Southwestern Magazine | Spring 2019

Turbulence of the abdominal kind Travel dilettantes and connoisseurs alike can—and, perhaps unfortunately, will—tell you thatwhen touring a new city or new country, the human body is not always fit to endure whatever itinerary the mind has set forth. Individualswho have vacationed, studied, or worked abroad have shared tales of recovering from broken bones, seasickness, inexplicable skin rashes, and stomach flu while traveling. LydiaGregovic ’19was thrilled to be spending her fall semester in New York City as part of Southwestern’s New York Arts program. However, she almost didn’t make it to theBigApple in thefirst place. “Mydeparture to New York started off as painlessly as a trip to the airport can be: Check-in went smoothly, as did the first leg of my journey from Houston to New Orleans,” reports Gregovic. However, after catching her connecting flight to NYC, things started to get a little bumpy: “About an hour into the flight, I began to notice a strange cramping sensation in my lower back, which I at first attributed to sitting down too long. Imoved around inmy seat in an attempt to find amore comfortable position, but every time I shifted, the cramp only grew stronger and spread.” Not knowing what was happening to her, Gregovic stood up and started pacing up and down the aisle in an attempt to stop the pain. Eventually, she recalls, “The flight attendant noticedme and askedwhat was wrong, but as I was just as confused as she was, all I could do was shrug. She ran to get me a hot water bottle, but by the time she got back, I had worsened further—I couldn’t stand andwas lyingon theground throwing up. I think we both thought I was about to die,” describesGregovic. Unsurprisingly, a coed writhing in pain on the floor of an airplane had drawn the attention of other passengers. Luckily, theflight attendant managed to shoo them away and identify a few medical professionals that were aboard. Gregovic’s impromptu medical team narrowed down the locus of her pain to either her kidney or gallbladder, which was enough cause for the pilots to make an emergency landing. After touching down in Indianapolis, an ambulance arrived to takeGregovic to thehospital. She remembers that “when the ER people came onboard to wheel me off in a stretcher, the pilot loudly announced over the speaker, ‘the patient does not give you permission to Snapchat her,’ which I thought was pretty funny, even in my state.” Once at the hospital, Gregovic was diagnosed with kidney stones, givenmedication, and deemed able to travel to New York within the next fewdays. She looks back on the situationwith a smile. “Like I said, not exactly the traditional start to the semester,” she says. “But now I can tell people I got a plane rerouted because ofme, which is a great fun fact.” A tale of culinarywoe Getting to sample authentic cuisine is usually one of 30 SOUTHWESTERN Did You Know? • 42% of the American population own a passport. • Mexico is themost popular destination for American tourism, Canada is the second, andBritain is the third. • 38.33 million Americans traveled abroad in 2017. • Over the last 13 years, an average of 827 Americans died of unnatural causes while abroad each year. • In the 2016–2017 academic year, 332,727American students studied abroad for academic credit. • A2015 study found that 19%of Americans have never flown on an airplane.