Il mio Overseas a Sydney, Australia (Gen-Lug 2007)... e il mio periodo di Tesi all'Estero a Rotterdam/Utrecht, Olanda (Ott 2007-Mar 2008)!

16th July – Souvenirs

“God Forgives, I do not”, is a popular sentence from a movie.
I must admit that sometimes it applies to me as well.
Everytime someone did something wrong, I added this place, company, or whatsoever in my black list.
And since I am a non-violent one, the only way for me to have something back was what Homer Simpson called in one of the sketches, “souvenir”. Please note that all the items shown here are "borrowed".

February – 333 Club (George St.):
Bouncer: “Wait, you can’t go upstairs”
Me: “Why? My friends are there, what’s wrong with me?”
B: “You can’t go with those shoes”
M: “Is it a matter of how I look like or a matter of my behaviour, being drunk or so, which I am not? Are you seriously saying it’s for my shoes, paid much more than any flip-flop wore by many girls upstairs?”
B: “Okay, you can go, enjoy your time”
M: “Thanks mate”.
This time I did not get anything... I still was too much good.

April – La Cita Club (Darling Harbour):
Bouncer: “Sorry man, you can’t get in”
Me: “What’s wrong with me?”
B: “There is a dress code here”
M: “Really? Last week I had exactly the same clothes, but I could get in. How comes?”
B: “It’s management decision”
M: “Okay, I am just asking why last week yes and today no, since I have got exactly the same stuff on. Tell me what’s the real problem, if any, and I go away”
B: “I can’t do anything, it’s management decision”
M: “Okay, let me speak with the manager, who will change idea if he/she wants some customers next week”
B: “Okay, get in, but next time don’t put me in trouble”
M: “It’s not my fault”.
This time I did not forgive. A glass as a souvenir. Deserved.

Then how could I forgive UTS and their jokes against me? Mugs mugs mugs... souvenirs! More than ten. I could not accept the sentence " Please provide official documentation to support your case (i.e. Death Certificate) within 3 working days" which I found outrageous. Here you are a mug, but I offered them as gifts to some friends as well. Deserved.
Finally the 2hours delay in KL made me missing the MotoGP race live. A pillow and a cover from my plane. Deserved.

Postato da: DexterH46 a 12:25 | link | commenti (2)
party, bureaucracy, sydney, announcements, journey/flight, the battle of sydney

12th July – Goodbye Aussieland

I arrived in Sydney Airport at something past 10PM, took a bus (massive saving once again!) to 62 Redfern Street, had some food offered by Harrison and Emilie and then I went to UTS to sleep.
Yes, my last night in Sydney was a homeless night, but after all the troubles UTS caused to me I deserved a free night accomodation at least!

Postato da: DexterH46 a 19:30 | link | commenti
bureaucracy, sydney, accomodation, uts , journey/flight

5th July – BoS/14: Remember Tomorrow

After a day spent nearly entirely at home because I was sick (only this was missing to my badluck collection...) I was forced to change my holiday plans one more time.
I had to renounce to the Fraser Island tour. Flights went up to something like $500 return (normally it could be around $100) and I was not in the physical condition to go there and stay on a bed for three days.
But the guilty one was UTS because on these days I had already to be on holiday. I did not forgive them, and with the help of someone (not specified) I made them appear on a newspaper and on the internet
http://www.news.com.au/sundaytelegraph/story/0,,22018723-5007132,00.html

Uni exam theft shock

THE prestigious University of Technology Sydney has been rocked by the theft of completed exam papers from the office of a senior lecturer.

<<The Daily Telegraph can reveal four papers were stolen and others possibly tampered with during the 15th-floor break-in at the Department of Mathematical Sciences last Tuesday night.

Senior lecturer and respected mathematician Layna Groen said yesterday her door was forced open and the completed papers stolen before the final scores of 90 students could be tallied.

"Mine was the only office broken into," Dr Groen told The Daily Telegraph yesterday.

"There have been break-ins before but usually it is more than one office and they are looking for computer equipment. It is suspicious that papers were taken.

"The four students concerned were not friends, I have checked that – they were unrelated.

