First and foremost, I was hoping that I had seen the worst of my recruitment season in Texas, as I had some pretty CRAZY experiences -- however, Buffalo has proven me wrong. As many of you may already know, Buffalo was recently hit hard with almost 2 feet of snow and a LARGE part of the city and it's surrounding communties were, or still are, without power. With that tid-bit of information -- the past couple of days have truly been a recruiters nightmare.
Being that I had not received any cancellation notices from hotels, airlines and/or schools, I headed to the airport on Monday morning, assuming that I was good to go. My travel started around 9 a.m. in Springfield and the skies seemed to be in my favor. Phew. I arrived in Chicago O'Hare on time and headed towards my next gate. There was a slight delay, so I decided to check my e-mail quickly. I saw that I had received an e-mail from one of the schools in Buffalo, stating the following:
Dear Graduate School Representatives,
I am happy to report that Buffalo State College is up and running and on schedule to host our Graduate School Fair this Thursday, October 19th. I do suggest to anyone who is coming in from out of town that you call ahead of time and reconfirm your hotel reservations. I have been told that some rooms may be given away by local emergency Management Teams to meet the needs of residents who are still without power from the October 13th storm. I hope that all of you that are from the WNY area are well and that you and your families are safe and warm. Please contact me if you have any questions or concerns.
Safe travels,
Jessie
I immediately took action and began making a couple of calls. The hotel I had reservations with for the entire week was consistently ringing busy, so I called the 800# to verify my reservation and to confirm that the property was up and runnning. After being placed on hold for what seemed to be forever, I asked the gentleman, "So, I'm good to go?" and I clearly heard the gentleman say, "Yes m'am -- the property re-opened today. You're good to go." I felt a sense of relief, but I still felt unsure about all of this. After finally boarding the plane, we started taxiing towards the runway --- but it seemed as though we had been taxiing forever. To our dismay, we had turned around and we were heading back to the gate to have a de-icer mechanism replaced. We were told that it would take between 30-45 minutes. During this time, I confirmed my car rental reservation and made them aware of my delayed arrival. The young lady confirmed that everything was set and she would see me soon. At this point, I was feeling rather confident that I would have a smooth arrival into the Buffalo area. We finally took off about an hour later and arrived in Buffalo around 6 o'clock.
I quickly approached baggage claim and got a 'smart carte' to pile my luggage on to push across the street to the rental car counter. Checking in seemed to be a rather painless process, as I was anxious to get to my hotel for a little rest and relaxation. While driving to the hotel, I noticed a great deal of damage to trees, etc. and a number of buildings sitting in complete darkness. Approaching my exit, I saw a hotel in complete darkness and remembered thinking, "Wow. That's not good." Little did I know that I would soon find my hotel in complete darkness. I pulled into the lot and my heart sank. They had no power -- nothing. Which meant I had no place to stay. I moved quickly to the hotel next door -- FULL. I sat in the parking lot for an hour and a half trying to find a room. NOTHING (actually there were a couple of rooms available downtown Buffalo, which is not a safe place to be -- especially as a female traveling alone, so I passed). I called a recruiter friend in the the area that I had become well acquainted with --- and with much dismay she told me that she was also without power. Ugh. Sigh. What a horrible feeling. Sooooooooo, I slept in my car. YIKES... just kidding. SMILE.
I came to the conclusion.... "Tonight, Kelly. Let's just take care of tonight and worry about the remainder of the week tomorrow." Being the planner that I am, this was a difficult thing to do; however, it was necessary. Fortunately, my grandmother lives in Batavia, NY (approximately 40-45 minutes away), so I called her in tears and asked if I could crash on her couch for the night. What grandmother would turn her grandaughter away? I finally rolled my luggage in to her apartment around 8:45 p.m. (EST). As this ever-so-long travel day came to an end, I must admit that I was emotionally, mentally and physically exhausted. I crashed on her sofa.... hoping and praying that tomorrow would hold some blessings in disguise.
I drove into Buffalo the next morning to attend the fair, still unsure as to what the week would hold. As all of the recruiters began to share their horror stories, I believe that mine seemed to beat them all.
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