Survival Guide - by Francesca Esce

Survival Guide: 9 Tips to Surviving a Night in the Airport

by Francesca Esce

If you are spending a semester abroad, chances are, you’ll have to take a plane or two; unless there’s a group boat trip across the Atlantic that was organized by the Office of International Programs that I wasn’t filled in on. There’s also a good chance that you will become more acquainted with flight while in Europe, or wherever else you might be studying. Cheap flights within Europe, for example, are much easier to come by than cheap flights within the United States. With apps like Hopper and Skyscanner, it’s easy to find the best deals to shell out some dough to get to a place you’ve always wanted to go. In fact, just last week for Fall Break, I visited 3 amazing European cities in 6 days. Which, by default, means I was on 4 flights in 6 days. Which means, coincidentally, I spent a lot of time in airports. The unfortunate truth is that often times, the more flights you take, the greater probability there is of something going wrong and perhaps leaving you no choice but to sleep overnight in the airport. Maybe the coach bus (*cough* National Express *cough*) you booked a ticket for was an HOUR AND A HALF LATE and you missed your flight to ROME, so you had to pay an extra £50 to spend 16 HOURS in LUTON AIRPORT instead of the cozy AIRBNB THAT YOU BOOKED IN THE HEART OF ROME and MAYBE NATIONAL EXPRESS WOULDN’T EVEN GIVE YOU A REFUND…(ok, calm down, Chessie.) Anyway, there’s always a chance that this may happen to you, so here’s some tips that I’ve picked up that might help you stay sane for whatever amount of time you may have to spend in an airport.

1.    Set-Up Camp

If you don’t have enough room in your luggage for a pop-up tent or a hammock of some sort, I’d recommend taking the time to scan the airport for the comfiest chairs you can find. This will be key. Don’t be afraid to lurk around seats that are already occupied, you are going to want to comfy chairs. Chances are, you will be at the airport longer than whoever is currently occupying the chair, and you will be able to snag it as soon as they get up. Finders keepers. Once you’re in the chair, mark your territory. This chair is yours now. Maybe even hiss at passerby so they know not to mess with you and your chair.

PRO-TIP: Combine two chairs into a bed for maximum comfort.  

2.  Find An Outlet (And Protect It With Your Life)

In a small airport like London Luton, wall outlets are like a watering hole. All the unlucky people who would rather spend the night at the airport than stay at a cheap hotel are gonna want an outlet at some point. Be warned: if you have your chair-bed set up near an outlet, chances are you will befriend 3 Italian men, one of which only speaks Italian and keeps talking to you in Italian even though you literally cannot understand him at all. This may continue for 4-6 hours, but he might buy you french fries from Burger King, which is a huge plus.

PRO-TIP: Invest in a portable battery USB charger in case no outlets are available near you.

3.  Find a Way to Watch Netflix

I don’t care what you have to do, get the Netflix app on your phone. Not enough storage space? Delete useless things like old photos or your entire contact list. You can also stream shows on your browser if you’re really desperate. This makes the time go by faster. 

           

            

4.  Pack a Book

Always be prepared, if you are taking any sort of transit, to have to wait. Always having a book on you is a good way to combat boredom and to keep others from talking to you while you are in your chair-bed at the airport in a bad mood.

           

5.  Make Sure You Eat

Airports aren’t always the cheapest options for food, but you’re bound to find a meal deal of some sort. Make sure you eat something, and hope that something isn’t a burned, over-priced cheeseburger from Burger King. Your best bet would probably be a £3.79 meal deal from W.H Smith and maybe a package of gummies to get you through your Grey’s Anatomy marathon. 

            

6.  Make Sure You Snapchat Excessively So Your Friends Feel Bad For You

If your friends are going to send you snaps from their fall break destinations, best be ready to send them some “I just cried in the airport bathroom” selfies. Maybe even send out a tweet that explicitly says “feel bad for me” so everyone will.

            

7.  Try and Travel With a Buddy

Having a friend with you is really helpful to keep watch over your campsite if you need to use the bathroom or go cry to your mom on FaceTime in public. They are also good subjects for creative Snapchat stories and you can set up both your chair-beds to create a blockade around YOUR outlets. Airports can be lonely, and having a friend with you is always a plus. *(Thanks for being my rock, Eunice.)

            

8.  Beware of Thieves

Always have your stuff nearby. It’s sad to say but you really can’t trust anyone. Sleep with your valuables if you need to sleep and you’re on your own or sleep on your luggage. Otherwise, take turns sleeping with a friend, so one of you can keep watch. If you are really worried, there are always security guards around airports. Know where they are and ask for help if you need it. 

          

9.  Keep Things In Perspective

This may seem like the worst thing that could happen, but just remember that you get to travel to these amazing cities and experience wonderful things. This doesn’t mean you don’t get to be annoyed or angry, ‘cause let’s be honest, spending the night in the airport can suck. 

