Disclaimer: This post might contain expletives.

Prologue

I am waiting at the airport bound to New Delhi right now on NYE. It’s been around 10 days since I came back from my first international trip and subsequently go on to represent my institute at Inter IIT Cultural Meet at IIT Kharagpur. I have classes from 8 am tomorrow morning. When did my life got so fast?

What is this life if, full of care,
We have no time to stand and stare.
~Leisure, William Henry Davies

As I sit here pondering and attempting to start this post for the umpteenth time, I heave a lot of sighs because this story is so rich in experiences and wisdom and things to be talked about. I sit here wondering how I can squeeze a book’s worth of content in this blog post.

I could very well have titled this post, “How to survive in a foreign country without money ft. oodles of luck”. But I’m getting way ahead of myself. To start this story, we must go back. Way back to June of 2023.

June of 2023

I was aimlessly hanging out at CCD back in campus when this senior walks in and he goes like, “Hey Basil, have you applied for GCP camp?” I’m like, “Huh, what camp?” And he goes, “Oh, nevermind. Open your laptop, let’s fill out your application. It’s past deadline but they’ll consider.” Half an hour-ish later, I hit the Submit button and so it began.

I was pretty sure I would atleast be shortlisted for the interview stage. GCP is a very low hanging fruit given how much invested I am in EA (went to EAGxIndia back in Jan, involved with the community since then). Anyway, in popped the interview email and after missing the scheduled time (In my defense, it was 1 AM in the morning and I was sleepy!), I rescheduled. I felt that the interview went very nicely - [Wrena][2] was lovely to talk to and very enthusiastic and kind. After a couple of days, another email popped in. I was in. I rushed through Visa applications and prayed for it to come through. Surprisingly, these trips are a lot of logistical work. I get why people opt for assistants and agents. Managing everything on my own forced me to come up with better accounting methods. For sake of brevity, I’ll just write the golden equation here and won’t care to explain (probably in a footnote later),

There I was armed and equipped to fly to UK on 17th July. Only the Visa didn’t come through. And I had to postpone it to the next camp which was in December. Bummer.

Halfway around the world

After an especially excruciating semester, the air grew cold and the trees lost their greens. GCP sent the confirmation email and I sorted out the logistics once again and booked flights once again. During September, I completed the BlueDot AI alignment 101 course at the AISCF camp at my uni. A bunch of my college friends also got in but eventually only one final year senior could make it. I would be flying from home (Kolkata) to Heathrow via Dubai on the 17th.

I was giddy and to be honest, a little scared. I guess that’s normal. I wasn’t just flying to another country, I was flying to another continent, halfway around the world for the first time, all alone. Besides, I was already reeling from the aftermath of two trips – one to Bengaluru for ETHIndia and an unplanned one to Kasol and a trek to Kheerganga. I was at home for barely 5 days and there I was at the threshold of the airport at 2AM saying my goodbyes to my folks.

Apart from the absurdly over-anticipated time to clear airport security, the flight was a breeze. I had already planned to wait overnight at Heathrow for my senior, let’s call him A, so my adventure began with a lot of…sitting and waiting. Emirates made sure to make my 12 hour-ish journey as smooth as possible. The dessert which was some kind of cake was served on a way too sour sauce.² Rest was A-okay. I binged Men in Black (1997) and Thor: Love and Thunder (2022) and in the diffused state of babies crying, murmurs of the cabin, and occassional g-force heavy jolts, I kept falling into and out of sleep.³

I landed at Dubai and started drafting Hacking Wordle Blitz. Surrounded by rich Hijab clad Arabian mothers running around with their spoilt kids and with the man-made apparition of the Burj Khalifa in the distance, I was buzzing with excitement to complete the draft. In that sense, the layover was very productive. I slapped shut my laptop with a decent first draft and went through a final Covid test. Just seven more hours and I would be in the land of the greats. The land of the people whose stories I have read in books and marvelled at. I mean, the remnants of the culture that these people who ruled over us for over 200 years, imposed on us.

