July 13: High Hopes

Joined: 23 Mar 2004 Posts: 64

July 13
Today I took a flight from San Antonio to Hartford, Connecticut. One bag was lost along the way. I arrived just past noon, but needed to arrange for the missing bag. Meanwhile, the only available shuttle to Mt. Holyoke left and there would not be another one for hours. I was quite concerned about the missing bag and how I would hook up with it since the flight to Newark and on to Norway is on for tomorrow. I waited at a hotel connecting to the airport, dining on Clam Chowder and French Fries! Around four, several others in the group were scheduled to arrive, and since the Mt. Holyoke van that was scheduled to pick up participants from the airport was taken unexpectedly by another Mt. Holyoke group, the receiving party was going to be delayed. I met a few of the flights and the group gathered as we waited. My missing bag arrived, minus some electronic connectors that would turn out to be essential, and the van arrived. We arrived in Mt. Holyoke after about an hour drive. We got situated in the dorm for the evening and then met at the science building to meet the others, have an orientation, and eat pizza. While talking to the principle investigators, it became apparent that they needed some extra space in our bags to transport equipment. In addition, I began to question whether or not I needed certain items that I had planned on using such as some extra warm weather clothing, extra rain gear, my really heavy arctic wear, my G.L.O.B.E. (Global Learning and Observing to Benefit the Environment) equipment for collecting the data to submit, and some extra items I thought I may or may not need such as music and data CDs and a book or two to read. I asked one of the PIs who told me I would have access to the data collectors and data generated so that bringing my own equipment would not be necessary. I was also told that my more extreme weather gear would probably not be necessary. I secured a couple small boxes and I went back to my room to spend a few hours making decisions about how I might lighten my load and free up some space. I packed two medium-sized boxes to mail back to San Antonio, included my GLOBE equipment (big mistake) and decided at the last minute not to send my extreme weather gear home (wise decision). Got to bed late in the process!