Giovanni Apruzzese

Giovanni Apruzzese

Assistant Professor
Cybersecurity, Machine Learning, Networking

Dartmouth: snow, luggage, coaches, and Uber

I am writing this “story” in October 2024—more than 5 years after what happened in January 2019. And yet, everything is still so fresh in my memory. I could still feel the agony that I experienced during that fateful day.

Preparations

But let’s go in order. In 2019, I lived (and was pursuing my PhD) in Modena. Thanks to my advisor, I was accepted to spend 6 months as a visiting scholar at Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, USA. Getting the J1 VISA to go to Dartmouth took a lot of effort; and, moreover, I also spent a lot of time in finding a proper place I could stay in[a]Most people I know of who did research visits in US institutions typically spent the first weeks in AirBnBs just for finding rooms/apartments, because most landlords want to see the tenants in person, or maybe require the tenant to have a social security number—which most non-US residents do not have. for the entire 6 months—all of these ordeals will not be described here. Regardless, my journey was to begin on the 19th of January 2019. My destination: Wilder, i.e., a remote town of ~100 inhabitants in Vermont, around 10km from Dartmouth College (that was the best place I could find). Reaching Wilder from Modena was not simple, and the itinerary was the following:

As you can see, the trip was not simple. However, as I wrote, I was meticulous and had everything planned. But, of course, the simple fact that you’re reading this piece means that something did not go as expected.

Saturday, January 19, 2019

The day of the departure I could not sleep. There were simply too many things in my head: did I take everything? Did I miss anything? What about X / Y / Z? Who cares about sleeping anyway: I have a very long travel ahead, and I’ll have plenty of time to sleep on the plane. I was so wrong.

Snowstorm

Among the millions of thoughts I had, I decided that I wanted to find out “where” the Dartmouth Coach was supposed to depart from: I had already been at the Boston Logan’s airport, but I never took this coach. So, just to be prepared, I began investigating. I went to the website of the coach (I already had a ticket), www.dartmouthcoach.com, and began looking for information. I was doing this search at around 2am (CET), i.e., 4 hours before I was to leave with my mother for Bologna’s airport. This is when I made a very bad discovery. Apparently, due to a heavy snowstorm, the Dartmouth Coach scheduled for 8:50pm on Saturday January 19 was canceled. The next coach was planned to run on Monday, January 21, at 8am. What? Wait, my plane lands at 5:35pm, and this means I only have the coach of 6:50pm that I can take.

Still, there was little I could do—besides hoping that “things would go well”. Just to be on the safe side, however, I sent a message to my landlord, telling him that my ETA was 2 hours earlier (since my plan was to take the 8:50pm coach, given that I deemed the 6:50pm coach to be very tough to take), and that I would keep him informed about my whereabouts: the last thing I wanted was to wait for 2 hours in a snowstorm, in the night, in a place I had never been to before.

Arriving in Boston

Eventually, I reached the Bologna airport, took my flight to CDG, and then got onto my flight to Boston. That’s when I began to “hope” – hope that the flight is going to be on time, and that I could get out of border control in time for the 6:50pm coach. Of course, I could not sleep at all.

My plane landed in Boston with a slight delay (15m). However, I am quite fast and manage to get out of the plane relatively quickly. I arrive at the passport control and there is almost no one there: at 6:00pm, I am past the controls. I take a deep breath: I would make it. But then I realised that there was something I did not take into account: my luggage.

I had two checked-in luggage.[b]After all, I was to stay in the US for 6 months—the first two being in Winter; and Winter in New England is harsh. So I had a lot of heavy clothes. When I got out from the passport control, the baggage carousel used to deliver checked-in luggage was not moving yet. Put simply, my efforts at being among the first to go through passport control had been meaningless, given this “bottleneck” of the checked-in luggage.

Unbearable wait

I began to wait. 6:10. 6:15. At 6:20, the carousel began moving, and the first luggage came out. No sight of my luggage, though. 6:25, 6:30. Heck, the Dartmouth Coach leaves in 20 minutes! 6:35. 6:40. That’s when I see one of my luggage! I promptly get it, hoping to see my other luggage soon. But I was wrong. At 6:45, I began to think: should I go out now, and forgo my second luggage? But even assuming I go out like this, will I make it in 5 minutes? And even if I make it, what about my luggage? I should come back here—they would definitely not send it to me, unless it was “lost”. Dayum.

I didn’t leave. I stood there. At 6:53pm, my second luggage came out. I took it and began to run—to this date, I still have no idea “how” I actually ran, given that I had 2 large luggage with wheels, and a hand-luggage (also with wheels) as well as my backpack and a very large coat. Regardless, I went outside, and took a look. Somewhere, in the distance, around 200m away from me, I could see a coach with “Dartmouth” written on the side, and someone attempting to close the luggage compartment. I began running and shouting “heyyyyy!!”. I manage to get that person’s attention. When I arrive, I can barely speak. He utters something—something which I do not understand. But I say “Is this the Dartmouth Coach?”. He says something—probably a “yes”, but I don’t really know. “I need to go to Dartmouth” I say. Again, he says something and then opens the luggage compartment again. I put my luggage inside, then tell him I have a ticket (and show it), and get inside. I couldn’t believe it… but things were not over yet.

Snow tires

I sat on an empty seat. There were not many people inside. Luckily, there was Wi-Fi on the coach (I knew this—it was stated in the website). So I send a message to my mother, telling her that I managed to get the coach (she was well-aware of the issues I was going through). Then, I send a message to my landlord. “I made it! I am on the 6:50pm coach. My ETA at Dartmouth is 10pm”. After some minutes, I get a response. “Hi Giovanni. Unfortunately, due to the snowstorm, the person who was supposed to come pick you up could not come bacause they do not have snow tires on their car”. What? What the heck was I supposed to do, then? I was on a coach that was getting into the middle of nowhere, and that was supposed to leave me in the middle of a snowstorm in a place I was completely oblivious of.

I send a few more messages with my landlord, and he eventually recommended me to use “Uber”. Now, I knew what Uber was, but I had never used it before (remember, it was still 2019). I download the Uber app and register an account (thanks to the WiFi of the coach…). I look for available cars, and I found that there is one Uber driver available—in the middle of the snowstorm! I book him for a drive from Dartmouth College to Wilder, and he accepts! When the coach reaches its final destination, my Uber driver was there. I could not believe it again. I thanked the guy—had he not been there, I really had (or have right now) no idea of what I would have done.

Happy ending

I reached my house sometime after 10:20pm. The tenants were very welcoming. However, I soon found out of another “issue”: the room I was supposed to stay in was not free yet. Apparently, the guy using it extended his stay and… well, I had to use a temporary room for a few days. After all that I had been through, this was definitely… negligible. I was in a house—and not outside, in a snowstorm. Unfortunately, I learned that there was no place that could sell any sort of food in a radius of 5km from the house, and there were no public transportation running on Sunday. This meant that I had nothing to eat (aside from a few slices of bread that I brought with me) for the first day. Thankfully, the other tenants gave me something, for which I was deeply grateful.