Travel Stress: Flying & Driving

The day after tomorrow we drive up to Middlebury VT so I'm getting all my packing done and trying to fit everything into one car. I managed to do this successfully today, way before it was necessary. Although I completed my packing efficiently there still appears to be a certain amount of tension present as the day we travel approaches. Traveling with my family tends to stress me out because generally I am a very calm traveler and never understood the need to fret and angst about the details of my trips. However, I constantly wonder what causes everyone else to become so uptight about travel. Whether it is a flight or a drive there always seems to be a certain degree of consternation.

With flying, I suppose I can understand the stress of some of the less frequent fliers in the family. You have to keep track of your passport, money and carry-on; there's the waiting in lines and stress of going through security; then there's the lack of control of your checked luggage and of course the lack of control of the plane in general. For someone prone to anxiety, flying can be a stressful process especially since there are so many areas one might wish to control but really can't.

On a road trip, I feel like things are much different. You have control of how much of your stuff you can bring along, how many stops you take and what route you take. You avoid having your entire life made public; in a road trip there is no disrobing for security or having a TSA agent rifle through your carry-on. So, what causes anxiety about road trips?

One possibility for road-trip-anxiety could be a fear of motion sickness or a general lack of pleasantness on the journey. A road trip filled with music and car-games will inherently be more pleasant than a road trip filled with nausea, a disgusting car smell and silence. Thus, anxiety towards road trips can be seen as sort of self induced. Making the road trip more pleasant is the responsibility of the passenger. The responsibility of the driver is simply to drive you to the destination safely. If you have a mind set about road trips being unpleasant but no will to change it, you will complain about not having good radio stations or good CDs instead of finding ways to research local stations or finding an adapter that will let you play music.

Another explanation for these feelings of anxiety could be mere restlessness. Some people balk at the idea of having to sit still for one hour, let alone for six. This form of anxiety can also be seen as self-induced. Semi-frequent breaks and entertainment can make the time seem to fly by. If you are truly determined to be entertained, leading an exhaustive life right before travel will leave you tired enough to sleep throughout the car ride.

Flights and driving may leave travelers with varying levels of anxiety. The difference between the two kinds is that anxiety regarding air travel may be totally subconscious where as anxiety about a road trip is mostly under your own control. A self-reflective attitude is one thing that could possibly help curb anxiety regarding long road trips. If you think that your anxiety is preventable and you work away at it by finding ways to make the car ride pleasant for yourself, you end up making the trip pleasant for others instead of subjecting them to your personal gripes.

How to Survive a 6 hour flight & How to survive a 6 hour car ride.

Flights and long drives differ greatly even if they are equal lengths. With a flight, all the stress comes in two delicately packaged servings. The first moments of stress are at the beginning: checking in, going through security, sitting and waiting for hours for the flight to take off. At the end of your flight you have to deplane and spend what feels like hours standing around waiting for your luggage to come off the plane. During a drive, the stress seems never ending. Between multiple bathroom stops, to the mandatory noon time food stop, it seems like being in that cramped space with your family will never truly end. Inspired by my upcoming drive to Vermont, I decided to post about ways to keep busy during a 6 hour car ride and alternately a 6 hour flight for people who may be traveling to school anytime soon.





6 HOUR CAR RIDE



Pack:

-everything in the trunk except a small bag, the more stuff you have at your feet, the less comfortable you will feel and the less room you will have to move around.

-bring one dose of ibuprofen / tylenol in case you get a headache from the stress

-two new magazines you haven't read yet. (books give me headaches when I read in the car so I try not to)

-create an "ultimate mix"; there should be 1 CD per hour of driving. A CD with 18 tracks will take about an hour to get through. If music in the CD player is not an option, put the same number of songs on your iPod

-a filled water bottle





What to do:

- read your magazines cover to cover, fully analyzing the spreads and "life advice". Whether you are critical or accepting of the information, two magazines can take you through 2 hours of driving.

- play CDs or music. If you get a headache or want to rest but you're too wide awake to actually fall asleep the background music can prove to be quite entertaining.

- play "the license plate game"; along the highway see how many state license plates you can spot. Bonus points for getting Hawaii or Alaska (unless you actually live there).

- Drink Water, but not so much that you have to stop every 20 minutes. Rest stops can be few and far between.

-sleep. I find it hard sometimes to sleep in cars but an hour nap or two half hour naps can help the time go by





6 HOUR PLANE RIDE



Pack:

-a small and light carry on. I know you are allowed to have a "carry on and one personal item" but I find it easier to just keep track of one giant tote bag than a tote as well as a roller / duffel bag.

-kindle (with at least 5 titles to keep you occupied)

-If you don't have a kindle try to pack a few small paperbacks rather than a large hardcover or large paperbacks. A few of my suggestions are: any of Shakespeare's plays, A Clockwork Orange, The Brief and Wonderous Life of Oscar Wao, A Super Sad True Love Story, Firestarter (by Stephen King).

- magazines (Vogue, Vanity Fair or Cosmopolitan will take the longest to get through)

- iPod; music playing device

- Cellphone

- Sleep mask

- Laptop

- Passport / Other form of ID

- Pen (to fill out customs forms)



What to do:

- I advise sleeping as much as you can at the beginning of the flight rather than trying to sleep in the middle. I always get too anxious about my arrival to fall asleep once the flight is halfway through

- listen to music. I try to play albums I haven't heard before all the way through. My album suggestions are Lady Gaga's 'Born This Way', 'Runaway' by Kanye West, '21' by Adele and 'Who You Are' by Jessie J

- Read all your magazines cover to cover first

-Read as many paperbacks / ebooks as you can before landing. If you are a slower reader, challenge yourself to finish at least one book. With a goal in mind, you will lose track of time and focus on finishing the reading task rather than time until landing.

