Day one in UK

I landed at Heathrow at 7 am on 15th October'07. There was a long que at the immigration and it took about 40 minutes. Had to meet a Jet official which was arranged by my father and my Daddy arranged a meeting with his friend. All if this was to make sure that me ,the sweet little is not lost at the world’s busiest airport.

So, I met Indrajeet from Jet first. As the name suggests, Indrajeet is an Indian Sikh lady. Her presence right on the exit gave me a feeling of great comfort. By the way, at Heathrow one may not realise that it’s not India. About 5 out of 10 people are Indians. Be it support staff or cleaner or passengers. Indrajeet was kind enough to take me to the National Express ticket booth. She took care of my 5 not very big but very very heavy bags. I bought a ticket for £ 32.50 .Yes that's a lot of Indian money for a bus ticket but had no choice.

Then was a meeting with a person I had heard of once or twice but not with much interest. This was through a common friend. This person was friendly and cold (professional) person, he met me at the common meeting area where I was sitting with my baggage. It was quite funny with him. He did not sit. I did not sit coz he was standing. So he asked me about what I do and why UK for MBA and all that stuff. And within few minutes I was comfortable listening to his conversations. I will call him an open guy. He told me about his parents, his work, his attitude at work, his Sweden vacation plan with girl friend. And above all the cost of living in UK specially with a GF. At the same time he did not forget to mention about future uncertainties with the same girl. I am glad he talked about things I agreed upon and so this long and more or less one sided convo was interesting. I also managed to ask his zodiac sign out of curiosity. Then he had to leave for work and thankfully my wait time for the bus was reduced to only 15-20 minutes.

In all this while my papa and my Daddy called and sms’d few times of course. My bus ride started at 9.20 am. The driver helped me keeping my bags in the bus. The bus journey only and only reminded me of Yash Chopra’s films. English country side is extremely beautiful. Its green, empty and fresh. Well managed traffic, no honking and zero pollution.

After 3 hours I reached my destination, Leicester. The tension began to start here when all my bags were dropped out with me from the bus. I was not capable of picking up one bag forget about four. And that made me think, if I cant pick them up who will think of running away with them. I left the bags on bus stop and went across the road to catch a Taxi. The taxi man was old and helped me with my luggage.

He dropped me at the University but every destination looked like the final one. A lady helped me taking my bags to Students Services. After this I went to meet the faculty as well as other students of the program.

I decided to move in temporary accommodation for which my bags were transferred to a taxi, of course with a lady’s help again. The driver kept everything outside the main door of the building. So every time I reached a new place there was a sense of comfort. Then came David. David is also a student but I am not sure about his university. I don't know if I can recognize him today but he picked up all my bags one by one and transferred them to my flat.
Reaching inside the flat with all the stuff was a different feeling after international travelling, studying and meeting new people. Then I received few very important calls from a friend's friends in UK. All of them made me feel very much at home in an unknown country.

This post is dedicated to everyone who made my first day in UK a pleasant one. Thanks :).