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Airport Pickups!

Sunday, September 03, 2006

What a day… A few months ago I agreed to help with airport pickups because they’re usually fun and interesting. This year was no exception. There were a lot more students to pick up and this kept us very busy (8 of us). The headquarters of the Airport Pickups team, located at 2C of the CDG airport in Paris, was the meeting point and also the main setting for what would be an exceptional theatrical performance. In fact, I would not be surprised if it turned out that more people came to the booth to ask us completely unrelated questions than actual students who came to confirm their arrival! Such questions included: “Where’s the cafeteria?” “Where’s terminal 2B?” “Do you have scrap paper?” “Where is the bathroom?” “I’m going to Benin. Where should I check-in?” and probably many more that I don’t even remember! The constant questioning became so unbearable that we added a few signs to our stand:

Despite all those signs, people still came up to ask us questions; to which we simply laughed and pointed to the signs. Needless to say, an airport rep asked us to take them down after a while.

Other small anecdotes:
1) At one point, we were waiting for two people to come from Detroit with NW airlines. The flight was listed on the screens as arriving at 11:20am. By 11:50, no update on the screens had occurred; we didn’t know if it was delayed, canceled. etc. At 12:30, the flight simply disappeared from the screen! No explanation! Just gone. At the same time, a flight arriving from San Francisco was expected. The status on the screen changed to Landing at 11:25am. By 12:20, the flight was still listed as Landing! Later we found out from the passengers that they had been flying in circles for a while. I guess air traffic was busy.
2) Al Gore - Martha saw Al Gore arrive at the airport! He left quite an impression on her. In fact, if you see her, just mention him and how big and special he was and she should turn red, start crying, and she might even wave her hands franticly!
3) Mr. Eddie Mitchel (spelling?) was also at the airport. It seems only Phil and I knew who he was! Are we that old?
4) Two girls who flew in from London had their luggage lost on the way. I guess they’re still trying to figure things out in London.
5) I kinda dropped breakfast; literally. (Sorry ‘bout that)
6) We had 50+ students arriving on the same flight in Terminal 1. So we sent a bus to meet us there. Only, in order to get to the bus, the students had to go down one floor with an elevator and then stroll to the bus. First problem: We could only call 1 elevator at a time; Secondly: When the first 35 students got there, there was no more room to fit luggage under the bus! So we ordered another van to carry only the luggage. Once the bus finally loaded and I announced the destination, a student informed me that this had not been what they were told! But oh well… I guess that’s just a detail AUP forgot to mention to us.

Got back home late at night after dinner with friends and members of this same team and slept till late the next day… In fact, I’m still tired. But there’s a bday party to get ready for and so I shall. Cheers!

Posted by: Nick in • AUP
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