Day 1: Arriving in Liverpool

no time no time.. will continue with this post later.. First and foremost, i want to dedicate my *flavour of the week* to everyone who has contributed to allow me to experience the chance of a lifetime.. You are all truly Heaven Sent!! Love all of you!! Will continue later, i promise!

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6th June 2009, a defining moment in my short life.. Feeling excited about my first international flight.. a little extreme that my first time abroad is to someplace halfway around the world.. :) The reason I didn't want many people to send me off at the airport is because I'm quite an emotional person, I 'll admit.. I get teary eyed pretty easily, and in my opinion, having the chance to travel abroad is something to be happy about and it wouldn't be right to cry... Pretty pleased to report that i havent wasted any tears so far..

On the way to KLIA--Kuala Lumpur International Airport-- for those who dont know..

The ceiling at the airport, nothing really, i just really like the texture :)

View from the viewing platform, its a long long walk to get there from the main terminal, and after taking this picture, I realised that i had actually been looking at the wrong direction after all, you won't see any planes from where I was standing that's for sure~

After a roughly 6 hour flight, touchdown at Dubai International Airport!

I was really sleepy, so I spent most of the flight sleeping.. but its super annoying, they feed you so much onboard! Everytime I fell asleep, i would be woken up not long after for a meal or a drink.. its my fault really, cos I put the sticker that said 'wake me up for meals' on my seat.. kiasu, scared that i would miss out on the meal.. Oh, and one funny thing during that first flight, I really couldn't understand the in-flight entertainment system and the food tray, haha.. (I think i was too sleepy to think) and ended up embarrassing myself in front of 2 obviously seasoned fliers.. had to ask them to help me with both the system and the tray.. :* In the end I gave up and went to sleep again after i couldnt handle the stupid system..

The Dubai airport is really large and bright, the have all these dazzling lights everywhere, so much until it makes you feel a little disoriented..

Looking a little worse for wear after one whole week being sleep deprived.. Actually my tummy wasnt feeling that while the whole time from KL to Dubai.. Must have been the heavy meals... I can't remember much of the menu during the flight, but i feel that even though it wasn't spectacular, it wasn't as bad as most people say it is either.. but I didn't eat much anyway, since I felt rather uncomfortable the whole time..

Obvious where I am isn't it..

I look so huge next to my teeny friend.. I really didn't feel like being in a photo at that time, but what to do.. have to prove that i was there, haha.. but its still a rather unflattering picture I must say..

The brother or sister of the plane that I took..Not bad lah.. just felt the seats were kind of cramped.. >.<

can you see where I was headed?? (EK017 Manchester!!!)

I got separated from my friends at this point, after walking through the duty free zone, so I spent some time alone at the waiting area fiddling with the wifi connection.. but no worries, cos we met up again not long afterwards..

One thing I must emphasize, we must look really innocent or studious or whatever.. cos everyone had to take off their shoes while passing through the gates at Dubai, everybody except the four of us.. heehee... *smug*

The connecting flight was much much more enjoyable for me, cos I felt much better at that time, only lament is that I was in the middle seat in the middle row, sigh.. No nice view for me.. Since I was feeling so much better, I finally got the hang of the in-flight system.. Spent the flight watching movies (Thats Confessions of a Shopaholic in the picture above), playing games and eating of course.. 2 meals and countless drinks were served... They really stuff you up.. Since I couldn't finish everything, i saved some buns and cookies for later.. hehe..

That ugly grey building is actually manchester airport.. You can see that it was raining when we arrived.. I really didn't fel the cold tho, was even sweating as I was lugging my luggage along.. Customs was a breeze, just a little chat with the customs officer.. but still had to queue for quite some time before that lah.. The baggage claim was also quite fast, I already saw my luggage as soon as we got to the carousel, lucky.. One of my friends found the lock on her luggage broken, but nothing was missing, so nevermind.. I lost my brand new luggage tag tho, sobs... After we found the guy who was supposed to meet us, we got on the van that would take us to Liverpool..

Speeding through the Manchester countryside.. Literally speeding, I think we were going about 80 miles an hour, people in England really speed along...

Nothing eventful happened, but below are the first glimpses of Liverpool John Moores university that i had.. The buildings are scattered all over Liverpool, so its rather hard to gauge the size.. These are all not where I'm studying at tho.. The business school is much nearer to the city centre..

Arrived late in the afternoon, and after finding my friends, having dinner and unpacking, I really had to retire to bed, cos I was really tired.. and they all went to watch Terminator Salvation without me.. Arghhh...