Day -1 (17th December)

I wasn’t tired as much as I was processing all the experiences⁴. After landing at Heathrow at around 8pm, I headed towards immigration and after staying quiet for almost 12 hours with only the voices in my head, I was confronted by the immigration officer who started asking me all these questions - “Why are you here?”, “Who is funding your stay?”, “Do you have family or kin in the UK?” etc. “Huh?” I thought. It took me sometime to orient myself but soon, he was satisfied with my answers and appeared much less intimidating. “Have a good stay, sir!” he said in the melodious British accent as I stepped towards the baggage belt. I had officially crossed the UK border.

The first thing I noticed (like any responsible traveller) were the signs. And their design. Ripped from complexity, they were the simplest, cleanest fonts I had seen in a while. A no-nonsense font. It felt related to Helvetica. I wasn’t too wrong. I instantly liked it.

I settled down and immediately realised I was in big trouble. All the sockets were rectangular pinned! My laptop had 20% charge. Fuck. Luckily, I had a power bank so I could atleast communicate…Fuck. I didn’t have an international plan. Perhaps I can buy one. Fuck, I don’t have a credit card⁵.

All I could do was wait. I craned my neck to peer outside whenever the doors opened and was greeted by a bitter cold gush of wind. I saw people’s faces lighting up to see their loved ones, elders rushing to the gates to hug their kids and grandkids. The festive spirits were high. Slowly, night fell and the inflow of people decreased till it dropped to zero. The airport was shutting down. I turned around and saw a few faces trying to fight the cold or the sleep or both. Sigh.

The night at Heathrow

The night was long hours of silence since I had to conserve power. The Heathrow Wifi was a life-saver. Soon I realised, UK has extremely good public Wifi service – even buses and bus stops! I took a stroll around 3 AM and stepped out to use the restroom. My legs seemed to both draw me towards the door and repel me from it. I stepped outside and stood for a moment. Wide-eyed, I tried to take it all in. The busy airport staff and the surrounding buildings, their slender design, the dark blue hue, the overcast sky, the misty air, and wet ground. I stepped back in and felt like I had just performed an EVA. Haha.

I realised how I have only ever travelled alone by air. I didn’t know what to make of it. Blessed? Deprived? Delighted? Angry? I popped in my airpod and kept falling in and out of sleep. Soon enough, the inflow started again. The shops opened up, lightening up the place with their colorful aura.

Day 0

I realised I had no information regarding A’s flight details and I wouldn’t know since he would be in flight. Sigh. All I could do was wait and pray for him to reach out first. And soon enough, around 8:30ish, A calls and we decide to meet up at the gate…

…only to realise we were at different terminals! I took the Inter-terminal Expressway that runs free of cost and went to T5 where we had our first rendezvous. I was relieved, to say the least, to see another human who I can talk to. I started blabbering like a fool. He saw that I was happy and needed to talk so he let me have my moment. Then, we decided to head over to Oxford via a direct bus in lieu of 3 interchanging train ride. We priortised comfort since fatigue was gripping both of us. £27 for the bus ride to Oxford.

The disastrous breakfast

After arriving at Oxford, we headed for some breakfast. I wanted to try out the traditional English breakfast but since I don’t eat pork, I asked the person to not include bacon. She serves the plate and there was…bacon. Ugh. Shared the scarbbled eggs with A and had some beans which smelt very very weird and yucky. Worst food experience ever. £15 for this nuisance. I implicitly swore to stick to McDonald’s only. Video called my folks.

Rendezvous

We had to reach The Ox statue just outside the station by 1:30pm. But somehow, Maps got confused and took a whole bunch of us to some other Ox which led into a backyard! Anyway, we assembled at the Ox somehow and oh my god, so many people! It was fun to talk to people though. I was a bit hesitant with my accent and volume at first but I quickly improvised. A whole bunch of interesting people it seemed. Undergraduates, Postgraduates, and PhDs studying CS, Econ, Philosophy, Anthropology, Political Science and so on. From Durham, LSE, ETH Zurich, Norway, Germany, Ghana, and of course, India. We left Oxford at 1:28pm for Bicester, the site of our workshop where we’ll be boarding at Middle Aston House, a legacy-rich manor right at the heart of the Oxfordshire countryside.