- If you get bored with reading, try playing a game on your laptop or writing to pass the time. I like syncing my calendar and my Evernote pages when I have a lot of free time in airports or during a flight.



I'm not sure if these tricks / ideas will work for you but they always work for me. Six hour drives & flights seem like nothing when I have a game plan and I'm constantly occupied.

Social Media Before College Begins

The only thing on my mind the past few weeks has been starting college. I've already done the whole "away from home" bit, so that part isn't nearly as exciting as the thought of meeting new people and just experiencing an environment which I imagine to be entirely different from boarding school.

Last week Tuesday, my class found out about housing assignments as well as First Year Seminars. Information about housing assignments include a Commons (similar to a Hogwarts house) that you are affiliated with for four years, a dorm within that commons and a room mate. Before the age of social networking, room mates met on the first day of school without any prior knowledge of each other. Everything about your room mates personality was a complete surprise and your opinion of them was based on solely your personal experiences with them. The age of technology now makes it possible to do "research" on your room mate before school begins. This could potentially change your relationship with your roommate and the room dynamic of your room.

I have not yet decided whether I think social networking is entirely a good or a bad thing. I friended my room mate on Facebook because it felt weird not to, but I am wary of obsessing over her Facebook page or digging deeper into her personal life. Social media is useful in learning a little bit about people before meeting them, but it can certainly paint people in a negative light. Without receiving more context about a person, their social media profile could paint an either incomplete or inaccurate picture that has the potential to ruin your relationship before you've even met.

Depending on how your future roommate uses Facebook (twitter, etc.) she can appear to either be too boring, weird or crazy for you. This online appearance could differ greatly from what your room mate is like in real life. It's difficult not to try to judge and analyze everything you find during your room mate research, but it's probably best to keep online contact with her to a minimum to avoid a situation like this. Even if you might end up hitting it off, you never know what could happen between you.

There is no problem with adding your roommate on Facebook and discussing important details about the room (such as decor), but I don't understand the need to become best friends over the internet before meeting in real life. Maybe I only think this way because I'm an awkward person online, but I think it's best to remain in the Dark Ages of communication until you see each other in person for the first time in September. You will have plenty of time to chat when the school year begins.

Room Shopping

Today I completed a portion of the arduous task of dorm shopping. Over the course of the past two days, I have been to Ithaca and Syracuse, searching for perfect dorm bedding (& other dorm supplies) that would fit my needs as a freshman living on campus.

Middlebury has Twin XL beds. This accommodation for 6-footers provided a challenging aspect to the search. I was either too late to get the good deals on Twin XL sheets, or very few places make that size bedding. Today I finally hit a jackpot between Target and Bed Bath & Beyond (both in Ithaca). I'm going to write about two things inspired by my shopping experiences over the past two days.

The first thing I want to address is the challenge of finding Twin XL bedding. I was on the lookout for a down comforter suitable for Vermont winters, a duvet cover, two sets of Twin XL sheets, a mattress pad, a sofa pillow and one extra throw or body pillow. The pillows were really no trouble but I didn't want to get anything that didn't match my comforter or sheets, so I had to first find a comforter and the accessories that would be visible to room visitors before continuing my search.

I was entirely unsuccessful in Pottery Barn and The Bon-Ton. If there were any Twin XL sheets they were so ugly that they gave me the shivers. I felt like if I'd chosen any of their selection, my finds would have only been suitable for decorating a nursing home. In JC Penney I had minor success with my search and found a down comforter. However the rest of JC Penney's selection was dismal at best. The sheets were boyish and the duvet covers didn't come in Twin XL.

Real success was much further away from Syracuse; at the Bed Bath & Beyond in Ithaca I found a reasonably priced duvet cover and mattress pad as well as Egyptian Cotton Sheets. I found the rest of what I needed at Target, known now as the "Holy Grail of College Supplies".

What I found at Target brings me to the second thing I wanted to write about which might be useful to other pre-froshes. While walking through Target, they had pre-made lists of things to get that you could rip off and keep for your shopping trip, but I had a feeling these lists were more suitable for graduate students or undergrads living off campus rather than for freshmen. I would like to make amendments to their list that seem to be more realistic for a tiny first year double.

Bedding:

Comforter

Duvet Cover

Blankets

Sheets

Pillowcases

Body Pillows

Mattress Pad (Memory Foam FTW)

Storage:

Storage Drawers

Drawer Organizer (for desk)

Kitchenette:**

Coffee Maker (I'm a huge coffee addict)

Bowls

Cups

Travel Mug

LOTS of plastic utensils (Spoons, Forks, Knives, etc.)

Studying:

Lamp

CFL bulbs

White board (Month Calendar / Week Calendar Variety)

Bulletin Board (normal cork board)

Expo Markers or any variety of dry erase

Envelopes

Stationery (for letter writing)

Thank You Cards (you never know who you'll have to thank while away)

Ethernet Cord

Extension Cords (20 ft)

Surge Bar (1 should be fine)

Miscellaneous & DecorL

Duck Tape

Febreze

Laundry Detergent

Tide to Go

Lint Roller

Small Hammer

Thumbtacks

Trashbags

Posters

Photographs from High School

Full Length Mirror

Bathroom:

Shower Caddy ( large and not metal; rust)

Shower Shoes

Towel Set (I like having four sets)

**A microwave and fridge can also be added to this, but I'm really trying to stick to eating from my meal plan to save money & to keep myself away from easily accessible junk food.