Ohs Family Summer Travels Summary

May 21 – To Boston
The Ohs Family leaves for Boston for the Holman-Crowell wedding. Evey and Cate are flower girls in the wedding, Jenn is a bridesmaid, and Ryan a reader. We are so honored to be part of the celebration, as Amanda and David are two of our dearest friends!

May 22 – 23 - Wedding festivities in Boston!

May 24 – To Madrid
Jenn, Evey, and Cate leave for Madrid, Sapin, where Jenn is teaching a summer course in organizational communication at Saint Louis University’s campus in Madrid. Ryan will be going back to Saint Louis, MO. We are not looking forward to being apart, but even though Ryan is effective at working remotely, practically speaking, he may not be able to accomplish as much work in Spain. I suspect he may get lonely, so I made him a very nice list of projects to work on while we are away, such as improving the lighting system in our garage, drywalling etc. I am thoughtful like that. :-)

May 25 – Arrive in Madrid, Class begins
Jenn, Evey, & Cate will arrive in Madrid at 7:20am, where my mother, Mary Ellen Bertram, will meet us. My mom will have been vacationing in Ireland for 10 days prior to her visit to Madrid! She seems to be enjoying her time there immensely, but is looking forward to the sunshine in Spain. I begin teaching this day at 11:00am. Don’t worry – I’ve been told there is an overpriced Starbucks close to campus.

Sidenote: Several people have gasped and wondered how I, especially being as structured and cautious as I am, could allow such a schedule into my life. I believe the divine is involved, really. I’ve heard things are more relaxed in Spain and perhaps I need this. When I was negotiating the possibility of teaching at the Madrid campus, I requested to teach the second summer session, which starts weeks after the Holman-Crowell wedding. One afternoon when I was looking up classes for one of my US students who would be studying in Spain, I noticed that I had been assigned to teach in the first summer session, which had the official start date of May 18. I was perfectly willing to pass the course off to someone else and try Spain next summer, but it was rather late for my colleagues to modify their summer plans. I pondered flying out to teach the first week, and then flying back for the wedding weekend, but fortunately my chair pointed out how crazy that would be and suggested that I e-mail the vice-provost and ask if I could start a week late and make up the time in other ways. I thought she was crazy and that I may be slightly out of line to ask. I should know better. My chair can be likened to Mary Poppins – practically perfect in every way. In short, Spain is relaxed. I have been teaching the class remotely for the past week and will step into the classroom on Monday, after taking the only direct flight to Madrid from Boston that will leave after the wedding, and get me to Madrid in time to teach.

May 25 – June 8 - Madrid
Jenn, Cate, Evey, and Mary Ellen plan to exist in peaceful harmony in Madrid, with Jenn teaching Monday - Thursday from 11:00am – 12:50 (with office hours and student meetings 3 – 6 hours a week) and day trips to Alcala de Henares (my mom loves Don Quixote) and Toledo, as well as a weekend trip to Barcelona thrown as well.

June 9 - Ryan arrives in Spain!

June 10 - Mary Ellen departs from Spain.

June 10 – June 20 – Madrid
I suspect that the Ohs Girls will be excited to take Ryan on a tour of Madrid and show him all of the things we have discovered while I finish up the summer course. I hope we take a day trip to Avila during this time and have a visit from my friend, Ilaria, who resides in Italy.

June 21 – To London
The Ohs Family will depart from Spain for London, to visit my dear friend Kira, her husband Glenn, and her very new baby, Alice. We are so excited to see them again! We think Kira may insist that we do some sight-seeing as well. :-) Admittedly, Kensington Gardens sound lovely, but I’m certain they are not as lovely as Baby Alice.

June 23 – 25 – To Edinburgh
We will take a midweek trip to Edinburgh, Scotland. We are most excited to see the Edinburgh Castle and Saint Margaret of Scotland’s Chapel. The Ohs girls attend school at a Saint Margaret of Scotland school and are very excited to visit the castle of their favorite saint! We are also spending one night at Dalhousie Castle, which is about 8 miles out of Edinburgh. There is a falconry within walking distance of the castle that hosts “Owl Encounters” for children and families, which involves children putting on the falconer’s gloves and flying the owls. The Ohs girls love birds (and still miss Shaver’s Creek back in State College, PA, where we would go to visit the birds on a regular basis). I am looking forward to our time in Edinburgh!

June 26 – 30 - Back to London

July 1 - Depart for the US