Lessons for next time?

The group leaders will be getting together once Miss Laister gets home (she hung around Europe to see family) and we'll be assessing the lessons we've learned from this trip. We'd love some input from folks who went on the trip, parents, colleagues, etc., about what we should do differently next time. Some questions:

When should we go next? Three years? Four? Five?

Where should we go next? Italy and Greece? A longer trip to only England or Spain?

Should the next group be smaller? Larger?

More time seeing certain kinds of sites? Historical sites? Museums? More free time? More shopping? Good balance?

What did folks think of EF, our tour company? Did they do a good job organizing the trip? Was bill paying easy? How would you rate your satisfaction?

What was the best part of the trip? What should we make sure not to miss in the future?

Post your responses in the comments section below. Thanks!

Pictures Finished

I finished adding pictures of my own, along with those generously donated by Mr. Witt and Mrs. Mortensen. I still have a bunch from Mrs. Houser to add (she has the fancy camera) but I thought folks might enjoy these from Paris (here and here), Barcelona (here, here and here) and the return trip and arrival (here and here). Enjoy!

Collected Quotes, Part II

Well, I'm having some trouble posting pictures tonight, but I thought I'd add some quotes I wrote down during the trip. There's some innuendo here, but I assure you most of these were said very innocently and made some sense in context.

"Stop making fun of my pouch!" -Sean

Amanda- "Put enough Mountain Dews in Gorman and he'll do a lot of things."

Roseanna, turning down a glass of wine: "Wine tastes like rotten juice."

Roseanna on Flamenco: "Lori would be really good at this, because she did ballet and that takes lots of hands."

Ben on Flamenco: "The seduction looks just like picking a fight, and the singing really does sound like wailing."

Ben on Flamenco: "You know how Hawaiian dancing tells a story? This guy's dancing says, 'I'm going to eat you for breakfast, and then I'm going to sleep with your girlfriend.'"

"Our grope has been harassed the most."
-Alyssa

Taylor, on Sean and Stephanie getting the only boarding passes from Barcelona to Portland: "Sean and Stephanie get to go all the way."

Andrew, upon hearing of Farrah Fawcett's death: "Who's Ferret Faucet?"

Fellow voyagers, got any to add?

Worst typo?

As mentioned previously, I was typing these blog entries on my ipod touch, which was much easier to carry through Europe, but not as easy to type on accurately. Well, here was everybody's favorite typo, pointed out to me first by Mr. Wendring, then my mom.

"We had a nice talk about the best thongs to see in Barcelona..."

I meant "THINGS to see in Barcelona". As in historical sites, art, architecture, etc.

Even on the topless beach, I was not checking out the swimwear, I promise.

Posting Pictures

Well, we're back, and I've begun posting the pictures to their respective days. So far I have my own pictures, as well as those of Mr. Witt and Mrs. Mortenson (thanks to both of you), and Mrs. Houser came by to give me hers today, though I still have to upload those. It took me all day to upload the first sets to the hosting site, and will take a few days to post them all here, but I wanted you all to see them as they come up. So far I've finished the pictures of the first travel day (here), the first day in London (here), and our second day in London (here), and our day in Warwick/Stratford/Coventry (here).

Also, I realized that I had the comments section set so that it prevented some of you from leaving comments. I've fixed that, so feel free to comment on the pics, share your recollections of the trip, etc.

I hope those of you who were on the trip are recovering from your jet lag. I thought I was fine after the extra night in out decompression chamber of Dallas, but yesterday the exhaustion took me by surprise in the middle of the afternoon. Looking at all these pictures has been helpful in remembering how much I enjoyed the trip before entering this persistent gray fog of jet lag.

Bonus day!

Yea. We landed in Dallas, made it through customs, got our checked bags, and Mr. Witt went to work trying to get us on a later flight to Portland while the rest of us sat just inside the baggage check, waiting for a shuttle to arrive to take us to a hotel. For the students, it was an exercise in patience. For me, it was an exercise in humility, because every time a student asked an entirely reasonable and timely question, fully deserving an unambiguous answer, I got to say, "I'm not sure. I don't know. We'll see. It could be. I just can't answer that yet." As we waited, questions evolved from "Will we get on a flight tonight?" and "Shouldn't we be waiting here to see if they can get us on a flight?" to "Who is going to get to get on a flight tonight?" to "Will there be a pool at the hotel?" and "Where is the bus?" and "Why is it taking so long? Why can't we just go to the hotel?" earlier in the trip I'd promised to get Amanda Laister a button that says, "I never know what is going on." I wanted one that quoted Socrates: "The only thing I know is that I know nothing."

