Dubai

The last few days have been interesting to say the least. I am still trying to figure out what day of the week it is.
haha
I flew out of Boise on May 5th in the afternoon. it was a very vapory day for me. I kept finding myself crying at the most random times. In case you didn't know, I am not a big cryer, so the fact that I was crying as much as I was really surprised me.  I cried in the Boise terminal at the thought of leaving my beautiful home, Boise.
I cried when I thought about SHekinah and Clayton driving out of my Boise and my weekly life. I cried at the thought of seeing my family, and I cried from exhaustion I guess.

Anyways, so I boarded the plane and slept most of the way to Chicago (lay over #1).
In Chicago I left the termials and headed down to baggage claim because Amber was on her way to the airport with Noel to see me for a few minutes. They got delayed  and we ended up missing each other by just a few minutes.
 I then found my gate for my next flight. This is when I realized that the rest of thie trip was going to be LONG!
It was about 10pm when my second flight left Chicago.
 Layover #2 was in Frankfurt Germany. Needless to say I was surrounded by German speaking people. I found myself constantly wishing that I had learned just a few key phrases in German. Things as simple as "thank you" and "water" and "yes" would have been great.
Apparently I look alot more European than I thought because everyone seemed to address me in German, and I wanted to play along so badly that I would try and not talk but rather communicate in grunts and hand gestures so they would think I am just a moody German or something. hahaha
It worked at sometimes. I managed to order my meal that way.
The german couple sitting next to me seemed oddly fascinated with my eating habits. When I tore little pieces for bread of the roll they had given me and ate the chunks with little pieces of cheese they literally watched me like they had never seen anything like it. I just enjoy my cheese is all. Eating is a sacred thing to me and I savor it. hhahahahha

 The plane landed in Germany at 1 something in the afternoon. So at this point I had left Boise during an afternoon hour, arrived in Chicago in the evening and left late at night, then It is afternoon again in Germany. My body was thinking I had been traveling for 24 hours at this point. Not the case.
So I land in Germany, and navigate through the airport. This included taking a tram to a different terminal, walking a uncanny long way considering I am used to trams actually taking you near a terminal,going through security again, unsuccessfully searching for a bathroom, and finally finding my gate. I didn't have a long wait in terrminal before boarding.  I boarded the plane and was once again seated by a German speaking couple.
I was seated by the window and felt bad when I had to make them get up so I could visit the toilet  as soon as the seatbelt sign was off  (remember my unsuccessful search for an airport bathroom?).
 I slept through most of that really long flight to Dubai, Sadly I slept through breakfast. I barely missed it too. I was a bit upset that the flight attendant didn't ask me when I woke up if I wanted breakfast. They do it for other people. :[

When our flight landed and I got off the plane it was late night in Dubai.
So lets recap. I left on the 5th of May.

Boise = afternoon
Chicago= afternoon to evening
Germany=afternoon
Dubai=late night.
Sounds like two days right?
It had been about 24 hours.

I followed along with the crowd like a bunch of hearded sheepies through the Dubai airport.
It took us in little circles and up and down stairs.
Then to the Passport Control area. The lines were terribly long and never seemed to move. Eventually a man working there told me and a few other people to move down to the "first line" so we walked down to where we thought might be the "first line" and kept looking back at the man in the traditional white Dubai outfit that had told us to move lines.
The guy who was behind me in line before was an english speaker from Florida and was just as confused as I was as to where the first line was.
We finally agreed that we may have found it. He made me be the brave one though and go first. What a pansy for a man. He was at least 10 years older than me and afraid to walk down the wrong line. haha
So I go to the counter, they send me a few counters down to a lady.  She just scans my passport, asks me where I am staying and my parents villa number and sends me on my way.
My bag was right there at baggage claim and the exit was right there too.

 I walked outside and was a bit confused as to  how I was going to find a cab and what not.
I saw a bunch of people standing in lines outside and they managed to somehow be paired up with a cab there so I figured "hey why not stand in another line? I am a pro at that by now.".
Shortest line of the day.
I got a cab with a really nice driver and headed out to my parents house.

My parents live on the opposite of Dubai from the airport so I got to take a late night drive through Dubai.

When we got to my parents community we got quite lost. The security did a terrible job about giving us directions and we ended up driving around for a good 20 minutes before finding the Villa.

 We did get there though. It was after mid-night by this time.
In this time zone that made it my birthday!
it was about 3 pm May 6th back home, but here it was my birthday!


that is my cross the globe travel story.
I'll maybe blog later.
I'll tell you more about my  parents Villa, and my trip to the mall.
maybe I will get ambitious and post pictures before I get home.



I am planning to  upload pictures onto a photobucket of my upcoming adventures as well as some older ones.
I will share the link here once I have more of the albums finished.
:]
That will be better than posting on facebook or a few here and there.