Tales from the Departure Lounge

#7 Rachel MacSween (Grab Bag And Go)

• Andy Plant & Nick Cuthbert • Season 1 • Episode 7

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In this episode our flight crew talk to Rachel MacSween, director of client partnerships at IDP Education about naked men knocking on her hotel door at night, going on holiday with her geography teacher and experiencing death by pancake. 

Rachel also reveals essential safety tips for the road including the use of a grab-bag and door wedge as an emergency policy. Destinations range from the tranquility of the western Scottish Isles to the mayhem of west Africa. 

Final boarding call: Lagos, Nigeria

This is episode is sponsored by The PIE Live - interactive, two day events that build knowledge and networks in international education - check out dates and venues at www.thepielive.com

Tales from the Departure Lounge is a Type Nine production for The PIE www.thepienews.com

Andy:

I've started recording already hey, Maybe I need to stop recording.

Nick:

see you on the other side. welcome to Tales from the Departure Lounge. This is a podcast about travel for business, for pleasure, or for study. My name's Nick and I'm joined by my co-pilot, Andy. And together we're gonna be talking to some amazing guests about how travel has transformed their. So sit back, relax, and enjoy the journey. Welcome to the podcast.

Andy:

Today we chat to the lovely Rachel Mc Swen, director of Client Partnerships at I D P, and prior to that she was director of International at the University of York

Nick:

and she is acutely aware of how privileged she is to do this job, Coming particularly from a rural Scottish isle

Andy:

we cover a lot of ground in this one, including how sketchy situations make you realize that most people in the world are just nice.

Nick:

,but she's always ready with a grab bag. Something you need to take with you if you've gotta escape in QuickTime.

Andy:

And it sounds like sometimes she has to, this episode features a naked man trying to beat down her door,

Nick:

this seems to be a thing that men do in hotels.

Andy:

Speak for yourself. She's open-minded, a character that you can't help to warm to, and apparently she makes a mean batch of scones. Let's get some tales from the Departure Lounge, from Rachel Mc Swen.

Rachel:

Are you joking me that this is my job? Are you actually having a laugh that I'm being paid to be here and somebody's paying for this experience? There was a, a naked man banging on my door and I was kind of trying to reason with him at two 30 and I was like, Anything I can help with? And the cleaner came in and chased me out cause she was like, lady man, lady man. And she chased me into the man's toilets cause she thought I was a transvestite. If this is my time on Earth Up, what is the last song that I listened to? And it was 5, 6, 7, 8 by steps

Nick:

so before we get into the episode, I wanna quickly tell you about the pie live events that are happening around the world after a sold out European conference in London. The next dates will be the 24th and the 25th of July on the Gold Coast Australia, followed by the 13th to the 14th of November in Boston in the United States. These are short, sharp, two-day in-person events where we bring together the best of the sector to discuss global trends in international education, but crucially through a regional. The feedback we always get is about the value in networking and public private connections that are made. So if you are an aspiring leader looking for professional development, or a CEO or director looking to expand your network, check out the pi live.com. Come with us, come and meet us. We're so excited to be taking these events on tour, and I look forward to meeting you all soon. We've also left some links in the episode notes, so let's get on with the podcast.

Andy:

Rachel Mc Swain, welcome to Tales in the Departure Lounge.

Rachel:

Thanks Andy and hi Nick. Good to see you both.

Andy:

You've heard the podcast before and this is final boarding call. You're about to board a plane and you can take our listeners anywhere in the world with you. Where are you taking us today?

Rachel:

Where are we going? Well, do you know what this question was actually posed when I was working at the University of York in the pandemic. Lots of us were very used to travel and we were very used to getting on planes whenever we fancied it, and I was having a call one day with the Deputy Vice Chancellor at York at the time, and he. If you could get on a plane and go anywhere right now, where would you go? And so when I was thinking about this question, I was thinking where did I say then? And does that still ring true? And it was actually Lagos of all places. And I think probably because at that time Lagos felt like it was the opposite of the life that I was living. I was in quietude and solitude working in New York, working in my spare bedroom, just getting through each day and just trying to manage the student recruitment process at that time. And I just kept thinking of Lego and the pulse of the city and the vibe when you get off that plane everything hits you the noise and the smells and the sights and the zones. I just thought I'd just love to land there and then get in that car and wonder one earth was gonna happen we're gonna take the listeners to Legos

Nick:

I've never been to Lagos I get quite a negative perception of it, that it's too chaotic and it's not a fun travel experience.

