26 Hours in Phoenix

PROMYS 2024 had just ended. Caught up in all the goodbyes, getting lost with two other students, and the bus to the airport getting super delayed, I was really worried that I wasn't going to make my flight on time.

That's okay though, because while we were walking in circles at South Station trying to find the goddamn bus to the airport (and the ironic part is that I've taken this bus multiple times), I found out that my flight is delayed by an hour and a half. I still ended up at the gate about 15 minutes before my originally scheduled departure, so it would have been fine, but this means I was extra chilling in terms of time. I just needed to reschedule my connection at the desk (since I was flying BOS > PHX > BOI). It shouldn't be too much of a delay, right?

I headed to the customer service table after I get through TSA, and they let me know that the PHX > BOI flight I was getting on was the last one of the day, and that they would have to schedule me for a flight for tomorrow. I batted my eyes. You're telling me that the last flight from Phoenix to Boise is at 5pm? On a Saturday? Then, the lady informed me that the next available flight PHX > BOI was 8pm the next day.

I mean, I didn't even care at that point. All that mattered to me was that I was going to be spending a night at an airport.

"Don't worry, you'll get a hotel voucher," she reassured me.

"Uh, so I know in some places, they only let 21 and older people check into hotels. Will I (18) be able to check in?" and I watched with mounting concern as the lady asked her supervisor.

"Ask the people in Phoenix and they can see if their list of approved hotels lets people under 21."

Great. On top of that, I don't get any kind of compensation outside of the hotel because they're not legally obliged to do so since the flight itself wasn't delayed more than 3 hours (it did end up getting delayed slightly more than 3 hours... we still didn't get shit). Whatever. This is what I get for booking American.

Boarding started later than the indicated time. I eventually boarded my flight, and 15 minutes after our augmented departure time, we still don't take off. Okay, that's fine too. I had a 26 hour layover anyways. There's basically nothing you could do to make me miss my connection.

Story time! In PROMYS 2022, I got onto my flight out of Boston and I knocked out immediately. I come to some time later to hear the captain say, "and we'll be landing in Boston shortly." I immediately sat up straight and looked around the cabin. First of all, my neighbor was still the same person, so I didn't sleep through my entire flight and was on another flight back into Boston. Secondly, everybody seemed pretty unphased by this announcement, so it must not be anything serious. After glancing around for 3 minutes (you'll be surprised by how long 3 minutes is), I finally asked my neighbor about the announcement.

"Oh it's because a bird flew into the engine so we're going to land to make sure that the plane is okay," my neighbor explained to me.

One thing dragged into the other, and the flight crew decided that they were going to run it back the next morning. We'll all get a hotel voucher, they said. Yeah, everybody who was of legal got a hotel. I was 16, and I couldn't legally check into a hotel in the great state of Massachusetts (you have to be 21). So I spent the night behind baggage claim 5 in Logan Airport on a cot and thin ass airplane blankets and tiny airplane pillows. "Don't worry, it's safe! There are security cameras."

So now, back in the present (2024), the captain comes on after we've all been sitting in the airplane for quite some time and announced that a BIRD FLEW INTO THE ENGINE when they were coming down, and now a bunch of flight engineers were checking the engines to make sure that everything is okay. That's why there was now a 3 hour delay on the flight.

These motherfucking kamikaze avian creatures on the day after PROMYS has caused not one but TWO overnight delays for me and now I'm mad beefing with them. Fuck them government drones.

Anyways, we eventually lift off and I landed in Phoenix 6 hours later, after trying and failing to sleep and then watching We Were Never Really Strangers (I was very concerned about how graphic it is and what my neighbors would think about me. Not to be homophobic, it's just quite explicit at some points.) (To be clear, I was watching it because my friend said he heard it was a good movie). After deplaning, I headed straight to the customer service counter and joined the long line of people getting our promised hotel vouchers. I put on my earbuds and started doing my Honkai dailies.

When I had inched to near the front of the line, I noticed that there was a commotion at the counter. "You promised us hotel and meal. Where is that?" I heard a middle-aged Southeast Asian lady demand. The other passengers around her echoed her complaints. I quickly put my earbuds away and listened to the situation unfold with confusion. Where they actually not getting us our free hotel stay? Was I seriously about to spend another night at an airport? After how little sleep I had gotten yesterday (zero, not a single wink) and in general (with two all-nighters and a 3 hour night, I was at a 4 hour and 30 minute average for sleep for the last week), this was going to be mega painful.

