Fiji Deviations

So, I am deviating from Fiji for a bit. It is just that so much has happened since then! Really, my life has been a bit crazy.

OK, so I wake up early Saturday morning (and by early, I mean 3:30 AM) sick as a dog. I spend all of Saturday in bed, mostly with a gel eye mask (thanks Stace!) over my eyes, listening to my MP3 player and watching Finding Nemo and Pride and Prejudice. I am so sick and so tired that I fall asleep at 8:30 PM and sleep until 6:11 the next morning. I get up to go put my eye mask back in the fridge, and low and behold, the living room is trashed. Empty beer cans, vodka mudslides, vodka bottles, and half full drinks littered everywhere. All kinds of dishes laying around, bottles of cordial opened, etc. Apparently, my flat was the flat to party in Saturday night, and I never heard a thing! I was passed out I was so sick.

I feel a lot better on Sunday, so I manage to go to church. I sit with Amy, who tells me that both she and Meredith were both sick on Saturday. It must have been the "Fiji bug." I am staying sick a lot longer than both of them, though. Meredith felt well enough to go out on the town Saturday night, and Amy was fine by Sunday, but I still can't eat or move quickly without feeling sick. I have a doctor's appointment on Wednesday morning, so we shall see. I have a feeling it is just a virus and therefore no treatment, but I would feel better getting checked out since I just came home from Fiji.

Now, on to today (Monday). I go back to class, and it was hard to pay attention. I just want to go back to Fiji! My tutorial was good, though. We talked about the UN and its relevence to both New Zealand in particular and the world in general. The second half we split up into groups to think of a situation affecting the UN and how to resolve it (e.g. the removal of the veto power in the Security Council). As an American, the tutor suggested that I talk about the appointment of John Bolton and his new suggestion of 750 amendments to the charter of the UN. After talking about his controversial appointment and what his amendments actually were, I got hit with a lot of anti-american questions, some of which I find myself sympathizing with more particularly.

For example, as it stands, the UN suggests that each nations should earmark 0.7% of its Gross National Income for Development and Relief Aid (as in, relief for other nations). This standard isn't met by anyone world-wide that I am aware of. It is a goal to be reached over several years. New Zealand currently gives about 0.27% of its GNI. The United States, the richest nation in the world, is also the stingiest, giving 0.1%. Intuitively, this real amount is more than other nations donate, I believe, but not in relative terms. This isn't what I have the problem with. John Bolton's changes make no mention of a goal to be met for Development and Relief Aid. It is left out. I have no idea why. I am sure there is a reason behind it, but it doesn't make sense that a legislative body like the UN, a humanitarian body, would have no goals for development aid levels. There are a lot of other sketchy changes, in my opinion, and I wish I had a link to some articles for you to check out, but I don't. I will post them later if I find them. I read articles in class that the tutor had printed out and brought in.

So, that is class. Now on to the headache part of my day.

I started the insurance claim process today, and it is a pain and a half. The claim is going to be more than 2 weeks old by the time it is filed, and I don't have proof of ownership. I sent an email to my university contact asking what I should do to start the claim process, and I heard back from her this afternoon. First, I called the police station, because I have to file a police report. I was told I had to go down in person to do it because it is more than week old, so that is on my to-do list tomorrow. Figuring that out wasn't too bad; I only went through two people on the phone. Now, the tough part. The insurance company is a 0800 number, which is nice because it is free, but my phone is CRAZY and I can neither dial 0800 numbers nor mobile numbers. I call down to the office to ask why, to see if the phone is broken, and I get the run-around. I keep being told that I have to have money on my account for the phone to work, and I don't think she ever believed me that I DID actually have money on the account (HELLO! I had just called the police station!). She tells me to go use the free phone in the foyer. I go down there, and the phone is broken. Crikey. I go across the street to the office to talk to the receptionist in person. We are back to treating me like a silly American college student, saying that I have to have money on my account. I still don't think she believes me that I can't dial the numbers. I use the phone in the foyer of the accommodation across the street and finally get through. Little did I know that would be the easy part!

First I am transferred to Christchurch, then to Auckland. 6 people later, I am talking to a lovely woman who is informing me that everyone who could answer my question is either away from his or her desk or on the phone. Lovely. She says I should leave a message and someone will call me back. Normally, this would be fabulous, but my mobile is broken right now. (More on that later.) I could leave my dorm phone number, but it is not often that I am around here during business hours, so I would probably miss the call, and we don't have an answering service. We were momentarily stuck. It was finally decided that I should just call back in half an hour, and if I didn't get through to anyone, I should email the main email address and hope that it got directed to the right department. So, I go back across the street, switch my laundry from the washer to the dryer, and waste half an hour. I go BACK across the street, call the first extension, and it goes straight to voicemail. But luckily, the second extension worked! Unluckily, this lady was no where near as understanding or nice as the first lady with whom I talked. I got my questions answered though. I am going to have to jump through all kinds of hoops with this claim. Special notes about my circumstances at the bottom, names and numbers of people I talked with, authorized certifications, bank records from back home. Really, it is giving me a huge headache. I just want money to get a digital camera again!

Also, I bought the camera from a discount online retailer in the states last April or so. There is no such thing as discount online retailing here in New Zealand, as far as I can tell. This means I am going to pay a higher price for it, adjusted for the change in currencies. All in all, I don't think I am going to get enough money to cover the cost of replacing the camera. *sigh* Cross your fingers!

Also, my mobile phone is broken. It is a flip phone, and I think the connection between the two parts has come loose. The caller can here me, but I can't hear anything in the phone. It's not even like I can hear silence; it is like the phone isn't even on. I dropped it off at a shop to fix it, but apparently they don't fix it in Wellington, they fix Motorola phones in Auckland. This means I am without a mobile for roughly a week and a half. I am seperated from the world! No one actually calls people, which is going to make it very difficult for me to get in touch with people. Especially since my land line won't call mobile numbers. I have a presentation due on Thursday that I have not begun, but now I have no idea how to reach my partner. I sent her two texts this afternoon telling her about my situation and giving her my dorm number, but I never heard back from her. The next time I will see her will be the class period where we have to give the presention. :/ I won't have a way to track down people for the weekend. I also have no idea how expensive it will be. They thought it would be less than buying a new phone, which is why I went ahead and got it fixed. Hopefully, I can claim this on insurance as well, but you never know!

Man, I have a headache.

On the upside, today was absolutely gorgeous. It was actually warm in the middle of the day, hovering right around 60F in the sun, probably 57F or so actually, and perfectly clear. Tomorrow is supposed to be even nicer, so I need to come up with something pleasant to do out of doors. I have no class, so all I have is filing the police report, exercising (if I feel up to it), and seeing Crash (which I have been meaning to do and it is showing at the Embassy this week).

I think that is about it. Feel free to sympathize with my electronic woes. :) I will try my best to get the next bit about Fiji up soon, but I wanted to update you on my life before I forgot everything that happened.