a part of warwick campus
posted in facebook last october 2009.
The plane landed at Heathrow airport at 6:15am, a few minutes ahead than the expected time. I joined the long queue of new students, mostly coming from the Indian sub-continent, at the immigration area. I turned in my documents and was asked to proceed to the nearby health office. I was asked a few questions, including a whispered “Is there any possibility that you’re pregnant?”. Ah the shagging questions. In a few minutes, I am done; I had my chest x-rayed – for free and with plenty of polite sorry’s and thank you’s from the attending staff. Or I thought I was.
I cannot find my other luggage at the Gulf Air Flight 007 luggage area. I checked in two bags in Manila, a pink bag and a black american tourister trolley bag but only the former was in sight. I checked again, avoiding a traffic of empty trolleys. And again. And again. But it was nowhere to be found. I asked an airport staff who helped me look around. He gave up and asked me to check it with Gulf Air’s desk. There was no one there. He asked me to just stay around, but after thirty minutes I got fidgety and did another round of looking up. I asked another airport guy who again looked for it. He asked me to look for the Gulf Air staff. The desk was still deserted. Batches of passengers from Doha and Mumbai arrived to pick their luggages from the busy conveyor, but my luggage was nowhere to be found nor was this Gulf Air staff.
It was already 10:00 am. A staff from the Virgin Atlantic desk told me that one alternative is to go out and check the luggage information from the Gulf Air desk at the arrivals area. I went out and found the desk, also deserted. Where the hell are the Gulf Air staff? A few more enquiries then I found a phone in the corner. I dialled the Gulf Air number, explained the situation to the guy at the other end of the line who replied “Why did you go out if you don’t have your luggage? Stay there and I will come to get you.” He was disgruntled. The passenger cannot go in once the passenger exited.
We went back to the luggage area via “authorised persons only” entrance. We arrived at his desk and he asked me to fill-out a lost luggage form. He said he had to make a note though that I already went out before filing the report. I said that he can further make a note there that I went out per the advice of an airport staff because he, the staff in-charge, were not on his desk for a long time. He said that he was just around, I should’ve waited. Well, whatever. I lost my luggage, I hope he’ll lose his job (ok I didn’t really mean that). He talked to another guy in Spanish and then apologized and assured me that they will deliver my bag to my address the following day once they’ve traced it that same day.
I went to the washroom and found out that my period arrived much earlier than expected. Had a cup of coffee while waiting for the university staff. An Indian student whom I had a brief chat in the immigration queue shared the table. I was still stressed out that I cried to that stranger. He asked me if I want a cup of tea and it just made me laugh. It’s good to talk about some familiar things during strange times, so we talked about his hometown in Kerala.
Warwick (woh’rik) staff arrived in their red t-shirts as promised. All students were convened in a corner. I easily warmed up with a postgraduate student from Delhi who will take up creative writing and an undergraduate student from Thailand who’s into something like supply chain management (it’s a very technical title, I can’t remember everything. sorry.). Just when I settled in one of the three buses, a university staff called out my name. An Indian student was looking for me and he got my luggage. Ah, the jitters of being a new student in a new place – he must have hurriedly picked up his luggage not realizing that it was the wrong one. He’s worried where his luggage is. I remember a grey trolley bag (not an american tourister and without an orange tag and a red cloth) lying around in the conveyor area. That must be his.
The view during the long trip to the campus was breathtaking. England was vibrant with autumn colors,yet so still. It’s been a long haul since my offer letter from the university was lost in Kabul, but all my doubts for this decision to study just had to take a backseat. I slept like I have never slept before. It was drizzling when the bus arrived in the campus.
January 29, 2011 at 8:45 pm
Irishka, i had one of my bags lost as well but upon arrival to Moldova from England. it was taken by another person by mistake. i received my bag next day. you came across with bad client service and i was given explanation in romanian by one of the stuff members, however i addressed in russian. this was my first meet of the evidence of progressing romanization but the big majority of ordinary romanian speaking people reply in russian if one addresses in russian to them.
January 30, 2011 at 3:48 pm
toshka, that was a nightmare for me… the only good thing in that was that being in a first world country, i feel more sure that i will be able to recover my bag.
btw, im wondering on the difference between speaking in romanian and in russian. does speaking romanian imply a certain nationalism? rejection of the old soviet order when russian was widely used? curious..