I am Back Again

I drop in occasionally and discover that I still have readers from around the globe.  So, I thought I would share my latest thoughts for those of you who still read here.  As I prepare for my exams; which have given me enough angst to cause me sleepless nights and skin that is falling apart, I realize that I am going though one of those Allegory(s) of the Cave once again.  This epiphany came to me today as I was preparing for my philosophy exam.  I love the Allegory story. It is a story of my life. It is likely a story of your own, if you are willing to admit it.  With all the resistance I have met with the university abroad, I persisted, and knew I could eventually find a way to negotiate something reasonable.  I think we have.  I admit that I conceded far more than they, but lets not count concessions, lets just find some and move ahead.  Their culture is Allegory people.  That society is a group. I am an individual. They also have a need to control. I do not.  But when their control overrides my rights, I step up to the plate, and then we have conflict.  We had conflict.  All could have been easier. All could have had more harmony.  All could have been clearly spelled out in the first place and then honoured.  All did not.  But, it appears I will be writing exams. It appears I will be writing them in Vancouver.  It appears I will be writing them soon.  I just wish these people looked at a google map and tested the transportation routes and schedules to do what they look at a map and see as easy.  Canada is a huge country. So, the distance from Vancouver Island in general to downtown Vancouver appears to them like the distance from JB to Singapore.  It is not.  Plus the fact that a ferry is involved - once I get to Victoria, and then a long journey up to Vancouver.  What my university people see is a flat surface - a map.  That map shows a little island (probably the size of their whole country, but very small in comparison to the rest of Canada).  How far can that be, they think?  It is like driving from the most northern point of JB to the causeway.  Well, even if that were true, I have waited for car repair people to take that trip and that alone has taken over 5 hours.  But five hours would be a dream from where I am coming from and where they want me to be.  For now, I will stay at my desk, prepare for the exams, and do the journey to the mainland and big city to placate them all over in the tropics.  Sadly, they will assume I resisted because I am lazy.  And then I will have to probably do the same journey for the next round of exams that will likely be done in May.