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.