"It was possibly a student who was unhappy with their results has taken them. It's also possible they broke in to change the results, to tamper with them."

She said police were called and her office dusted for fingerprints after a colleague noticed her badly damaged office door about 11pm last Tuesday. No arrests have been made or charges laid.

The final exam on operations research modelling was completed by first-year UTS Bachelor of Science students on June 19.

The paper asked students to complete six detailed mathematical problems over three hours.

The theft left academics with no choice but to force the four students whose papers disappeared to sit a different exam.

The prospect of re-sitting the exams has left students furious, including some from overseas who are now questioning the university's credibility.

One foreign student sent a chain email accusing the thief of ruining his stay in Australia.

"If you are one of the three and you don't reply back to me then don't be surprised if I'll conduct further private investigation on you (I will get the names anyway in some way)," he wrote.

"Whoever it has been, if it has been a student, man you have been really ridiculous, and be sure it does not finish here."

Dr Groen said her office had been broken into before, but never for exam papers.

"It's bizarre, I had the papers sitting on my desk and had not finished marking them," she said.

"They were the only thing of value – I don't keep a laptop in my office or anything like that."

"I had marked the papers but I had not yet tallied up the marks."

"I can't speculate. It's the first time anything like this has happened. It's certainly not something we would want to advertise."

Despite being shocked by the theft, Dr Groen said she did not believe any of her students were capable of stealing back their exams to achieve a better result.>>

My PIN Number (86XXXXX), just to add something on the already full plate, never worked during my time at UTS. Once I had even been kicked out by the security for this reason, despite I could show them my student card. And the security let the theft happen and destroy my holiday plans. God forgives, I DO NOT.

 

Postato da: DexterH46 a 12:35 | link | commenti
bureaucracy, uts , the battle of sydney

2nd July – BoS/13: No more exams

On Monday 2nd July I was taking my final exam. Well, actually “I was retaking what I hoped would have finally been my final exam”... at that stage I was not trusting UTS anymore, so I was expecting any kind of things to happen again.
I was very nervous... I arrived in the room of the exam at the exact time I was supposed to be there, not a minute earlier. Another guy was there to retake the exam, while the other two (four were the victims of this incredible stuff!) would have retaken it another time.
After the first hour I was quite late, and I had serious troubles within a couple of exercises. Similar ones created no problems at all while I was attempting them at home.
So I stopped, bent my head down and breathed deeply. I turned my electronic calculator upside down and looked to a picture of a winning Valentino Rossi. I had to do my best, and take a revenge on UTS as well.

Postato da: DexterH46 a 11:09 | link | commenti
bureaucracy, uts , the battle of sydney

25th June – BoS/12: Australian Quarantine

During this adventure I have had some troubles with the Australian Quarantine as well. I received a pack from some friends in Italy with a lot of presents to cheer me up but something was missing. And the box arrived to me tremendously late. It was because the Quarantine Office stopped it and removed something. So I wrote them...
<<Good day, I am an International student from Italy now in Sydney, NSW, and I've received a pack from Italy containing some presents from my friends. I've seen that one of these items, described as "2 pkts pasta with egg" did not meet your requirements. Firstly I'd like to apologise for this, my friends haven't been careful enough, I guess they did it knowing that same products are imported here by big companies. Secondly I've read that "the items will be seized and destroyed unless the items are exported from Australia within 30 days from the date of this notice [...]". Since I will leave the country, departing from Sydney International Airport on 12th July (so within 30 days) I was wondering how can I collect the items and re-export them. In the form you sent me there is the opportunity for me to pay you to send them back ($40 for something worth $5 will probably not convince me to do that), to treat them (but in the first page you say treatment is not possible in this case) or to destroy them... so I couldn't find the way to re-export them! Any answer with indications from you will be really appreciated.>>

They replied me after a few days...
International Mail - AQISACT  wrote:
<<Thank you for contacting the Australian Quarantine and Inspection Service concerning NM07039727.
Unfortunately, the item concerned is not to leave the custody of AQIS.
The only options open to you are:
a)         Return to Sender at a cost of $42.50 or
b)         Destroyed free of charge.
Regards,
Peter Dwyer
International Mail Program>>

