Departure

Although this was a week and a half ago, it is just getting posted now due to the fact that I haven’t had Internet at home since I arrived on Aug. 10^th.

My departure on Aug. 9^th began quite early seeing as though my flight was at 10:30 am.  That meant that I should be at the airport by 8:45 am at the latest.  We would have to leave the house by 7:45 and that would mean dealing with rush hour traffic.  So I got up at 5:30 and took my shower so Amy wouldn’t have to adjust her schedule too much. 

We actually made it out of the house two minutes early!!  That’s quite impressive for us!  And there wasn’t too much traffic until we hit I-275.  I guess it was just a steady flow of traffic, not really too bad.  I’m not sure what time we arrived at the airport, but I knew I was going to have plenty of time.  Dad dropped me and Mom off and went to find a place to park (just in case they could wait with me at the gate).  We walked right up to the Royal Jordanian ticket counter and I began to check in.  My checked bag was way over weight, but they didn’t say anything!  Praise God!  I’m really not sure how it was way over weight this time since I had extra room when I came.  Yes, I did go shopping, but I left some stuff too.  Oh well, no worries since there wasn’t a charge.  I asked if there were any extra leg room seats available; and there were, in the exit row.  I had to pay an extra $100 for them, but that’s nothing for a comfortable ride!  So I paid and got my boarding pass while Mom asked if they could go to the gate with me.  Unfortunately, Royal Jordanian is the only airline that denies gate passes so the answer was no. 

Mom and I began walking to the checkpoint when I looked at my boarding pass and realized that I had been given a boarding pass for my flight from Amman to Abu Dhabi, but not from Detroit to Abu Dhabi.  We turned around and went back to the ticket counter.  I was going to wait in line, but the guy motioned for me to go to the front so I did.  He was busy with another customer so I talked to the lady next to him.  She wasn’t sure what to do, but he told her to just print out a boarding pass.  Simple enough.  With both boarding passes in hand we walked back to the checkpoint when we bumped into Dad.  We said our good-byes, knowing that we would see each other in 4 months when I returned for Ann’s wedding and Christmas.  That made it easier!  I walked to the checkpoint and made it through quite easily.  Mom and Dad stayed there so we could wave and blow kisses before I headed towards my gate. 

My 10:30am flight was delayed and we didn’t leave until 11:30.  That was fine with me.  I figured the later we left the later we’d get to Amman and that would cut down on my 7 hour layover there. 

My seat was in the exit row in the second half of the plane.  I usually sit in the first half so this would be a new experience for me.  Not a good experience though.  As it turned out the people sitting in the first couple of rows were all family (I think there had to be at least 15 of them – including 3 infants).  So it was like a huge family reunion at the front of the plane.  That made for a very noisy trip.  Eventually the grandmother came to sit next to me because she said there wasn’t enough room for her where she was sitting.  Mind you, I paid $100 for this seat and she moved there for free.  That slightly angered me, but she was quite old so I guess she needed a better seat.  So with grandma sitting next to me that meant that the reunion moved to in front of my seat.  UghL  Too much noise and people, including the kids, moving around.  Not fun.  I tried to talk to the grandma, but her English was about as good as my Arabic.  We did have a few conversations about time and when the plane was going to land thru the help of her daughter.  There wasn’t much talking for me, just letting people pass by to talk to grandma or to hand her a baby. 

In addition to the noise, it was quite a bouncy flight.  Lots of turbulence.  That meant that for a good part of the flight we had to be in our seats with our seatbelts on.  That ruined my typical flight pattern which is to watch a movie, read, or do some puzzles, for about 2 hours and then stand and walk around.  I didn’t have much of an opportunity to walk around, but I did stand and stretch frequently enough I guess.

Even though we left late, we arrived on timeL  Now that would usually be a good thing, but I wasn’t looking forward to my 7 hour layover in Queen Aliah International Airport.  I made it through customs easily enough and then headed to the transfer desk. That was a nightmare.  There were 4 people working and all they had to do was tell you what gate your plane would be leaving from, but I waited for nearly an hour, and there weren’t that many people in front of me.  OK so I should have been glad about waiting an hour, but I was tired and didn’t want to be standing in line.  I wanted coffee.  When I made it to the front, the guy told me what gate my plane would depart from and I went to get some money changed to Jordanian Dinars.  As soon as I got my money changed it hit me that I was Ramadan and I might not be able to get anything to eat.  Oh well I could always change it to dirhams in Abu Dhabi. 

As I was walking through the airport I noticed many people eating and drinking so I figured Ramadan rules didn’t apply in airports.  Good thing.  I needed coffee and something to eat since Ramadan rules do apply on airplanes they hadn’t fed us anything since breakfast at 4am (which wasn’t good so I skipped it).  I found a café and got a mocha and turkey sandwich (I know not very breakfasty, but that’s all they had) and did some checking in on the Internet since I knew that I wouldn’t have access at home.

The airport has kind of like a holding area, before you can go to the gate, which has the restaurants, bathrooms, a few stores, access to Duty Free, and cold metal chairs.  I walked around for a bit and then headed to the chairs to stretch out.  I knew there would be no sleeping for me, but I did try to make myself as comfortable as possible. 

While I was waiting a guy noticed me (he was on the same flight from Detroit) and sat next to me.  We talked and I found out he was an American citizen originally from Jordan but his family now lives in Abu Dhabi while he lives in Detroit and works internationally.  He was headed to visit his family and start the process of moving them to Detroit.  A nice guy and he didn’t hit on me at all!!  He didn’t propose to me or tell me he loved me!  How un-Arabic!  I guess that could be because he actually loved his family and couldn’t wait to be with them!  We got pizza around 10:30 and then headed to our gate.  Turns out we sat next to each other on the flight to Abu Dhabi.  We didn’t do much talking on the flight; we were both pretty exhausted and tried to sleep as much as possible on the 3 hour flight to Abu Dhabi.  We got to Abu Dhabi at 4:30pm on the 10^th and that ended my 22 hour departure from the States.