Well I made it that is the important part but the getting here was a bit stressful!
Yesterday I woke up to a normal day. Got to school, remembered that I was principal for the day, so I went to pick up the radio and get my breakfast. That is about where it all fell apart!
I went to check on a teacher who I knew might have to do a Mystery Skype by herself in the afternoon to make sure that she was okay. When I got there I found out that one of the grade four teachers was out but there was no sub. So, I went in to cover her class. I was about to get them started on some work when our Librarian came in and said, they're supposed to be in library. So off they went and off I went to find the sub coordinator. After a couple of laps of campus I finally found her subbing a 9th grade math class, boy do I not miss 9th grade math!
She then sent me off to find a sub who was only scheduled for the morning lesson in high school. I found her, arranged for her to cover the 4th grade class, then went back to cover them for the 20 minutes until she arrived. All this time I was suppose to be in grade two showing the teachers who to use Google calendars to electronically plan.
ISN'T BEING PRINCIPAL FOR THE DAY FUN!
So that issue was sorted and I head back to shove some food in my mouth during a 10 minute break before I have to go to the other grade four to do a Mystery Skype. I arrived in time, got everyone set up, made a connection to the teacher. We started the Skype only to have several connection issues and have to abandon it half way through. Thankfully the kids were great and understanding. They were coming up with ways to finish the Skype with the other class, who happened to be a class full of future teachers in Belgium!
So off I go to my three hour Display Screen Accessors meeting. I get there a bit early so take some time to read my emails. We are about to start as the trainer has just walked in when I get an email saying "Your flight to Munich has been cancelled."
WHAT, oh my gosh you can't cancel my flight I have to present at the ECIS Tech Conference, twice! So I get on the phone to one of the teachers who was to travel with me but wasn't in our training and said, please call and deal with this.
About half way through the meeting I get an email saying that, he has decided not to go and he wasn't sure what could be done. So after the meeting was over I raced to my room to call the travel agent directly. I got her on the phone and they had been trying to get on the phone to Lufthansa for the last two hours with no luck. She said she would keep trying. I told her I was prepared to fly out tonight if necessary.
So off I go to check on the teacher who was doing the Mystery Skype by herself, thankfully it was in full swing and all was good!
Then I headed to the IT office to find the teacher who was still traveling with me. I stopped to call the travel agent again and she said that they had been on hold with Lufthansa for the last 20 min which was progress and that Lufthansa had flights at 6:00 and 8:00 that had seats so she thought that we could get out. Also she had talked to the hotel and they had rooms. At this point I have not packed or ironed half of my cloths and they were at the Dorm at Cobham (30 min drive).
Realizing that I needed to leave, I talked to everyone involved and made sure that the lower school was covered and headed towards the Dorm. I managed to get there get my stuff ironed and packed when I got a call at about 3:00 from Emma at the travel Agent saying "I have a few seats on the 4:45" do you think you can make it. Well I thought to myself, yep if I get a cab now and he drives like a bat out of h*£@!. So I call a cab, grab my stuff and run up to the guard shack, because Cobham was about to be in full dismissal mode.
The taxi picked me up and once I jumped in I said, "Can you get me to Terminal 2 as fast as you can."
He said "Ah, this is not the best time for fast."
I said "I know just do your best, this is not our fault."
He did great we even filled in a receipt and I paid him while were on the road. So all I had to do when we go to the terminal was jump out and run for it. I ran in and up to one of the ladies and said "I am on the 4:45 flight."
She responded, "Go down this side and say I sent you."
So I get to the desk and this lady says "The computer says you have a paper ticket do you?". I later found out that the travel agent had checked us in, but since my phone was playing up I didn't get that email.
Nope I don't, so she sends me to the Lufthansa counter, the guy there sorts it and I run back to the check in counter. I kind of looked like a ping pong ball at this point! The check in lady told me that I made it by minutes. Fine, minutes is fine as long as I am on the flight! So I rushed myself through security and got onto the plane.
That is how yesterday went, but now I am in Munich a day early and am going to go be a tourist while I try to wind down to be ready for my presentation Saturday!
