I started at 6am and was out the door of the room for checkout by 7:30. Checkout was quick and a cab already happened to be waiting at the hotel so I got an instant ride to the airport. I think I was there by about 8. Inside I thought I was supposed to check in with Delta and after waiting 25 minutes in their line I was told there was another desk for KLM and because my flight was to Amsterdam I had to check in with them. I was brought over to their desk where there was no one working for another 25 minutes and then had to wait while I was line cut by 2 families for another half an hour. I had already done the kiosk checkin and just needed to drop off my bag. When I spoke to the woman at the desk she told me they weren't sure if the flight would get out on time or if it would even get out at all. They had canceled an 8:25 flight. They wouldn't know until the plane left Amsterdam. I asked what I should do and she said just go inside and sort it out if it doesn't come.
Inside I then had to wait until 45 minutes before the flight to find out the gate. I got down to the gate instantly and then the check in to the plane took an extra 25 minutes even though the plane and crew were ready because they didn't have a bus to drive us to the remote location for boarding. This meant that when we got to Schipol I had to run across the airport, checking through passport control to basically get in line to be one of the last to board the plane. In so doing I fully expected to not have overhead room to put my backpack but fortunately it wasn't a full flight and I did indeed have the space. I was ready for an argument as I was not going to let them check my bag with 2 laptops in it.
We managed to get out of the airport on time. The flight was 7 hours or so. I watched Despicable Me again, followed by a British movie called The Damned United about the 1974 Leeds United football club. It was interesting and had a bunch of Brit actors I've seen before. Not a lot of soccer footage, it was more about the manager of the team than a pure sports film. After that I watched Avatar because I knew it was long enough to fill up the majority of the rest of the flight. By the time it was over they were announcing the half hour till landing. We managed to get into the airport about a half an hour early. From there passport and customs were easy because I guess a lot of flights from Europe have been canceled over the past couple days.
In all it was a successful trip. The Hologic Europe employees were very nice and extremely helpful. My students were all attentive and interested in learning, even the ones that had a lot more experience on the system. It was probably the easiest it could have been for the first time teaching the class in a different location. Hopefully it will turn out the same in Hong Kong in March.
As a parting gift I provide this explanation of Belgium given to me by one of my Belgian students. Beware it has a couple of swear words in it.
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