Dubai

Guess where I am right now...Dubai! I am sitting at the gate, waiting for my last flight which will take me to Kathmandu. I have been travelling for about 19 hours now, and I still have a couple hours layover here followed by a 6 hour flight. 

This is my first time travelling internationally and thus my first time crossing major time zones and it is trippy! I left Salt Lake City at 7:45am. Then I arrived 2 hours later in Seattle, but local time was 8:45am. Then I left Seattle an hour later, so about 10:00am, and arrived in Dubai at 10:30am the next day. On the plane they served lunch and then breakfast. No dinner, because the way we were flying, we just skipped dinner and it was now breakfast time. Granted, breakfast is my favorite meal of the day, so no complaints from me. Currently, it is 1:55pm on May 12th in Dubai, but my body thinks it is 2:58am May 12th, because that's what time it is in Idaho Falls. Are you confused yet? Me too!

Last night Mom and I were talking about this blog and came up with the idea to do a segment about things that are unexpected, or that go awry. I think this would be hilarious, at least to me. You can laugh at my naivete, and struggles, and maybe learn something along the way. So, this is the first installment of Well, that didn't go as planned. 

Well, that didn't go as planned: Episode 1

Allow me to set the stage, I just got off an airplane that was my home for the past 14 hours. I am stiff and tired, and in a foreign airport for the first time. I go through security and enter the airport. All I can see are A gates...I need gate F4. I follow the signs and end up on the other end of the airport where I take an elevator down to where I am supposed to get a train that'll take me to the F gates. No one is there. Not a soul. Then I see the sign says the train comes every 45 minutes, alright, so maybe the staff is on break. I take a seat. Ten minutes later a custodian comes by and tells me that I am in the wrong spot, this train isn't running and I need to go to gate A19. Back up the elevator, talk with an employee, now I walk to the complete other end of the airport, down an elevator to another train station that'll take me to F gates. This time there is an employee, he says the train just left and I can either wait an hour, or I can take a combination of buses and trains to get to the F gates, I just need to meet the metro on floor 2. Okay, back up the elevator, walking around the main airport again. Find an escalator and take it down only to discover I can't access floor 2 for some reason, go back up the escalator and talk with another employee who says I need to walk to the middle of the airport and take another elevator down to meet the metro. Walk through the airport again, silly American girl. Find another elevator that takes me down to the metro. Meet Grant, another American who is having a heck of a time getting to F gates. Turns out he is from Tri-cities and we are on the same flight. Huge blessing! We do the rest of this adventure together. We get on the metro and arrive at B gates. Now get off the metro and walk to meet the bus. Get on the bus and drive for, no joke, probably 15 minutes to a completely different terminal. This airport is unbelievably huge! Now I get off the bus, and go through security again. After security I finally see F gates, eventually I find F4, where I am currently sitting. How did I even get here? I don't think I could do it again, and man am I grateful for a 6 hour layover! Take a breath with me- inhale...exhale.