"Hey Vishal, I don't have internet at home, could you help me check something for British Airlines? ... Thanks! My two trunks were overweight, so I moved the excess to a third bag. Could you let me know how much BA charges for a third checked baggage? ... $165!? and having two overweight bags is only $90? Crap, it took me like 2 hours packing the third bag..."
So between 1:10pm to 1:40pm on my last day in Houston was filled with panic and sweat as I frantically unpacked my third bag and stuffed its contents back into the initial two trunks.
Thankfully, with the help of my roommate, Abhishek, and the excellent technical and driving skills of Vishal, I made it to the airport in no time after that episode. When I sat down at my gate with The Beatles' White album playing on my iPod, and a comfortable hour still left to go before departure, I was able to forget not worry and be happy.
About 40 minutes later and half way through the White album, I was instructed to board the Boeing 777. My seat was 26J, which sat right behind a set of aircraft exits, and we all know exits=extra leg room. And in my case, there was so much leg room that without exaggeration, Yao Min could sit on my seat, stretch out his legs all the way and still have enough room to allow for a line of people waiting to use the bathroom that was five feet in front of my seat. Not sure what I would ever do with so much leg room, I sat down, took off my shoes and turned my attention to the TV screen that was supposedly tucked under my seat. Of course, nothing was playing when I pull up the 5" screen; I nevertheless felt a rush of excitement for all these luxuries I had never experienced on an airplane before. The choice of movies lined up for the trip did not disappoint either. I saw Star Trek, some parts of Angels and Demons, and an episode of Friends. These shows were excellent companions for the complementary beers and wine which were also new luxuries for me.
The rest of flight consisted of two meals, one stuck sudoku puzzle (in my defense the puzzle was labeled hard), numerous trips to the bathroom, and countless failed attempts to get some sleep. 9 hours later I landed in London at 7:15 am local time (-6 hr for central time). It took some time to pass through immigration and baggage claim, but it could have been much worse if my immigration officer deemed it necessary for me go to the health screening office, which, I found later, trapped and retained a few of my classmates for hours.
After splitting a cab with a fellow Rice student, Timothy, I arrived at my LSE residence at High Holborn at around 10:00 am. The moment I was dropped off outside of the residence hall was when jet lag kicked in at full force. Suddenly my body realized that it was already 4:00 am back at home and convinced 90% of my bodily and brain function to shut down. I cannot tell you how much I wanted and needed to be in a bed, but to much of my chagrin, the residence receptionist told me that registration and move in would not start til 2:00 pm. What was I supposed to do for 4 hours without a bed? I looked about the reception area stupidly and found that I was not alone in this dilemma. I saw a group of unhappy campers who had arrived even earlier. Some of them were first year students from around UK, but the rest were from the US and other distant lands. Upon joining the group, we proceeded to complain about how tired we were and how keeping us out of our rooms was not ethical. Fortunately, our crusade for justice yielded results at noon, when we were finally allowed to sign the housing contract and move in. I had mixed feelings when they told me that my room was on the twelfth flour (technically 10th flour but that excludes the ground and mezzanine flours, which are both above ground); however, when I managed to drag all of my luggage up to my room and looked out of the window, I knew the climb was worthwhile.
High Holborn (orange bldg): my home for next year
The view from my room was simply stunning.
View was even better at night!
High Holborn (A) is about 10 minute walk to schoolI wasted no time setting up my bed and taking a nap until about dinner time when there was a Q&A session with current students and the Warden's welcome party. It was cool that the first drink was free at the party, but the jet lag has caused too much memory lapse for me to remember anything memorable for that night. Bed time was at about 10:30 pm on my first day in London, and I would wake up at around 3:30 am the next day. I think my body was confused because it would ignore commands to fall back to sleep for the next five hours. At 8:30 am, I decided to stop and try this again the next day. Who knew? that I would be walking around London for 13 hours on my second day here. More on that later.
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