There have been a series of events the past few days which have really frustrated me in dealing with the whole new country thing. I'm not going to go into them here, but they were just things that didn't make any fucking sense that caused me to have to go to extra trouble. In essence, nothing is easy and it seems as if the goal here is to make everything as difficult and costly as possible.
To take one example, I went to buy books for my class at the university bookstore. I'm wandering around, looking for the Law section when I find a sign that reads, "Please visit our other store at X and Y streets for Law, Business, and Medical books." WHAT? WHY? This is silliness.
Granted, at UVA there is a law bookstore where we buy our law books. The thing is, it's inside the law school, and it's very clear that's where you get your books. Further, it only deals in law books. It’s not a store that is an annex to the main store with all sorts of books, as in book store part two.
So I traipse down to the other store, almost closing time, to get my two books. I am greeted by a price tag of $100AUS ($75US) for one of my books. This book looks like a regular old stupid hardback novel, not a fancy-schmancy law textbook that might cost that much. I’m offended. I ask the girl at the desk their return policy. She says I can return it for store credit, but not a cash refund! I’m again offended. I ask whether she knows of any used book outlets and she says no. I suck it up and buy the book, rationalizing that I can use the store credit to buy paraphernalia for my family that I would maybe buy anyway if I find a cheaper book.
I have just now checked on buying the book online at used or discount textbook dealers in Australia. The price is basically the same once shipping happens. Then I did something incredibly stupid. I checked Amazon. Buy it new for $49.95US, used from $29.95US! You must be fucking joking. One of the used dealers even had international shipping. I checked up on it, but it’d cost shipping, import fees, duty fees, plus would take 13-20 days to get here and I ain’t got that kind of time. Now, I’m forced to pay triple the price for a stupid-ass book I don’t even want to read.
This is just one of the inconveniences that could’ve been avoided if the damn school would’ve given me my classes and my syllabus before I got here.
But really, I swear, I’m having a fabulous time.
4 comments:
Textbooks - in any country - are a racket. Justin has made a small fortune re-selling on e-bay the instructor copies he receives for FREE.
P.S. Mom and Dad say hello. They were asking me about your Melbourne adventures tonight at dinner.
i don't want to rub things in but had you been in cville you would've got the opportunity to see Hulk Hogan and all the other wrestlers from WWE as there was a show on at UVA. I couldn't believe it when i watched it. Randy Orton, the legend killer is trying to shag Hulk's daughter brook. He's also trying to kill Hulk's legend by defeating him at summer slam. Orton came out and took the piss out of a hogan look a like to humiliate the hulkster, then his music started up and he came out all boa'd and bandannad up, waggling his finger in a reprimanding manner. A few blows were exchanged and Orton ran, Hulk stayed to pump his orange leathery body in front of crowd he obviously thought should be giving him more props...
good times...
well at least if you run out of toilet paper you now have some quality bound papers...
oh and i took the privacy off my profile (for now) so you can now check out my geek site.
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