In between days with flights canceled due to snow storms, I safely got to Boston two weeks ago for the start of a semester of PhD research at MIT. But before I dig into the snow situation, let me say a word about my flights. Last year I wrote a post about my frustrations with Lufthansa, but this time my experience was much better. With a delayed flight into Munich, I would have missed my connection to the States if it wasn't for a personal service bus picking me up directly from the plane, driving me over the tarmac to the right terminal and channeling me through security. Ten minutes later I had my seat belt fastened on my connecting flight with a few minutes spare.

Upon arrival the cold hit me, even if I spent only a few minutes waiting for a taxi. The temperature was around -10 degrees (Celsius, of course) but it was the wind that really caused the damage. I was very thankful for the fresh soup my new flatmate and her beautiful dog had prepared me upon arrival. Within days I would become familiar with the concept of wind chill and the associated warnings about frostbite omnipresent in the weather forecasts. But cold we can deal with, armed with a thick scarf and the blue cap my friend Sanne made me (thanks!), and most importantly with a few years of experience with Danish winter.

But then there is the snow. Here one may argue that Denmark also gets snow in winter, but it would be like pointing out there's no need to worry about a sunburn in the Canary Islands because the same sun can sometimes be observed from Denmark. Technically correct but also largely irrelevant. The amount of snowfall is of another order of magnitude. The dynamics are altered. Usually during or shortly after the snow, the roads get plowed and a salty mixture melts the remains into a layer of dirty slush. To be fair, that happens here too. But it is not as simple as that. One of the more intriguing complications that I had never previously considered: what to do with all the snow?

When a storm drops half a meter of snow, the streets still get cleared and so do the sidewalks, but that leaves immense piles of snow safely separating cars from pedestrians. The piles block part of the road and can greatly limit visibility at crossroads. A day or two after heavy snowfall the sidewalks are usually in decent shape (although a bit of acrobacy can be helpful to avoid getting stuck), thanks to relentless efforts from city employees and civilians. Boston has a law which requires its citizens to shovel the walkways in front of their houses within hours after the end of any plowable event. Empty lots are used as snow farms to deposit excess snow but even they have their limits. Dumping the snow into the Charles River is prohibited for environmental reasons, although there has been some debate about temporarily lifting the ban. During the last few days the city has been aggressively melting snow as well as literally driving truckloads out of the city, to make room for more to come.

Even for a city that is used to winter storms I am told that this year is exceptional and the statistics back that up. Some all time records have already been broken, including those of most snow in seven as well as thirty day time spans and that of most snow in February (already!). The winter has entered the “Top 10” of overall snowfall records and there are still a few weeks of prime snowing season left to attack the winter of 1995-1996's all-time record. The Boston metro (“The T”) has had trouble operating and even closed entirely last Tuesday – its head has meanwhile resigned. When storms are the worst schools close and kids get a snow day. Such days are anticipated every winter and compensated elsewhere, but with the amount of snow days this season (four in the last two weeks only) the summer holiday may get shortened.

Although I am looking forward to explore the city under more Spring-like conditions, the weather is excellent for hot chocolate and research productivity. I have been welcomed by very nice people and I watched my first ever Super Bowl (and even liked American Football!). I ordered snow boots and joked that their arrival would keep the snow away. Since I got them on Tuesday that has worked surprisingly well, but while I am writing this the National Weather Service has issued a blizzard warning for tonight and tomorrow. They predict the winter storm will bring a foot of snow or more, by which they mean about 30 cm should be expected.

As I started to complain about even more snow and even less space to put it, the news struck about two terror attacks in the Danish capital leaving two dead and several wounded to place it all into perspective. So let it snow. But while we are at it... let's break that 1995 record so there is something to write home about!

On 08:03 | 0 reacties

I spent the past ten days in State College, Pennsylvania. A summer school for astronomers was organised there, by Penn State University. Together with Mikkel, a colleague and friend at Aarhus University, we went there to indulge ourselves in statistics.

The summer school itself was absolutely fantastic. With the ever-increasing size of observational data in astronomy, comes the need to handle those using statistical methods. Everyone in the field will recognize that as a fact, but nevertheless, deep statistical understanding often remains limited. Comparison and selection of complicated models, handling of various sources of errors, simulations, multi-dimensional datasets, complex parameter correlations and confidence estimation, large datasets from various sources, … The list of statistical problems is nearly endless and standard solutions rarely apply. While statisticians have answers to some of these challenges, astronomers – unlike a lot of people in social sciences, usually proud of their knowledge on mathematical issues – rarely outsource their issues directly to true statisticians.

The summer school was intended to bridge that gap between statisticians and astronomers, and targeted young people in the field, who, unlike some of their supervisors, acknowledge the need for a more thorough statistical background. Teaching was done by statisticians and astronomers (or combinations), and lab sessions introduced us to the freely available R program. It is safe to say the workshop was rewarding. I doubt statistics will ever be my favorite subject, but perhaps the time has come to embrace it.

It's not only about content. The weather was nice and warm for most of our stay, and having a margarita in a shirt outside was a welcome change from the Danish weather. Most importantly though, it was inspirational to meet astronomers from all over the world, doing a PhD in a wide range of topics. I might run into some of the exoplanet researchers that were present, one day. It will be interesting to see where all those young astronomers end up in five to ten years. How many will still be in the field?

