Thursday, October 28, 2004

I’m going to Peru!

It’s incredible that this time round, SPH took only one day to say yes to my Peru volunteer trip in summer 2005, whereas it took them 2 weeks to allow me to go for the YEP 2 months ago. What’s even amazing is that SPH has decided to waive my internship totally (they almost never do that!), even though I only requested for a reduction in the internship period from the initial 8 weeks to 6 weeks. But of course there are conditions attached if I decided to take up this offer - SPH will not pay for my round trip air tickets for the next academic year because “We do not fly scholars back for such a short stint. Scholars will have to purchase own round trip air ticket back.”…

So, to go or not to go is a huge question mark. If I do go, it will cost me a fortune - 1150 pounds for the Peru trip itself, at least an additional 800 pounds to fly to Peru from London, and another 2000 odd Singapore dollars to fly from Singapore to London if I do go home after Peru. So, after weighing the economical pros and cons, I might not go home next summer, since I do want to go to Peru after all. But then again, I simply can’t imagine myself not going home for two whole years. On the other hand, if I do not go to Peru, I’ll just go back to SPH and serve my normal routine internship for 8 weeks, and get paid for 50 bucks a day, and not only that, SPH will pay for my return air tickets from home to London.

Since money is the crux of the whole quandary, I relented and negotiated with Winnie that I’ll be able to squeeze out 7 weeks of internship, instead of the proposed 6 weeks. (That means starting work immediately after flying from Peru to London to home, and ending work 2 days before school starts.) And Winnie and the management relented as well, so I'm going to Peru next summer after all! What’s more, I get to earn some money while interning and I don’t have to pay for my air tickets from London to Singapore and vice versa. I guess that’s the best solution since I can’t think of anything better.

Anyhow, I still need 2000 pounds!!!

Now, I need lots of luck to do some fundraising for the Peru trip.

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