Unexpected Kindness

Right now, I’m sitting in my room at Roehampton. It feels a little bit lonely right now because only the international students are moving in right now. Thus, campus is eerily quiet, save for the chirping of birds and the squirrels running along wooden fences (it startled me the first time). I’m actually feeling a little bit homesick now.

I don’t want to blog too much tonight, so I’m just going to tell my story as quickly as possible. Margaret took me to the airport in Almería. It’s by far the smallest airport I’ve ever been to. There are five gates and one security check. And we had to walk to the plane.

The plane ride was pretty uneventful. It’s weird not having assigned seating on EasyJet. I tried to sleep or listen to music—anything to prevent me from worrying about getting from Gatwick to Roehampton. When I arrived in Gatwick, I had two options in my head: Option A, I bite the bullet and take a taxi, and Option B, I take the tube to the station nearest the school and take a taxi the rest of the way.

Taking a taxi would be disgustingly expensive, but at least the chances of getting to Roehampton in one piece would be high. Taking the train and then the tube seemed more of a hassle despite the savings, especially because I had two suitcases, and with my sense of direction, I’d be bound to get lost. And then the lady who checked my papers at immigration actually recommended I take the Gatwick Express to Victoria and then take a taxi the rest of the way.

With all of these ideas in mind, I inquired at the airport information desk. The man grimaced when I mentioned taking a taxi, and told me that train would be the best option. With that, he pointed me in the direction of the train information desk. When I got up to the counter, however, the young man there didn’t know where Roehampton was. I thought he was going to just brush me off, but to my surprise, he offered to look it up on Google for me.

That was when the trouble began. For some reason, he was using the keyboard from hell. When he tapped a key, it would type the letter 20 times. And then when he pressed the backspace, it erased the entire field. It took him about 10 minutes just to type in “Roehampton University.” Meanwhile, a long queue was beginning to form behind me. I seriously prayed that God would heal the keyboard.

Once he found the nearest train station to Roehampton, it was smooth sailing from there. He actually gave me an entire route plan to use, pointing me towards the automatic ticket machines. The plan was to take the Southern line towards Victoria, then transfer at Clapham Junction, taking southwest line towards Weybridge, then get off at Barnes.

The only problem is that I have no idea how to use them. I was a little panicked, but I asked the woman behind me, and she basically did the entire process for me so I could buy my ticket. Then, when I made it down to the platform, she actually caught up to me because she wanted to tell me that I would need to make a transfer.

When I got to Clapham, though, I thought that I would be taking a train at the same platform, just across the way. I sat for about 10 minutes wondering if I was right or not. The girl I asked said she thought it was okay. About two minutes before my train was supposed to arrive, I asked an attendant and discovered that I had to go from platform 11 and 12 to platform 5 and 6. Another small moment of panic.

Fortunately, he kindly offered to help me carry my bags down the stairs. Then I briskly walked to the next platform. At the bottom of the stairs, a young man (maybe about my age) asked if I needed help carrying my bags up the stairs. I don’t know why they don’t have escalators or something. Either way, I made it onto the train just as it was about to leave.

When I got off at Barnes, I ran into another young man, who asked me if I was an international student moving in today. I said that I was, and asked if he was a student. He told me that he used to go to Roehampton, but that his girlfriend was moving in today as well. Then, to my surprise, he left his bike, grabbed my bags, and helped me carry them up the stairs and across the street.

Then he had to run back down to meet his girlfriend, who was arriving on the next train. I stood there on the sidewalk looking completely baffled. He told me that I had to take the bus, but he didn’t say what number or—if he did—I didn’t hear him. Another girl was standing there, and when I asked her, she told me which numbers I needed. It was then that I realized that I didn’t have any pounds (at least, no coins) on me. So she gave me two pounds and quickly caught her bus.

I walked with my two suitcases to the bus stop and stood there, pounds in hand, still confused. I saw a girl that I thought seemed pretty young, and asked her which bus I needed to take to get to the university. Not only did she tell me which bus to take, she helped me carry my suitcases onto the bus, and when we disembarked, she helped me take them across the street and up to the main entrance of Roehampton.

From there, I had to sign in, grab my welcome materials, get my key, and move in. I was grateful that some of the upperclassmen are employed to help us; I had one of them to help me move my two suitcases across campus and up four flights of stairs. I don’t know how I would have done it otherwise.

Also, as I was walking across campus, I saw the same guy who had been waiting for his girlfriend. I waved at him and he waved back—I never thought I would see him again. But as I was waiting in the welcome center, he ran over and quickly gave me his email, then rushed off again. That was definitely unexpected.

Overall, I definitely praise God for helping me make it from Almería to Roehampton safely. He totally provided people along the way to assist or take care of me, especially making that trip from Gatwick Airport to the school. A lot of people have told me that British people aren't friendly, but if not for their kindness, I don't think I would have made it in one piece.

Frankly though, the best part of all was that I had prepared myself mentally to pay £70 or so, and I actually spent about £11 total. I feel like a good Chinese.