41 Days

The internet in our dorm room has been out since Monday...It's now Sunday.  So this makes my life a lot harder.  There is wifi on campus but only in select spots.  The library, science buildings and the business buildings are areas that I know have wifi.  So whenever I want to go online to do anything I have to pack up all my stuff, then lug it to the business center which is the closet place to my room.  And there I sit. Until I have done everything I need to online, or until my butt hurts from sitting on the ground because there really aren't that many chairs in this building.  I don't understand why this campus can't just fix things when they get broken right away. Another example of that is the laundry machines.  They have about 14 machines, yet more than half are broken.

  The campus is also trying to block websites. I've tried to get on to imdb which a very legal website and when I tried to get on it a screen comes up telling me that the university blocked it because it was entertainment.  Then I look at the screen thinking "really? really? you're seriously going to do that?" I mean come on blocking a LEGAL website because it's entertainment is really stupid and unfair.  They also try to block facebook.  Now, thankfully the school isn't very good at blocking things and I can simply sit the refresh button or then just hit the back button and try again.  But that is besides the point.  We need internet, and we need to be able to do what we want on it. Now I'm not saying this in the sense that the internet is the only thing that offers entertainment. No, it's much simpler than that.  The internet offers communication.  And as an international student, I go on facebook to talk with my friends.  Then I go on my email and email my parents.  The university doesn't understand this.  But we really do need the internet. Also because the internet doesn't work, skype doesn't work.  So for anyone who has a skype date they need to find a new location to do that, or then just reschedule the skype date.
            Blocking things online is stupid. We have the right to do what we want online, and we have the right to visit whatever website we want to.  Who are you to tell me that I can't do something.  The university is not in any place to tell me what I can and cannot look at. Now I've heard that the university is blocking things in order to get the students focus on academics. And I totally understand this. Plenty of students don't go to class and only show up when there is a test.  But there are better ways to get students to go to class.  At my home university most teachers allow a certain number of days students can miss before they start deducting points from their grade.  This works well because most students feel the need to do well in school.  So this is a system that should be tried over here.  This whole internet business is kind of frustrating. Thankfully the university has told us that hopefully by monday the internet will be working in our dorm again. Hopefully, but it probably won't happen until Wednesday, because that is just the way things work over here.