I was waiting in my room for the technician to return with a laptop to test the connection, but 30 mins (or so) later I still see no sign and have deduced only that which one would be able to after staying in India. That his promise is null and that he's going to be doing something else.
So I go look for the technician and he's in the computer room and I find him in a state of utter cellphone bliss, multi-tasking on the computer with some flash game.
I knock the glass door and give him a look, the one meant to convey "I-Knew-This-Would-Happen" as succinctly to his addled brain. He sees me, does a double
take and begins that arduous process of Pretend Work.
Pretend Work is a concept in which a skiving employee adopts the dramatic persona of Man Hard At Work. It's a game we play here, someone pretends to be doing work, and you pretend like you don't know they're not actually doing any real work. They haven't been doing any work. Had they been doing anything constructive whatsoever, if they were that connected and resourceful, we wouldn't even need to watch them play Pretend Work, the meeting won't even happen. It's a fun game, one that we often engage in, and we're the catchers.
After that he continues this act and decides to bring me to his manager, whom he makes his assessment to, albeit 40 minutes after promising to return with a laptop, but a good pretend workflow nonetheless, and they converse while Nuria and I stand outside.
I get bored with the shit and then we go for lunch. We return later and the manager says that a technician will be over at 3 pm. It was about 1.25 pm.
I wait patiently in my room, returning for lunch just before 3 to be able to catch the tech as he arrives. I was hoping that they'd call someone from outside to come and fix the situation, but at 3.25 pm I was sorely disappointed. It was the same guy.
He had an IBM ThinkPad with him. He plugs his DSL cable into my room port and begins testing. He sits there trying for a few minutes, decides to try the other port in the room, then goes to Leigh's room to do the same thing. I've already explained to him the entire situation, that the LAN and the wireless were both down, and that there's something wrong with the ENTIRE Silveroak system. I couldn't wrap my head around the amount of trouble it took me to convey to him that simple fact. He spends about 40 minutes doing his testing thing and tells me exactly the same thing.
"The entire network is down."
Really? Oh my gosh, I really wanted it to be just screwing up in my room, you know I love a good dose of Internet deficiency.
"When can you get it fixed by?"
"Eh, today? Today is Sunday, only me, I'm alone."
"Are you sure today it'll be fixed?"
"Maybe tomorrow, tomorrow the others will be here, we come and fix."
This essentially means that we'll be Internet-less for about a week.
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Some things one should note in order to fully enjoy reading this blog (for those of you not obsessively reading my blog thinking that hey maybe Erwin is making fun of me and I should be so totally devasted if he isn't and shall endeavour to spite him to get his attention):
(1) I am actually enjoying myself here.
I know this one is rather tough, I mean come on, you're griping all the time about this and that and India this and lecturers that, and you're -you- are actually saying you're enjoying it?
The simple answer is yes. Yes, I am enjoying myself here, the quiet time, the sheer invincibility of being an exchange student (whole dimension here in itself), the walks, the constant reevaluation of who you are, what defines you, all that. I'm enjoying my experiences, the way I've enjoyed all the things I've done thus far in my life. Not a moment I (really) regret. The travelling, and the constant self-discovery, these are two things I enjoy most here.
(2) I am actually learning a lot here.
Maybe not in terms of actual academia, but in terms of learning more about myself, about the people around me, about human relationships, about my resistance to air-conditioning or heat, about computers, about India (of course), about the people, etc.
And of course I have learnt to believe some of the things my dad believes about India. He works here you see, and in his emails he sometimes says things that might come across to us as unbelievable, but seriously, seriously, some things are pretty messed up.
But I'm learning alot, as I've said.
(3) I write only to gripe. That's mostly why I write. If all I've got to contribute is fluffy little anecdotes about how sweet a place the world is, how amazing this is and how wonderful that place is, you wouldn't be reading my words. Because secretly you know that I'm only griping to get rid of the experience, to put it into words so I don't have to keep it to myself. But I like my experiences, and I'm actually a happy person (if you can just give me a little trust on this that'll be great), beneath the scowling expression and declarations of contempt for that idiotic attention-deficient-give-me-the-love-I-never-had-seeking people, I really am enjoying myself.
But of course, if you're going to fight me on my own words, and claim that I'm as thick-headed and pathetic as the likes of you, well, then obviously you're not a friend and are merely seeking the thrill of being Detested by Me. Which is fine by me either way, because you'll just dream up said disgust and imagine it being projected from me, when in essence I don't even give two fucks (maybe half) about you. Because it's all about me. Really. Who else am I supposed to be thinking, I'm not telepathic nor empathetic (to idiots), just stuck in this one body here.
But enough of that, just a little bored here in the school library. Nuria is reading magazines far to my right, and just behind her Leigh is charging her laptop and chatting with people on MSN. I'm listening to my iTunes, rocking my new cheap (and fading after one wash) Che t-shirt, and wondering why there are flies in here.
Don't know when I'll be able to blog again, so in that time, do whatever it is you do, blog-surfing person who probably didn't read half the things I've just written.
Just a sidenote: The people are graduating tomorrow and the other younger batch has already flown the coup and are going for their internships. We'll be here doing CCC modules with 11 other students. So many fun days ahead.
For those who I can't wait to see back home in Singapore, I'll be returning hopefully on the 15th or 16th of June. If it's not too much trouble, could there be a waiting crowd with banners proclaiming "WELCOME HOME TEAM BUNCH OF CYNICAL BASTARDS (SG)!" That would rock our world.
Later.
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