I went into Centrelink today as well.. much more helpful this time, she sent the stuff for YA off and they will get back to me with in 2 weeks.

Japanese doctors and clarity

The three last things are still left unticked... but I somehow feel like I've still progressed :P haha.. The doctor didn't do anything really.. I asked him about signing the 'good health' form and getting immunised, he said I had to get a blood test done first and then said I should get Hepatitis A, Hepatitis B and Typhoid immunisations, before sending me on my way... that's over $200!!! So I've made another appointment for this Wednesday... Hopefully by then the pathology results will be in, I'll get my form signed and I'll get jabbed.

Still no news from Shoko... She said she'd get back to me on Monday (about getting credit for doing Japanese)... I hope I can get credit transferred!!!! After speaking to Rossy I got an email address of a guy who works at UGM (Universitas Gadjah Mada) so I've sent him a message requesting the course outline for Bahasa Jepang (Japanese), which should, hopefully, give my lecturers an idea of the standard of the course and allow me to do it :D

Ooo.. also.. when I was with Linda and Rossy (2 Indo lecturers) someone came and asked about ACICIS!!! So maybe I can get to know someone who is going on the exchange before I leave, which would be great!! Hopefully she doesn't give up on the application... but it shouldn't be too bad for her.. hehe.. I've already had to push my way through, so now there is a path...lol

Speaking of which.. I found out why it has been so much trouble.... UofA wasn't a member of the consortium until this year.. all past students who have followed the ACICIS program have gone though Flinders membership.. Flinders has done all the organising.. Flinders has sorted out credit transfers.. EVERYTHING... but this year my uni decided to get membership... so I'm the first student to do the program with my uni's membership... no wonder no one knew what the hell was going on!!! hahaha

Rude people + stress + confusion = a freaked out me

Ok... so yesterday was possibly an overreaction by an overly stressed and freaked out me :P

Now that I've processed all the extra things that need doing I can get back on track once again and finish this thing!!! haha

All the not so little things

I feel like I’m going backwards… Every time I start to think I’m almost there something else comes up, grabs on and pulls me all the way back down. I feel like I’ve put in a months work and got nothing for it. Yes, my ACICIS application is almost complete... But it’s all the other little things… or not so little.

I went to Centrelink this morning to sort out Youth Allowance while I am away. I was repeatedly asked for a form I was already trying giving them, but they wouldn’t accept it for some reason. They couldn’t tell me why they wouldn’t accept the form or what I had to do to get an “appropriate” form. They then proceeded to treated like crap, ignore me, cut me off, degrade me and were extremely blunt. This might (and I really stress MIGHT) be acceptable if I were scamming the government in someway, as many people do, and seem to get away with it. It seems to me, that Centrelink are a great organization if you know how to scam the system, but for the innocent people like me, who are just trying to get through uni; or the people who are legitimately unemployed and seeking work, the system sucks!! (I didn’t mean to go on a rant about Centrelink… but it really got to me today, I found myself outraged… I have never been treated so badly, especially in an apparently professional environment)

My day did start to pick up from there, but it did take me a while to get over the feeling I was going to explode.

Rang the doctor and have made an appointment for Wednesday, I’m not sick or anything so hopefully all turns out well with that.

After I got off the phone from the doctors, I was still so annoyed with Centrelink I decided to ring them. They are the nicest people over the phone, but go to see them in person and you had better be prepared for the worst! I told them what had happened in the office and read word for word what was written on the form, she proceeded to tell me that the form should have been accepted, I AM eligible for Youth Allowance and the only thing she could recommend would be to get ANOTHER letter drafted up.

So I got to uni and went to see Lin, who somehow managed to calm me down, without her even realizing how stressed and annoyed I was. I told her what Centrelink had said to me. I had to explain that “Yes, I do know the forms she gave me states exactly what Centrelink asked for, and I need a letter saying the exact same thing”. So hopefully I’ll get an email this or next week saying she has a new letter for me, with yet another signature from the head of the School on it.

From here it was down to the accommodation services to get an authorized copy of my passport with the on campus JP, which was the first thing that went right all day.

So then I was off to the Oliphant building for some information about OS HELP (a student loan that is granted to people going overseas on exchange), 6 flights of stairs later I was on the 5th floor (don’t ask). I was given some basic information before being told that I shouldn’t be going to Indonesia… there are political issues there… the university does NOT support students going to Indonesia… Flinders should not advocate the ACICIS program and should defiantly NOT be telling students that it is ok to go to Indonesia!! …I am yet another student who has found a loophole in Uni of Adelaide’s Indonesian studies program… if the Uni of Adelaide had their own Indonesian program, then they wouldn’t get students like me exploiting the system, they could simply tell me I cant go… and finally, I was told that I should stop considering going to Indonesia and that I should focus on Japan… it’s much safer and better of course, just ask her!!... What kind of person would consider going to Indonesia??!!