         

        

On a more serious note, in the midst of the Syrian Refugee Crisis, millions of people have been displaced from their homes due to the conflicts in Syria. Many of these people are making homes in train stations and transit, trying to find their next connection, and sadly, many nations aren’t welcoming them. For me, I knew I would be able to get on a plane after my 16 hour endeavor at the airport. There are so many refugees who don’t know when their waiting will end. Please consider donating and learning about the refugee crisis here.

How to Survive the Bath Trip - by Stephanie Gibbs

How to Survive the Bath Trip

Ah, the Bath trip.  A staple in every Ithaca College student’s London experience.  However, this trip is not for the faint of heart.  Let it be known before you dedicate yourself, and £85, that this trip will test you.  It will test what you thought you knew about history, what you thought you knew about your new roommates, and what you thought you knew about yourself.  …But mostly it will test how long you can sit on a bus without going crazy.  If any of you are wondering, “Should I go”, I hope this post adds some clarity to your decision (I’ll let you decide in what way).

Step 1: Signing Up

One of the hardest things for college students to do apparently, is to sign up for things on time.  It doesn’t matter that there is a dirty great big obvious sign stuck on a post in the middle of the London Center lobby, nor does it matter than this sign does not move for an entire week.  More likely than not, you will forget to sign up and you will have to suffer through the influx of Snapchats of people snoring on the bus.  Not only that, but you will have to dutifully like all the poorly filtered images of the Wells Cathedral on Instagram as you eat cereal in your PJs.  And to top it off, you will try your hardest, but you will fail to ignore the ever so punny Facebook posts saying “This rocks” as all your friends stand in front of Stonehenge.  SIGN UP FOR THE TRIP ON TIME.

Step 2: The Bus

You will be expected to be on the bus in front of the London Center by 7 am.  Not bad, except for the fact that for most of us that means waking up around 6:30 am and that was no fun.  It was around that time that I started to envy my roommate still sleeping in our flat.  Bring snacks for this essentially giant road trip and please, for the love of god, DO NOT bring a salami sandwich that makes the whole bus smell like a deli.  I’m looking at you Seat 27.  Other than that, try to sleep as much as possible, pee at every pit stop, and remember, you paid to sit on this bus.

Pro Tip: Bring a backpack instead of carry-on luggage.  Your bus driver will thank you.

Step 3: Avebury, Glastonbury Abbey, Wells Cathedral

Now the fun stuff.  I’m going to graze over this part of the trip partly because its beyond words, partly because I want you to experience it yourself, and partly because it’s all blurred together.  I will tell you this: Avebury is where you’ll get the best pictures of your friends standing dramatically on a hill.  Glastonbury Abbey is where you will get to write fun comments in the visitors’ book like “Jesus would have loved this place” and where a man wearing old clothing will take you through an old church to realize that England is old.  Wells Cathedral, in my case at least, is where you’ll realize that the rule for photographs (aka: you have to pay to take them) is a lie and you should take as many photos as you can.  Trust me, you don’t want to spend £2 to find out everyone’s taking pictures for free.

Step 4: BATH! OMG WE FINALLY GOT TO BATH!!!!!!!

Did I say this was a Bath trip?  Oh silly me, by Bath I meant that you will be in Bath for about 18 hours and 12 of those hours will be spent passed out in a hostel trying to recover from waking up at 6:30 am, spending half the day on a bus, and the other half looking at things too old to comprehend.  If you’re still up passed 9 pm, you’re made of stronger stuff.  When you arrive you will be given free time during which many student try to do a pub crawl.  To put that into perspective and to give you a little fun fact, Bath has more pubs per square mile than London (or so I’ve been told).

Get excited everyone, your hostel has free breakfast!  …It consists of cereal, toast, and fruit.  I usually hate cereal, but seeing as it free and I’m cheap I ate about three bowls of Frosted Flakes.  After this, it’s time to pack up once again and head to the Roman Baths! This was probably one of the most amazing “museums” I’ve ever been in and you really just have to go to find out why.  Also, since you’re there and since you just spent three hours walking around, you will have to drink some of the bath water and you will realize why they say it tastes like boiled pigeon feathers.  #WorthIt

After the Roman Baths, you can choose to go out on your own or take a walk around bath.  DON’T GO ON THE WALK, DON’T DO IT!  Your legs will be dead and you’ll have missed out on awesome things like the Jane Austin museum.  To be honest the “museum” (aka: a house they kept looking really old) wasn’t so exciting.  The exciting part came at the end where you could dress up in Regency era clothing, write with a feather and ink, and drink proper tea and biscuits.  But the REALLY fun part comes when you almost miss the bus and have to sprint down the cobble stone streets of Bath.

