It all started at 5:00 am on an August morning of 2008.
I was catching a 7:00am flight from Winnipeg, MB to London, England to spend the next 10 months volunteering and studying at an international multi-cultural education centre.
So after a night of partying, pizza, and beer… Then an hour nap or so, a cab was called, and I made my way to the airport over conversation about the wonderful murder-rate in Winnipeg!
Feelin' a little funky from the night before, the flight was long and uncomfortable….If only I would have known what was coming… Should have slept.
I arrived in London at around 9:00 am, and was looking forward to getting to my hostel for a hot shower, and the ability to sleep laying down ( I had to chill in London for a few nights before I made my way to the school). Dazed and generally confused from the many hours of gross airplane everything, I made my way to one of the many immigration lines… When the time came the lady asked me her questions, I answered them, then she took my passport, and told me go sit down, pointing to a group of chairs that had the feeling of the outside of the principals office. “This can’t be good,” I was thinking…
After a half hour or so a man came, called my name, and told me to follow him. We walked to where my luggage was waiting, and he continued to ask me questions. Basically, they weren’t convinced of my intentions in the UK… I still don’t know where the confusion was. We picked up my stuff and continued to a search station, where this dude searched the shit out of everything I had. After tearing apart my things, and finding nothing unusual, he tells me to pack it back up… A prick, this guy was. He asked me some more of the same questions, and I gave him some more of the same answers. Finally, we made our way to what I thought was me leaving the airport, but in fact turned out to be the detention cell… Where I would spend the next 16 hours. They took my finger prints, photos, etc, and interviewed me once more. Again asking the same questions, which all got the same answers… After their last interview, and failed attempts at pressuring me into admitting that I had used deception to illegally enter the UK, I was thrown back in the cell and was told that I was to be deported on the next flight to Canada. Oh, and banned from the UK for 1 year!
After 16 hours in the detention cell, I was transported via “prisoner van” to a detention centre only a few minutes from the airport. After some more questions, paper work, and a medical exam, I was given a plastic bag of toiletries, and with that alone was showed to my room. Oh, where two other prisoners were already sleeping, and awoken with my arrival - “Great… Hey guys! Wana not kill me in my sleep?”
So a QUICK shower, and a restless nap was had, and I was back in the armoured van on my way to my already missed detention cell at the airport! The time now was around 9:00 am and my flight to Canada was scheduled for around 10:30am. So with over 24 hours of detention, and basically no sleep I found myself on another plain, making its way to Calgary, AB. The bastards couldn’t even do the deed of flying me to my home town. I landed in Calgary, bought myself a ticket to Winnipeg and after a 48 hour trip (24 in the air, and 24 in detention cells), I had returned to Winnipeg from my UK adventure. And that was my first time being "booted" from a country.
R.D.
I was catching a 7:00am flight from Winnipeg, MB to London, England to spend the next 10 months volunteering and studying at an international multi-cultural education centre.
So after a night of partying, pizza, and beer… Then an hour nap or so, a cab was called, and I made my way to the airport over conversation about the wonderful murder-rate in Winnipeg!
Feelin' a little funky from the night before, the flight was long and uncomfortable….If only I would have known what was coming… Should have slept.
I arrived in London at around 9:00 am, and was looking forward to getting to my hostel for a hot shower, and the ability to sleep laying down ( I had to chill in London for a few nights before I made my way to the school). Dazed and generally confused from the many hours of gross airplane everything, I made my way to one of the many immigration lines… When the time came the lady asked me her questions, I answered them, then she took my passport, and told me go sit down, pointing to a group of chairs that had the feeling of the outside of the principals office. “This can’t be good,” I was thinking…
After a half hour or so a man came, called my name, and told me to follow him. We walked to where my luggage was waiting, and he continued to ask me questions. Basically, they weren’t convinced of my intentions in the UK… I still don’t know where the confusion was. We picked up my stuff and continued to a search station, where this dude searched the shit out of everything I had. After tearing apart my things, and finding nothing unusual, he tells me to pack it back up… A prick, this guy was. He asked me some more of the same questions, and I gave him some more of the same answers. Finally, we made our way to what I thought was me leaving the airport, but in fact turned out to be the detention cell… Where I would spend the next 16 hours. They took my finger prints, photos, etc, and interviewed me once more. Again asking the same questions, which all got the same answers… After their last interview, and failed attempts at pressuring me into admitting that I had used deception to illegally enter the UK, I was thrown back in the cell and was told that I was to be deported on the next flight to Canada. Oh, and banned from the UK for 1 year!
After 16 hours in the detention cell, I was transported via “prisoner van” to a detention centre only a few minutes from the airport. After some more questions, paper work, and a medical exam, I was given a plastic bag of toiletries, and with that alone was showed to my room. Oh, where two other prisoners were already sleeping, and awoken with my arrival - “Great… Hey guys! Wana not kill me in my sleep?”
So a QUICK shower, and a restless nap was had, and I was back in the armoured van on my way to my already missed detention cell at the airport! The time now was around 9:00 am and my flight to Canada was scheduled for around 10:30am. So with over 24 hours of detention, and basically no sleep I found myself on another plain, making its way to Calgary, AB. The bastards couldn’t even do the deed of flying me to my home town. I landed in Calgary, bought myself a ticket to Winnipeg and after a 48 hour trip (24 in the air, and 24 in detention cells), I had returned to Winnipeg from my UK adventure. And that was my first time being "booted" from a country.
R.D.
Sleep deprivation is like doing drugs, only cheaper. You start bumping into walls and you probably shouldn't drive. p.s., it's no coincidence that you landed in Calgary, it is a suck hole of wrong doings in the universe.
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