All in a day's travel...

We left Milwaukee at 2pm, originally scheduled for 1pm.  At the gate, we found out that our luggage could only go as far as Amsterdam--something about Estonian Air not being part of the network.  Yeh, for those of you who remember, I am my own travel agent...maybe someday I will learn.    Oh well, what that meant was that at Amsterdam, we had to get our baggage, find Estonian Air, check in again, go through security again and then find the gate.  We landed at 8:30 am and our new flight was leaving at 9:40 am....an impossibe human task but not too big for God.  Our luggage was near the first to come out of the carousel, all three pieces. Time--8:53.  Running to find Estonian Air, we arrived to find out the check in lady was on the phone with the gate telling them all who were here had checked in....now us. 
there, a little snafu happened.  Since we were now on a new carrier, we had new luggage rules--40 kilos max.  We were 20 kilos overwight for a domestic flight.  She directed us to the overweight luggage payment area so we could pay our penalty...9:10 am....After paying, we sprinted to the security area.  Jude's luggage got tagged so I ran ahead to the gate to tell them we were still coming.  9:25 am.  Jude finally got to the gate at 9:30 am...I remember saying to Jude, that lady at the check in said is was just around the corner.   What she really meant to say was it's about 800 meters aways, you better run fast.  Estonian Air was the only leg of the flight to take off on time--9:40.  We arrived in Vilnius right on time to meet the group...some new faces but many old faces.  For most of these travelers, they spent more than 24 hours just to get here.  This is a special place.  Photo:  Sunrise over the British Isles, just before landing in Amsterdam

On your mark, get set, gone

As the school year winds down, Jude and I are getting excited about starting our summer sojourn.  This will be our eighth summer and the 20th anniversary of the summer language institute at LCC.  Jude will be teaching intermediate beginners, and I will be teaching advanced reading with the True Story of Hansel and Gretel. Both of us will be teaching in the afternoons.  We're taking a laptop with us this year, so that we can Skype home every now and then.  Like each year, we will fly into Vilnius and then take a bus to Klaipeda, our Lithuanian home for the summer.   This map may help to visualize our location in Eastern Europe.  We hope to keep you informed of the people we meet, the situations we encounter and our Lithuanian summer.