Well, I am now sitting in the Dubai airport (unfortunately without wireless access so I’m typing this in Word). I can honestly say that I hope to never come back to this airport. Walking through its futuristic supermall-like walkways is about 5 times worse than the sidewalks of the U of M campus; not one person knows how to walk and everyone seems completely oblivious to the common rules of locomotion.
As for my flights, my first was more than what I had expected. The plane was practically empty and I had a whole row to myself, although its full potential was not taken advantage of; I slept for about a half hour. The Canadian airport in Gander, wherever that is in Canada, had by far the best gift shop ever. We unloaded right outside, and it was raining, and the first thing I see when I walk in…Canadian flags, a maple syrup stand, and fur vests. The food actually wasn’t bad either, and they gave us more than enough including an awesome brownie that rivals even Cosmic Brownies. The flight landed a little over an hour and a half late in London, giving me about 5 hours to kill at Gatwick.
Not only did they have little to choose from, I probably wasted about 30 US dollars on a pay phone and water. I didn’t understand how to use the phone of course, and it had a minimum charge. So, sorry Mom, I tried to call but was too technologically challenged to do so. As for the remaining money, I bought a US Weekly, warm bottle of water, and a bottle of flavored water which amounted to about 9 Euros, so approximately 18 US dollars is what I’m guessing. Apparently, you cannot bring water from the lower floor of the airport to the upper floor…so I had about 1/10th of my water and the flavored water was thrown away unopened. Great. However, London seems nice, it is still so odd that people stay to the left. I have officially decided that I am going to raise my child to have a British accent, which is just about the most adorable thing ever. It was so hard not to start talking in accents while I was there, I’m still so tempted.
As for my flight to Dubai, it was absolutely terrible. I was on the most awesome plane ever, Emirates, which had TVs in the head rests of the seats with new movies, I watched Just Go With It, The Green Hornet, and part of Country Strong. We got complementary pillows and blankets, the meal was awesome and tailored to my diabetic needs, and the ceilings in the plane had lights that looked like a starry sky. Perfect right?
Well it was near impossible to enjoy all of this while gagging from the BO from the people next to me. I honestly don’t think I’ve ever smelt such bad BO in my life. I was seriously considering slapping the guys arms down every time he raised them, but was too incapacitated by the smell. Also, the man had no idea how to use the TV, which was touch screen, and would poke and prod at it for 5 minutes at a time trying to get it to work. He would then continue to speak to his family with his headphones in, unaware of the fact that every person could hear him as well. He spilt a Heinekin and half of his dinner on his lap, and managed to leave some of his wrappers in my seat too.
However, I did meet a UK girl who is traveling to Thailand to give a presentation at a conference about bats, which she studies. She has been all over Thailand, and her trips there made me appreciate the contrasting simplicity of my own.
So now, I am waiting at gate 213, 2 am (about 5 PM at home), still unsure if it’s the right one, for my connecting flight to Dubai. I’m tired of waiting, my legs hurt, and I’ve slept about 2 hours within the past 24. There is a Starbucks and PeaBerry here, but I don’t know the money exchange and don’t want to get cheated just for some coffee and what is most likely the best frozen yogurt ever. I just want a large Americano right now, sans cream. I’m tired of stale plane coffee, which does not help my 90 year old bladder and fear of vortex death toilets.
I want a shower. I was expecting everyone to look equally as crappy on these flights, but it turns out I’m the only one who dressed in sweat pants and a tshirt, while everyone else is in trendy cute outfits that are most likely uncomfortable.
And still, after all of this, it has yet to hit me that I will be in Africa in a day. I am set on either bungee jumping or zip-riding at Victoria Falls, or riding on elephants there although it is not very nice for the elephants. I hope that we will all have time to travel around Botswana and hopefully South Africa. I would love to see a soccer or rugby game too. I can’t wait to go shopping, I’m holding off on airport paraphernalia.
So, this is all my energy will allow. Hopefully I’ll be able to sleep on this flight without being disturbed by people’s lack of deodorant.
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