Rachel:

I think that's probably fair actually, Nick. I think that's a fair, representation of it. And I think there are probably people in the international office community that don't like going and then there's a bunch of us that really do love going and I think probably the first time you go is really confronting. I did grow up in the Scottish Highlands and I grew up in the Is of Sky and then moved to the mainland when I was in my teens and we went to school near Inverness. And probably in my mind it's the contrast of having grown up somewhere so quiet. and then going somewhere like Lagos where there's, somewhere between 25 and 35 million people living there. I like the chaos, but I think it doesn't appeal to everybody. And there's probably, within international offices, there's people that have been once and will never go back, have never been, and have no desire to go. Or the people like me that are get me back there. Get me back into that world of mayhem.

Andy:

The first time I went there, I was full of, preconceived ideas about what I was gonna expect. But actually when you go there and then go there again, you see how things are developing and I would be constantly surprised by, Being overtaken by a Ferrari on Le Lucky Island. it's not what I expected when, I land in Nigeria how on earth does that Ferrari get round? Because so many of the roads are for the potholes, and what's the point of the Ferrari? Cuz you sit on the third mainland bridge for five hours. So I guess what my question is, what's the thing that surprised you most about when you've.

Rachel:

probably the sense of community that I feel when I'm there. And, I know that's really a ridiculous thing to say when you're sitting in a city of that size, you wouldn't think you would ever sense that. the IS Sky is, is a community of people and I think I identify with those communities quite quickly in Nigeria you've always got a sense of somebody's got your back. And I think you're dead right around the perceptions that people have. And I think unfortunately, there's some terms that people associate with Nigerian. Often it's Nigerian scammers or Nigerian con artists, the negative language around it can be quite easily, dissolved when you get there and you see the sincerity in the generosity of people, Some of those people are getting outta bed to a very uncertain existence. You got sense like, yes, I'm alive, life is good. I've been spared another evening. And I think leaning into that when you're there and understanding that people have that genuine gratitude for existence, it's, there's a lot that we can learn from that. That joy Divine does exist.

Andy:

I think it's a very innovative culture, and I think it's driven by that attitude that need for the dollar. Where am I gonna get the dollar from?

Nick:

It's so entrepreneurial because there's such big fluctuations in Forex and trading and there is this mentality that you could be poor one day, enrich the next or in reverse.

Rachel:

I remember speaking to a taxi driver about this in Legos and saying like, why is the population still exploding? And I think there's a certain sense of I can make it in Lagos because it's a city of opportunity. And of course the government may have relocated HQ to Abuja and probably put more investment into Abuja as a city than they do into Legos. And that infrastructure does creak under the volume of people that are there. But I totally agree, the entrepreneurial spirit, the innovation can come through in behaviors that we don't recognize as appropriate, like bribery or corruption or getting stopped on the airport road and asked for, 1,009 to get your passport back with a gun pointing through the window, which, does happen, where you get stopped by a police guard and they say, give you for passport and they've got a machine gun. Of course you're gonna give them your passport. And then they say, okay, that's great, there's it back. That's a thousand Nira, please. He say, oh man. But then other part, he thinks at the time it was For quid, it's probably not over much more of a one 50. There is this level of, you need to call that out, but a word you call it out too. And B, what's the damage really for you as an individual if you're getting charged one point 50 to get your passport back? They're trying to make sure that they've got a roof over their heads. And I, so I just dismiss it a little bit. And I think in previous jobs I used to have almost a category of my expenses. Times that I was asked for money that are probably not appropriate, and I've used it as well, unfortunately, you get to Lagos airport and you think, oh my God, that queue is five hours long. Who can I pay to get to the front of that queue? So I've done it. So, you know, I'm not beyond what they're gonna, you know, I'm not beyond the, the bribery that's there, but I try not to apply that British judgment to it. I think, every man himself, and they're trying to just get through each day

Andy:

I don't think, Rachel Mcwe is going to end low level corruption in Nigeria by standing up to somebody with a machine gun. It's probably not worth the risk.

