Page 6 •Thursday, January 19, 2006
NEWS
The Pendulum
Weather creates problems for
students traveling abroad
From p, 1
Fourteen students on their way to
Ireland arrived a day late.
Although the Hawaii group
arrived later than expected, the
travel problems seemed to stop
after all the late students arrived. It
wasn’t until Jan. 6 that all students
and faculty made it to their study
abroad destination.
Dean of International Studies
Larry Basirico said flight delays
and lost luggage are inevitable in
study abroad circumstances.
“Last year for winter term maybe
two people missed flights,” he
said. “This year was different
because probably about 18 stu
dents and two faculty had missed
their flights.”
Of course, when bad things hap
pen, there are always extreme
cases. Take sophomore Virginia
Zint for example, who was on her
way to England. Because of a
delay in her Raleigh-Durham
International flight, she missed her
connecting flight from Newark -
International to D.C. She was able
to fly standby on a British Air
flight to London and she was even
lucky enough to arrive at the same
time as her fellow students.
Unfortunately, she thought her
luggage didn’t follow- her to
London.
“After spending multiple,hours
on the phone (on hold mostly) I
had spent over 70 pounds (close to
$140) on phone calls to airlines
over a period of five days,” she
wrote in an e-mail. “What ended
up happening was that no one
knew where my luggage was,
every airline would send me to a
different airline, but the bag had
been in London the entire time.”
The next day, Zint’s purse was
stolen from under her feet in a
local pub.
“That seemed to be the icing on
the cake because I didn’t have any
clothes, and now I didn’t have
money, a cell phone, my credit
cards and phone cards, airline
tickets, bus tickets, show tickets.
m
Photo Courtesy of Virginia Zint
Virginia Zint takes a picture on top of the mountains in Fulda, Germany.
and a passport,” she said.
While there was turmoil abroad,
the Isabella Cannon Centre for
International Studies staff was
working with the students and
staff to fix it.
“Everyone’s there, and we stay
on it 24 hours a day until they’re
there,” said Basirico.
Zint explained that the professors
on her trip were a big help in deal
ing with traveling difficulties.
“My professors have been great
throughout the whole experience.
and so was the study abroad
office,” she said. “They know my
name, I assure you. Ask Emma
Jones about the airline situation, I
was in contact with her for most of
the trip.”
Basirico said his staff does all
they can, but mishaps like unpre
dictable weather and uncontrol
lable flight delays are out of their
hands.
“We recommend some students
get there the night before if they
hear of inclimate weather as a
worst case scenario .. .but as far as
controlling airlines, there’s noth
ing we can do about it,” he said.
Zint’s advice for the unpre
dictability of travel is to “be pre
pared for the worst.”
“I thought the worst was losing
my luggage, but it got double
worse after that,” she explained.
“Also, don’t let something like
that ruin your trip.”
As far as Independence Air,
Basirico said it wasn’t a surprise,
because everyone using
Independence Air got e-mails and
phone calls to announce their
bankruptcy and to discuss refunds.
“Students and parents probably
took care of it before they left the
country,” he said.
Despite the rough beginnings,
students have made it to their des
tinations and are well into their
classes. Students like Zint have
found their luggage and are learn
ing to forget the mess of how they
got there and are becoming thank
ful for the fact that they’re experi
encing new places.
Contact Jessica Frizen at pendu-
lum@elon.edu or 278-7247.
iStiidenl: Cjoverxixnejnt: A-Ssociation
Welcome to the New Year 2006!
Good Luck with Winter Term finals.
The first SGA meeting of the new year will be
February 2, 2006 at 7:30 p.m. in Moseley 215.
Come with any thoughts and ideas you may have to
our meeting during Open Forum.