The Journey

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I was getting onto the longest flight I have ever taken (or the longest one I remember)


We bid goodbye to our parents. Fortunately, there were no tears at 3.45 am, but just happy anxious smiles

from both sides. We headed inside confidently, a bunch of 12 students and 2 teachers (The teachers were probably

dreading this long flight with a bunch of 12 of us). After completing check-in, security check, and immigration,

boarding passes in hand we marched towards our departure gate. But not before a quick detour to the food court

where we had to grab something to eat. On reaching the gate, we boarded our first Finnair flight, which would be

taking us to Helsinki. I’ve never been outside of Asia before, so this would essentially be the longest flight I would

ever be on!  We were greeted by the pilot who instead of giving us strict instructions to behave ourselves

welcomed us with a round of rock-paper-scissors against him which had to be won to be allowed onboard.




Our flight took off.  The airplane itself was quite nice, with comfortable leg space (I had an aisle seat thankfully
for my long legs) and some nice screens and tables but by far the most impressive part was the variety of shows,
movies, and games they had available on the in-flight entertainment system. Guess what, I managed to finish 3
Harry Potter movies before we landed.




The next flight from Helsinki to Stockholm had a layover of 2 hours and 30 minutes. Till then we had time to kill,

we quickly finished the security check sat down near a cafe (more free internet 😜), and ate whatever food we

had. Soon, it was time to board the flight, and all of us excitedly got onto our seats and anxiously waited for the

hour-long flight to quickly pass by.



For some reason, this flight had seemed longer than the 9-hour one, and we finally landed in Sweden! 



We quickly finished baggage claim and were welcomed by the host students and their parents. Unfortunately, my

host student could not come to receive me so it was again a little bit of a wait till we reached his house before

we met his family and him. 



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