Nick:

Rachel, just describe the situation with money in Nigeria the black market, and the balance between what you can use a card for, and what you need cash for, and how that's reconciled with the university funds.

Rachel:

how you actually claim back your expenses. I remember the first time, I went to Nigeria and I ended up with, Ladi Vek who I think he works for, Cambridge Education Group still. And he was taking me to find some cash because at that time that was maybe, 2009, 2010, it wasn't that easy to get money at the ATMs, and if you did, it was obviously a much, higher rate. So we were going, we were basically going to the black market for RN ira, and, it was in Abuja and we were drove down this little road beside the hotel, and there was guys standing beside the road and they basically had the money down their trousers and they were then taking the money out. And you were doing a bit of a deal beside the road. And at that time, I, I heard stories about people paying for their tuition fees and cash, literally turning it with vin bags of cash for tuition fees because they've got a better rate from it than they could from the banks. But certainly I think that, the technology and infrastructure and the communications in particular in Nigeria has moved on so much that most things that are, in hotels for example, or restaurants, I would expect to be able to pay for by credit cards,

Andy:

I love the idea of these guys pulling notes out of their pants for exchange

Rachel:

Wadges of cash? Yeah.

Andy:

What is the ca, and then, and then obviously exchanging that cash and then it going into somebody else's pants and then, and then going into somebody else's pants. It's lit. Literally dirty

Rachel:

Oh God.

Andy:

isn't it?

Rachel:

Oh God. Hand sanitizer all the way I think for that one.

Nick:

The only similar experience I had, I once went to South Africa and Johannesburg and I had been to Zimbabwe, so I'd had US dollars prepared and, I was paying for a meal or something in the hotel and, the waiter was from Zimbabwe and we got chatting, and I said, I've got US dollars if you want me to pay in that. And he looked at me and he said, yeah, okay, just, just give me a minute. And now it's like working and eating. And I turned around, and I'm not kidding, like the whole hotel staff had appeared in a line behind me and they were asking to buy my US dollars So they were asking what rate I would give them and how much I would sell onto them.

Rachel:

Oh.

Nick:

I was completely unprepared for this situation, so I hadn't really worked out what my rate was, I could have been one of those guys with the cash down the pants and making a few bucks.

Rachel:

never too late, Nick. It's never too late for a career change.

Andy:

I was at one of the Pie's, wonderful conferences recently, talking to somebody about Nigeria and they said everybody's got a Nigeria story, of which I agree. So what's your Nigeria story?

Rachel:

