Leaving Milan

 We hit the ground running after packing everything the night before and making John turn off the UEFA championship game when it went into overtime so we wouldn’t be wasted in the morning.  I still feel wasted anyway.  But all the kids made it down by 7am and bags were 

 weighed, Rachel told us “bye” and we trundled off to the airport.  Interesting story this airport thing.  I had found the tickets for the airlines many months ago and had a good price on them, so emailed it to the woman at the international office that was doing the trip planning.  I didn’t think about it after that and the plane price came out about the same, so I assumed we used the ones that I had found.  I didn’t look at the itinerary that now had us going out of a different airport in 

 Milan.  This is like going out of Midway when you just knew that you were going out of O’Hare because who the hell has an international flight out of Midway right?!?!?!  Luckily, the one other nontraditional student in the group had her handy Rick Steves’ book out and said that 

 there was a 5 euro option to the airport when we told them 12 euro.  Of course, her option was going to Linate in town when I “knew” that we would be going out of Malpensa.  Well, we weren’t and I can not even imagine the cluster that would have been when we got it at 

 check online the night before.  So, we got to take our 1.50 euro bus pass to take the metro to the bus that takes you to Linate and went to an airport that is even smaller than the airport out of GR.  We checked several times if the check in times were the same (3 hours before an 

 international flight even though we’re staying in the EU this time) and all our paperwork said yes, but the check in person said that we couldn’t check in for another hour.  So, we sat around in an unopened McDonalds until time for check in.  But we were checked in and with the exception of one girl’s luggage

 where she had to check two bags because the European idea of what will fit in the overhead compartment is different than the US version, we were ready to go.  A short flight and then we got to see the students off to the next set of gates in Amsterdam to go through passport control where we couldn’t follow and 

said “goodbye”.  At this point, we should have eaten in Schipol airport because we didn’t have much, but I was going on the idea of getting the bags out of our hands as soon as possible.  It’s amazing how once you have been to a city, you think that you know it, but I’m having some culture shock in Amsterdam.  We got on the train to come in to the city and I’m

thinking that we need to validate our tickets because you do in Italy, but no, you don’t here.  I’m hearing dutch all around me and saying “grazie” to everyone still.  Thank God for the EU and the same currency or I would really be hurting.  We got tram tickets, got out to vaguely where we thought our hotel was and finally got checked in.  Then we did what any red-blooded Americans who had been in Italy for two weeks would do, walked across the street to an Irish Pub and had beers and burgers.  But the damage was done with eating too late and we went back across the street, sat down on the bed and had a nap.  A much needed one hour nap.  I have been lamenting the students’ lack of desire to keep going even when they’re done with things that they are supposed to see for class, because I believe that you shouldn’t waste a minute in Europe, but I broke my own rule today and now John has a migraine.  So, we will be spending tonite recovering.  A small trip to the grocery and a night in without anything to worry about, work toward, or anything else.  I'll be off line for a while and will blog more when we hit dry land in a couple of weeks.  Love to everyone, jo