Yes!!! 

I am so excited that we can finally travel to Europe again.  I can’t wait!!!  Only two more days and we’re off! 

I’m excited too.  It has been far too long since we’ve seen our family. 

And while we’re there, can we go to the water park? 

And the playground at the Frankfurt airport? 

And the castle with the dragon? All the castles! 

And the mountains, and the caves, and the valley where the crocuses blossom, and can we get garlic soup on top of the mountain, and crepes with whipped cream on top, and can we visit my old pre-school, and the train station, and can we raft down the river again, and camp by the lake, and stay at the Airbnb with the life-sized chessboard? 

Whoa!  Let’s not get ahead of ourselves.  I’m sure we will have plenty of wonderful adventures, but let’s get ourselves on the plane first. 

Right.  One thing at a time. 

Do you have our boarding passes? 

What time do we check in? 

How early do we need to be at the airport? 

We’d better get there extra early, because I’m sure there are extra things to check.   

Do you have our proof of vaccination?  And our passports? 

What time is departure? 

Hold your horses Lila!  One question at a time.  Try really hard. 

Okay, okay, I’m just so excited. 

Okay.  What time is departure? 

Twenty-one hundred hours forty-five. 

What? 

21:45 [twenty-one forty-five] 

Uh – Mum – I don’t mean to burst your bubble, but that’s not a real time… 

Sure it is. 

Umm… 

Airports and train stations, ships, the military, and really, most of the world, use the 24 [twenty-four] hour clock. That way you don’t need to say a.m. or p.m., you just know that anything from 12:01 [twelve-oh-one] to 23:59 [twenty-three fifty-nine] is the afternoon and evening and the rest is the morning.  Just take away 12 [twelve] and you’ll know what time it is on the 12-hour clock. 

Okay.  2145 [twenty-one forty-five] minus 12 [twelve] 

Oh, sorry – take 12 away from the hours – the minutes stay the same – so 21 minus 12…is? 

9. 

Right, now add the minutes… 

9:45? 

Right – 9:45 p.m.  If I just said we’re leaving at 9:45, you wouldn’t know if I meant morning or evening – this way, there is no question and no room for error. 

Except if someone can’t subtract 12. 

Well, yes, I suppose, but in places where the 24-hour clock is used regularly, people learn it from an early age and have no problem understanding the time. 

Okay, so we depart at 9:45 p.m., or 21:45. 

Correct. 

So, what time do we have to check in? 

We have to be at the airport 3 [three] hours prior to departure and go to the check-in counter, or electronic kiosk.  Then, on our boarding pass, we will see when we need to be at our gate. 

Oh, which gate are we going to?  I remember, there are so many!  Will we go down the huge tube that looks like a giant vacuum cleaner tube? 

Most likely, yes.  We won’t know which gate until we get to the airport.  It will show when we print our boarding passes. 

Can’t we print our boarding passes at home? 

Well, yes, we could, but my printer is out of ink.  And sometimes, even when you print your boarding pass at home, they change the gate number on the day of departure because of delays with other flights, air traffic control and other unpredictable reasons. 

Okay.  We’ll print them as soon as we get to the airport then.  And our tickets, Mummy.  Do you have our flight tickets?  I hope they’re in a safe place.  

Yes, sweetheart, I have them tucked away in a very safe place with our passports and other important documentation. 

Okay. 

Flight tickets – check 

Departure time – check 

Check-in time – check (hee, hee – that sounds funny – check-in – check, double-check!) 

Boarding pass – check 

Gate – check 

Arrival – Mum!  What time do we arrive? 

We should arrive in Frankfurt at 9:25 [nine twenty-five] a.m. 

What?  12 hours on the plane? 

No – just under 7 [seven] hours.  There is a 5 [five] hour time difference between Atlantic Canada and continental Europe.  Remember, how when we talk to our family over Christmas, they’ve already finished Christmas dinner before we even begin?  Just like Quebec and Ontario are one hour behind us, Europe, for the most part, is 5 hours ahead of us.  The U.K. is only 4 [four] hours ahead of us though.  I’ll explain that to you more another time, but just think about it – if the earth is a huge ball, rotating on its axis from one sunrise to the next, not everybody on earth will see the sunrise at the same time, and there are imaginary lines going from the North Pole to the South Pole dividing time zones, so that we all see the sunrise at approximately the same time of day for our location. 

Uh – okay Mum – let’s save that conversation for the plane! 

Actually, the plane is a perfect place to have that conversation, Lila. 

Okay, where were we – right – just under 7 hours to get to Frankfurt – wow – that’s faster than getting to the other side of Canada! 

It sure is.  We do live in the second largest country in the world. 

Hmm, and then what time is our connecting flight to Prague? We are changing planes in Frankfurt, right? 

Yes, we have to change planes in Frankfurt, but I actually found a cheaper flight to Katowice, which is even closer to our family, so we’ll fly there from Frankfurt and your uncle will pick us up at the airport. 

At what time? 

I don’t remember the times right now, but we have about a 3 [three] hour stopover in Frankfurt, so to answer your next question, yes, as long as there are no delays, you will have some time to play at the rocket ship playground at the Frankfurt airport. 

Perfect! 

Arrival – TBD 

Playground – check. 

TBD – do you even know what that means? 

Of course I do – to be determined!  We learned all about acronyms in school, because I have the best teacher in the world.  I’ll tell you all about it on the plane Mum! 

Okay, thank you Lila.  I look forward to that. 

But what if our plane is delayed, what if there is a snowstorm, what if there is a thunderstorm?  I don’t want to fly in a thunderstorm.   

The forecast looks good for now Lila, don’t worry, and if conditions are unsafe, they will postpone the flight and arrange for other connections.  If the flight is delayed, it is the airline’s responsibility to ensure a connecting flight for us.  And if we don’t make it to the playground, I’m sure we’ll find many other good playgrounds in our travels. 

Okay. 

Playground – TBD. 

Haha. 

This is important stuff Mum!   Don’t laugh! 

I’m sorry.  It is very, very important stuff. 

Oh my goodness.  I almost forgot the most important thing!  Our luggage!  Are you packed Mum?  Are you over-packed? 

You know me too well Lila.  No, I was very careful not to over-pack this time.  We are only allowed one piece of luggage per person, so I had to start planning early, and I want to leave some room to bring some things back.  I have packed and re-packed 3 times, and am now satisfied that I have room to spare.  I have packed the bare minimum.  How about you Lila? 

We don’t talk about that Mum. 

Oh, really.  Let’s take a look at what you’ve got and do a little sorting.  Then we can help your brothers.   

Okay Mum.  You can check my luggage, so that we can ‘check’ our luggage with no problem. It’s another double-check Mum – you check my luggage, so that we can check our luggage at the check-in counter at the airport, i.e. put it on that big belt that takes it to the belly of the plane. 

Yes, indeed.  Thanks for the explanation – I was starting to get confused. 

i.e. means ‘id est’ – it’s Latin for ‘it is’ – kind of like e.g., which is ‘exempli gratia’ in Latin, or ‘for example’ in English – but we use the Latin abbreviations even when we’re writing in English – we learnt about that in school too – because we have the best teacher in the world! 

Okay, Lila – let’s save that for the plane too. You can tell me all about the best teacher in the world then.  For now, let’s take a look at your luggage. 

Okay Mum – come on. 

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