Oh, blame me. You're right, like everyone's got one and everyone's got one that's, oh God, did that really happen? I think the worst one was, uh, car incident in Abuja. So the flight from Lego Abuja, you check, try not and get the last flight because often it's delayed and you end up landing quite late. And for reasons outside of my control, I end up getting the last flight to Abuja one day from Legos. And of course it was late leaving Legos, therefore it was late in Tab Abuja. And for those who haven't been the road from Abuja into the airport into the cities about, an hour or 90 minutes drive and, it's quite a dark road. There's not much on it. There's a lot of settlements probably that you don't see that are off the road, but obviously landed late. It got collected by an agent that. No longer work with. And um, but we were collected in a car that did not look like it would survive the journey out the carpark, let alone the road from the airport, to the hotel. But again, you don't want to be dismissive that somebody's car, they've probably worked hard to earn it and you just think, I'll just get in this car and you think, oh God, this isn't gonna end well. Anyway, we started the journey and the car was splitting a little bit and I thought, okay, we'll just maybe get some momentum going and the car will be fine. You know, you kind of justify it in all sorts of ways in your head. And we were probably about 10 minutes into the journey and the car was really stuttering at this point, and the road had a bit of a gap. So there was carriageway one way carriageway to the other, and then a bit of a kind of gap in between the carriageways I could sort of dip. And anyway, the next thing I realized was that the car was stuttering and then starting to roll backwards along the road, but also then roll backwards down this kind of embankment between the two carriages. I. Weirdly didn't panic. I mean, it's not normal in my nature. Not to panic when you're about to be in a road incident. I thought the worst that can happen is the car rolls down and up onto the other carriageway and we get hit by another car. That's what I thought the worst was, but the car kind of came to a stop and I thought, well, what do we do now? And I was looking around, it was pitch black. It was pitch black. And I thought, nobody knows I'm here. I had texted a manager to say, that was me landing and I'll say it again, I'll text you when I get to the hotel, but iPhone out of charge at the time, this shows my age. Blackberry was out of charge. And so my personal phone, so didn't have any means of phoning anybody. And I could have said to the driver of the car, I was like? What? What do we do now? Like, what is your plan now? Cause we're in the middle of nowhere. People were already starting to kinda come around the car. People that were coming out of the shadows a little bit into the roadside. And I thought, I've got quite a lot of stuff here that is valuable. We had a really interesting health and safety officer with, the company I was working with at the time. And he was ex-Marines and he was always like the worst case scenario of what you should do in these situations. But he always said, just make sure you got a, a grab bag, a grab bag of a few really important things that if you had to run you could run and you would be okay. And I was like, well I've got two dead phones. Great. That's a good start. I'll take my charger just in case I find a u SB charging point somewhere. Um, I've got my passport and I've got a credit card, but then I was like, well, where the hell do I run into in this situation? So I was like, okay, okay. Well I said to the guy, call the hotel staying at the Hilton, call the hotel, they'll send a car. So he called the hotel and I could hear the conversation and essentially the hotel said, we're not sending a car. It's too late and it's too dangerous. So then you're like, oh, I don't feel great about this. So it's kindly then you're standing with your suitcase and your little grab bag of my dead phones and my passport and my credit card. And so we had to walk up to the side of the road and just flag down cars to stop for us. So my heart rate, obviously through the roof, got my suitcase of with me, got my little grab bag with me and we were just starting to flag down cars. And some people were wouldn't just saying, no, we won't take you. Other people saying we will take you, but it'll cost you a thousand pounds. Like literally a thousand pounds. I think they were 4,009 or whatever they were trying to charge at the time. Anyway, long story short, um, shell employee came past in, is like chauffer driven car and basically he pulled over and he was like, what? What are you doing? Like, why are you selling beside the road with your suitcase? And I said, A car's broken down. And, he was like, okay, get in the car. The driver was like, we'll stay with the car, otherwise it'll. I'll be robbed and the wheels will be taken. So they stayed with the car and they were waiting for a friend to come and get them. But in that moment, you're like, what's my next step?, what do I need to do to get out of this situation? But then when you look back and you think, I could have vanished without anybody knowing where I was, what had happened, like I've obviously got stuff on me that's of high value. You could easily have had that rubbed off you or, or worse, but that was one of those moments where I thought, actually there's a, there's good people around me here in Nigeria. Nobody has come and threatened me. Nobody has tried to. Take advantage of this situation when you could have really easily taken advantage of it. And then two days later, driving back to the airport, the car was still there and the wheels were gone. It was burned out. So I was like, that situation could have been a lot worse for me. But again, the kindness of people to stop, and pick you up on that road when, they didn't have to do that. You know, one of the weird things that went through my mind was, what was the last song I listened to? If this is my time on Earth Up, what is the last song that I listened to? And it was 5, 6, 7, 8 by steps. And I, all I remember thinking was, I Can't Die. I can't die having listened to steps as my last song. It has to be something better than that. But, yeah, not a, not a great moment. Pretty frightening actually, in hindsight.

Nick:

you could have come tragedy.

Andy:

As I'm aware, no international officers, uh, or people working in international education have ever disappeared without trace. So that just proves that actually everyone's alright.

Rachel:

I agree, Andy. I think there's a real sense of if there's one bad person that's gonna do something, there's 10,000 good people that will stop that from happening. That's my view, whether that's naivety or just self preservation going on. And I certainly felt like that night. I didn't feel like anybody was about to do me harm but you. I didn't want to hang around too long to find that out. If that was athe I wanted to rely on or not.

Andy:

Rachel, you said you grew up in, rural Scotland. Is that somewhere else our listeners should know about?

