A 14 hour flight...WHAT?!?

So going back to the whirlwind of a day I was experiencing after my eye appointment… I got home and finally had the email translated and I had read all of those words very correctly, this was happening. After talking to my agent over Skype, he said the team needed me ASAP so I was to leave at 3:30pm that day. I hadn’t packed and it was already 1pm!! Needless to say I was so stressed out, but quickly packed a small suitcase and my parents took me to the airport. My mom and I got to the GR airport apparently a few minutes too late to check in, so after much arguing with the Delta crew, I sprinted through security and on the plane. My adventure had officially begun.

My day/night of flying included GR-Detroit-Atlanta-Dubai. My flight from Atlanta to Dubai was a grueling 14 hours! Right when I got on the plane, I was immediately reminded that we paid extra for the “economy comfort” seat, which I was hoping would provide me with extra leg room, free drinks and an endless supply of movies offered. I got that and much more! When I first sat down in the middle “chunk” of seats, I was on the aisle. And in my row was a man from Arkansas who, after I told him hopefully we will get lucky and no one will sit in between us, responded with a “yeah right, wishful thinking.” But we lucked out, and all my positive thinking paid off because we had a seat empty in between us. Besides telling me that we wouldn’t get that lucky, he also told me how much this flight “sucks”. I was immediately deflated and started to really realize I was about to endure a 14 hour flight. He proceeded to tell me, “yeah, you can get really drunk twice, sleep with the help of sleeping pills, talk to me for a few hours, wake up and you still have 6 hours left of the flight!” That was probably will forever be the best quote of my trip. I couldn’t help but laugh. Arkansas man is a contractor (plumbing to be exact) in Kabul, Afghanistan and as I looked around me, I noticed there were men on the flight that were probably working for the government too. By the way, I was probably 1 out of 7 girls total on that flight, the rest were men...very interesting to say the least. 

When we were in the air I got to take a look at the movie selection..going into it I thought there would be maybe 5 to choose from, but to my surprise there were so many I couldn't even count! Also, there were plenty of TV shows to choose from too.. I think I was going to survive. I spent most the flight watching movies (my favorite) and got about 7 hours of sleep (with the help of a few glasses of red wine and a sleeping pill), all of a sudden we had about an hour left and I couldn't believe I was about to land in such a foreign place! As we proceeded off the plane, I said goodbye to my 4 new friends who I will now be thinking about as they go off into a war zone for the next few months. I waited in the customs line and all I saw were men dressed from head to toe in white robes with a black rope around their head (you can picture it..I hope). Being the American that I am, my initial reaction was to tense up and get really nervous. I walked up to one of those men and gave him my passport, he asked what hotel I was staying at and I said "I..dunno...?" He looked at me and said "You don't know?!?" with a straight face. I gulped and said "I don't know sir." I told him I was meeting a "friend" at the airport (if I said a guy, I don't think that would've gone over well so I pretended who I was meeting was a friend.) He finally let me through..and I walked away shaking as I headed toward baggage claim. I was looking for a guy named Ismail that was supposed to come get me (I know...this is sounding SO safe Mom and Dad..don't worry I am okay). When I walked out into the waiting area I saw a guy looking at me with a picture in his hand (of me) and approached me and said "Alexandra? Ismail. Come with me."

We walked outside, into his white van (yikes!) and went on our way. This was truly going to be an adventure.