Observation Deck I:nternational

Until very recently (try not to hold this against me) I thought Dubai was in India.  It didn't help that a resident at work tried to convince me once that Dubai was the CAPITAL of India.  Turns out, Dubai is actually a part of the United Arab Emirates, or UAE, which frankly, I have never heard of.  When I saw that I would be flying on Air Emirates, all I thought about was New Zealand's boat from the America's Cup. I don't know what they teach in public schools, but I clearly know nothing about world geography.

My final destination is Hyderabad, India.  I'm stuck on a NINE HOUR lay-over at the Dubai International Airport, home of Air Emirates.  This is my first time traveling internationally alone.  In fact, it is my first time traveling ANYWHERE alone.  I have now been on the travel clock for 29 hours with another six to go.  I have had perhaps three hours of sleep in this time, and that could be for a few reasons.  First off, I have had the aisle seat on both flights so far, which means there is nothing to lean against and I'm not particularly keen on sleeping sitting straight up.  On my international flight from Seattle to Dubai, I couldn't get my seat to recline for the first little while - I don't know whether it was stuck, or if the man behind me was counter pushing on it so that I couldn't recline into his space.  Once I did finally get it reclined (with more effort than should have been needed) he kept hitting the back of my chair. Maybe it wasn’t on purpose and maybe I should give him the benefit of the doubt, but it made trying to sleep sitting up even worse. Now of course, I did purchase a travel pillow especially for this trip because they're supposed to make it more comfortable to sleep sitting up, right? The trouble is I couldn't quite figure it out.

I just could never get comfortable.  It didn't help that my feet were frozen solid.  I ended up putting on my complimentary socks, wrapping my feet in the complimentary blanket, and shoving said feet into the back pocket of the seat in front of me; probably not the best airplane etiquette.  But honestly, I couldn't leave my feet on the floor.  Everything I put on the floor froze.  Why? Because everything beneath us was ice.  The amazing thing about Air Emirates (well there's lots of things, but we'll start with this one) is that there are exterior cameras on the plane so that you can see what is ahead of you

and below you throughout the whole trip. I was TERRIBLY fascinated with the underside camera and for a good portion of the trip, all I saw was ice.  Our flight took us up over the top of the earth and then back down the other side.  For some reason, I had never thought of that as an option for travel.  I just assumed I would fly directly west and end up in India (because remember, I thought Dubai was in India).  Ha! How wrong I have been these past few days.  

While I was watching the ice caps, and not sleeping, I had myself a Hobbit marathon.  Another amazing thing about Air Emirates is that even in coach I had my own personal screen where I could pick from over 500 movies/tv shows to watch.  The couple next to me watched the same movie and the same time on their own respective screens.  Like, they kept pausing to try and get their films to play at exactly the same time.  The person in front of me watched Mockingjay and then Jupiter Ascending. Someone 3 rows ahead and across the aisle also watched Jupiter Ascending, and then joined the Hobbit bandwagon.  Now, I haven't heard ANYTHING from Jupiter Ascending, but it LOOKS kind of stupid.  I don't know, maybe dialogue helps.  While I was loving being able to watch my own movie, and the movies of everyone around me - what was even better was being able to have two things on my own screen at once!

I honestly did try to get some sleep between the second and third Hobbit movie, and I think I actually did sleep through part of the third, but like I said - sleep wasn't really happening.  The truly horrific thing about this flight is that I had time to watch all three Hobbit movies and there was still FIVE HOURS left. I gave up on sleep because, as my father taught me, if you sleep you miss out on all the food.  I was served a LOVELY lamb dinner with rice, sautéed peppers, a roll, and a scrumptious toffee pudding.  My silverware was chilled and my water came in a teacup. There were at least six drink services throughout the flight, and somewhere mid arctic I was served a little pizza!  For breakfast I had a fluffy cheese and spinach omelet, fresh fruit, and a croissant.  The food was seriously wonderful.  It helped break up a crazy long flight. I kept thinking that if I could just sleep, it would help the time go by faster, but aside from not being able to get comfortable, it was literally as bright as high noon the ENTIRE trip.  I would venture to say it was consecutively 2 o'clock in the afternoon for 15 hours straight.  Part way through the flight, they actually had everyone close the window shades and they turned off the cabin lights to make an imitation night – complete with stars!

Overall, for my first solo international flight, it was pretty amazing.  By the time we landed,

I was naturally VERY ready to get off that plane.  I was so bored of sitting there.  I was actually bored of watching tv! And I was dreadfully sick of the couple sitting next to me.  When we first boarded, I thought “oh good! They seem so nice.” By the end, I was very glad I never had to see them again.  The husband was condescending and crazy impatient.  One time, they had gotten out to do something, I don’t know – what is there to do on a plane outside of your seat? – and I am a small enough person that I could just turn to the side, slide my legs under the arm rest so I was completely sideways and they were clear to get out. When they came back, I did the same thing, and the husband was all “Could you just get up?” So I did.  And then they took their sweet time getting back in their seats, and piled all their stuff on my seat while they got situated.  I found it all rather annoying.  And then, you know how when a flight lands everyone jumps out of their seat to try and be the first one off?  Well all I had ahead of me was a nine hour wait for my connecting flight, so I wasn’t in any hurry.  Being in the aisle seat, I kind of controlled when they got to get out too, but I knew that Dubai was their final destination, so I figured they didn’t need to be in any particular hurry either.  So I just sat and waited patiently for the other people around us to stand up and get their luggage and then the husband said “You just have to go ahead and stand up,” in this voice like he was talking to a child.  So I stood up, but I wasn’t going to just force my way into the aisle. I waited patiently but the husband kept trying to get people to stop by calling out “Can you just let her in?  Can she get through here?”  Eventually, when there were literally two people left before a nice wide clearing for us, the husband jumped over his seat to the aisle behind us, shoved his way into the line, then made everyone wait while he pulled out his luggage from the overhead bin and then started leaving without his wife! Now, I know that it sounds like I was holding these poor people hostage in their seats forever while I let the entire plane clear out (which my dad actually told me to do.  Not the hostage part, just the plane clearing part) but in actuality, all of this took place over MAYBE a ten minute period.  It was ridiculous!

Well, those are my adventures so far.  Soon I will be on my way to Hyderabad and I won’t have to worry about my Lord of the Rings marathon for the return trip for another month.  I promise the stories are going to get better.  For now, I am going to find the food court and order my last hamburger for the next 30 days.

Namaste!