Rachel:

Oh yes. Well there's a funny line between wanting people to know about it and then not wanting anyone to go, it is the remoteness of some of these islands that makes it pretty special. But I grew up on sky. I love Sky, which a lot of people have been to cause it's very, um, it's very popular Tuus, which is fantastic for the economy. But there's a, the strip of islands to out to the west of that, the, the Western iss. That's where my. My heart belongs. And it's a funny one, when you spend your childhood in the Highlands, you want to leave and then you spend your thirties and forties like desperate to go back, and I've had, I love Harris, which is in the western iss, is my spiritual homeland and every time I'm there, I feel as close to Zain as I ever can feel. And I had a family holiday. There this year for my dad's 70th, but he's from Harris originally. My dad and my grandfather was a minister, in the Church of Scotland and Harris, and that church is still there. The, the church house has been converted to a really lovely restaurant at Scara Beach, but it's got a lot of family heritage there. And I think there's. Uh, probably an association with of simpler times in your childhood where you want to go back and relive those simpler times, which often is just wandering along a beach or climbing a hill or sitting. Last time I was there, baking scones and being very wholesome. There was meant to be a group of friends going last year and there were six friends and it was very exciting that thought of taking people to the island for the first time we planned this big trip and then obviously nothing happened in 2020. So the whole holiday got deferred to 2022. And by that point, for various reasons, none of the friends could make the week that we'd booked. So my parents had said, oh, well we'll go and we'll take our friends and you can come with us. And I was like, well, that's great. That's fine. Off we go. So this is last June and I was getting ready to leave Glasgow to drive up and mom and dad phoned and they were like, yeah, we've got, we've got Covid. We can't actually go to Harris anymore. So I was like, well, I still want to go. And they were like, well, so do your friends, so why don't you go together? So then I find myself on holiday with my parents friends. In Harris. But the kind of, the funny part of that story is that, there was a couple, Douglas and Linda and then another guy called Douglas, and Douglas and Linda, he was my headmaster at school and the other Douglas was my geography teacher. So I find myself in a situation where I'm on holiday with my teachers and I'm coming down in the morning in my pajamas and we're like making porridge for each other. And I, every part, I was like, just try not to think about how weird this is. Try not to be so odd about the fact that you're on holiday with your headmaster and your geography teacher. But I've definitely crossed over to the point where being on holiday with a geographer was amazing cuz he was telling me all about the nature of Harris and we had a competition through the week to see who could I identify the most birds, either by sight or sound. And, if we decided if we got to 50 birds, we'd go out for celebrate three tea. And I was like, this is, this is the holidays I want these days. Bird watching., I'm there.

Andy:

Did he set you a test at the end?

Rachel:

No, but I was, I did have that panic. And, you know, you're digging into any sort of knowledge you can remember and I'm like, are they, um, cumul numbers, clouds that I'm seeing there above the, the, the hills, an oxbow lake, you know, where you got so few geographical terms that you can rely on.

Andy:

This.

Rachel:

It was, it was exactly that. But yeah, I would recommend the Western Niles to anybody. Again, the sense of community there is huge but part of the joy of Harris is that is a little bit harder to get to than somewhere like dial of sky. So it's not overly busy, but the beaches are just out of this world, golden beaches and really beautiful blue water that's, and the next stop if you face the west is, is America. So there's a se sense of you very much are on the edge of edge of the world in some ways,

Andy:

are there still MCs Sws up there? Is that the home of the Klan mc Swen?

Rachel:

my part of, the Klan from Scali, which is an island off Harris but you do see a lot of mawes. That name, is from the islands. My family are still in Lewis and Harris as well. My dad's sister lives there and my auntie and his cousins all live there as well. And some of them still live on Scalpy, so I got to visit them last year when I was over and died. A slow death of home baking which was not a bad way to go. Death by pancake.

Andy:

The next section is called any laptops, liquids, or sharp objects. What are your favorite travel hacks?

