Seven hours have passed; another four more to go. Having exhausted all the movie options aboard my flight, I am deciding to begin writing for this blog. I have never written a blog post, this is a first, so I am not entirely sure on how to begin. Well, I think it’s probably safe to start by introducing myself. I come from China, born in the busy city of Shanghai. I am what they call an international student, having gone to an international school in Shanghai, high school in Canada, university in the U.S. and now on a plane to LSE for study abroad.

In the last few days, other than packing, my most pressing issue was to get a copy of my original offer letter.  Upon seeing an email that tells us to bring our offer letters, I suddenly realized that I no longer have mine (I think the consulate took mine when I applied for my visa). This was not the first time I found myself missing a piece of document; the last time it happened I was entering the U.S. customs, going to univiersity for the first time. I was held there for at least five hours, questioned back and forth, missed my flight and stranded at the airport for an entire day. Although my good optimisim tells me that it probably isn’t an issue, what if the U.K. customs wants to see an offer letter? This cannot happen again!  After emailing and calling about a dozen people at several LSE departments, I was fourtunate enough to received a pdf version this morning, just before leaving for the airport.  3 more hours to go, hopefully everything goes well at customs…