Tom's Travels

After class on Wednesday, I went straight to the Columbia airport and flew to Washington, DC. On Thursday and Friday morning I had a series of meetings about possible research projects. On Friday I flew back to St. Louis. I had hoped to be able to switch to the Columbia flight but it was full. Unfortunately, the St. Louis flight was late, and I arrived in St. Louis, too late to catch the Mo-X shuttle to Columbia. I rented a car and drove home late that night.

On Saturday Jan 10, I left for Brussels to hold a study abroad course there. My colleague Willi and I combined our classes to make 10 students for the course. I arrived Sunday and checked into my usual hotel (Holiday Inn) near the EU Commission buildings. On Monday we started a very intensive 4 days of meetings, tours, presentations and lectures. Altogher we had about 20 adgenda items over hte 4 days. Students had Friday off. I used the day to meet with EU Commission officials to discuss to possibility of a new research project based on the work that we had completed in 2008. On Saturday, I flew back to Missouri to get ready for the Spring term.

I had been in Urbana for Christmas. I drove to St. Louis, and caught a flight to Boise that evening. I don't like traveling on Christmas Day, but in this case, I was able to spend some time with all the family members first in Illinois and then in Boise. We had our Christmas meal on Boxing Day and then had a very nice week of visiting. I flew back to Missouri on January 1, in time to host Harley, Amy and the kids in Rocheport for a few days.