October 1st, 2002 | The lowdown by Janet Cheng

How NOT To Pack.

I arrived in Heathrow after the bumpiest ten-hour flight of my life. Luckily there were no mishaps. The problem was that after the flight, I didn't realize how much heavier my luggage would be. Nonetheless, my friend and I decided to try our luck on the Underground. Fortunately, while waiting in line to purchase a ticket, some random guy just gave his ticket to me, good for the entire day on all zones of the system, so I saved myself £3.60.

As luck would have it, the Underground station is located "near" the terminal, if the term near actually means within a half mile. Every twenty feet, I'd have to stop so that I could switch arms. After getting to the station, I couldn't even lift my upright onto the car, which was a good four inches off the ground. (Don't you dare laugh; imagine a 5'1" Asian female weighing approximately ninety pounds, as much as the luggage combined, maybe even a little less.) Some nice British lady helped me drag my stuff onto the car, where I took up two seats and half of the aisle in front of the two seats.

After the one hour ride, we got off at King's Cross, which I thought would be a piece of cake. Wrong. I had to lug my upright (about sixty pounds) and my backpacking pack (about thirty pounds or more, including the daypack that I used as my carry-on) up TWO flights of stairs. On the first flight, I courageously started pulling and pulling. I fell on my butt after five steps. Another British woman helped me carry it up to the next level, which I thought was the last of it. Wrong again. There was another flight of stairs that seemed longer than the last flight; I wasn't even going to attempt it without my friend's help but then some angel from Britain (some cute British guy) offered to help me carry it up to the platform and then proceeded to lug the whole suitcase up for me. On the train, my friend and I just plopped down, without taking our packs off.

The train took us to the Luton Airport Parkway, where we had to catch a shuttle bus to the airport. This wonderful little station had lifts (yay!) so we took those to get to the shuttle. By this time, I had figured out that pushing my upright was sooo much easier than pulling it, so I started pushing. The shuttle bus was completely full so I was standing with my luggage, with a little baby behind me in a stroller. The entire ride I was so scared that I would fall over and crush it because I was so tired, but nothing terrible like that happened.

We got to the airport four hours early, and no information was available about our flight, so we ate a bite at Burger King and then took turns napping and watching the luggage. Finally, around 6pm (our flight was at 8:15pm) I couldn't take it anymore, so we asked if we could take an earlier flight, but it was all booked. So we got into line and waited to check in. After checking in, I dropped off in a deep sleep for almost one hour. Around 9pm, they finally started letting us board the plane. The flight to Edinburgh was pretty turbulent towards the end, due to the strong easterly winds. We finally got into a taxi and had an uneventful car ride after traveling for twenty-four hours straight.

My one piece of advice to anyone studying abroad: do not bring more luggage than you can carry, and when I say carry, I mean carry and not complain. Being the serious shopaholic I am, I do not know why I even brought so much stuff. Pack light!!! And if you're bringing more luggage than you have the strength for, pay the extra money to take another flight instead of the public transportation in London.