At this stage, I felt that their bureaucracy was a bit crappy... okay, you don't want "dangerous" food in your country and in your land. But I cannot understand what can be harmful if I eat all the food. Furthermore it's so stupid to ask me to pay 10times the value of an item to send it back... who is the idiot who will accept such an offer when we are talking about food you can buy at the supermarket? Come on...
So I replied them. First of all very seriously, because I always like to cooperate to reduce wastes of resources (including time) by anybody. Then in a funny (but with a hidden criticism in it) way, to remark that something was a bit ridiculous in my opinion... even if I was talking to an official organisation in a foreign country. Fear of no one.
<<G'day Peter, thank you for your e-mail.
Since there are not many opportunities to me, and since being a Management Engineering student I know what storage implies, I can tell you from now, without waiting longer, that I will go for the option b.
I will definitely NOT pay $42,50 to send to Italy something that can be found there at, say, $5.
So I give you my word, you can proceed with the destruction of the item, eliminating one item from the queue of the pending ones, and freeing some storage room. Mine is a promise, even if by e-mail please consider it, no worries I'll not claim anything back.
Yours sincerely, [Name Surname]
Ps:to make a laugh on it, I anyway suggest you to open the package and have the tortellini as soon as possible, without leaving anything uneaten in the environment. Believe me, they are delicious, and they'll be one of the first things I'll have as soon as I come back to Italy ;-) >>

Postato da: DexterH46 a 12:38 | link | commenti
bureaucracy, the battle of sydney

12th February – UTS Welcome

The more time passes, the more I feel the “holiday” will be soon replaced by the University.
But the time hasn’t come yet!
On this Monday the Uni has organised a “welcome” for all the International students: exchange, study abroad and “whole duration” students, I belong to the first category as you know.
Unfortunately the weather has been really bad, everyone got to the UTS Tower absolutely wet, even if someone tried to avoid water catching a taxi. No way, raining was so strong that no umbrella, no k-way, no car would have saved you completely.
After some steps I got into a floor where a lot of flags from all over the world were waiting for us, together with a lot of people.

The Vice-Chancellor (I guess) gave us his welcome, then other people spoke to the crowd, and some aboriginal people also performed a short show on the stage. Due to the huge number of participants, not everyone could get into the Great Hall, so some people (like me, just to mention one!) had to watch everything through a screen placed outside the Hall.

After the official welcome the Peer Networkers (some young local students, dunno if volunteers or not, but I know they always wear an orange t-shirt) brought us to a Chinese restaurant to have a meal all together.
The place was good but, dammit, so expensive!!! And the worst thing was that the waiters were not spelling (in my opinion) a good English, so everytime they were offering you something you had to guess what was it. Furthermore nobody told us that every “yes” was a $5 more on the bill! When the people at my table realised this, we started to answer “NO” at any single question that was made us. It resulted in a $12 each meal. Not bad considering that people in other tables (there were at least 10 different tables) paid $11, $14, $15, $18, $20 per person!!!
The day at Uni ended with all the information we needed, given us by the International Staff.
They also organised an Aussie-quiz (great James!!!), something that I will do to my friends once back in Italy... so start to study if you wanna win great prizes!
Personally I gave correct answers for the first six questions, then at the tie-break questions I made an error:out! What a pity, two more questions and I would have won!

Postato da: DexterH46 a 11:30 | link | commenti
bureaucracy, sydney, uts

4 January 2007 - Flight Confirmation

Il contributo dell'Università di 900 Euro per il volo non è bastato, ma va bene, non capita tutti i giorni di riuscire ad andare con 230 Euro in Australia.

Il mio volo è confermato, il mio biglietto pagato, ora mancano solo i bagagli (e, sarebbe meglio, un paio di esami prima di partire) ed il 23 Gennaio potrò presentarmi all'aeroporto di Roma Fiumicino pronto per l'avventura nella grande Isola Oceanica.

