Flying and Flying

I definitely took advantage of the in-house entertainment. Things I watched included Wall-E, CSI: NY, Family Guy, and Mythbusters. There were options for international television and a variety of music. Food was good for airline food and they kept us refreshed with drinks and snacks. Edwin continued taking some unbelievable pictures of the skyline as were flying. We were definitely touching the sky at this point. As it turned dark, we are able to make out civilization through the street lighting outlining cities and towns. We can clearly make out roads and how towns and cities are connected to each other.

            Finished watching Book of Eli. Excellent movie. The flight attendants served us breakfast. I have been able to watching the sun slowly, but surely, rise as we fly. It is absolutely stunning. I can now clearly make out mountains and general landscape. It is unbelievable to see the sun this high. It is really unique. It’s going to get so  bright in the cabin that I might have to put the window shade down. I am about forty minutes away from Dubai. Getting closer to Cape Town. I am going to continue watching Robin Hood.

            We finally have arrived in Dubai and it’s amazing! As the plane began its descent, we could begin to make out the city of Dubai. All the buildings looked to made out of marble. Each section of a community seemed to have several houses and a mosque that served the families within those homes. I could see a lot of cars driving by and was able to see their highway. It was paved and it looked very similar to highways back home. To hear the captain, say that it is 27 degrees Celsius out in Dubai made me truly realize that I am not home anymore. As the plane began to descend, my ears began to hurt terribly because we were declining in altitude. Once the plane landed, the pain resided.

           

            Dubai is amazing. The terminal looks absolutely beautiful. The stores look so well-maintained and the architecture of buildings look well-detailed and something I do not see in America. There are so many stores and restaurants. There are also so many people shopping in those stores, one could misinterpret the area for a shopping mall instead of an airport terminal. Every store seems to be well-thought out in design and nothing seems to be cheap laying around in the airport. It was very tempting to buy different items by the way they are displayed and by the number of people in the checkout cart. We continued to walk across the terminal, in awe of the entire scene. At the same time, we were heading towards our gate to the second leg of the journey. We eventually found a place to sit and switched off going to the bathroom, refreshing ourselves.

            Once Edwin and I were done, we were trying to decide where we wanted to grab something to eat. We had about an hour and a half to kill before boarding time. We had seen a really cool shop called Pinkberry earlier in the terminal. We ended up walking back over to check it out and buy something. The place sells yogurt and smoothies. Edwin and I ended buying a yogurt cup. One great thing about it is was that we got to pick six toppings we could put on the yogurt. I had picked raspberries, kiwis, and strawberries. And then I saw that they had a topping of Captain Crunch. The attendant serving me the yogurt suggested I put it as a topping and I could not resist. To round out the toppings, I had dark chocolate flakes sprinkled on top. I used my credit card for the first time abroad to pay for the yogurt. It was very refreshing to eat and it really rejuvenated me for the next leg of our journey to Johannesburg. 

The Start of the Journey

Well, I can’t believe it. I’m sitting here thousands of feet up in the sky heading over to Dubai. Finally heading to Cape Town. At about year ago, I was just preparing for my Cape Town interview and now a year later, I’m flying over for two months. I am very excited and even more anxious to get there. Edwin is sitting next to me watching Toy Story 3. Pretty good movie. And speaking about good things, Emirates is so far exceeding my expectations. The attendants are great. The entertainment options on the touch-screen televisions on every screen will keep me busy for 12 hours. I don’t know if I can access the Internet from up here. They have a spot for an Ethernet cable but I left my cable in my checked baggage. I guess I just got to blog on Microsoft Word and upload these posts later. They have a port to charge my laptop so I can use my laptop and write for a long time.

            Airport hassle was a breeze. I woke up around 3:30am back in Waltham and my dad, mom, and I grabbed all my bags to drive to JFK International Airport. I was asleep for most of the time. I had awoken 15 minutes away from the airport and my parents were telling me there was traffic near Hartford due to some accident. But once we passed that we just had to deal with some morning rush hour traffic but we did not hit the brunt of it.  We passed by Citi Field and Yankee Stadium on our way. We eventually found the Emirates terminal and my dad dropped off my Mom, my baggage, and I in front of the terminal as he went off to park the Sequoia.

