The Trip and The Arrival in Dubai

Friends and Family,

It is Wednesday as I write this and I I have just reached my first internet connection in Dubai; it's hot here of course, but the air conditioning is great everywhere except in the computer lab in which I am sitting which is humid and probably 85 degrees but is still cooler inside than out.

The first flight to DFW was fine, it seemed super short; it was 2 hours 30 minutes. When we were deplaning, I heard a girl asking about the Emirates flight, and I immediately thought she was coming to my school to teach because she was approximately the same age. I asked her but she was not a teacher. Because I had asked her about the teacher thing, I had to go ahead and tell her my story. We chatted more about our Dubai plans: I asked her what she was going to do when she got to Dubai. She said she wasn't staying in Dubai, but she's got an 8 hour layover, then she's going on to Pakistan where her brother has blood cancer, and she's Afghani.

I hung out with her and walked around the DFW D and B terminal while we waited to board the plane. Her name is Khatria, she was a lot of fun, she was studying as an exchange student at some university in North Carolina (maybe the School's name was a girls' name).

To get on the Emirates flight, we had to have a boarding pass printed by the Emirates desk there at the D11 gate in DFW (not american airlines and not from any other computer). As I was at the counter getting my special ticket printed, I asked if I could have a window seat. The guy, Edward, had to call security or someone to specifically open up the emergency exit seat, 26A just for me; I was so glad when it was opened.

If you know me, you know I like to drink plenty of water and stay hydrated. So, after 3 hours of walking around and drinking water, I had to leave her to go buy some more bottles of water before I boarded the plane. I was carrying them in my hand until I could put them in my back pack. When I arrived at the gate, I set the bag down on a chair and I put the water inside. I also had a "detox" tea in my hand just for complication and my boarding pass, passport were in the other one. I was on my way to the bathroom one more time and as I stood up with my backpack, my back pack felt funny, so I shifted it. Some Arab guys said, "your bag is open." I was so awkward with a drink in my hand, and these papers in another. I asked the guys for help, as i bent over so stuff wouldn't fall out, One guy grabbed the drink, and one of the women came over and helped me zip my back pack. I was sort of embarrassed, but more glad that I didn't spill all my things over the floor. I was glad those people were there to help me.

I got on the plane, and got to my seat. There was no window, just a wall. There was also too much foot room...that means that I couldn't put my feet up on anything. I asked the flight attendant if I could change my seat and she asked me to sit there for now. As the plane got loaded, the situation was gettting grim for my window seat. The wonderful, beautiful, extremely helpful flight attendant, advertised my seat with extra leg room and moved a larger man to my seat. I was able to sit in a 3 seat row with one skinny friendly Indian guy, an empty seat and me against the window.

I watched The Descendants, ate a lunch/dinner/snack, took a sleeping pill, and I slept off and on for most of the rest of the flight. I can't even tell you the hours, but it's an odd environment when time does not matter. You know whenyou're having fun, you lose track of time, well, it's not like that, time simply becomes irrelvant and you try not to look at your watch. You're confused even if you do look at your watch, regardless, your hunger, fatigue and sleeping doesn't have a schedule, and you eat when they feed you and you sleep whenever you can.

Anyway, the flight really wasn't bad at all. Emirates is fantastic and has soooo many movies, sooo many TV shows, lots of documentaries, and tons of entertainment on the little personal TV. Also, apparently there was plenty of reading material that I didn't notice until the Feedback form asked me how much I liked it.

I arrived in Dubai after 14 hours of flying (no problem) I felt rested becasue I slept from the herbal sleeping pill, I was greeted by the greeting service who had my name on a board. The lady helped me and the other guy jump to the front of all the lines, customs, baggage claim, eye scan (picture), and another x-ray machine. Regardless, I arrived at my apartment about 2:15.



I've got some people waiting for me to finish writing so we can go get sim cards for the phones, so I gotta run. I'll have to tell you about the apartment and stuff later. Also, I need to do something about giving my visa to the school too for the permanent status...