what happened in the first half of school in sem 3.2? (part 3 - a sydney trip and an internship)

sydney...where do i begin? this will probably make it onto the channel as well bcuz its...something that i kinda created the channel for right? HAHAHA but ig i will just be reflecting more on the things i did here than i wld on the channel...bear with me

i think when i had this ingenious idea to book a trip to sydney because i knew people there and i wanted to attend a concert in sydney, i didnt expect a lot of stress to come from preparing what u need when u travel. i mean the most i did was ONCE when i travelled with a group of frens to hanoi for about 6 days so in that case i didn't really need to plan much. also tbf i would not have come to sydney if i didnt have a 450 dollar complimentary ticket from scoot because i had to cancel my taiwan trip last time due to hfmd....sorry jordan (i j went back to check and i realised i booked this trip all the way back in october wtf HAS IT BEEN THAT LONG)

but then when i started to plan for the trip itself i realised that i had to plan my itinerary on my own. sure i would plan to go out with ppl ik in sydney and ik i had to visit bestie in canberra for at least a day too (which technically if u include transport is two full days) so yea im only in sydney technically for 5 days. and i touch down at noon on monday so thats 4.5 days. but even then there is still SO MUCH u can do. and im really grateful that reiko compiled this shortlist of things to consider going/eating when in town and another person also sent like a shortlist of food which i didn't really get the chance to eat because there's only so many meals im having in sydney and i alr kinda locked 3 of them down for gyg and mala and belle's and i intended to spend 2-3 with my cousin...LOL

and when it came to itinerary planning, i lowkey feel guilty that i left it that late...i kinda thought i would have more time like in the 2 weeks before the trip but i didnt expect there to be that much project work (refer to part 1) so in the end i may have left the itinerary planning a little bit late. and i was also abit unresponsive with my australian counterparts (one of whom is a working adult that i knew beforehand) bcuz i was drowning in project BUT i still did send the itinerary out like a couple days before i flew over...so i hope it wasn't too bad and nobody was hurt by me sending it relatively last minute (im sorry if anyone was upset heh). if anything makes it better it is that i alr had a skeletal outline of when i wanted to meet people (specifically, reiko and jordan) that was decided a few weeks prior without the concrete list of things to visit (but we roughly knew what i was gonna do/wanna do and it could always be planned just a few days prior imo bcuz most of it was free) - its just that i kinda forgot that i had to update a working adult quickly enuf about it so that he doesnt end up having clashing plans with his social life after work. i think the takeaway from this aspect is to plan out the itinerary at least a couple weeks before u intend to travel there and then if uw to tinker around aft that its fine...especially if there r ppl u r seeing there n they offered to bring u around/uw to spend time w them in town. and again if anyone was upset about this (whether they read it or not), im sorry (if i apologised before alr, im sorry again AHAHAH). 

sydney itself was brilliant. for starters the weather was generally very nice (bright and sunny on most days) and yet the wind was so cooling. u will NEVER get this in singapore i swear not even in the wet monsoon season. i think ppl in sydney are also very nice...like they are more polite (also some are very direct with their opinions and such i rmb a guy pointing a middle finger and arguing with a bus driver) but i think mainly the service staff are very warm and will usually ask u 'how r u' which u never get in singapore. also the food is lowk damn expensive LOL like even when u convert to sgd a lot of mains outside are above 20 bucks which is insane...ig in western countries u REALLY have to cook at home a lot if u r staying there for exchange/work/international student. ate a lot of good food though, and managed to get one gelato/froyo there every evening from monday-saturday (canberra on wednesday included)

there are definitely things that i didn't manage to do because i underestimated the breathtaking power of the beaches and the awe i would be in it, and i kinda spent a lot of time just enjoying it. so, i would definitely come back again. and it doesn't change my mind that my ideal grad trip locations are australia and new zealand. absolutely brilliant places imo. 

thank you sydney (and canberra, even if u were a very quiet town past 9.30pm and there is nothing much to see). 

internship

okay this wont be too long but it will be spicy. basically, this is a timeline of events: 

pre-interview (however many weeks ago this was): the hr dude sent me the invite but addressed it to the wrong person and at the wrong time (he called me edison and he said 3pm instead of 4pm), then the ops manager had to correct the email herself

28th feb: they offer me, i ask for extension. they say no, must reply by 3rd march

3rd march: i reply to accept, then they send the acceptance draft doc for me to sign and fill. they did not give me any deadline

4th march: they send me a bump message because, for context, monday i touched down in sydney at 12.50 and went out with my cousin until 10pm; tuesday and wednesday i was up before 7.30 on both days and went out until 11pm on tues and almost midnight on wednesday

6th march: after getting home from the bus station from the bus ride back from canberra, i opened my laptop to find out they rescinded their offer because of interest of time. my sob story didn't change their minds

and so i crashed out for like a couple days because all i rly want is an internship. or so i thought. if the hr is this toxic/red flaggy (including sending the wrong name for interview), and the internship wasnt even my first choice anyways, why am i being so badly affected? so i kinda got over it during that period and just moved on...tho it still irks me that such companies exist

also, I JUST WANT AN INTERNSHIP

- steve who is really tired rn so goodnight