You know the saying ‘quitters never win and winners never quit’? And the follow up to it that says ‘but those who never win and never quit are idiots’? Yes, well, never let it be said that I’m an idiot.

Today I had an Adventure.

It was in the name of work, i.e. an internship (for ‘fun’, because that’s what losers like me do), I was up by 6:30am all bright-eyed and bushy-tailed (proverbially speaking, not literally), Cheryl my classmate came to get me from the USJ3 bus stop at 7:30am to embark upon our Great Adventure to KL in the Name of Work Experience at a local NGO in Titiwangsa.

After a few minor parking-related woes, we finally got squished on the KTM to KL Sentral where we would need to get a Monorail to Titiwangsa. Sounds pretty straightforward right?

It also sounds pretty cost-efficient, but we will be inclined to disagree. Including parking charges, a round trip per day would set us back a little more than RM10 each–a day, I reiterate. Also, factor in human congestion, mud and grime and ick from yesterday’s heavy rains, dodgy foreign workers (why aren’t they referred to as ‘expatriates’ either?), slow trains, long queues….and a fairly simple journey takes just short of two hours.

We could have gone to Seremban and back.

Arriving at Titiwangsa, we got lost for half-an-hour. Wandering about on foot, trying desperately to ring the office to get directions (by then it was about 9:15)–no answer. We finally took a stab and wandered down some path, ending up near the Tawakal Hospital, which was where our NGO office was supposed to be near.

And lemme tell ya, for two relatively sheltered private university city chicks, we were not liking what we were seeing. The area was kinda dodgy as :/ Plus the fact that Cheryl is Caucasian, we were kind of getting eyeballed a lot! After locating the office (with a really really miniscule sign overhead) and braving a swarm of mosquitoes, we entered the office to find….

…that we were not expected, the person who was supposed to brief us and orientate us was not there. The other interns had their laptops and were doing research (and were actually there as part of work experience, while the two of us were there for FUN! Trust me, whatever traces of fun there was had long dissipated). And we were told to study these books we were given because we were to be examined o_O

After almost an hour of sitting around and trying desperately to convey to the person there that we were having second thoughts (i.e. backing out), we finally got the message across amid a flood of apologies. Man, it was like breaking up with someone who Just. Doesn’t. Get. It.

And on the trek back from the office to the Monorail, we were harassed by–POLICE OFFICERS. Who wound down their windows and made catcalls at us.

WHAT. THE. FUCK.

Honestly, I think our parents are really appreciative–the very people who are supposed to be keeping the city and its denizens safe are out there harassing their children like common….assholes! Raaaaah!

Call us quitters (call ME a quitter, I can take it), but 5 hours of commuting each day, RM10 in transport alone, plus a 15 minute walk along a relatively deserted street with RM3,000+ laptops and dodgy shady characters (including the policemen!) is more than reason enough for me to decide to back out of an internship in the name of fun work experience.

Moral of the story, kids: do your research before promising your body, mind and soul to a work place. Any work place.  I’m not discouraging people from working, especially not an NGOs which desperately need manpower, but sometimes, you gotta put the individual (i.e. yourself) above humanity (i.e. everyone else) because honestly you will not be much use to anyone if you’re exhausted, drained and annoyed–or worse still, dead.

I reckon I have an extremely unhealthy dose of paranoia in my bloodstream. Thank you, Mum and Dad.