Monday, September 8, 2008
Back to school
Going back to the US was the worst trip I have ever undertaken. First my trip on Fri morning was canceled because Hong Kong was hit by a typhoon. Then after waiting at the airport for a couple of hours, we managed to secure another flight from Malaysian Airlines to Newark(New Jersey) via Kuala Lumpur and Stockholm (Sweden) which left Singapore the next day. But when we reached the airport on Sat morning, we were told that Cathay Pacific had changed our flights but had not fully booked them. So I had a seat to KL but nothing from there to Sweden and Newark. Since it was a sizable group of heading to the US, mostly students, we made a pretty good fuss. Fortunately, Malaysian Airlines were able to fix the problem and all of us got a seat on all the connecting flights.
Now this was just the beginning of all my problems.After I got on the plane to KL( I just managed to get to the gate in time) and changed planes, I found out that the connecting flight to Stockholm from KL was delayed an hour. Then once I reached Stockholm and went through the TEDIOUS security checks we boarded the plane to Newark only to be told after waiting for an hour inside the plane that there was some sort of technical problem. So we all filed out to the gate and waited for 6 hours before the problem was fixed. Initially, we were told that we might have to spend the night in Sweden but thankfully the problem was fixed. I arrived at Newark Airport at 1am on Sunday( 1pm Sunday Spore time). Then at immigration, I was held up 2 hours because when asked if I had food in my luggage I answered 'yes I do, i have crackers and cans of Tuna'. during those 2 hours they asked me nothing and in the end just checked my passport again. asked me if I was here to study and then let me go! I was seriously pissed off for the fact that they held me for no reason at all!! By the time I reached Bobby uncle's house in New York it was 4.30am. I slept for a few hours, went for morning mass at 10am then left immediately for my university.
More surprises met me there. I discovered that although the Residential Director knew that 2 people would be staying in my room, he only provided us with 1 set of furniture( bed, desk, dresser) and 1 bed frame. In the end I was able to get a mattress to put on the bed frame but I have yet to get my desk and dresser and its the 3rd week of school!!!argh!
During the first week I managed to finish up my RA training up the bulletin board outside my door and got to know the girls in my dorm through the first hall meeting( where we introduced ourselves and told them the rules) or through patronizing events going around campus and encouraging the girls to go too. I'm in the process of organizing programs as well since I have to organise 2 per month as well as 2 passive events like decorating the bulletin boards or patronising a school event...stuff like that. Some of the other stuff I had to deal with these past 2 weeks was putting in work orders for the residents if they find something wrong with their room or listening and mediating between room mates if they have troubles living together.
I also have to do duty aka rounds ever so often around the dorms to make sure nobody is doing something they shouldn't be. this past weekend I was on duty on 3 consecutive days meaning I had to stay up till 2am on fri and Sat nite and 12am on Sun nite. That plus the rounds has taken a toll on me and today I'm feeling SOOOO sleepy!..sighz... Nikita at 9:57 AM
