Back home again! The past week has been like a long dream. I was so busy. Not "hosed" as in stressed but I had so much to do that I just did everything on autopilot. Last Monday, the Dean of Education and Head of Financial Aid came to visit us. A lot of people showed up for the buffet dinner and discussion. I might write about what we talked about in a later post. The cat is behaving badly again... I spent the last part of the week learning the basics of surveying (land surveying). Trying to get heavy equipment exactly over one tiny speck on the ground in freezing wind and rain was not fun. After that I had to take my German test on Saturday. Poting was there to do her French test and we walked back together.
The rest of Saturday was great though. I made brunch with Stella, Mahalia, and Mahalia's boyfriend. Mahalia and her boyfriend were heading off to Geneva for a week that afternoon. Hope they have fun! After that I decided to get a mocha at Cafe Nero because I really like their coffee and will miss going to coffee shops back in the US. There was a huge line because it was Saturday and there was a science festival going on. They were so swamped that they punched my order in as redeeming a loyalty card and I got a free drink. It also might've been that she didn't want to count the huge stack of change I handed her. After enjoying my mocha, I packed my room and suitcases, all in one afternoon. That night, I went out to dinner with Sophia and some of her friends and we ate and chatted for a few hours.
I got up at 4am on Sunday and heading to the bus station. It was still dark outside and raining. Since I had 2 suitcases, I couldn't use an umbrella. I thought about taking a cab to the bus station but didn't see one on the way. I had arrived way too early again and ended up taking an earlier bus which is actually slower since they take a longer route. But it still gets to the airport earlier and it beats standing in the rain for half an hour more. On the bus, I saw Jenn and her mom. They're going to Croatia for a week. Hope they have fun too!
I was really worried that my luggage were overweight since I'm bringing back all my notes. But I had a smaller suitcase that I stuffed with all my books and heavy things so it was fine. You can't imagine how happy I was when I weighted my luggage and they were both under the limit. After checking in luggage, I had to wait until it was 2 hours before my departure time to go through security. That's right, wait to go through security. Ridiculous? Yes, that's Heathrow airport for you. The reason is, airlines there don't have permanent gates like in other airports. There are just too many airlines and airplanes so they have a huge waiting area instead. And when your plane lands and parks at a gate, they'll announce it, and everyone goes to that gate number. I spent a long time walking around this waiting area, trying to decide if I want to buy anything to eat.
My plane was delayed about 30 minutes for boarding and because of that, we had to wait 2 hours on the plane because there are only so many runways and we had lost our place in the queue because of the initial delay. Luckily, the winds were on our side so we were only delayed by about 40 minutes arriving. I watched Juno, which was really good. The food was not bad. The guy next to me doesn't like cheese and gave me his. I also watched Lust Caution, which was pretty good as well. It was mostly Mandarin with a bit of English and some Cantonese and Shanghainese. I also watched some other random stuff including an interview with Wang Lee Hom and listened to a Jay Chou album.
My plane had really amazing views of the Bay Area as we were descending. I had a window seat and sat on the "right" side to see everything. And then I was back! My family came to meet me at the airport. I swear security is more lax now than before. I didn't even have to take my laptop out at Heathrow and the passport control people didn't ask me anything. I was ready with answers to questions like "what were you doing in the UK?". We had hot pot for dinner last night and I slept for 13 hours.
It's been a while since I've seen sunny skies like the one I'm staring at now. It was so amazing when we were driving home. It was warm, sunny, and not a cloud in sight.
2 comments:
yay good weather :) must be such a change in scenery.
you know, some people do that...i bought change to the dining lady and got yelled at because she didnt want to have to count the change at the end of the night. aiyah. hopefully this pile of change will be gone before you get back.
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