Rachel:

funnily enough, I keep going back to this, health and safety officer, who'd told us what things to take on trips and told us to take our grab bag. I thought at the time, that's ridiculous and you're being over the top. But now, even 15 years later, I'm still leaning on some of the advice he gave us. One thing I always take with me is a door wed, plastic door wedge, which I put behind the hotel door wherever I'm staying. I have an eternal fear based on the conversations we had in that job that somebody will try and get into my hotel room at night. And so, the lock goes on and the kind of clip goes on, but actually the door wedge almost makes it impossible for somebody to open a door., and so it makes me sleep well. So this plastic door wedge comes with me everywhere. And whether somebody could still batter down your door, I don't know. But certainly from a peace of mind perspective, having a plastic door wedge in the door makes me feel like nobody can get in. although comically in not particularly exotic surroundings, I was the IDP office in London is at Putney Bridge. And about five weeks ago I was seeing, the Purple Palace, as we call it, across the road from the office. And I had my door wedge in the door as I always do, even in the uk. And at two 30 I heard the most almighty knocking on my door. and I was like, oh, like what? What did I do? Get up? So I got up and went to the door and I looked through the peephole and there was a, a naked man banging on my door who was trying to get into my room. And I was trying to reason with him at two 30 and I was like, Anything I can help with? Is there anything you were like, is there anything you need? And he was like, I just need to get into your room. And I was like, I don't want you to get into my room. And the worst part of it was I didn't have any pajamas with me. So I was wearing a coat and I was like, if I, if I open the door, who's the bigger weirdo here? Like me in a blue winter coat and or him, no, on turned out he'd locked himself out his room when he was drunk. So he was just trying to get into any room cause he'd come to when he was in the corridor. And so I was I'm gonna phone the reception, I'll be fine. I'll be phone the reception for you. And my meanwhile, my heart rate is through the roof. And, but then because it's a premier end, you don't have the, like the in room phone. So I had to phone like the oh 800 number and it was like, Press one for hotels in London and I was like one press two for Putney Bridge. And I finally got through to the front desk and, I said, there's a naked man on floor six that's trying to get into my room. And they were like, oh, okay, we'll be right up. I think it must happen quite a lot that people get locked out of their rooms pissed and then trying to get back in when, but the panic on his face was palpable. But obviously the panic in my heart at that point was trying to calm down after somebody trying to get into your room at that time of the night was just terrifying. But I was reassured by the door wedge, so that's one thing I always take with me. The other two are probably much more related to music, so I always take a Bluetooth speaker for when I'm in hotel rooms so I can listen to music. It used to be so I could have after parties and invite people back and we'd have drinks in my room and now it's for Sleep tracks and meditation, like again, how the years go by and how your desires change. Or obviously listen to. Tales from the Departure Lounge podcast clearly so, there's all options.

Andy:

I think it's about those things that you, obviously not the door wedge, but there's things that you miss when you're away that you don't realize you're gonna miss. Things like, a Bluetooth speaker, I take one as well. And I get the radio on in the morning cuz obviously at home I always listen to the radio, turn the radio on getting dressed. And so I do that when I'm away I used to take orange squash with me cause I really missed orange squash cause you can't get that anywhere else in the world, and if I could have, I would've taken a sofa with me because, I end up sleep sleeping in these hotels and no's got a safer. So weird what you miss,

Nick:

Sorry, you're taking orange squash with you, Andy. I can't let

Rachel:

you're back to that Nick. Glad circled on that

Andy:

not, that is it?

Nick:

No, well no,

Andy:

Little bottle of orange

Nick:

it's It's your inner inner child. I think it's not very adult drink. Is it orange squash?

Rachel:

I've actually got some next to me. Andy, I'm, in solidarity. I just would never think to take it in my handbag

Andy:

I was just on a trip. Once I was really acutely aware that I missed orange squash, that's all

Nick:

do you have one of those little

Rachel:

that's why I was thinking one from

Nick:

Yeah. Do you get one of those or do you take the full two

Andy:

no, not the same. I distilled it into a more secure bottle so it wasn't in a, uh, a bottle that would suffer from airplane pressure and explode below my clothes. Um,

Rachel:

yeah. The worst.

Nick:

You have a distilled bottle of unlabeled orange liquid going around with you. Nice. Uh, on the g getting locked out thing, I went to Croatia recently and it was in an Airbnb and it had a main door and then two apartments, and I got back at two in the morning and the other person from the other apartment had. Possibly wedged the door shut. And so I couldn't get in, and so I was knocking politely and so, excuse me, I'm in the other apartment, please can you just, nothing, nothing, nothing. And in the end, because it's Airbnb, I, I wasn't naked and I wasn't even that drunk, and I wasn't, definitely, wasn't aggressive. but in the end, yeah, I just had to give up and, ring someone, and then go and stay on their couch., and someone said to me, it's a thing with Airbnbs that people are terrified of people coming in. And so they barricade the doors to make sure that can't happen.