Volerò con Malaysia Airlines, scalo a Kuala Lumpur e poi si prosegue per Sydney, dove arriverò per la serata del 24, giusto in tempo per riprendermi un giorno e partecipare ad Australia Day!

A dire il vero ho anche le date e le informazioni per il ritorno (ritorno?!?)... ma se già ci si pensa vuol dire che qualcosa non va... quindi le lascio nell'anonimato! Intanto se qualcuno vince al Lotto, alla Lotteria o al Totocalcio e vuole venire a trovarmi... potrò offrirvi al massimo vitto e alloggio, il volo ahimè no... anzi, cosa dico, se vincete mi offrirete voi un pranzo al ristorante più lussuoso! Ciao a tutti!

(Ps: quando sarò in territorio Australiano... dovrò adeguarmi e scrivere in Inglese... o in "Australiano", che in teoria è come l'Inglese, ma in realtà non propriamente perchè, come dice il mio predecessore Riccardo, "ci son un sacco di parole che gli Australiani si inventano, o usano totalmente a caso, specialmente quando si tratta di cercar casa"... enjoy!)

Postato da: DexterH46 a 15:21 | link | commenti (2)
bureaucracy, journey/flight

22 December 2006 - Got the Visa!

After some troubles (err... I supposed, at least hoped, that my Visa would have been free of charge, come on, I am a poor exchange student!!!) on 22 December 2006 I finally got my Visa, which anyway is a bit unusual, is just an e-visa.

I haven't got any sticker to put on my passport, just an e-mail confirmation, but it will be enough (they say... and I hope!)... I mean, they wrote it so I don't wanna hear anything more about this! Bureaucracy, other than being an "impossible-to-spell word", is absolutely the worst thing in these situations... why isn't the whole world so easy to go, as actually is Europe for an European?

Anyway, I went on and on for a week trying an on-line application, calling the Australian Embassy in Italy and so on, but just after I put the credit card data for the payment (AUS$ 430... which means about €260... 260... fucking hell!!!) I received the confirmation for my Visa.

Except that I will definitely have to deal with "University bureaucracy" in the future, the most has already been done, so now I am happy, and begin to think about the flight and the accomodation... the adventure is near to begin, stay tuned!;-)

Postato da: DexterH46 a 12:32 | link | commenti
bureaucracy, visa

7 January 2006 - The first (second) step

Il mio viaggio si può dire che comincia il 7 Gennaio 2006*, quando escono le graduatorie per il Progetto Overseas. Sono alla "Sydenham Library" nel pomeriggio del primo Sabato dell'anno 2006 (festeggiato e cominciato a Londra, dove mi trovavo per lavoro), so che le graduatorie usciranno Lunedì 9 ma per curiosità dò una sbirciata.

Entro nel sito di UniBo, poi nella sezione scambi Internazionali e clicco su Progetto Overseas, poi inizio a guarde le graduatorie di mio interesse. York University, Toronto, 2 posti disponibili... 13° in graduatoria, non si può nemmeno sperare nel ripescaggio (ragazzi che vincono in più di un posto possono optare solo per uno scambio). University of Melbourne, 4 posti disponibili... 8° in graduatoria. Ho qualche chance in più, ma al momento sono tagliato fuori. Ultima carta da giocare... UTS Sydney, 4 posti disponibili... 3° in graduatoria! "Yes, cashback!!!".

Da lì in poi la lotta è stata con la burocrazia, esami da cercare per il riconoscimento, corse da un ufficio all'altro, aiuto pressochè inesistente da parte di chi invece dovrebbe fornirne all'interno dell'Università, ma la prima gara, forse la più importante, era stata vinta.

*(a dire il vero l'avventura era cominciata a metà Ottobre, quando ho dovuto sostenere il TOEFL, obbligatorio per fare domanda. In condizioni quasi pietose per un ascesso dentario che non mi permetteva di parlare, ero riuscito a strappare un punteggio di 263/300 nel TOEFL Computer Based... le Università partner chiedevano valori sul 220-230...)

Postato da: DexterH46 a 12:12 | link | commenti (2)
bureaucracy, unibo, overseas, uts