Getting there is half the battle

After years of dreaming, months of planning and weeks of packing for this 117 day trip to Europe I was very excited to finally hop across the Atlantic. Many meetings with the four other Cal Poly students coming to Finland, our department head Dr. Doug Piirto, the Finnish consulate in LA, Seinajoki University international coordinators, budgeting, passport getting, transportation planning and much more had led up to my departure. And I thought the hard part was over!

Myself and Sara Hylton, another Cal Poly student studying abroad (also my wonderful Logging Team Secretary) had planned a small trip to Dublin before continuing on to Helsinki where we would meet the other students. My flight out of San Diego was delayed and though I exhausted my resources to make my connection from Washington D.C. to Dublin, I was not allowed to board my flight which was sitting almost insultingly outside the airport window behind the closed gate doors. My travel route was changed to Frankfurt then Dublin and I was immediately boarded onto this other flight.  We sat at the gate for 3 hours before the flight was cancelled due to technical difficulties. After a two hour line for rebooking and hotel vouchers, I finally got to rest at about 5am. Luckily, my 10pm flight to Dublin went fine and I met Sara at our hotel the next morning.

Some useful pieces of wisdom have become invaluable to me as I navigate the anxiety-ridden wasteland that is international flying.  Probably the most important is don’t waste your time stressing about things you have no control over.  Apart of the same can of worms is don’t shoot the messenger! The flight announcer and attendant have nothing to do with your delayed/cancelled flight and chewing them out only makes you look like an idiot. So Relax! Take it easy, don’t cry, man up, however you want to say it.  First lesson of the trip is to not be a jerk and go with the flow. You’ll be much happier and people will like you more. 


...Also avoid the Washington-Dulles airport like the plague if you can.