Finally able to be in my university in person, a mere 7 hours away by flight. In between all my fears of missing home, of not being able to adapt, of not being able to make friends, one of the comforts I brought with me was my tea set from home.
I was terribly afraid of any of my tea pieces breaking on the arduous journey, though thankfully there was not a single new scratch on any of them despite (likely) being thrown around on the plane. Thank you bubble wrap!
The journey there wasn't direct as well, I had to quarantine for 10 days in a hotel. Though they had a kettle, it was one of those cheap plastic kinds and I wasn't about to subject my tea leaves to plastic kettle water. Yuck. The hotels did have some teabags, and I tried all of them to find myself sorely disappointed with each one of them. At the very least they could have given something good ;(.
Once I arrived at my hostel, I discovered a glaring problem: there was no kettle. Crap! I hurriedly ordered one from Amazon and the next 2 days were a painful but exciting wait for my shiny new kettle. I splurged like 200 dirhams for it, much more than I expected to pay but this kettle has a fancy feature that is variable temperatures :D.
And thus the kettle arrived, and then I discovered yet another problem that is the water quality. The tap water here is drinkable, but definitely way too hard to make good tea. I resorted to grabbing large mineral bottles from my dining hall using my meal swipes to use as tea water I suppose. Turned out not bad! I'm back to drinking tea, though in a new location. Strangely enough, I feel as if it tastes different, though maybe its just the melancholy of home kicking in. I used to sit myself by the balcony back at home when I drank tea, and every taste of the familiar teas reminds me of home.
I still have quite a steady stock of teas from back home, but I'm excited to order a new batch of tea here. Looking forward to my next order then, new lands comes with new tea!