Day 1 in Hull

Tuesday, Sept. 20

I came to Manchester and despite my fears, anxieties, paranoia and trepidation it could not have been a more positive experience for me.  The plane landed a bit early at 8:25 rather than 8:40.  We disembarked and were transported along the flight deck to immigration.  Those with British & EU passports were allowed to go through one lane while the rest of us went through another.  They were fairly quick though and we were serenaded with the sound of stamps on passports.  I was just hoping I would get the same thing.  I got into the line about 9 and was through about 10:30.  As a student to Liverpool said while we stood in line, "It's like Disneyland, only not fun."  Heh, tell me about it.

Well, finally it was my turn and I approached the immigration agent who actually smiled at me.  I handed her my passport with my landing card and she said something about students and I said I am a student and she said, Oh!  Okay!  very nicely and then she proceeded to ask if I had my offer letter, instead I gave her a copy of my CAS which told her what I'm studying and we chatted about the problem they're having with "students" who are enrolled in fake universities.  She knew of Hull and even said it was a good school so, bully for me eh, wot?

I was feeling pretty good, my heart rate went down and I was thinking, alright, we can do this!  She asked me about my previous rejection and I told her that I didn't know what I was doing, didn't really know about the CAS, financials or anything and I was just trying to be pro-active.  She was following me and she seemed to like my answers and I was feeling very good until she told me to have a seat while she checked out the rejection.

oh. crap.

But she came back and told me she didn't realize I had come and had been sent back so I told her about that and she knew that one can't get a visa in Philly.  She then smiled and said to me, "Well, you don't need to worry about that today." And she grabbed her stamp and I cannot tell you the smile of relief that cross my face.  And then she said that she's taken care of that rejection notice on my file and I could have sung her praises!  She said I shouldn't have to worry about answering about that now and I asked her if I needed to have my CAS or financials next time I came through and she said I might need to have the CAS but I shouldn't need the financials.  I think I'll just keep them all on me just in any case.  Better safe than sorry.

So I came up to customs and I stopped long enough to ask them if I needed to declare 4 bottles of wine.  The guy I asked thought about it and said, nah you're ok and so I went through and the first thing I saw was Mark and he had something to say so I told him to hush.  I saw that there were some people from Hull there and I ignored them as I walked right to Mark and gave him a huge hug.  It was only until 4 in the morning that I thought of them but Mark said that they were there for a host of students and not me.  Oh, good.

And then Uncle Phil dropped us off, wished us well and headed home.  Mark and I just chatted and ordered pizza of which I ate 1 slice and declared I was no longer hungry.  We chatted and talked and laughed and we eventually had a short nap.  We woke up, ate a bit more pizza and went to be at 9:30 when I simply could not stay up any longer.

The rest, my dear friends, shall be expounded upon in another post.  As it is now, it's almost 6:30 and I should get supper started before I get hungry and will botch the whole thing.