Whew

Sorry for the sparse updates, folks, but wow. Recovery from the trip I just took hitting straight back into not only hard work, but hard work that's a week behind, is tricky business, if fulfilling.

I did manage to register RIGHT before it shut down, which was also tricky business, since my registration voucher didn't get issued due to all sorts of loan problems which I'd been trying unsuccessfully to solve earlier, so while it's straightened out to the tune of letting me register, I have no idea when I'm going to see money, leaving me living off credit cards for groceries, so that's a complete pain. Turns out that again thanks to that little hyphen in my name, my loan check hasn't even been sent from the company yet. Not good.

But, believe it or not, being on the Rock is still pretty sweet. I'm running into a ton of people I really like, everything's been running efficiently island-side (all my problems with loans and registration stemmed from the US), and I actually attended classes! I did my hospital visit on Monday, which was really cool and involved going into several minor maxillofacial surgeries, so not bad. Hard to get back into the swing of things though.

Fed Up.

That was sure fast, wasn't it. Yup, I'm already in "I want to go home now" phase, because while I think I've been a pretty good sport about things up to this far, I have had enough today. Enough of this island and enough of this school.

NOTHING this term has been easy. Getting to the frigging airport wasn't even easy, nor was the flight here, but whatever, part of traveling, homeland security, caribbeanland security, whatever.

Air Jamaica lost my luggage. Which happens all the time because they suck. But that happens, and I expected it to happen, and at least I knew they sucked so I could pack some stuff in my carry-on, and at least I was able to get into storage yesterday so I could have things like towels and a pillow. So that's all right. I can live with that.

I have to take my biochem exam, but that's my own fault, though I'm the only one who seems to think it is, but I'm prepared for it, spent the entire summer studying for it, etc. Whatever; it's cool.

But I've had enough. It's been three days and Air Jamaica can't even tell me where my luggage is. All they can say is "it may be in on the next flight today" and to call back later, and when I call back, they repeat. No one gives a shit. No one knows anything. Why should I expect any differently, and their parent company, Delta, haven't had the common courtesy to even address the letter I sent them, so Delta, you suck as well.

By itself, is that enough? No. Though after seeing a very nice woman in the biochem office, I somewhat expected the following to happen, it still really coldcocked me to the head when it actually did:

I went to register today with the registration voucher, which allegedly means that you have everything so you can register. Now, this is for second term, and if I don't pass the biochem exam, I would have to decel. Now, decelling would keep me in the same school and require the same loan money, so it seems obvious that one should register the student provisionally, and if said student fails, revoke the registration and enter the student in the alternate program.

No. Instead, I can't register until I pass the exam. Which means I can't get the loan check until I pass the exam, despite the fact that everything the students need tends to be right when they arrive!

Even better, they won't even give me the fucking SCHEDULE for term two, and since term two officially starts on the 14th, and my test is in the middle of the 15th, and I'm not sure if they'll get my grade in by that night, that means by their standards, I am supposed to miss between 2-3 days of my first days of class. Now, the genetics class is approximately two weeks long, and worth one unit, and starts right away, with the final exam at the end of August. This means... and I'm going to put a separate line for this:

The school, St. George's University, advocates, nay REQUIRES that a second term student misses over 20% of a class as a punishment for being sick for one of the first term exams. That is their message.

If something happened where you couldn't take the first term exams/, not only are the exams typically more difficult to discourage people from faking ill, which is absolutely awesome to the people that actually are, but they think the best way to discourage this is to make students already having trouble MISS THE FIRST 20% OF GENETICS. And you get to do it without money. That should teach people.

Now, if there are any school officials reading who have a problem with this, please tell me what other message a student is supposed to get from this, and if it's just administrative paperwork, please explain why no schedule is allowed to be given (they flat out refused!) and why only registered students are supposed to attend classes.

I'm not some burn out slacker that wants breaks and a thousand second chances to pull a fast one. One of the biggest regrets of my LIFE is not taking that fucking exam at end of term because I was ready for it, I knew I was ready for it, I've spent my entire summer studying for it, I was deeply embarrassed by the events of last term to such a degree that I was endlessly blaming myself and STILL hate myself for being weak, and was trying to take it anyway despite having been in the hospital that morning. It is not HELPING to be treated like a second class citizen because I had a valid medical excuse, nor is it helping me be the best student I can be to be FORCED to miss class, though screw them, I'm copying the schedule from a friend and going anyway, and they can shove it if they have a problem with it. I am not here to fail.

But that doesn't mean that at the moment, I don't want to pack it all in and go the hell home, because oh man, do I ever.

In a little over an hour, I can call those people at Air Jamaica, and have them skate me until tomorrow. I can't wait.