I had a fun conversation with Micha, a Masters student in AI at a German college. The TL;DR - technical higher education is cheaper in Germany than elsewhere. After 20 minutes, I checked Maps (By the way, I’m using and will be using A’s iPhone for the most of the trip because Airtel international data roaming is beyond miserable) and saw 2 mins to Bicester. Ah, finally.

…Only to notice that we have turned around and heading away from Bicester? They had missed a few people at the pickup point so we were heading back to get them. Another 40 minutes. I mostly sat in silence since I was too tired to talk. It was past 3 in the afternoon. There was no sun. I enjoyed the house, their architecture and their colour - each so distinct and refreshing. The fictional English countryside just got real.

We reached Middle Aston and holy smokes! It was an incredible place. I had a feeling that the next few days would be awesome (Spoiler alert: They were ;)) I quickly dropped off my bags at my assigned room and assembled for the welcome session. People had already started talking and socialising just like in a typical EA conference and I felt a bit awkward. That’s when my phone rings and it’s a call from Ms. Palki’s assistant. I was plunged back to reality for a moment as I recalled my ties and responsibilities from back home. The ghosts of my past?⁶ Anyway, that was a negative response. Fuck.

Kickstart

The session started right away and there was no food break! I felt lucky to have had that breakfast at Oxford. Wrena was talking about scout mindset and asking questions and things like that. Scout mindset I thought. yes! Food! Rest! I thought. I was fighting to stay awake! But I was trying very hard to hold my ground. They had interactive session with other participants and I got to know Chris, a medical practitioner who was involved with the EA community for a very long time. I could see his charisma and extrovertedness shine through and his effort to make the other person feel comfortable in the conversation.

I crashed into bed after food and didn’t even look at the clock. I don’t remember what I had for food but it was all vegan and ample and delicious. It was probably lasagna.

Day 1 (19th December)

After an estimated eight hours of sleep, I felt rejuvenated and much healthier. Surprisingly, I woke up early around 6 and it was still dark outside. I stayed in my room, coordinated an article we were publishing on the Inter IIT Cultural fiasco for BSP, and video called my folks. It was afternoon in India anyways.

At around 7:30, I decided to go for a walk along the countryside and it was an incredible experience! There were large swatches of green meadows stretching as far as the eyes could see. In the distance, small houses billowed smoke that vanished into the grayish blue sky. I could make out fern and moss-infested stones and flora alien to the tropical climate. It seemed like all of nature has conspired to inspire man to do great things in this land.

After the walk which lasted exactly 15 minutes, I went down for a quick guided meditation session with Chris in the common room. I had previously done this in the Jaipur conference and knew what to expect. We were joined by Cass (a highly energetic and lovely student studying pyscho and philo at Oxford) and Hugh (a first year undergraduate studying philo). I’m yet to evaluate if this is useful for me personally but it was fun regardless.

The day begins

Day 1 was biorisk day and I was especially looking forward to getting more pointers to start exploring concretely or make up my mind if I should be starting at all. In that regard, there were two very helpful speakers Sofya and Ryan who helped us orient and hand-hold the uninitiated. My overall impression from the session were that 1) biorisk is a real issue 2) we ain’t doing even a fraction of what is required to mitigate it! I realised that most problems seem to originate from lethargic bureaucracy and/or poor governance policies rather than technological advancements but maybe I can be corrected! Even during lunch, I resorted to talking less and listening more because that’s what I prefer to do! The lunch was delicious enough but forgettable (!) I’m not sure what I was having for food basically but I knew it was elible and it was vegan and it was delicious so I resorted to not contest it too much. We were then paired to go on individual timed 1-on-1s which is a great way to get to know other people and get them to know you, something which I like about EA programmes!

It rains a lot in UK! Not “rain” rain as in a tropical downpour like here in India but more of a friendly drizzle. Amazingly, it got dark at 4pm which surprised the shit out of me. By 6pm, shops were closed and by 8pm, everyone was packed up and cosy (except us, of course, we were all college students :P) Also, I noticed that I was considerably tired throughout the day and had to constantly hit the bed. Weird.