Step 5: Stonehenge

An hour on the now smelly bus and we’re at Stonehenge.  People will tell you a lot of things about Stonehenge.  They will tell you, you have to stand far away from it.  False. You can’t touch it but I wouldn’t say you’re fair.  They will tell you, you have to walk to get from the gift shop to the stones.  False.  Take the free shuttle that comes with your student pass and wave at all you friends walking on the side of the road as you pass by.  Finally they will tell you that there’s not much to do after about the first 5 minutes.  Bullsh*t.  They obviously weren’t trying hard enough to come up with the best touristy photos ever.  Luckily, I succeeded.

Step 6: Go on this trip no matter how poorly I’ve described it, no matter how long you’re stuck on a bus, and no matter how many times you wish your feet would stop hurting.

I’m so glad I went on this trip.

2 WEEKS - by Mike Levine

2 WEEKS

Anxiety overwhelmed me on the ride to JFK airport in NY, as I prepared for my departure. However, the anxiety melted away when I saw some friendly Ithaca College faces sitting at the gate; all of us filled with the same emotions of fear and most importantly, excitement! I got a burger from Shake Shack with my friends Maddie and Taylor, strapped on my travel fanny pack with my passport and papers (thanks mom and dad), and got ready to board the plane. Two movies, two beers, a nap, and a muffin later we finally landed and my adventure began. Not even 4 hours in the UK and I was on my way to look for at a flat, and the rest is history.

It’s been two weeks here in London, and I already feel like I’ve aged 5 years. I pay bills for an incredible flat in Bayswater (with a rooftop deck!!!), I’ve mastered the underground rail system, I’ve planned trips to Bath, Dover, Budapest, Berlin, Dublin, Amsterdam, Edinburgh and Italy, and have downed 32 cups of proper tea since I landed in London, Heathrow, and I don’t plan on stopping anytime soon. I’ve had a week of classes and secured a marketing internship at Love Home Swap on Oxford Street (the equivalent to 5^th Ave in NYC), as well as a job here at ICLC, where I was given this blog assignment.

   

It’s only been two weeks, but in addition to becoming a full-fledged adult I’ve had some fun as well. I’ve gone sight seeing around Westminster, saw Richard II at Shakespeare’s Globe Theater, experienced Notting Hill Carnival, and strolled around Portabello’s Market. I also rode a Santander bike through Kensington Garden, hit up some bars and pubs, threw a flat warming party for our friends at IC, and to top it all off, got stuck in the worlds smallest elevator for an hour with four of my flat mates while two British firemen worked to pry us out of the non-ventilated lift. Needless to say I wouldn’t change any of these experiences for the world! (Except maybe the elevator disaster). 

Two weeks in, and every morning I wake up and have a cup of tea (because it’s better than instant coffee from Tesco), sit out on my deck, and get ready for my commute to school and/or my internship; tasks I normally wouldn’t be able to do in Ithaca. In New York I would sleep until the last possible second, literally roll out of bed, put on my layers and head out into the tundra with my head down, making sure not to slip on sheets of ice. Here, even when it’s raining (and it rains, A LOT) I walk to the tube station with my head up, eyes wide, and I’m excited. Thank you I SEE ELSIE.

"How's London?" - by Allison Taylor

“How’s London?”

Today I sit, on a mostly stable chair, trying to write about my first week in London. What is there to say? I seem to be torn between wanting to say too much and too little, between wanting to list out every detail of these first few days and wanting to hoard some of the moments for myself. Truthfully, I know much of the emotion and sensation of London will be lost as I try to bring focus to a series of unfocused experiences. And by unfocused, I do not mean that the sensation itself is clouded, just that the emotions start to bleed into each other as things just seem to keep happening.

This leads me to what I think is going to be my focus of this post: the most difficult question people ask me…

“How’s London?”

I know that people ask this out of just politeness and curiosity. Many probably expect little more than a “Good.” from me, but I have never been the type of person to just compress my feelings into the expected answer. So, I end up giving them something much more lengthy than expected. I attempt to say everything and nothing all at one.

I say something like this…

London is… more than I can say. It is good and bad. Comfortable and frightening. Loud and quiet. Big and small. And it is many of these things all at the same time. I can go from one emotion to another in a moment. The worst day can become the best and vice versa. And suddenly I find myself feeling so many things at once. It makes me want to dance and cry. Scream and sing. I can never really decide how it makes me feel. Maybe I never will really know how I feel in London. It is a city of places, people, history, and moments. London is especially a city of moments. These moments keep happening, faster than a tube from one stop to the next. You experience something… and before you have a moment to consider its significance and to reflect, another moment occurs. And another. And they all make me feel different things. My emotions overlap until London makes me feel nothing and everything all at once.

I am in a big city made up of little things. Little towns/boroughs that make up London like a patchwork quilt, all in different colours and patterns. And I am experiencing a big semester that will be made up of little moments, some good and some bad, but all of them mine.

So I suppose you could say London is good, but that is only a very small part of it. And I think it does the rest of my experience a disservice. London is more than I will ever be able to say or even remember. But for a little while, London simply is… where I live. The patchwork city of moments.

And I think… I think that is good.