battles with my inner arsonist

friday was the day i almost burnt the University of the Witwatersrand to the ground

if it had not been for the fact
i) that i was physically exhausted
ii) that my inner guilty catholic is a strong (unfortunate?) presence and
iii) i left my canister of gasoline in my OTHER pair of pants ... um ... skirt
the place would have been razed in a swift and punishing blaze of irritation

why?

do you even need to ask me that question? one quick poll - who here who has had the pleasure of attending the fine and upstanding institution has not had the thought at least once? none of you? i thought so

the reason is as follows :

every year i have been at wits, i have experienced a problem. they lose my exmas. they put the wrong mark on the internet (read 38% instead of 83%). they register me for the wrong courses. i understand that these things are bound to happen to me - try as i might, the great god of bureaucracy laughs at my defeats. so i deal with it. in third year, i had to take an extra course, an extra first year history course whilst doing my majors - i had to get permission from the dean to take an extra course - because my media studies course had incorrectly allocated my 'points' for each class i took, so i was lacking and i needed to make some up in order to graduate on time. i found this out at the last minute and by mistake.

but THIS time i am BEYOND irritated. i'm not easily made mad. and if i am , it usually blows over in an hour. THIS TIME, it is sunday. and i am still fuming. i even took it out on thomas. because -

by mid december, i had not received anything from wits about my masters. i phoned them. they told me i had provisional acceptance, they just needed to wait for all my honours marks to be finalised before sending me a firm offer. fine. i understand they are slow. by mid january however, i started getting a little grrrrr. so i phoned them. and phoned them. i bugged their administrative asses for days and they all gave me the same answer - my marks had not yet been moderated and that after the 24th, i would get my firm offer. the 24th came and went, i gave them a few days for the mail to get to my house. by friday- enough was enough. i went in personaly and explained my dilemma. she went off to 'find' my application form. which , after about 39 minutes, she delightedly presented to me.

"whoops!', she said, "we forgot to accept you."

WHOOPS?!?! Uh uh honey, you dont WHOOPS my life! she THEN says
"oh dear, i hope they still have room for you." meaning for the renewal of my scholarship from last year.

i hightail it over to the scholarships office where i deal with an intern *sigh*

she takes my student card and comes back after checking something on the computer.
"um you need to give me your marks."
"excuse me?!", i say, "my marks are on the computer
"no they're not. how long have you been at wits? are you an international student?"
"i have been here for FIVE years and NO i have lived in joburg since 1984 which was the year of my BIRTH."

she blinks at me. i tell her to fetch me someone else. someone else comes.

they EVENTUALLY find my 'marks' and the other lady calls me aside,
"*sigh* my sweetie ... tell me...what is the percent you need for honours to get a renewal of your scholarship?"

"70%" i say

"yes, so therefore we reject you because of your marks!"

"EXCUSE ME?!?"

"you did not get high enough marks"

(at this point, for my foreign readers, let me explain to you - south african university marks differ greatly to usa grading. an 'A' is 75 % upwards. a 'B' is 70% - 74% etc etc and it is difficult to , especially in the social sciences, get above 70%. its easy to pass, but you'll find yourself averaging a good mark in the 60s.)

anyway - i DEMANDED to see my marks and how they added them together. long irritating story short, she had added my marks incorrectly, divided them by the wrong number of subjects and HORRORS! they didnt even have one of my marks. my best mark. the masters politics course in genocide that they had kindly agreed to let me, as an honours intl relations student take and that i worked my butt off in and came top of the frigging class and they didnt even bother to put my mark on the system!!!

i almost passed out with indignation

i have to go back tomorrow while they try 'fix' the mistake and see if there is 'place for me'.

like i said - Burn.The.Place.Down

grrrrrr