            I was thinking of waiting until Edwin arrived but I decided I wanted to check in my bags. It was very convenient and the process was done quickly. Since I had purchased my tickets online, the online check-in line did not have anyone waiting and I basically walked up to the attending lady. The only thing she asked for was my passport. She gave me boarding passes for each of the flights I would be taking to Cape Town and labeled each of my checked baggage. She asked me to place each bag on their scale and everything seemed to be within their requirements. Once she gave me all the necessary paperwork, I had to proceed to bring my checked luggage off to the side for it to be scanned and carted off to the plane. The bags went through their high-tech scanners without an issue, which was a relief. There were looking at the monitor for a long time for some red baggage they scanned, trying to figure out something in particular inside it. They immediately put it off to the side and proceeded to open up the bag to do some further investigation. Thank God that my bags did not have to go through anything like that. Because my bags were locked, they would basically be forced to rip open the lock if it came to that.

            My first flight was set to board at 10:20am. Since Edwin had not arrived, my parents and I decided to walk downstairs and eat some breakfast. I tried to use the Internet downstairs but I was restricted within the airport. My family and I sat at an eatery for a little bit, taking pictures and talking about the trip in general. I realized that I did not want to sit down, but explore, because I will be sitting for a very long time on the flight. I ended up finding an Au Bon Pain on the other side of the airport mall and near that was a McDonalds. I was sold on the Mickey D’s so we decided to move over and grab some food from there.

            Edwin finally arrived at around 9am. I helped him complete his check-in, which again was a breeze. Once he went through the same procedures I did, his family and mine went downstairs again to hang out until boarding time would occur. We took several pictures and it was good take pictures out of Edwin’s new camera. 14.1 megapixels. Sick. We’re just going to end up taking hundreds, very possible even thousands of pictures with that camera to keep everyone back home updated.  

            Boarding time indicated 10:20am but we decided to head over to the gate at 10am. We have to go through a stringent security checkpoint before reaching the gate. Beyond that point, we could not be with our families. We hugged. We kissed. We said our goodbyes and Edwin and I were officially off to the airport races. There were no issues going through the security checkpoint, which made the process very smooth. I could still see my parents from the beginning of the checkpoint and I continuously waved to them from a distance until we had to continue walking. As soon as I put everything back in my bags, I immediately grabbed my fedora and put it on. I was looking forward to finally putting it on. The journey felt like it actually started.  After putting our personal items in the proper places in our carry-on bags, we walked over to our gate, A5. The gate had not officially opened yet and Edwin and I proceeded to go on a photo spree. It was an early indication of how much pictures we will be taking throughout our journey.

            At about 10:30am, passengers began to board the flight. They called our section first and we began to walk the boardwalk to the plane. As we were entering the plane, it was eerie. There was nine people staring at each passenger. I think they were watching our demeanor and our facial expressions. If they had a suspicion about someone, they immediately stopped them and checked their paperwork. For NINE people to be looking at you at the same time was strange but I knew that it was for my safety and the added security is a blessing. Edwin and I got through the stares without being stopped which was a relief. I give credit to my fedora. How you going to stop a guy wearing a fedora? As we reached the entrance to the cabin, major newspaper were sprawled out for us to pick and read during the flight. Newspapers ranged from U.S. Today, New York Times, and Wall Street Journal. Just from this compliment told me that flying with Emirates would be great, even if the flight is over 11 hours. As we started to take off, Edwin and I held a prayer case with a coin with a prayer from Saint Christopher, the patron saint for travelers. As we held on to the case, we watched one of the flight cameras as began to take off from a seat televisions. As it reached the final runaway, the plane sped up and the plane took off. Watching us lift from the window, looked unbelievable and the buildings we could clearly make out became tiny objects. JFK looked cloudy and a little foggy but once we reached our current altitude, the sun was shining. It was a sight to see.