Ok, so at this point I have been given some forms, told that I am eligible for the loan, (even though I am exploiting the system) and I finally got some useful information at the end, I needed Vicky's approval and guarantee that I would be getting full credit for what I would be doing in Indonesia… Apparently the schools approval wasn’t enough, I needed faculty approval as well.

I met with Vicky and came to realize, that this was the same person who told me a few weeks earlier, that she had NOTHING to do with the exchange program and I needed to organize everything through the school!!! She seemed to know what she was talking about now, maybe she just couldn’t be bothered helping me before. Vicky drew up a plan for my course and said I would need to speak to the Japanese people in Asian studies to see if the level of Japanese in Indonesia is the same as that in Australia.

So, back in Asian studies, to see Shoko, but on the way to her office I see Linda, and she has the evaluation and recommendation forms… another two items to check off the list. Shoko has no idea… but she is the kindest, sweetest person and says she will ask her superiors and get back to me by Wednesday.

This is how it seems with everything!! Take the above example… I need approval from Vicky, to get approval from Vicky; I need approval from Shoko… Shoko has never been asked anything like this before, so she needs to go speak to her colleagues to see if it’s possible… I always need to see 3 or 4 people just to sort out one thing.

I had a couple of hours till class, so decided to go to the travel agent at uni and see how much insurance will cost me. They had 2 plans, ranging from about $800 to $1200 for the year of study… I had no idea it would cost that much!! They checked flights for me too and gave me an estimate of about $1600 return… hopefully I can get it cheaper though.

So I had a rather stressful / ‘interesting’ morning (and am still alive to tell the tail… just) but luckily I had Indonesian this afternoon, which I love, so it took my mind off things.

So now, my for ACICIS application there are only three boxes left that need checking:

1: Personal evaluation (but that’s from Laurel, so not so hard to chase up)
2: Letter of good health from the doctor… will be done by Wednesday
3: Travel Insurance… I think I’ll wait till I’m accepted to take out insurance, I’m not sure how else to do it… just means they will have to process my visa a bit later.

After those three ticks, I’ve just got to organize Centrelink and OSHELP.

I still feel like I'm never going to finish organizing this.

Sorry for the long post.

Back on track

Woo!! Back to my normal excited self about ACICIS!! :D I went to their website and had a look around, then found an awesome blog by Adelle which helped me to realize why I was so excited about the trip in the first place. I am a little worried about getting Youth Allowance while I am over there though…After reading the blog... I rang centrelink to see what they had to say, and apparently all I need to do is provide them with a letter from my uni saying that I am still enrolled in Australia and all the classes I do in Indonesia will count towards my Australian degree… but I think that’s a little too good too be true, its sounds too simple.. and as far as organising ACICIS this far, its been anything but simple! Haha but anything worth having is worth working for :D

I went and got my transcripts today... cost $20!!! Thats the most I've ever paid for four pieces of paper!! haha..

By monday I should have my references back! :D and I'm going to try and get an authorised photocopy of my passport, get some passport sized photos taken, make an appointment with a doctor and finish off my statement of purpose!

Its all starting to come together!!

Bitter Sweet

Yesterday, and almost three weeks since I had heard anything, I decided I should go see Lin and see what was happening, only before I could, she found me first... she told me to come see her when I had some free time, she finally had some more information :D

Great News!!! I've been told that my trip will be approved by the uni!!! I saw Lin today and had to sign another form, which now needs to be signed by the head of the school and also by the Dean. But she said I would be approved!!! Tuition is still being paid!! I can get full credit for the courses I do over there!! Which means I can still get Youth Allowance :D

Although on the down side, since starting uni again, I've become better friends with everyone, or at least its easier to talk to everyone... and I know, that hardly seems like a bad thing, but its making me less excited about Indonesia... Maybe I was so excited about going cause I thought I didn't really have anyone here... now I'm finally starting to make friends in Adelaide after a year and a half of having no one.. its good to have people to talk to again.. but its gonna be hard to leave at the beginning of next year and start all over again... again.

But it's something I really want to do.. and well... something I need to do... It doesn't have to be now, I guess... But if not now then when... If I want to be a good Indonesian teacher, I'm gonna have to live there at some stage... You can't learn everything out of a book.