Josefin Malmqvist

Leaving Oxford.

Time’s up for this time. Time to pack.

7 o’clock the next morning, the packing adventure began. 12 hours later, a helpful friend, many cups of coffee and a missed flight, I realised that I’d clearly underestimated the beast packing up an entire year in boxes involve – again.  

Possibly the worst day I could possibly imagine.

Packing until I almost collapsed. My plane to Malmö was due to leave at 9 pm. At 10 pm I finally left my room for the 2,5 hours bus ride to the airport. After having booked a new flight the next day, booked a hotel room by the airport, missed the transfer bus to the hotel and finally reached a bed at 1 am in the morning, I was as tired as I’ve ever been. I put on the BBC to get some news. After not having watched a TV programme since around Christmas, it was a bit of a sad surprise. During the 30 minutes I was awake to watch, the entire news flow consisted in terrorist threats. OMG. Bombings here, bombings there. Threats and Usama. What’s wrong with our news converage today? Is there nothing more important to report?

Next morning, Thursday. Get up, bus to the airport. Check in. Overweight. The guy behind the counter felt sorry for me. He made a trick and, without showing it to his collegues, let me off without paying for my extra kilos. Thank you! Three quaters of an hour later, the woman in the security check informed me my umbrella was considered a weapon and so I wouldn’t be allowed to board the plane. This story never ends. I’m busy enough making sure I have no scissors, liquids or other terror-threats in my luggage, but this time I clearly missed the umbrella. So running back, after the check-in had closed, convinsing them that I should be allowed to check-in my umbrella, but as it’s white (a beautiful parasol!) I wanted to wrap it in some plastic. Panic. Running around. Check-in. Again.

Waiting in the line to the security check. Again. Now, I’m getting late. It’s 10 minutes until the plane is due to leave. When I finally reach the departure area, all the screens were out of function. Now, it was time for the plane to leave. None to ask. Omg.

It took some time, but I got home. The plane was late. Eventually I reached Copenhagen. What a trip. My two suitcases, parasol, plastic bag with two hats, handbag and myself somehow miraculously made it home!

It was harder than I could ever imagine to get home this time.