With about an hour spare, I finally got to the airport, but fortunately, Tallinn airport is small enough for that time to suffice. I think my carry on was just as heavy as my check-in luggage. But as I found out, I was allowed 2x23 kg suitcases, I just took some brochures from my hand-luggage and put them in the suitcase making my one piece of checked in luggage 23 kg.
I met my other fellow travellers and after buying some water, we boarded our flight to Brussels. I think, I slept most of the way as I cannot remember much of that flight. Once we got there, we found out that our next flight was from another terminal. We also started to remember the things we had forgotten to pack. For example, Margit had forgotten video tapes for her video camera. So we went in search of these from the airport shops. Of course none of them sold anything as ancient as video tapes.
Brussels airport
So, we took a break to drink up all the water we had bought in Tallinn (see our drink break picture above), and after going through two sets of security, with lots of questions asked at the gate (extra security for boarding an US bound flight), we finally boarded our plane, destination Washington DC.
Our plane.
When we landed, we were taken to the main terminal by an interesting contraption. It was not exactly a shuttle, neither was it a bus or a train. It was like this huge box with a couple of seats inside – a really bizarre vehicle. Unfortunately, I did not get any photos of it.
The border took ages to cross due to long lines and yet again my photo and all my fingerprints being taken. Other than that, there was no extensive questioning due to the type of visa I had. But my problems had just begun... When we got to the luggage carousels, our suitcases had already been offloaded from the carousel due to the time it had taken for us to get through passport control. My colleagues found their suitcases all together, but mine was not there. I found the United Airline baggage agent and upon checking the computer, he said that the last time my bag was scanned had been in Brussels. He asked me to wait until they found out where it had got to. So, we waited... Maive and Tiiu went through to let the IREX representatives know that we had luggage issues. Margit stayed with me. I kept going back to man at the desk asking for news, but he just told me to wait until my name is called. Then both Margit and I heard somebody mention my name to the man, but when I went to ask him again, he just told me to sit down again until he called me, saying that there was no news. But I noticed that another man had brought some bags, and, I recognised my own suitcase there. I took it and told the luggage agent that his colleague had just brought it up. He looked a bit uncomfortable... Go figure...
There were about 12 of us that got on the shuttle to the Kellogg Conference Centre at Gallaudet University. I took some photos from the bus window, but these are not great. I look forward to taking better ones when we get a chance to see more of the city.
Einstein
Passing the White House
A police car
Ghost Town
Our shuttle bus
IREX representative greeting us and giving info packages
We were given initial information, all our spending money in cash in an envelope (“don’t spend it all at once, it is supposed to last you 7 weeks”), dinner in a box, and room keys. We were housed in double rooms with somebody from a different nationality. My roommate is Argentinean. She is really nice. :)
My spending money for the next 7 weeks
My room for the next 3 days
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