The Lufthansa story

While Penn State's Days Inn hotel accommodated us flawlessly and the summer school's organisation was impeccable, unfortunately the same cannot be said about Lufthansa. Our flight scheme was Billund – Frankfurt – Philadelphia – State College. On the way there, they lost our luggage. It got stuck in Philly (as the locals like to pronounce the city), despite having rechecked the bags upon arrival on US soil. No big deal, as the next day it was delivered to the hotel, but it was on the way back to Denmark that things truly went fubar.

I don't use the term lightly (for those not familiar with it, I suggest an urban dictionary), but it is appropriate. In State College, they could not yet assign me a seat for the Philadelphia-Frankfurt flight, as it was overbooked, but since we got to the airport well in advance, it was not a problem (at least not for us). Then came Frankfurt.

Our flight got delayed by 15 minutes prior to arrival, because of bad weather at the airport. As we learned from the immense queue at the Lufthansa Service Desk, a large number of incoming other flights got diverted because of the thunderstorm, leading to subsequent cancellations in departing flights. Our final flight of the day, to Billund, was listed as “in time”, so we thought we'd escape the trouble, but an hour before departure, instead of the start of the check-in came a cancellation announcement.

We were informed that we were placed on a waiting list for the next plane to Billund a few hours later. With no other information than that there were more than 50 (!) people on that list, we could only hope that our four extra hours of waiting would pay off. I asked about compensation and my German was good enough to understand the discussion between the Lufthansa ladies, which was obviously not meant for my ears. Roughly translated: “How much can we give as food compensation? I didn't give anything to the previous people, but this one actively asked, so I guess I have to? - Yes, then you have to”. We got a voucher worth ten euro.

A few people from the waiting list made it on the plane, during what appeared to be a bit of a lottery: a large group of deeply tired people, hoping for their name to be called. Mikkel was among the lucky few, and with no other seats left on the plane, we decided to split up. He got his business class seat home, and I thought that on my own, it would be easier to find an alternative option to make it back to Denmark.

That turned out to be easier said than done. Together with the 30+ other people that didn't make it on the plane (what did they really expect?), we were sent off to find the Lufthansa Service Desk for more information and rebookings. After having crossed through half of Frankfurt Airport, we located it, only to find that they were closing it down. Granted, we were not the only stranded group that day, and the situation was rather chaotic.

Being sent out to the main hall for Lufthansa bookings, outside of the secured area, I started to lose hope to make it out on another plane the same day. A long and extremely slowly moving queue awaited us here, where we had to stand in line in a sun-lit tunnel of glass. Sweating, the first hour passed by. And another one. We wondered why they could not put more people on this. Throughout the waiting process, we were asked multiple times for our destination, and asked to remain patiently in the queue. When we finally made it to the front of the line, we were told that we were in the wrong line. This queue was only for Asian destinations. This Lufthansa person should consider himself lucky that the Danes are not aggressive people. I looked around me to find a hidden camera.

We moved a floor down and started afresh, in another line. At least this one moved somewhat faster. The friendly Lufthansa lady offered me a 'choice' between another waiting list attempt later that night, or a hotel and a flight the next day. Even the next-day flights were difficult, and she could put me on a flight to Billund, with a transfer at another airport. Not exactly tempted by the opportunity to see more German airports, I opted for a flight to Copenhagen instead. They wouldn't refund my train ticket to make it home from there, but I was long past caring.

I waited over an hour for the shuttle bus that Lufthansa promised would drive every 15 minutes, and arrived at the hotel around 21h – more than 12 hours after first arriving to Frankfurt airport. It stopped raining about an hour after I had arrived.

The food we got was halfway decent. With a gay couple from New York and anAmerican woman, we were discussing whether it was the airline or the hotel benefiting from this scam. It was certainly not stranded travelers such as ourselves. We got 30 minutes of free internet access, and for more, I paid ten euro out of my own pocket. The shower felt great, but it was less nice to change into the same t-shirt again – as my luggage was still somewhere checked in, Lufthansa promised me a hygiene package, but I never received it.

I woke up from the wake-up call, disoriented, but at least the breakfast was very good, so my spirits were up again. However, since the shuttle service wasn't large enough to take everyone to the airport and they had to call additional taxis, and we subsequently got stuck in morning traffic for the thirty minute drive to the airport, I got worried about missing another plane... but apparently it was time for Murphy to show me some mercy.

There was a small victory as well. The bottle of Highland Park I had bought at the tax free shop the day before, was taken from me at the security because I could not take it in from outside (too much liquid), as it was not packed in special duty free wrapping. I went to the shop that sold it to me the day before, and while they pointed out it was more Lufthansa's fault than theirs, they gave me a new one. Apparently, Heidemann does know what customer service means, which was refreshing to find out.

I left Saturday afternoon in the US, I arrived Monday at 16h home in Denmark. The travel took at least 24 hours longer than expected. In return, I got a lunch (only because I actively asked), a dinner buffet, a hotel room and a breakfast. I had a shower, but no clothes to change into. I paid for internet twice, at the airport and at the hotel. I paid my own train ticket and lunch on the train. While writing this, I my luggage still hasn't made it home, unlike promised, it was not rerouted properly. I should get it back later tonight.

The lady at the lost baggage counter was very helpful and advised me to file a complaint against Lufthansa. The friendly security person who took my whiskey bottle, and the duty free shop woman who gave me another one, advised me the same.

Lufthansa, consider this my complaint. I hope someone googles you, and reads this. Delays can happen, and bad weather is no one's fault. As most travelers, I accept that. The way you deal with the situation matters, though. This weekend, for me, I believe you did a pretty shitty job. 

Vincent

On 19:42 | 0 reacties