The thing about the bad trip

Hi guys, I'm back!

Sorry for the lack of updates although the internet were readily available to me in Vietnam. There are simply so many things that happened and for 2 days straight I was so upset and unhappy about the way the school handled things and about my own foolishness in placing my trust in this whole attachment thing.

Now, I'm going to warn that this entry is really going to be 1) long and 2) negative. If you think you don't want to read them just shut this window. Thanks.

Ok, so in my last post I talked about my friend who is my colleague and roomate while we were still there. Let's call her Z. Z took off on Thursday night so I was left on my own. In other words, it means that I will have to be on my own when I go back and forth to work and even after work and on the off-days because the others are in different companies and their off-days are different from me. Take for example, everyday I end work at 5. Perhaps with the time taken to hail a cab, to reach the hotel in total is 30mins or shorter, I will be back latest 5.30pm. The other 2 who are on attachment to a further company, lets call them N and R, will only be back earliest at 6.30pm. Ok, nevermind. The others where the majority are working at will only be back at 9.30pm earliest! OMG!

And since their off-days are so different from mine, I will not be going out with them to explore the cities and whatsoever. I will be like. so isolated and alone from everyone else.

So what happen is, being in a foreign country with a language that most of them do not understand (and vice versa), I decided to ask for a transfer of company. I mean why not? Since one of the guy could just simply ask for a transfer and is gone to the other company the next day and its really for the safety pont.

However, when I called up the in-charge of us over there (let's call him W), he told me that it is impossible. The reason? Well.. my school would get angry. GET ANGRY? AFTER WHAT THEY HAVE DONE TO SCREW UP OUR ACCOMODATION?

Seriously, like what the fuck lor. I felt so sad and dejected. So unwanted. Like I'm left all alone and everything. I started to regret why did I try to be responsible to these people and why I stayed behind so that I can at least try and see if I can communicate with them so that if I got the safety point across to them then they can do something about it or transfer me to the other company and then I will stay and finish my attachment.

I know, it may not be so nice to change your attachment after you've been here for like 4days? But is there anything that can be done other than that? Perhaps the company that I'm on attachment might be able to understand and empathise and do something about it. But o matter how I communicated to the faci (who will not be staying through out the whole period but will be back on today, monday because his main task is to be with the study tour, not us attachment people) and the in charge, W over there.. they just kept telling me.

"(insert name of my school) will be angry. Their reputation will be tarnished."

Like what the fuck? If you want a nice reputation then you should have a good planning from the start. Why did Z leave? Why did the other guy ask for a transfer? Why did I want to leave? That's because the planner did a fucking bad job right from the start. I remembered I emphasised on the fact that I don't mind paying for a hotel but the only condition set is that everyone will live together(which is what everyone agreed on) and what did she say OK! And when she told me that we might be staying in the hostel (which is optional) I told her that no, I think we should stick with our original agreement.

But what happened? She just left us in the hostel and did not book our accomodation together with the others at all. Neither did she do the most basic of all by finding out who is living there before deciding if it is okay to put us 2 girls together with a whole house of guys.

And the worst is yet to come. As said, the bedroom smells like pee, the pillow and bedsheet has this browish thing on them and the window at the bathroom CANNOT be shut!

Like. What the!?!?!?

When we get to work, the mentor do not know our background at all. We were made to write this resume which I assume, is for my school to look through and place us in the appropriate companies and job scope.. which would help us in our course of study. The resume should reach the companies at least so that they know who we are. However, that doesn't seems like the case because first, A who is studying science is placed in a factory. In a garment factory. While Z and I have got something to do, we were either told to sit down in the assigned department and do your own thing or you know. Like me la. nothing to do. So we talked to the in charge and had a few talks with him. Believe me when I say we were trying to do the best out of everything because after 1 day of slacking, everyone was TIRED of SLACKING.

Have you ever heard me complaining that I'm too tired to even try to slack? But thats how bad it is. We wanted some jobs to do!

