Date: July 10, 2024
Location: Rome
Blogger: Joel Wiggins ’07 (MSC Programs Coordinator)
Hometown: Liberty, Texas
We have arrived safely in Rome, the Eternal City, after fifteen hours of travel as a group from IAH. I wanted to get the blog posts started off, because I imagine the students are going to be pretty tired by the end of the day and this will establish expectations and a format for what is to follow.
I want to thank all the students and their families for their patience, understanding, and assistance over the last 48 hours. I know Beryl had a great number of us concerned about disruptions to the group. While we collectively didn’t face any issues, I know several of the students did have disruptions (including cancelled flights to Houston, a day and a night before without power [that happened to Annabelle along with some students], and last-minute road trips across Texas). I also want to thank the families for supporting their scholars in participating in this program.
Our trip kicked off with a completely full flight out of IAH that was a little late taking off because of the extra time needed to load an aircraft that had a traveler in every seat. As we landed at DFW we were informed that our captain was making his last commercial flight after thirty-one years as an airline pilot that was preceded by an Air Force career as a KC-130 command pilot. We were also told he was about to be treated to a “washing down,” a water cannon salute this is often given for retiring pilots, but this did not come to fruition.
After disembarking, everyone made their way to the gate area for our connecting flight then dispersed to get some food and generally kill time prior to the next leg. The equipment (a Boeing 777-200) we would be taking to Rome was about an hour late leaving Paris, and they were not able to make up much time in the air or on the ground, so we were fifty minutes late departing. However, we were able to make up about twenty minutes and weren’t too far behind arriving in Rome at 8:30 this morning.
We have our bags and are on our bus to the hotel where we will drop the luggage and head back out. Everyone will have an opportunity to get some lunch in the area of the Vatican. Then we will reconvene and break into two groups for guided tours of the Vatican Museum and the Sistine Chapel, followed by a return to the hotel, some down time, and a group dinner. Hopefully, they are worn out and will get some early sleep so we can get everyone’s clocks onto Italian time.
I look forward to the next two weeks and seeing what the students experience, learn, and enjoy.
Ciao,
Joel
P.S. Three participants (of 23) fell asleep at the dinner table before we were even all done!