The night

I ended up talking about misaligned agents in organisations especially in EA with Ieva, another person with wonderful insights and wonderful eloquence. Basically what I was trying to get to was the principal-agent problem but the bell for dinner rang (not quite literally!) and I shared my dinner table with Maathias, Amritanshu, and Emmanuel where we discussed and contrasted the political systems of Ghana, Germany, and India! My takeaway? Sustainable and equitable power-sharing systems is another topic I feel deeply excited to learn and talk about. Then we went on a night walk after dinner and I looked up at the sky and all worries faded away…

I could see Orion with my naked eye! The inner astronomer in me leapt with joy, it was a sight I would never forget (although Orion is like the most recognisable constellation). All those days of preparing for INAO built up for a strong nostalgic jolt. I just looked at the sky that entire walk, I think.

I came back to my room and A and I decided to book rooms after the workshop ends. After a long talk with S (a very very helpful senior), we got a room at Oxford and another at Soho, London for very discounted prices. In the process, I learnt that hotel rooms are thin after the neighbouring person came knocking and requesting us to tone it down as he was trying to sleep. Oopsie. Oh, and yes, in a rather hilarious episode, we almost booked hotels at London ;)

Day 2 (20th December)

Although I woke up at 6ish, I felt a lot more tired. I went for the usual morning walk and meditation where we were joined by Yusuf, one of the other organisers. I was getting mentally adept at calculating IST. Hmmm.

I was getting used to the apricot yoghurt. Hmmm.

It was AI risk day and once again, we were brief at 0930 sharp at the meeting room, followed by guest speaker lectures. The conversations were not directly druitful but they were fruitful in a different way. Then I realised that one of the speakers was a co-author for one of the papers included in the AI Safety fundamentals 101 course! I was getting used to the (vegan) English cuisine in general. Hmmm. Dinner was interesting too because I ended up at one of the guest speaker’s table with Wrena and Ieva from before and I basically asked the question: Are the frameworks and safety systems that we are building invariant across AI technological progress? If not, then how can we do that?

An avenue for “hard” conversations

One interesting activity they did was something called lightning talks when everyone got in a circle and anyone can share anything they wanted by stepping forward. It could be a personal reflection, public rant, a resolution, an observation, a complaint, anything. In my first LT, I called out for a co-founder. Someone remarked how efficient and well-planned these workshops were and for good reason. I was amazed at how much ground I had covered in just 2 days! In my last lightning talk, I decided to throw away the list of things I had prepared to talk about and pointed out how the last three days have been an avenue for me to structure my own thoughts and beliefs, to engage in deeply intellectual conversations, and to learn to assimilate and profess new thoughts.

Then, I somehow found myself talking to August, a recent masters graduate from the Norwegian Uni of Life Sciences, about systems and beliefs and politics. It turned into an exciting dialogue when you really start to resonate with the other person on almost all fundamental beliefs. I don’t know how the 2 hours went away to be honest! My takeaway? Spending time appreciating nature would be nice.

Finally, almost everyone ended up at the socialisation room (the same place where I and Chris meditated) and we ended up like an angry beehive buzzing through the quiet Oxford countryside! I explained a multi-variable calculus topic to Timothee from France. And then, talked about community-building with Anette from Sweden! Then, I decided to call it a day and retired to bed.

That’s it for Part 1

Phew, it’s already 3.5k words! Thank you, dearest reader, for sticking around! Will continue the adventure in a part 2 (hopefully)!

Part 2 is here. Enjoy!

Footnotes

1: Pretty sure, this is a very standard result found in all accounting textbooks. But to derive it out of thin air with intuition was a fun mental exercise.

2: What? I take my food very seriously.

3: That is, when I was not busy staring outside via onboard cameras or browsing through their excellent collection of songs.

4: In hindsight, the last day of the year is the best time to recall all the adventures and fun I have had. Now that I look back, I have certainly grown and flourished and observed and cherished.

5: Okay, this wasn’t that big of a deal because I had international debit card but didn’t realise till the last day that I can use it to pay.

6: I’ll stop being dramatic, hehe.