ICSE Day 0
It’s been a while since I wrote one of these, but I will use the excuse for a family visit for the one I missed two weeks ago. I have no excuse for not writing one last week, it just slipped my mind. If I were to make up an excuse, it’s that I’m currently in bed, almost falling asleep after an entire day of flying to get to ICSE 2022. I’ve rather ambitiously titled this newsletter as “Day 0” of ICSE, but no guarantees on if I’ll end up writing one for each day.
Vancouver
My flight itinerary consisted of a flight from YVR to YYZ, and then a connection to Pittsburgh (PIT). My flight from Vancouver was at 11am, which meant that I naturally had to wake up at 6am and get to the airport because I would die of anxiety if I went any later. This was compounded by the fact that YVR was recently having issues with massive lineups. I surprisingly got through security in less than an hour, which meant I had a lot of time to kill at the airport while I wanted for Marie another one of Gail’s MSc students.
When we boarded the plane, Marie’s seat was completely broken, which was a sign of things to come. The flight was also overbooked, which meant that it took even longer to load + unload passengers. This part is important for the next part of the trip.
Toronto -> Pittsburgh
I’ve only been to YYZ one other time (a little over two years ago when I was passing through for Waterloo’s grad visit day), and it seemed like a very nice, modern airport. Today, all I felt was disdain, as our last plane landed at approximately 7:30pm local time. Our flight to Pittsburgh was slated to begin boarding at 8:00pm. This meant we had less than half an hour to pass immigrations, security (again!) and haul ass from our arrival terminal to the terminal for Pittsburgh – which happened to be exactly across the entire airport.
Another layer of complexity was the fact that Marie was still recovering from a badly injured foot/ankle, so she couldn’t run or walk too fast. Another another layer of complexity was our negative COVID tests, results for which were only valid for a little more time. Desperate times called for desperate measures For anyone who saw an Asian boy with wildly unkept hair absolutely tearing through the airport and pushing someone on a wheelchair this evening, I apologize.
When we finally arrived at the terminal, drenched in sweat, it turned out our connection to Pittsburgh was delayed, we’d run all that way for nothing, boarding hadn’t even happened yet.
We finally got on a small plane (like really tiny), and I felt a sense of claustrophobia that I haven’t felt in years. Luckily the flight was only 1 hour.
Pittsburgh
When we pulled up to the hotel, I heard someone call my name. It turns out Matti (someone whom the lab met on Twitter during the Very Online phase of the pandemic), spotted me getting out from the car. The night ended with a hug between two people that had previously only met online.
I’m very tired and it’s 1:13am and I think I’ll stop writing now.
Goodnight