But when Z told us of her intention to leave, really.. my mind was there on the same side as hers. The only reason why I stayed on was that I placed my trust on the base that my transfer will be successful because the school will take our safety seriously. But let me tell you, it's not. The fucking school cared more about their reputation than my safety. It seems to me that I'm not a concerm to them afterall when the next day, which is a friday when I got scammed by this cab driver who despite me asking him to turn in the directions SPECIFICALLY in simple vietnamese and though I showed him the address he just refused to do as I said and drove on this super ulu remote route which made me really felt like I'm so helpless.

When he finally turned through all the little alleys and everything, he turned to me for the cash. Every morning when we took a cab to work and back, it is always 1.50 in sgd. So I have like only that  enough of change and I thought ok, it will be enough. But when it is like double the price, I took out a bigger note which is like sgd 5 and gave it to him. He told me no change. Or rather, he shook his head and look at the 1.50 in my hands then my wallet and grin.

I wanted to leave but he wouldn't let me. Do you have any idea how scary it is? And I wasn't even at the factory gate because he refused to drive there.

Then I have no idea how long it passed before I grabbed my bag and run after throwing the 1.50sgd which i think he deserved and the packet of vicks sweet for my throat. Honestly.. I guess its because he knew he was scamming me and was afraid I might ask the others to call the police thats why he didn't run after me.

After that the faci and incharge came to look for me. While talking to there, my eyes were starting to water. All they do is ask me to stay and tell me there are things to learn when i told them the concern is about safety. Obviously, they didn't care about that isn't it?

So when mom called I was crying (after they left like 1min ago) and she asked for the faci number and scolded him off when he gave a stupid example of him working in hongkong and taiwan. Like wth? Hongkong and taiwan I also happy. Their language is so common in singapore so how could you take a comparison?

It is always this kind of time when I realise my mom really loves me from the bottom of her heart. She told the faci that no matter how much it cost (including compensation), she wants me back in singapore ASAP. Afterwhich several calls came from singapore,<insert school name> to persuade me to stay and tell me that now they are offering me the option to stay and transfer or come back to singapore. I chose the latter.

If the school don't even blardy care about my safety in the first place, give me a reason to care about their blardy reputation. Why do you care only after I am adamant to come back and not when I offered everyone a chance by staying (and not going with Z on thursday) and by having these talks that were futile? Well, i think its the reputation thing again, isn't it?

Anyway, on saturday I tried to get the ticket home but the agency were closed! Sunday is their national day but they are all closed in the morning.. So I got to change the date of my valid ticket and luckily, it was open. Then we had some shoppings and went to this water puppet show which is quite nice (but not really appealing to me because of the tong tong chng music) and I followed the malays back to the hotel after dinner because i was carrying three bags of things and I'm so tired from all the walkings!

But heng I never go. Because on that night, S got her stuffs pickpocketed. Like everything. Worth 1000++ of stuffs or even more. At least her handphone, 2 sim cards, our hotel money(USD $120 which i passed to her in the morning) and her own USD$400+ went missing.

So that night R, J and me stayed up all night to calculate the money and see how much they will need to have in order to stay alive for like another 2 weeks over there. I left behind some USD and some vietnam dongs so that they can use it if the need arises instead of surviving solely on maggie mee and 80cents noodles.

I flew back on my own on sunday morning. Surprisingly, I had no problem at the Vietnam customs but had a serious problem knowing where to get my baggage and where to get out from at the singapore airport. I am such a directionless person la! The people who i asked thought i came to singapore like. after a long long time and asked me where I'm from. They had this look 0.0 on them when i say "oh, actually.. I'm a singaporean."

=.=

Ok, im speechless too. lol.

Anyway, I've just received an email from school asking me to meet them on wednesday to talk about the compensation and how they can ASSIST me on this report that the <insert school name> management has demanded. They say they will assist me in a fucking report but not on my safety issues? They must really have some brain cells to be thinking of that huh?

Anyway I might be going with my brother since he wants to know why the school is so fucking irresponsible about everything right from the start. I, on the other hand have more interest about the terms and conditions involved. I hope they state that line that said "cautions are taken to protect and keep our student safe from any potential harm" because for obvious reasons..

They didn't fucking hell cared about my safety. I'm still so pissed off and I'm supposed to pay them back the compensation when they should be paying me for their bad arrangement and everything.

 

OUT!

Charps.