Mr. Witt dd manage to get a handful of people off on the last flight to Portland, then got us all arranged onto flight for the next day. Unfortunately, those flight were not all together, so even when he arrived and we loaded the shuttle to the hotel, he couldn't tell the group when we would be leaving or arriving in Portland. We got to the comfort in, dropped our bags in our spacious suites, came back down to gwt our individual flight info, and then ordered pizza for dinner using the food vouchers provided by the airlines. After some hemming and hawing on my part about the necessity to do so, we decided we would need to call the parents of ten of the students who would be making one leg of their journey wiithout an adult unless I could get myself switched onto their flight. The parents were very understanding, offering to help in any way they could. After a couple pieces of pizza in a student's room I threw in the towel and settled in for a night of strange and harrowing dreams about losing students at airports in various cities around the world.

I woke up early (thanks to another nightmare), took my time packing, and went down to the lobby, expecting to have to call rooms to wake up kids who'd slept through alarms. For the first time, everybody was ready to go exactly when we told them to be ready.

We got our boarding passes easily and I even got switched to the flight that previously had no adult, though my checked bags will arrive on the other flight and the Hasbrooks will have to bring them to me later. That's okay, because I packed all the gifts for Paige and Noah in a carry-on. I can wait on washing my dirty laundry, but I'm excited about the gift giving.

We landed in Portland, everyone met with their parents, and we went our separate ways. Ikaika's mom generously offered rides to both Eric Brown and I, and we took her up on the offer. She drove us home, and I got to see Paige and Noah and give them their gift. The Hasbrooks brought my checked bag over later on. Now all that's left is adding the pictures, doing my laundry, and mowing the over-grown lawn. But first, some much needed sleep. Welcome home everyone, and thanks to all our travelers and chaperons for an entertaining, memorable, educational, successful trip!

And now, the gift giving!

Return Trip

After our wake-up calls at five in the morning, I went to each door to make sure students didn't sleep through the calls or go right back to sleep. Almost half the students did not respond to my pounding in their doors, so we called a few rooms, and when that didn't work Mr.Witt went down to the front desk, got copies of the keys of the last hold-outs, and broke into their rooms to shout at them. I'm not sure I've ever seen him enjoy anything more.

We got everyone on the bus, did a passport check, and guess who didn't have his in hand? Yep. Poor Chris. After he got out his checked bag under the bus and proved he hadn't lost it between the lobby and the bus, we went to the airport. By the time we arrived I was feeling the last surges of manic energy that made me slap happy. Then we got in the Iberian ticket line, they announced that a computer problem would make the ticketing process very slow, and I hit a wall. Stumbling around to try to stay awake, I honestly worried I'd start drooling or wet my pants. I knew if I sat still I'd fall asleep, but I couldn't help it, and ended up sleeping on the marble floor by the ticket counter while students checked in. At some point someone woke me (I can't remember who or why) and I went and bought a Snickers bar and a Coke. We made it to our gate in Barcelona, and I must have walked into the plane, but the next thing I remember was being awakened on the plane because two of our boys didn't get on with the rest of us. The wouldn't let me off the plane, of course, so all I could do was panic until they sauntered on board. After smacking each in the back of the head I set about counting everyone, but I didn't trust my own ability to count so I had to do it three times. Then I sat down and fell into oblivion.

I woke up and assumed we were in mid-flight, stood to go use the bathroom, and was scolded and shooed back into my seat by two frantic stewardesses. We were coming in for a landing.

In Madrid we had to go all the way back out to tge ticket office, because iberian Airlines' computers hadn't communicated with American Airlines'. We were impressed by American Airlines' efficiency at the ticket booth, but we still never would have made our flight if it hadn't been running late. We made our way to the gate ans gave kids a chance to buy some food, but most slept most of the extended wait. Then we boarded and fell right back to sleep.

So here's where we sit now: I could have been stuck in Madrid, a city I've never seen and have always wanted to visit, but because the flight was late we made our connection but will miss the next one, so we'll probably get stuck in Dallas, a city which interests me not at all. Could this get any worse? Of course it can. In-flight movie: some Matthew McConaughey vehicle. Nuff said.