Wednesday, June 20, 2018 (Amsterdam/United States)

We arrived about 2-1/2 hours early only to find a huge, long line waiting for American in order to check in our luggage. There was a big flight going to Philadelphia also and everyone was trying to check in at the same time. That flight was 20 minutes after ours. We waited in line for over an hour until finally we were put into the priority line for all Dallas flights. We checked in our luggage and then headed toward security. It was another long line. We had about 40 minutes before our flight so we decided to grab something quick for breakfast. Tiffany had a good friend from Nebraska that happened to be coming into Amsterdam that morning. They were able to meet up and have a little visit before our departure.

Tiffany and Christy

It was going to be a long flight and comfort would be at a premium. I didn’t want to have to climb over someone anytime I needed to get up so I told the ticket lady I had an infection and would need an aisle seat. She was able to give me one and put Tiffany right behind me. We did have to sit further back in the plane but the aisle seats were much more comfortable.

I didn’t want to sleep much so I would be able to go to bed once I arrived at home. I watched a couple of movies, and typed on this blog. It was difficult to keep it updated during the trip since our days were full and we were always tired once we reached the room. The passenger sitting next to me asked if I was writing a book. I explained we were teachers on a fellowship and were keeping a journal of each day. He was on his way to Las Vegas – he said it was a frequent trip from Amsterdam.

We made our connection in Dallas without incident. We had to retrieve our luggage, go through customs, recheck our luggage and go through security again. We managed to do so without extremely long lines and had about 30 minutes before our flight. This was the last leg of our journey. There has been so much happen that some seem like a blur. The blog will be a great reminder to help us remember details. We do have some “adult” happenings to add to our personal journals but wanted to keep this blog family friendly so our students and parents could enjoy hearing about our trip in a G rated version. We are very thankful for this opportunity and look forward to implementing many new ideas this next school year.