We were going to have our first Applied Algebra for Engineers class in University Park today. We just received email from the UG office yesterday, informing that Chew Ging had allowed us to take some math subjects that we asked earlier: Calculus for Engineers, Discrete Mathematics and its Applications, and Applied Algebra for Engineers. And so we left earlier since we were not familiar yet with the venue and buildings, some more the class starts at 9am..
We arrived there on time, after being lost in the longest building in University Park: Coates Building. However, the class was empty. There was nobody. We also found few people who looked as bewildered as us. But apparently, all of us that present there have one similarity: we missed the Tuesday class. We tried to ask the staff, but they seemed to be uninformed about it too. So the only logical reason appeared is that the lecturer must have informed the students that there was no lecture for today. Wake up early and rush in the morning for no point at the end, in other words.
And so we went back to Jubilee Campus. The rest went back home, while I stayed to go to UG office (again) to settle about my record error in university system. AGAIN, I was disappointed by the lady’s answer. She couldn’t do anything; she couldn’t modify anything in the central university’s network. She suggested me to go to International Office.
YEAH RITE. If so, why should I wait for you in the first place? I could’ve gone there if you just told me earlier yesterday. Now you are telling me to go to University Park again? I was just from there, for goodness sake! GOSH, THESE PEOPLE MADE ME SPEECHLESS!!
Second lecture of IE was in the afternoon (IE is separated into 2 one-hour lectures per week), so I could only go back to University Park afterwards.
Jia Qian accompanied me because she has some stuffs to settle. When we went there, the staff-in-charge already guessed on who I am and what I was there for, and all she said that everything was already corrected, and she apologized. The next thing I have to do is to demand for new University card in the Security Office. Fiuhh, finally it’s right! And most importantly, finally I don’t have to deal with these people again.
Oops.. The story doesn’t end there. You should know this interesting part! When I went back home and opened up my laptop, MY EMAIL WAS SPAMMED! These people – UG office, International Office and IT department – included me in the emailssSS (as CC) they sent to each other in resolving my problem. Can I infer this as their way to prove themselves? xD
Oh yeah, since I’m grumbling about UK life so far, I wanna include another problem that I forgot to put in the earlier posts. Well, we did pay a deposit of £250 before our arrival in UK to our accommodation provider, Derwent Living. And when we arrived on Sunday, the staff said that we could pay our rent the following day. Seems that they understood we were so tired after the long journey. The next day, we went to the office to pay for the rent of the month. The lady said that we only had to pay £1000+ at once as our first installment (until April). Of course we were shocked by the amount. The thing is, they never state about the basis of the payment. They only gave us the breakdowns of the monthly rental as well as the total amount, so logically we would think that the payment is in monthly-basis. And now only we were told differently… I really don’t understand how this could happen in UK..
We tried to ask for compensation, as it was only less than 24 hours since our arrival, we didn’t have that much of cash, and we haven’t had any bank account opened yet. Well, they couldn’t do anything though, rather than asking us to pay as soon as possible…
Thirdly, about our bank account. There are some banks in our campus. In Jubilee, there is a small office of Natwest bank. Whilst there are both Natwest and HSBC bank in University Park. Since we will be around Jubilee the most, we chose to apply at Natwest. Soon we were told by the staff that we had to ask for bank reference letter from the Student Service Centre, and so did we. Apparently it took 5 (five) working days of processing for that single letter. Fine. If we get the letter, can we have our bank account instantly? Yes. Can we have our ATM card at the same time? The answer is NO. We have to wait for another 2 (TWO) WEEKS to get our ATM card ready for collection. In other words, we DO will have our bank account, parents can transfer money to our account which we can withdraw – but we will have to deal with the clerks during that period until our ATM card is ready.
Back to 2.5 years ago when I opened my bank account in Maybank, even in Semenyih, where all things were done all-in-one day. The bank reference letter was obtained on-the-spot as well. In UK, it took a total of 3 (THREE) WEEKS. Once again, I’m SPEECHLESS~~!!!
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