How I (Almost) Went to Morocco

Who knew 12 hours could be so jam-packed with adventure? Let me fill you in on my day.

First, 4 friends and I were on the 3:10AM bus to Luton Airport, where we sat (slept...) on the plane for 2 hours in the snow, then got off the plane after Ryanair (the cheapest an airline can be while still following most safety requirements...) flight attendants had shoveled a path back to the terminal for us (really! in their uniforms and high heels and everything! awww, they are NOT paid enough), then we waited for Ryanair to cancel the flight, then we sat in the terminal for 5 hours waiting for the bus service to start up again (it was completely shut down), then finally we bit the bullet and took a 2-hour taxi ride back to Cambridge. We arrived at Clare Hall at exactly 2:45 PM. We left Clare Hall at exactly 2:45 AM. Poetic, right?


Top left: The snowy wing of our Ryanair plane, taken during my 2 hours sitting in the plane on the runway.
Top right: The airport's flight notice board... guess what RED flights mean?
Bottom: Sleeping, reading, caffeine-ing at our coffee shop hangout. We were there a long time. Don't judge.

Sigh. I knew Morocco was too far away and foreign for me to actually get to go there.
The frustrating thing is that the weather is really not that bad. It's barely below freezing, so most of the snow melts anyway and it wasn't too windy and honestly there was never more than a few inches on the ground. Basically, Chicago would not have even THOUGHT about closing its airport in conditions like this. But England just doesn't get snow, so plowing doesn't happen and I heard a story that the entire country is running short of "grit" (road salt? I think). It also means
people don't know how to drive in the snow, so lots of trucks and buses couldn't get up the hills around Luton (= why the bus service stopped running) which caused massive traffic jams. It was a little intense to realize that we could NOT leave the airport by plane, train, or automobile. The coffee shop we camped out at actually ran out of milk! Desperate times...

Me playing in the reason for me not being in Morocco

Overall I had a really good time. We goofed off and read trash magazines and took pictures of snowy Ryanair planes and laughed at people who were carrying skis around and clearly hadn't been able to fly to their skiing destination (which could have been right outside the airport...). We ate junk food and took turns wandering around the (very small) airport checking if the bus service was running. I also skimmed an entire book and wrote half a letter. Not an unproductive
day, if you ask me! AND I got home in time to make it to a 5PM lecture on Darwin in Literature (which was AWESOME). :)

I must say, I was very proud of Chicago/American weather-handling infrastructure today.

with love from England and not Africa :(,
C