Rachel:

God. But I suppose if you think about that, like if you're in an Airbnbs, you could get keys cut quite easily. Like it's not like a hotel card where that, they deactivate when you check out. Like if you were of the criminal mind, you could easily cut keys for an Airbnb and go back at another time and go back in. God, I'm now, I'm gonna be terrified. Now I'm gonna have multiple door wedges with me.

Nick:

Hang on, stop wedging your door shut in case other people have a legitimate right to enter.

Andy:

The next section is called What's the purpose of your visit? So Rachel, why do you do what you do?

Rachel:

I was thinking about my history with international travel and what, spurs me to get on a plane and visit somewhere that I've never visited before, often on your own. And I think underestimate the independence that's required in our jobs to have obviously kind of bravery but just kind have the gumption to, to go and visit Bangladesh on your own or visit Sri Lanka. Where I grew up, there was always a sense that I would go somewhere else and I would, I moved to Edinburgh, I went to Edinburg Napier for university. And when I was at uni I did a study abroad semester. And I do think that was the moment that Changed my life, and I know that's a really dramatic thing to say, but I, I went to Ohio, so it wasn't, again, massively adventurous, but for me it was a step, again, beyond where I, the comfort zone I'd been coming from. And I, I think of that a lot when I'm doing the job I'm doing. Cause I think I went for one semester and I spoke English with, with an accent obviously, but they spoke English and there wasn't that cultural barrier or the kind of language barrier that when I speak to students that are coming from Shanghai to do macroeconomics at university, I think. How are you doing that? Like how do you have the skills and the bravery and the gumption and the wherewithal to go, I'm gonna go and learn chemical engineering in a different language in a different country and I'm gonna do it for four years of undergraduate or three years, or we're gonna do a master's in something and I'm gonna leave everything I know behind and, and often at great cost emotionally and, and financially to families and do it. And I think I often draw back on that experience of being 19 and being in Ohio and thinking, this is a really big deal for me to do this. If I can play any sort of part in students decision making where they can come and get that experience and get that confidence and really put their life in a different path, then that's a total privilege. But it's not a totally selfless reason. I do this job. I love the travel, I love the social aspect of our jobs. I remember it was, Navitas was my first job in the sector and they sent me to Turkey within about three weeks. I was like, Going to Hilton, five star Hilton in Istanbul that overlooked the Bosphorus. And then we're going on that night going on a bo, a boat cruise at the Bosphorus. And I was thinking, are you joking me that this is my job? Are you actually having a laugh that I'm being paid to be here and somebody's paying for this experience? What a absolute privilege to be able to travel to these places, experience their hospitality and exp experience their cultures. And that's why I think when people come to see me in Scotland, I'm. All stops are getting pulled right here because the generosity that people show me when I'm overseas, I always want to return that in spades. And that's, that's what drives me.

Nick:

When I wanted to make a change, in my career, it played heavily on my mind. Like, what am I gonna give up here? As an international officer. But You just find different ways to travel in different reasons.

Rachel:

You can, and you should. You know, there's ways of, of being able to then celebrate that and say, that was good for that period of time. That was good for 2012, but we're now in 2023. Like, what do we need to be doing to make sure that we're speaking to the students that were born, you know, the students that are coming through this year, when would they be born? Like 20 2005, 2006. Yeah, so you just think, well, how do I speak to them in a way that is meaningful for them?

Nick:

It's strange how, I remember the times when, when you were mistaken for a student like that used to happen. And then I went on a trip with a student who was helping, on the, the stand. And somebody came up and spoke. It was in Lithuanian, I think. And the student started laughing and then, and I said, well, what did he say? And he said, it was very unusual, for the father to be shorter than the son. That's what he said. And it just hit me like this shot to the heart that I thought he, we were both students and he'd, he'd thought we were father and son. And, and that was the moment, that was when it was all over for me.

