England

easyJet – Is it really easy?

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Yesterday I took my first flight as an easyJet passenger, from London Gatwick to Madrid’s Barajas airport. Since the rest of Alma’s CRL group was flying out of Heathrow earlier in the day, I got on a National Express bus to the Gatwick terminal. Since my flight wasn’t until later that night, I had to wait in the check in area of the terminal for a few hours, since easyJet does not allow check in until two hours prior to departure. After a couple hours of sitting on the floor (due to the severe lack of seating in Gatwick’s busy airport) I checked my 1 piece of luggage weighing less than 20kg (44lbs) and proceeded through security with my one carry on and checked the screens for my departure gate. The screen said “please wait” and since I had about an hour and a half to kill, I walked around the duty free shops of the waiting area and had something to eat. Now I suppose that this entry could have and probably should be entitled “Don’t fly out of Gatwick”, but I don’t know which experience was least pleasurable.

Around my boarding time, I checked the screens again to see what gate my plane was to be departing from. The slot still said “please wait” so I took a seat across from the screens, still in the passenger waiting area. After fifteen minutes, the screen had changed to “delayed until 20:40.” After more waiting and more delays, the flight which was supposed to depart at 7:30pm, still had yet to depart at 9pm. Finally the screen said proceed to gate 16, where I encountered a mass of Spanish teenagers returning home from vacation in the United Kingdom. We passed through the checkpoint to sit (yet again), waiting to board the plane. Since I had checked in early, I was part of boarding Group A, which meant that after the special boarding people, I was in the first group to board the plane and select our seats. Unlike other airlines, easyJet does not assign seats, but rather lets the passengers choose their own seats once aboard the plane.

Fortunately, I was one of the first passengers from Group A on the plane, which meant I was able to sit near the front next to a window. Even though we had departed late and I was exhausted from the previous week’s busy CRL sessions, I could not fall asleep – a rarity on my part.

Thanks to Bose and their noise canceling headphones, I barely heard the child crying for most of the flight two rows ahead of me, but it did not block out the constant announcements from the pilots or flight attendants. First it was drinks, then food, then easyJet shopping and finally some scratch and win lottery cards to be redeemed on future easyJet flights.

Thankfully we quickly arrived in Madrid, a full 2 hours late and I jumped into a taxi to take me to the city center to check into my hotel (which was quite nice by the way – Hotel Plaza Mayor, Calle Atocha, 2 Madrid).

So, in light of recent events, I will be avoiding all travel from Gatwick and using Heathrow instead and will opt for paying just a little bit more (than the $110 easyJet ticket) for the usual flight service. Unless, I find a stellar, ridiculously cheap deal…

Maybe it was just a bad night to be flying easyJet.

International Development and the United Kingdom

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Today the International Development focus group met with some pretty influential and powerful people in London.

We began our day at a bright and early 6am bus ride into the city center of London to meet with the representative from the British Department for International Development (DFID). The DFID meeting was interesting and inspiring. Despite the very low statistics about US giving to international development, the United Kingdom is doing an excellent job in sharing their wealth. Now, of course the DFID is going to up-play their positive work, and downplay the United States, lack thereof, but still, they are working considerably more than we are. As part of the presentation, we discussed the United Nation’s Millenium Development Goals (MDGs), which are set to be completed by 2015. Unfortunately, things are not looking excellent for the completion of all 8 goals, but many are on the road to completion by the deadline. Despite the predicted completion date for 10 years later than desired, the other statistics were refreshing to hear.

After the Department for International Development, we proceeded to Parliament to meet with MP Tony Baldry from the Banbury region. While it was exciting to be meeting with a real, live Member of Parliament in a conference room in the Houses of Parliament building, his discussion of the topic was not quite as interesting. Just a traditional politician, talking in circles.

Commonwealth Secretariat – Communications & Public Relations Advisor

Buttery Quiz Night

Stratford-upon-Avon

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Today we spent the afternoon in Stratford-upon-Avon, the famous home of William Shakespeare. Let me tell you, this cute little town has certainly capitalized on Shakespeare’s popularity, and it’s working. During our afternoon in Stratford, we saw his birth home, childhood home of his wife, grave site, and a whole string of places that he and/or family members frequented. It was just a nice afternoon in a small town.

Later on that evening, we saw the play Henry IV Part 1 put on by the Royal Shakespeare Company in their Courtyard Theater. The theater is a temporary theater to be used while the main RSC theater is under a three year renovation. Even though the Courtyard Theater was temporary, it was beautiful, with an “interactive three sided stage” for the audience to sit around the scenes. Two of the other CRL Fellows, (Abby and Megan) and I happened to be one of the first people to get our tickets from the director of the Alma College program, which meant we sat center stage in the second row for the amazing performance. We were sitting in the middle of the action and it was great.

Oh, and James Franco was in the audience.

Oxford

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Sunday was a day with a considerable amount of free time due to individual group meetings. Since my meeting time wasn’t until the end of the day, I called up an Alma alum from 2006, Julie Bolitho, and her husband and we spent some time together in Wroxton and then in Oxford. It was great to see Julie since I hadn’t seen her since her wedding reception in January. We compared differences between the American and English life, shared lunch on the street in Oxford and in the short time left, walked around the city with their 11 week old puppy.

London

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Today was our free day in London, which was quite an intense day. The bus dropped us off in the center of London in Trafalger Square in front of the National Gallery at 9am and then it was a great day of just walking around the city exploring the non-touristy sites, such as Portobello Market in Notting Hill, walking through Hyde Park, a quick stop to the department store of department stores – Harrods – a nice walk along the Thames and a lunch a cool little place called Eat (www.eat.co.uk). My friend Rachel and I gave in and jumped on a random red double-decker bus and rode around for a half hour into nowhere – just to explore the city, and indulged in her Harry Potter love by visiting Platform 9 3/4 at the King’s Cross train station. The day ended at 9:30, when the entire group of 44 students and 10 professors/staff met for dinner. It was another long day, but well worth the trip.