Sunday, January 24

it's the end of my first day in Manchester. Has been a full day of exploring new things. It all started from the airport where me and my friends are like the only Asians among all the British, from Changi to London Heathrow to Manchester airport. I remember blogging about a pseudo experience in a faraway country when I was in Phuket. But this time round, I'm really in a faraway country where the majority are indeed the British (or at least we are the few Asians around). It seemed weird from the beginning since we already do not fit in to the crowd, but I try not let physical appearance be of any hindrances in my interactions with them. I do treasure this opportunity in fact :)

Even after being here for a full day, the fact that I'm in Manchester now still seemed like a dream which I've been thinking of since I got the place 2 years back. Maybe the wait had been so long but it was unthinkable that it happened. I thank God for His protection over me throughout the journey and the smooth settling of my accommodation. The only grievance I have is that there is no power supply from my power sockets, so I basically have no access to charge any electronic devices. Thankfully I can depend on my friend who is staying nearby me. That also explains why I am typing this from the computer cluster within the hall now. (One interesting thing i discovered through this was that the British has slightly diff keys on its keyboard)

Spent the day exploring the city. I really have to say it was one of the most daring thing we've done thus far. We had no maps with us, just based on my vague memory which i recall from the map i saw previously. We had no idea what bus to take. So what happened was we just chose a bus to board and asked how much to pay for a trip to the city, not even knowing where we want to go. We alighted at what seemed to be a busy street and decided to alight there. Everything was basically pure exploring with completely little knowledge of where we are. Thats what I call true explorers.

Somehow, we stumbled upon Chinatown, discovered a whole lot of Chinese groceries which are great for CNY meals. Thank God for that. Later we stumbled upon the shopping district of Manchester. It really is amazing. It has all the brands that I was looking for in UK (well at least most of them) like Topman, H&M, Primark. There were some amazing items and at pretty affordable prices too especially Primark :)

Meals where not amazing today, Had subway and kfc for lunch and dinner respectively. Food outside are really not worth the money. It was the first day and we just had to settle the easy way out but we'll try to cook our own meals on weekends. Thank God our breakfast and dinner are catered :)

Would love to upload pictures on fb but that will have to wait till Mon when the repair man comes in. Till then, I'll have to continue to use this comp to type my updates

jel; 4:27 am