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Published: February 15th 2012
Well, here's the first post to my shiny new travel blog. I don't have much exciting to say- not that that's ever stopped me before- but I'm stuck at LAX for another four and a half hours at least so I figured I'd get this party started.
My trip was supposed to take me from Austin to LA, and from there a leisurley fifteen and a half hour flight over to Melbourne, where my program orientation takes place. Of course, that wasn't enough of an adventure, SO. 😊 My flight out of Austin was delayed two hours, making my 7:30PM flight now leaving at 9:55PM. It's a three and a half hour flight, but the time change is in our favor, so the estimated arrival time was 11:05 (we actually arrived at 11:15.) My flight to Melbourne, unfortunately, flew out at 11:30. Yeah. So I missed that flight and ended up staying the night in LA, which I would like to actually visit someday, instead of just hangin' in LAX.
It was actually not that awful, once I just actually missed the friggin' thing and stopped doing the time zone-change math in my head trying to magically gain about an hour. Until then I was just stressing and hoping that by sheer force of will I could make our pilot speed and cut off the other planes, which I'm pretty sure is not possible within the laws of physics. At least I'm pretty sure it's not; plane ≠ car, right?
ANYWAY. Here's the number one tip to other travelers I've learned from this detour: talk to the airport people. If you're nice to them, they're nice to you. Like wildlife of all kinds. I'm normally opposed to approaching people in uniform, because I don't want to bother them (also like wildlife). However, those people at the counter can help! In Austin I went to the desk at my gate to see if there was any way I could make my connecting flight. The guy said that it would be tight, but I could probably pull it off; and also, to help, he moved my seat to the front of the plane so I wouldn't have to pass everybody to get off. That was really nice. Ultimately unsuccessful, but nice.
The flight was really cool; it was about half empty, so I got a whole row to myself to stretch out and veg. I arrived in LAX in a panic and hauled it out, through security, and to the shuttle, where I learned that my flight was gone already a very nice lady saw my distress and walked me over to the help desk before making sure I was comp-ed for a room and two meals (see? airport people = win.) I'll admit here that it probably helps when you're short, young, sporting a Hulk bandaid and looking like you might have a breakdown. Part of me really believed that it would be like in Home Alone where they just sort of run ten feet and then ask if they missed the flight, and the lady says "No, you just made it!" and everybody cheers and nobody has to go through security or gets stuck behind the ten tipsy businessmen from first class.
That being said, everyone has been very nice. I'm not a huge fan of LAX (Dallas is just so much nicer, but I even liked Atlanta better than LAX) but everyone I've interacted with has been super sweet and helpful. They told me exactly how to get to a complimentary shuttle, and gave me these super cool meal/room vouchers.
In the shuttle I met a pair of Vietnamese men whose mother had passed away. Their flight home had gotten delayed, too, and the first class seats they had paid for wouldn't be available in the rescheduled flight. Which meant they were out about eight hundred dollars for nothing, and their families were left waiting. It was a very obvious instance of how my situation was really not that bad.
At the hotel I tried to notify all of my program staff and my family, and then took a hot shower and got some sleep. It was actually kind of nice to have a whole hotel room to myself; I felt special! This morning I was super awkward and basically just lurked in the hotel after I checked out of my room (my flight was delayed a full 24 hrs, so I didn't see the need to spend half a day in the airport.) I creeped in the Business Area (computer,fax and print room) of the hotel and charged my laptop.
Speaking of, my second tip is about internet usage. I am an internet troll. I need the glow of my computer screen more than I need light from the sun. I exaggerate, but only slightly. So having 15 networks come up in my possible Wifi connections and not being able to access ANY of them is super frusturating. However, here's two options before you break down and pay 8 dollars to be on FB (or start up your travel blog.)
1) At Dallas at least, the Admiral's Club has free Wifi and it's not password protected. If your gate is anywhere nearby, you're golden.
2) In case of emergencies, which are pretty much guaranteed on any given trip, Boingo will give you 30 minutes of free internet use.
LAX is not a Boingo hotspot. Hence no free interwebs for moi.
That pretty much brings y'all up to the present. Now I'm hogging the charging station with my leg through my backpack straps and my purse through the legs of my chair (come at me thievies, I dare you- that's not true at all, please no thievies come at me.) Does anybody know the etiquette for the charging stations in airports?... Well I hope it's 'move if somebody is lurking awkwardly', because that just happened.
I have to tell you, I feel cool just being in an international terminal. I've heard probably eight different languages in the past hour, and I keep trying to type/move my computer facial expressions in such a way that implies I'm from someplace awesome and exotic, and probably European.
I don't believe there are really any European facial expressions.
Oh and also: money. I paid 5 dollars for lunch today, which wouldn't be a big deal except I had 20 dollars in vouchers. I got a soup and a sandwich. So hotel food? Def not worth it. And while I really need new earbuds, I am not paying 50 dollars for them in a duty free store. Taking tax away does not make that reasonable. Lastly, Currency Exchange guy says the with travellers checks, you get charged a fee for cashing them into the checks, and then another fee for changing that check to foreign currency. Fees doubled=not worth it. Currency Exchange guy would know.
Oh, and things people say to you when you knit at the airport? Let me emphasize that here 'people' means middle-aged business men, since that's easily three-quarters of the people in the airport during the week (at least for domestic flights.)
Me: Knitting.
Man: "Are you making me some slippers?"
Me: "Haha No, it's a scarf." (It's actually a headband, I guess I didn't think they would believe me or something.)
Man: "I could have used that in Chicago last week!"
Me: "Haha" Knitting.
Other Man: "Oh, how nice of you to make me something."
Me: Still knitting. "Oh haha."
I wish there was an awkward font so I could use it for that entire conversation. It really wasn't so bad, they didn't give me creeper-vibes or anything, it was just kind of like 'Oh hey, this conversation is going to keep happening, even though it's ridiculous.' To be honest, they seemed like perfectly nice people and I didn't really mind, except my English major brain wanted to pull some Feminist literary reading of that scene.
SO. That's all I have for now, I'm sorry it's so boring. I'm going to go pay a ridiculous amount of money for dinner. Wish me luck!
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Sara A.
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I love you and I almost spat out my drink laughing at some of this. Here's hoping you get to Australia sooner rather than later!