human - blog

Tuesday, April 10, 2007

• me and my passport


it was a one fine afternoon in September 2006, when I took a stroll to the post office to send all my documents to Croydon Home Office for my UK Residence Card application process. I just had finished my enrollment at the Northumbria University in the morning, thus couldn't send the documents earlier despite of the fact that I had been arriving in UK since the beginning of the year.

since that day, for months I was living in England without my passport. It was the first time in my life being abroad without any proper traveling documents at all.. and boy it sucked... big time! especially for a frequent flyer like me who is so used to hop on and off [budget] planes.. :) jetting to the main land Europe. it felt that i was being imprisoned in the land of the Queen, no way out nor in. I must forgot about all the plans I had made including the one that I was supposed to go during Christmas holiday.

for months I was waiting anxiously, hoping to see a silver envelope with my passport inside when I opened my mailbox everyday. even when we had to move to the other apartment still in the same building, I begged my previous landlord for keeping the key of her mailbox, so that I could still open it. and as months went by, the anxiety began to grow bigger and bigger until the point when I was thinking that I might never see my passport again.

it took Home Office 6 months to process my application. And that was the amount of time I had to live with my own anxieties of staying 'illegally' in a foreign country. so, when I finally saw a silver envelope inside my previous mailbox a couple of days ago, I couldn't hold my self for not jumping in joy for days after. It was a HUGE relieve, especially when I saw this nice Residence Documentation sticker which lasts until 2012 on one of its pages.

for many, this photo might not has anything special to be posted on this photoblog. but for me, it means a whole world! I took it with isight first thing in the morning, one day after i got my passport back as that was the only one thing i remembered when i woke up. my face might looks very dopey in this picture as i even hadn't washed it when i pushed the click button. but who cares? the big grin says it all...


**photo was taken with macbook pro's isight


loucee said it on 12:02 AM | |