Eye-Opener: Memo

Top 6 things to do when stuck in an airport...

Because of lack of and or (mis)communication, I was stranded in the Salt Lake City (SLC) International Airport for 6 hours. Here's the reader's digest version of the story: I missed the shuttle bus that would have taken me to Logan, UT because the operator told me to wait in the wrong gate; therefore I had to wait for the next shuttle, which arrived 6 hours later. I cancelled my plans for today and improvised so I didn't waste 6 hours of my life just sitting in the airport.

Here are the top 6 things I did to entertain myself and pass the time (maybe these'll give you some ideas just in case you would ever get stuck in the airport for 6 hours or more).

1. Read- unfortunately I finished reading my beach novel/ roman de gare book in the plane. I only brought one becaue my carry on was occupied by my gigantic SHU portfolio (I decided to bring it to show my students). I didn't want to spend money on an overpriced beach novel when I have tons of unread books in my own collection (I only brought one because I planned to write but when the situation came up, I didn't feel like writing). I had other magazines and books, but they were more difficult to digest. After a couple of minutes, I decided to read some of them anyway (my rational- since they're harder to digest, they will "take up more time" to finish reading). I read a nutrition and supplementary magazine front to back, and two essays on Children's Art.

2. Listen to music- I had my mp3 player so I listened to that (the shuffle program in my mp3 player is not that good; several songs repeat before new songs are heard). One of the good things about my mp3 player is that it has a radio. When I got bored listening to my collection, I tuned in the radio and listened to popular hits of the area.

3. Play a game in cellphone- in today's society there are lots of pocket video game systems, such as gameboy, nintendo DS and others. I used to have a gameboy but not anymore. Good thing my cellphone had a game I liked to play (Bubble smile- tetris-esque). I played this for an hour, and I even beat one of my old high score.

4. Look at art- most airports, which I've been in, exhibited artworks. In terminal 2 of the SLC International airport, I looked at and studied 7 landscapes depicting Utah. The medium used was oil (oil painting), and the landscapes were rendered in the style of impressionism (contemporary artists but I still couldn't read their names). I observed the compositions (dynamic diagonals, vanishing point, fore/middle/background, etc.), the colors (complimentary, cool, warm, dark, light), and the textures (lines, smooth, thick, fuzzyness, etc.), and tried to figure out how the artist made them. While looking at them closely, a stranger started talking to me about their beauty so we chit-chat for a bit (he starts talking about his children who are USU alums); then I moved back and magically the impressions of light started to focus and solidify the shapes and contours of the land.

5. Eat- I drank starbucks (surprise!), and I had a whooper and onion rings from Burger King for lunch, and for dinner I ate an overpriced cafeteria food with the "gourmet" label. I didn't want to but I had to because I was going to get home very late. Good thing I had my bottle of water and very ripe and delicous orange fruit.

6. Take a walk- My brain had a work-out from reading, listening to music, playing games, and anaylzing art. My stomach did its work to digest the food I ate. In order to complete the "head-to-toe" workout, it's only fair to do some sort of physical activity like walking. With my heavy carry on on my back, I pulled my luggage from one end of the terminal to the other. It made me exhausted and made me forget for a while that I was stuck in the airport for 6 hours.

Lessons- communicate, be prepared, be flexible, and triple check everything. Around 8 p.m., I called the shuttle service (the lady was probably annoyed at me) and triple checked: "So I'm supposed to be at Gate 11 by 8:10 p.m.? Right?"

Posted by Michael Diezmos at May 28, 2008 2:06 AM