My first day at Leeds
The prospect of travelling to a faraway country to stay for 6 months just blows my mind. Accomodation, food, education, lifestyle; all these had to be taken care of by myself and I had to live independently. Airport was the first obstacle to start with. The luggage limit given was 20kg. At first I called up Malaysian Airlines and they told it was 30kg, but when called a second time, they said 20kg. Apparently the 10kg extra was "automatically" given since we're students. But the tickets we bought were at a special rate and wasn't a student ticket. So we could only bring in 20kg. Packing my bag, I had to take into consideration the weight limit. At first, my luggage weighed up to 32kg. So I had to reorganise my bag. The whole night of packing and reorganising before the departure flight was just overwhelming. I slept only 2hrs that night.
That morning seemed really cold. Was I scared? No. Just apprehensive of what's to happen for the next 6 months. You can only plan so much, the rest is still very uncertain. Although I had confirmed my accomodation via email, everything else like food and travel were still very indeterminate.
Belinda, Qiuxiang & Me
A mini drama happened at the airport where I removed some things from my check in luggage and dumped into my hand carry luggage. My hand carry luggage easily weighed 10kg. Things like instant noodles, milo, Prima Deli paste, curry, etc packed into that green bag of mine so that I can enjoy a little of the local flavour in Leeds. I didn't feel anything, no emotions at all. Just taking it as it comes. Afterall, I've travelled to Chiang Mai so many times. Another trip to somewhere further away from home for a slightly longer period of time shouldn't make any difference. It was cold in the airport.
The flight is such that it transits at KL airport. The flight there was only 1 hr. Very claustrophobic seats with nothing much offered. Air stewardesses were not as young and pretty as SIA for sure. But hey can I complain? For the price we're paying, I should just keep my mouth shut.
KL international airport is quite big. They had free wireless internet access. That was when I realised I forgot to bring my laptop charger when my friends took out their laptops and started to access the free wireless internet access. I almost cursed myself for not remembering. How would I be able to use my laptop without a charger? The internet is what keeps me occupied. I told myself that I would spend many nights reading books and other stuff with a laptop handicap. I used the free internet access points which were available, but very slow at the airport to sms my mom to DHL over the laptop charger. Because I didn't have any sim card with me at that moment, my mom couldn't reply to me. I just went by faith that she received my internet sms.
Aboard the second flight to Manchester from KL airport, which lasted for 14 hrs, the tingling feeling started to come in. I'm starting to miss home. There was lots of time to think about things on the plane. God, home, family, relatives, friends, my pet cockroach. I started to think about what my mom had sacrificed for me to keep me alive in Leeds. Time, effort, blood, sweat, tears.
The time I had on the plane was really arduous. 14 hours!! What would I do? The inflight entertainment only served to alleviate the pain a little. The shows were not really recent, and the games were all quite boring.
That morning seemed really cold. Was I scared? No. Just apprehensive of what's to happen for the next 6 months. You can only plan so much, the rest is still very uncertain. Although I had confirmed my accomodation via email, everything else like food and travel were still very indeterminate.
Belinda, Qiuxiang & MeA mini drama happened at the airport where I removed some things from my check in luggage and dumped into my hand carry luggage. My hand carry luggage easily weighed 10kg. Things like instant noodles, milo, Prima Deli paste, curry, etc packed into that green bag of mine so that I can enjoy a little of the local flavour in Leeds. I didn't feel anything, no emotions at all. Just taking it as it comes. Afterall, I've travelled to Chiang Mai so many times. Another trip to somewhere further away from home for a slightly longer period of time shouldn't make any difference. It was cold in the airport.
The flight is such that it transits at KL airport. The flight there was only 1 hr. Very claustrophobic seats with nothing much offered. Air stewardesses were not as young and pretty as SIA for sure. But hey can I complain? For the price we're paying, I should just keep my mouth shut.
KL international airport is quite big. They had free wireless internet access. That was when I realised I forgot to bring my laptop charger when my friends took out their laptops and started to access the free wireless internet access. I almost cursed myself for not remembering. How would I be able to use my laptop without a charger? The internet is what keeps me occupied. I told myself that I would spend many nights reading books and other stuff with a laptop handicap. I used the free internet access points which were available, but very slow at the airport to sms my mom to DHL over the laptop charger. Because I didn't have any sim card with me at that moment, my mom couldn't reply to me. I just went by faith that she received my internet sms.
Aboard the second flight to Manchester from KL airport, which lasted for 14 hrs, the tingling feeling started to come in. I'm starting to miss home. There was lots of time to think about things on the plane. God, home, family, relatives, friends, my pet cockroach. I started to think about what my mom had sacrificed for me to keep me alive in Leeds. Time, effort, blood, sweat, tears.
The time I had on the plane was really arduous. 14 hours!! What would I do? The inflight entertainment only served to alleviate the pain a little. The shows were not really recent, and the games were all quite boring.
posted by Fred at 4:33 pm
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