My Happy Days

5th Anniversary~!~~!!

What would you think about if I say 5th anniversary? Wedding anniversary? My blog 5th anniversary? No.. It is actually 5th anniversary of me and my batch-mates stepped into this “undiscovered” land on the earth.

5 years before, a group of people and I took an international flight operated by Uzbekistan Airways from KLIA to MOSCOW via TASHKENT.

I think you all will know about KLIA, how advance it is and MOSCOW how big it is. But how about TASHKENT, we transited there for 3-5hours. At 1st I thought a nice transit hall will be provided almost same like KLIA. But guess what? The transit hall is only a big HALL, carpeted, poorly ventilated, 2 toilets (1 for male and 1 for female), it seems to be it is more like an old museum. What I could do at that time was looking at my watch and hope the time passed faster, because I thought condition in aircraft will be better than this horrible transit hall. When I was in 2nd aircraft to Moscow, I was completely disappointed by the condition! The aircraft is so small; I wonder how it can fly an international route. After research, it is made in Russia, and the flying range is almost same like big commercial aircraft, longer range than Boeing 737. Okay. How about the seats in aircraft, it is sofa! When you sit down on it, you will sink down! Super narrow overhead compartments and the condition is totally BAD! Anyway that was 5 years ago, now I heard the airline operator had upgrade their aircraft and now is operated by Airbus, a better one.

When reach MOSCOW International Airport, we were given immigration form written in Russian! I didn’t know any Russian language at that time, and yet the immigration form was in Russian! I wonder how I passed through the immigration. Only 4 officers were working that time, it took us more than 2 hours to completely clear the queue!

The journey from MOSCOW to KURSK took us more than 8 hours on bus. The bus was stuffy and poorly ventilated. At that time, male and female were separated, male on lousier bus while female on a better bus. So unfair!

Almost around 12am in the morning (11.4.03), we reached our hostel. We were SHOCKED! The hostel more like a prison in movie! The light bulb was blinking and weak. We were divided into rooms. I was given 3-sitters room with a Chinese and an Indian.

At that time, there were still snow on the ground and the temperature was below 0. We were NOT informed that the electric sockets in Russia were 2 pins and almost all the electric appliances were 3 pins. Luckily there was something called converters.

There were no internet connections and telephone service at that time. I waited 1 and half month, to get my internet connections and sim card. I was so so happy that time, because finally I can communicate with my family.

There were no shopping centers or shopping malls, all marketing we had to solve it at rinak (market).

It is so fast, 5 years just like blink of eyes. Over 5 years, my condition here getting improved a lot, there are more shopping malls built and there is one opening soon (one of the biggest). Thanks God that He lead me throughout the time staying in this horrible conditions, I admit that I was having superb severe homesick! I wished to go back home as soon as possible, but I don’t know why now I’m still here continuing my studies. All these belong to the glories of Lord. It is him who guided me so much. And of course my family and friends supporting me. I was told by my dad that by just looking at the SUN, I will see him, because he is looking at the SUN too.

He used his ICQ to chat with me everyday (as long as the connection is up) and his nick was HappyMan, he told me need to be Happy EveryDay, that’s why my blogs are based on Happy EveryDay

For more information, you can visit LynnWei’s blog, she is one of my batch-mate and my group mate too!