Rachel:

You ju you just reminded me of a time I wasn't mistaken for a student that hasn't happened. But I was mistaken for a, a, a lady man, once I was in Korea and I was waiting for my colleague in the lobby and I thought I'll just pop to the toilet before. And she comes down and I went to go to the women's toilet obviously. And the cleaner came in and chased me out cause she was like, lady man, lady man. And she chased me into the man's toilets cause she thought I was a transvestite., I think it was Cause I'm tall and obviously South Korea is not particularly, uh, I'm five nine, so I think I, but I was mistaken for a man. So I've never been mistaken for a student, but I've been mistaken for a man. So that's my, that's my counterbalance to your argument Nick, or your story.

Nick:

Well, congratulations, Rachel. You've just said the line that's gonna be clipped at the front of the uh, episode.

Andy:

All right. The final section is called Anything to Declare. Have you got something that you want our listeners to know about?

Rachel:

I'm not gonna do a sales pitch for idp cause I think people know about IDP and IDP Connect and what we do. But I think it was more, just really appreciating the jobs we're in. And I think I've certainly, maybe in preparation, for chatting to you both, but maybe just in, in the last three years in particular through covid, been really reflective on how lucky I've been in this job. We've got a privileged job, but it does have a, does have a massive impact on. Personal life. Like I remember particularly with Navita, where it was a bit more relentless to travel friends. Like I remember a friend not inviting me to her wedding, and she's like, I just assumed you wouldn't be here. If it comes at the cost of actually life moments for your friends and family, you really do have to think about what that balance looks like. Make sure that you are then balancing out with seeing the places that you're getting the privilege of traveling to as well.

Andy:

Yeah, I think I was saying to Nick earlier, my wife got really crossed with me because, work invited me to go to San Francisco, and I've never been to the States. And Jen was like, is there nowhere in the fucking world that you're not gonna get that you're not gonna go without me?

Rachel:

It must be, it must be hard for partners that are left at home and you're like, and again, they don't see the kind of the, they don't see the part of the trip where you're washing your knickers with soap in the hotel sink. They, they see the part where you're standing on the great wall of China or you're standing on, like, looking across the bond. And they, that's the, that's people's interpretation of your job People always take the piss out of me and. So where are you, where's your holiday this time? Like, where are you off on holiday? I'm like, you're not seeing all the absolute hardaker slog that goes on in the background

Nick:

I'm not allowed to bring any fridge magnets that aren't family related onto the family fridge., so I took them to work instead and attached them to a desktop computer and then wiped the drive,

Rachel:

That's amazing.

Nick:

I

Rachel:

You're welcome. Thanks guys. It was great. Thanks for having me. I had grand plans, the start of covid to start of podcast and did fuck All about it.

Andy:

What was the podcast gonna be about?

Rachel:

It was gonna be to do with pop stars that have then gone on to get normal jobs and it was gonna try and hunt them down and interview them so people that have, you know, have been on top of the pops are now working as like a farmer. It was all started from watching a documentary Were abs from five is now a farmer.

Andy:

An amazing idea. You should do it.

Rachel:

Or like Brian Cox who used to play keyboards in d Reman. Now the lectures at Manchester and as a, global phenomenon and in, in his field.

Nick:

Please do there is a student that Taylor Swift paid her university fees.

Rachel:

I know this, apparently there was a bit of a backlash cuz she came out when she couldn't get tickets for the tour that was just on sale now. She went in on Taylor and everyone rounded on her think she paid for her to go to university, the whole thing.

Nick:

It's me. I'm the problem. It's

Rachel:

Yeah, exactly. Yes, Nick. Thank you. Safe travel.

Nick:

Bye.

Rachel:

to see you guys. Bye-bye. Bye bye. How'd I leave here? How'd I

Andy:

Top right.

Rachel:

Oh God, it's not working. This is awkward. Bye guys.

Nick:

hello everyone. Thank you so much for listening. If you wanna listen to more episodes, you can find them at Tales from the departure lounge.com.

If you want to sponsor an episode, that's now possible as well. We're also having lots of fun with the frequent flyers club. Where we hear your stories, that you can send into sick bag@talesfromthedeparturelounge.com.

Nick:

Tales from the Departure Lounge is a type nine production for the pie.

People on this episode

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Andy Plant

Host
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Nick Cuthbert

Host