long, delayed update pt. 1

This post will be mad long (because I feel bad for my lack of updating, even though I really shouldn't give a damn), so skim through it if you have short attention spans. (and it will be divided into parts as well, since blogger keeps crashing when I try to publish this)

First of all, I can't believe its almost been a month since I've left home. I feel like I was in London yesterday, getting lost in the punk rock market streets of Camden Town or exploring museums for free in order to find asmusement. Sooner or later, it's gonna be winter break and I'm gonna find myself in Paris, lost, confused and probably poor.

I left home on Tues, September 19th. I actually finished packing the night before I left. I probably would have stayed up all night packing if it wasn't for my fucking amazing friends who forced me to pack (I see you Jess, John, Jeewon & Nima) and spent my last night in Cali with me. Anyway. My flight was at 5:25pm with Virgin Atlantic. The line was insanely long when I got to the airport (which was about 2:30), so it took almost 2 hours to check in. My parents stayed and waited the whole time. When I finally got my bags checked in and tickets, I realized what was about to happen and I dreaded it. I dreaded it because I knew I was going to bust up into tears and shit. I'M A MAN. I CAN'T CRY! haha. I gave both my parents goodbye hugs. I rarely have physical contact with my dad (it's the whole Asian Male thing), so it was quite interesting to give a hug to him. My mother was already crying her eyes out when I gave her a hug, so she wasn't helping me maintain my emotional manhood. My dad started to say something along the lines of how crazy this all is. A son of his, going to study abroad in the UK. He would have never guessed that I would actually do decently in college and manage to go study abroad for a year. He compared himself to his dad, and told me about how my grandfather would spend money on alcohol and smokes as soon as he made some, and now he feels that he has done somewhat better than my grandfather did for him. That hit me. My dad never opens up about that kind of shit, and then, on the hour of my flight, opens up to me like that. So you can imagine the emotional tension between my parents and I at this point. I try to end the goodbyes quickly, because I realized that I have to get to my gate within the hour. I start to walk up the stairs. All this time, I managed to stay emotionally stable, but when I started climbing up the stairs to get to the gate entrances, I started tearing up. It looked like a movie scene. No fucking joke. I was trying so hard to not cry. I held my breathe, I took deep breathes, I did whatever I felt was necessary in order to not cry. I managed to hold back, but I did drop a couple single tears. I turned around one more time, in the middle of going up the stairs, and bowed to my parents twice. Then I got in line for the security check, and didn't see them again.

The plane ride was better than a lot of other flights I've been in. I'd recommend Virgin Atlantic to anyone, fo real. However, I do have a few things to bitch about, because, I can? First of all, I requested a vegetarian meal and the meal I got was basically cheese and tomatos. I was hungry as shit, so I ate it, but after three hours, my stomach started to make some beast-like noises that scared the preppy middle aged british man sitting next to me. I had to go to the bathroom about 4 times within the 4th hour of digestion yo. Shit wasn't pretty. Literally. Another complaint I have was the fact that the plane was so damn cold. I dont know how the British roll in these flights, but the tempature had to be around 60f. California isn't even that cold at night. Also, the guy I was sitting next to gave me this snobby vibe that I really hated. I tried to talk to the man, but all he did was nod his head and go back to reading some British mystery novel that seemed like it was a rip-off of a Clive Cussler book, which is not a good author to rip-off from anyway. I met a white girl from Anaheim, who was visiting her relatives in Scotland. She supposedly works at Joe's Crab Shack near Downtown Disney and told me she would hook me up with discounts if I ever stopped by. I also crushed on this black girl that was a crazy mix of halle berry and naomi campbell. AND SHE HAD A BRITISH ACCENT. It wasn't one of those rough accents. The way she talked was so damn sexy. wooo. A-fucking-MAZING. Also, there were these two twin guys sitting across from me that looked like Abercrombie models. I swear, they must have modeled or something because they had the whole look and jaw structure thing going on. However, I can't explain their choice to ride in economy. Beautiful people don't ride in economy class. (ha) I was also told that the flight attendants would be cute, but no. Oh no. (yes, the UK has made me more superficial.)

TBC...