HOME!

We’re baaaaaaaack!  Well, at least over the U.S.  We are flying home right now and are currently over Minnesota.  We figured I would write one last post for the blog before shutting it down.  I am waiting for Ms. Huff to send her final email before posting this. 

We woke up this morning at 8 o’clock am with a LOUD call from the hotel.  We didn’t have to leave the hotel until 9:50 so we were able to have time to pack, have a leisurely breakfast, and meet in the lobby.  We boarded a bus for the airport, where Pauline recapped our tour with us, going day by day through the events, museums, and meals, finally asking the students what their favorite things were about their experience in Europe (you’ll have to ask them what they said :^).

We arrived at the airport and said goodbye to Pauline.  We had a while in the airport before our flight so the kids played cards, wrote in their journals, and passed their journals around for others to sign and give phone numbers so they may keep in touch in the future (some of them want to have a 2012 Eurotrip  40^th Anniversary trip in 2052.  We’d like to say we’d be up for that too, but we’ll be 80 then).  They were talking about bringing (gulp) their own children to Europe then. :^)

We finally boarded the plane to London and had a very short, uneventful flight of 45 minutes.  In London, our gate was moved, so we had to go through security again to get to another terminal.  However, this time, we had plenty of time to spare.  Then we took off again, on another 777, headed to DIA.  The kids have spent most of their time talking and watching movies, trying to stay awake.  We think that most of them fell asleep at some point or another.  It is, currently, 1:26am Paris time.  We encouraged them to stay awake as long as possible so they would get a good night’s sleep tonight.  It may take them a few days to recover from the time change.  By the time you get them home tonight, it may be about 4am Paris time.  We hope none of them have soccer practice at 7am tomorrow. 

We also wanted to let you know that we will have all of the photos that we took on a DVD for you all sometime within the next week or two.  We will leave them at the school for you to come pick up at your leisure and will email you when they are ready for pick up. :^)

On a personal note, I would like to say thank you for trusting us with your children.  I know it is a rather large deal to send your son or daughter almost half way across the planet to somewhere they have never been where people speak a different language.  I greatly appreciate your trust in us to bring them back safely and to look after their well being while there.  I hope that they have learned about different cultures and people, as well as food ;^).   I also hope that their eyes have been opened to the world and that they are now always aware of differences in people and have developed a tolerance for those differences.  This has now been my second trip to Europe with Andrea and students, and I can’t think of a better way to travel there.   Again, thank you so much (and thank you for the more than generous gift :^).

The pleasure was all ours.

Finis