I looked around, and noticed someone I know from MIT also watching the lady turn on her Karen mode. We had found out earlier in the delay fiasco that we were on the same flight. She was before me in the line to get the hotel vouchers, and I asked her, "Are we seriously not getting a hotel?"

"Yeah, they gave me a coupon, but it's still really expensive."

Don't fly American.

After like five minutes of argument with someone who claimed to be the manager (and she said that there was nobody else in the airport with higher authority than her), another guy came over and told them that we could all have our hotel vouchers. AA are a bunch of liars.

We cheered. "I'll get back in line," my friend remarked.

I told the lady at the desk that I was 18. She made a phone call and the manager of the hotel (shoutout to Benjamin) told her that it was okay, even though their website has a 21 or older requirement for checking in. We also got a meal voucher, something that was not promised to me earlier. I made sure to be extra nice to the workers because I felt kind of bad for the verbal barrage that was launched at them by the angry customers. I mean, it was kind of deserved, but not really, because they eventually relented and they were just doing their jobs and what they were told.

After checking into the hotel at like 9:30pm, I headed to the hotel restaurant. While I was waiting for my food, I recognized the people at the bar table from my delayed flight. They were making small talk, and eventually they also realized that they were all going through the same thing. I made a remark from my seat next to the bar about the flight, and I realized that the lady with her back towards me was the aforementioned Southeast Asian lady who fought tooth and nail for our compensation.

I participated in a little bit of the complaints and grumblings about the airline and how they handled the situation before turning back to my Valorant video. After all that had happened, I was much too tired to talk to other people, especially strangers, for an entire meal. I told my friends about the entire situation, and one of them told me to thank her. They're right! I haven't thanked her yet for what she's done. And so I do before I left.

We only got a 12$ voucher for food, which is definitely not enough for a hotel restaurant, but that's okay really. Since I hadn't had a proper meal since 7am that day (my lunch comprised of a granola bar, a can of Sprite, and airplane pretzels), I ordered something big for myself. I was much too sleep deprived to feel anything except occasional sharp pains in my body, but I figured that I should probably eat something substantial. The burger was both (relatively) cheap and calorie-rich.

Man that was such a good burger. There was a significant amount of meat (8oz) and it was not the terribly fine-ground kind of patty meat. It was kind of bland, to be honest, but that's okay, because the meat was prepared well in general. Let me tell you about the fries. Holy shit the fries were something else. They're the nice kind of deep fried, really crispy and crunchy. I think they were truffle fries. The seasoning was so good. I mean, for a 27$ burger, it was worth. It was extra worth because I only had to pay 15$.

I went to my room afterwards ready to pass out for a long period of time. As I was getting ready to go to sleep, I realized I didn't have a toothbrush (I had thrown the one I was using during PROMYS away) and the hotel reception didn't have toothbrushes (ass), so I just put some on my finger and then tried my best. Anyways, after that odd procedure, I passed out in the king-sized hotel bed.

Check out was at 1pm, and so I made sure to set an alarm at 12pm. I woke up once at 6 am. I thought it was very fitting, because 6am in Arizona time was 9am EST, which was exactly when morning number theory lecture was. My circadian rhythm was still adapted to PROMYS time. I went back to sleep for another 6 hours, woken up this time by my alarm. I was rather confused at first, because I had not realized that the curtains were complete blackout curtains. It was pitch black in the room despite it being noon outside.

Sleeping 12 hours felt so damn good. I got up, full of energy, and packed up my stuff pretty quickly, since I didn't really have anything out. I had like 15 minutes before checkout, so I stood on the balcony of the room (wow the room has balcony!) and observed the Arizonian landscape (and felt the heat). The hotel was in an area that seemed to be specifically dedicated to airport hotels. There wasn't anything around really, except moderately tall buildings and palm trees. Far off in the distance was a backdrop of red mountains and buttes.

