Trip Home

I don't have a lot to say about the trip home, which was largely uneventful, but of course I need a concluding post to convey that the trip did come to a definitive end. We woke up way too early Wedneday, meeting at 5 am to leave for the airport. A few students stayed behind to travel independently in Europe, or to go to their homes in India, so we didn't get a formal "goodbye" with them.

We were challenged at the train station by the ticket purchase process, as when we finally figured out the right tickets to get the machine would not take a credit card. Fortunately someone had cash so we could get to the airport.

There we said goodbye to a few students who were flying separately, and also to our faculty lead Jeanette who stayed behind ro travel with her daughter. After a quick flight to Amsterdam, me met up with our colleagues and students who were returning from the trip to Budapest, and we shared a flight with them back to O'Hare.

At O'Hare I was, as expected, flagged for the extra-slow, extra-scrutiny homeland security line. Only one Budapest student ended up in that line behind me, and by the time I got out of immigration about an hour later, almost everyone else who wasn't leaving us in Chicago was waiting on the bus. We shared a bus back to Bloomington with the group returning from Hong Kong, and we spent a portion of the trip relaying our travel adventures and experiences. After dropping off a few more students in Zionsville, we made it back to Bloomington at 10 pm following 23 hour of travel - just me, Clark and three of our 24 students. Another X272 class trip completed.

Going home.