Big HELLO from Scotland!

Six eventful days after first arriving in Scotland and I’m still undecided about whether I like this place. Upon our arrival at the Aberdeen International Airport, my mum and I were given the Asian “privilege” of getting special attention from the customs officers. And because we were not well-trained in the art of lying, we didn’t escape unscathed. We managed to bring in some stuff that are not quite allowed but sadly, I lost my precious packet of dried scallops. Goodbye, tasty Chinese soup. Perhaps someone will be so kind as to ask chef Wilson for an alternative?

From the airport, the university “Meet and Greet” team was supposed to well, meet and greet us. But… we waited and waited… and they didn’t come! Lucky for us, we met 2 guys from India who were in a similar situation as us and after calling the school, told us to take a taxi from the taxi stand outside. Apparently, there was supposed to be a representative from the school but for some reason he/she was not there. The impressive thing was the school actually had a contingency plan (which I found out at the taxi stand). The airport officer in charge of the taxi stand had been given a list of names of students who were arriving that day and the place of accommodation so all we had to do was hop into a taxi, bags and all, and off we were to the hotel free of charge!

And at the hotel, the most exciting thing since I've been to Aberdeen happened to me! Mum and I were rudely awakened from our nap at about 7pm (we were adjusting to the time difference) by this pitter-patter sound that we thought was the rain coming through the open window. Well, we discovered that it was the ceiling leaking! Minutes later, we actually had a HUGE GUSH of water coming through the ceiling boards... At this moment, the most ridiculous thing flashed through my mind – the trailer for “Dark Water” which showed a mother and daughter in their new flat and water coming through the roof. When they called the building caretaker, they were told that there hasn’t been anybody living upstairs for a long time... Ok, back to real life... we called reception and all the manager said when he came up was sorry and explained that the gentleman upstairs had forgotten to turn off the tap while running a bath... and that's it!

Now, what kindda service would you say it is? For a freaking ₤66 per night, I sure expected much better service (and now that I'm bitching, I have to say it does not provide shower caps, bedroom slippers and a mini fridge bar, all of which I use and consider essential). But the best part was 10 mins after the manager left, the ceiling board collapsed! We now had a gaping hole in the ceiling where we could see the pipes above...

Thankfully this time, we were given another room...but which presented with its own problem because it faced the entrance of a pub and we were kept awake till 3am by singing, shouting and laughing pubbers who apparently didn't care that the next day was a working day... But aha, I am a lot more tolerant of noisy pubbers than I am of leaky ceiling boards that collapse...

Tomorrow, we shall further explore this city... The adventure continues!!