I said goodbye to my room and then checked out, leaving my suitcase with the hotel. I kept my backpack with me, with my laptop, headphones, and a small bag containing my water bottle, sunscreen (I lathered on a lot of sunscreen before I left my room). My flight was at 8pm. I had to figure out what to do for food, since notably they had only given me 12$ for food and I really don't want to waste my money on overpriced hotel food. I looked for attractions nearby. I ended up deciding between roaming around downtown Phoenix or going to a cactus garden.

I chose the latter because I didn't have high hopes for what the city would look like (coming from someone who lived in Utah and Idaho; the capitols of these types of states really aren't that much). And so I called an Uber to the Desert Botanical Garden. I was in a good mood so I made small talk, and I found out that my driver was the brother of some baseball player who played once with the Boston Red Sox.

The garden was located in the desert (well, Arizona is all desert anyways), and there was a cute little fountain and tons of succulents decorating the entrance. I bought my entrance tickets, left my giant backpack at the door, making sure that I had my sun umbrella and my small bag with my water and sunscreen and snack. My first order of business was the park restaurant near the entrance.

DAWG IT WAS SO GOOD. Apparently Arizona has really good food, plus, it wasn't expensive!!!! (I'm too used to Boston prices). I ordered the "Hot Mess." It was layers of hard taco shells, pulled pork, two sunny-side-ups, and cheese melted everywhere. There were tons of seasonings too, and oh god it was so good. There was so much umami from the egg yolk and the saltiness of the pork and the crunchy taco shell and melted cheese just tastes so good in general. I was definitely a hot mess after I ate that (in a good way).

After that satisfying brunch, I started walking through the park, making sure that as much of my body was in the shadow of my umbrella as possible. I saw a lot of cactus. I saw some kind of rodent try to sleep in the sand. I drank tons of water. I sat in the shade for a while and got really sleepy and I was concerned that I was going to pass out from the heat so I stood up and powered through the tiredness. I saw some traditional First Nations housing. I saw modern art scattered throughout the park.

It was right after PROMYS, and while I had a lot of time on that trip, which ended up being 3 hours long, to think and process all that had happened in the summer program, I didn't. Well, I tried to do a little bit of that, but I think my mind really did not want to be thinking about that.

I read a book titled Virga and Bone by Craigs Child for the creative writing class I took in my senior year of high school. It's a collection of essays by a man who hiked a lot in the desert. There was so much beauty that could be derived from the desert, a place that we usually don't associate happy things with. I thought about that book as I walked. I thought about the beauty of the cactus. I thought about what it means to try hard and push yourself further and how I did that at PROMYS. I thought about the interactions that I had with people, and what friendship means, and what boundaries I was supposed to place. I thought about hope and passion and dreams.

I think the most jarring thing for me about this whole journey was that I realized that I am now a half (I won't say fully because I don't think that's true) minted adult. I called my mother about the entire fiasco when I first got the information and explained as simply and comprehensively as I could what happened and what I was going to do, because in the past, she would always press me for every detail when I cut corners and gave her a brief overview and ended with "just trust me bro."

This time, in response to my complicated plan, she said, "That's great. You can figure it out on your own."

And while this was something that I've wanted to hear throughout my childhood, it stung a little. I was no longer someone that my mother would fret day and night about. It's an odd sensation that I thought about as I looked at the cactus. The sting was tempered a little by the calls that I got from my parents to stay safe, hydrated, and cool in the park.

After I had seen everything, I called an Uber to go back to the hotel. I sat in the lobby for a while answering all the emails and doing all the paperwork that I had put off because of PROMYS. I wrote a good bit too before I headed to the airport.

My final task in Phoenix was to find dinner, since food is all that I truly care about anyways. I walked around the airport, trying to figure out where to go for a quick eat. I ended up on some random fast food chain called Eegees, and I thought they had some kind of burger, but it turned out it was subs, which was fine I guess. It's healthier? I'm not even sure that's true. I was waiting for my food and became concerned as they took actually forever to assemble my sandwich. After I got my stuff, I hurriedly made it back to the gate, boarding had already finished (but before the departure time) and I got onto the flight with everyone sitting soundly in their seat. I wasn't even hungry enough for my food, because that brunch was that good. I tried to sleep, but I couldn't really, so I think I just did random stuff on my phone for an hour or so.

That concludes my 26 hours journey in Phoenix. It was a good layover. I had fun. I mean, it was like a free day trip to a new city that I'd never been to.

Make the most out of the unexpected detours in life.