I have always wanted to travel for work. Mostly because I love to go to new places. I'm not even that picky about where they are (I mean lets face it, I got excited to go to Lubbock the first time...). And I have always assumed that traveling for work all the time would be the best of all worlds...lots of travel and someone else is paying for it.
This thirst for hitting the road is probably how, on the eve of completing my PhD, I ended up accepting a position recruiting for my university, packing a bag and hitting the road for Weatherford, Oklahoma. Yes, you read that correctly. Weatherford was only the beginning. Since I started traveling for work, all of one week ago, I've been to Weatherford, Baton Rouge, Lafayette and now Jackson, MS. And before the end of next week I will have stayed in five more hotels, visited three new airports, driven several different cars and wandered the streets of five new (to me) American towns.
What am I learning? Well, already I've acquired a few tidbits of knowledge.
1. Though parents have always taught that strangers mean danger, most of the time they don't. When you are traveling all over the place by yourself, they mean someone to talk to that isn't a flight attendant. I have already met more than a handful of extremely interesting people. Other recruiters are great because they know all the tips for being away from home- I've discovered great local restaurants and made lists of places to visit in the towns in my future. At the airport, I met a large group of people working for the presidential campaigns- party differences aside they were all just standing around talking about which hotels they stayed at in which city and whether or not anyone had any luck knocking on doors in that last town. None of them had been home in who knows how long. They were fascinating and in no way dangerous...unless you hate politics.
2. Paper weighs more than an elephant. I travel with a suitcase filled to capacity with promotional materials that I hand out on trips. It is a carry-on sized suitcase and it is always scary to put it on the scale at the airport because it is usually just a hair under the 50lb weight limit. The TSA loves to check this bag. They have checked it on every flight I have taken so far without fail. I can only imagine the look on their faces when they unzip the bag, thinking "This bag is SO heavy- there must be something horrible in here" and then instead they find the bright green pens and fliers about being a Chemistry major that are tucked so nicely into large manila envelopes. Oh, and of course they find my razor because I can't take it on the plane and because they should at least find one quizzical thing.
3. Hotel rooms are mostly all the same, but hotel lobbies are what tell you how much you spent. If you are at the Fairfield Inn, you are not going to hang out in the lobby. If you are at the Hilton, the lobby looks like a wealthy person's foyer or a church sanctuary. Also, ironically, the cheaper the hotel is, the more likely it will come with free things like breakfast and wi-fi. Aside from this, the sheets will be white, there will be a desk, a chair and a TV and the thermometer is always set at 69 degrees.
4. When the rental car place says they are out of cars,
don't just say yes to the giant truck that is the only motor vehicle
they have available. You will not be able to park it. You will make a
million point turns, while bystanders laugh at your inability to drive a
Nissan Titan. You will worry that the 14 clearance ahead of you is
probably one or two feet short and you are about to total your first
rental car and be fired forthwith. Don't worry, the Nissan Titan lives
on.
A big thank you to Jackson, MS for the average-sized Dodge sedan I'm driving around your streets. People in parking lots everywhere are letting out a sigh of relief.
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