My flight experience

What a trip! Sadly to say it's not even over yet. My journey to Doha has been a test of my patience so far. First, I started my journey in South Carolina. After spending Christmas with my family, I had to fly back to Dulles airport in order to go from there to Abu Dhabi and then later to Doha. That means I'm taking four flights to get to my destination. I'm used to flying so it's not that difficult especially since three out of the four flights are under two hours in travel time. It was the 15-hour journey from Dulles to Doha that I was dreading.

So the first two flights went on without a hitch and I found myself in Dulles in no time. My auntie and cousins came to get me since I arrived in the early afternoon and my later flight was around 10pm. After spending a few hours with them, I went back to Dulles around 5 pm to wait for my later flight. And I mean wait! The flight was delayed for about an hour. I used this time to keep my family posted, to make sure I was sitting at the right gate, and to send silly Snapchats. I was flying with Ethiad Airways, a company I'm not really familiar with but the service was pretty good. I could tell from the check-in process alone that the airlines was detail-oriented, all business, and efficient. They even weigh all your carry-on to make sure it complies with the weight requirement. Let's just say your girl here tried to take everything but the kitchen sink with her. Thank God I was able to shift stuff around and meet all the requirements. Yes Lord!

On my way to boarding the plane, I was just praying that I wouldn't get the middle seat. It's just really inconvenient if you have to use the bathroom and I feel like I have to fight the others for my right to use the arm rest and let's not even get started with bumping shoulders. It's just too much! As luck would have it, I got the middle seat. Yay me! Maybe if I prayed that I did get the seat, then I wouldn't get it. God definitely has a sense of humor. However, at the end of this flight I was kinda glad to get the middle seat after all because I met some nice people sitting around me.

The flight was fine. Other than losing all sensation in my lower extremities, it was fine. The food was really delicious! I only got up once to use the restroom because the lady sitting next to me in the comfortable aisle seat got up so I seized the opportunity to get my stretch on. I went to the bathroom and had a mini-workout in there. I still had about 7 hours of flight left. God please help me!

Sitting on the plane I definitely felt like a minority. Besides myself, there were only about 2 or 3 brothers and sisters on the plane, if you catch my drift. Thankfully there were English translations after the Arabic speaker. The Arabic language is just so remarkable to me because it uses symbols in lieu of letters. It's definitely something I want to try learning while I'm here, even if all I can write is Hello, my name is __.

So far, I'm enjoying this immersion and I hope to learn a lot about a culture outside of stereotypes and what the media chooses to cover about this culture. I want to get that first-hand experience and make my own judgment. Unfortunately I'm yet to get to Doha as I'm waiting on a later flight from Abu Dhabi. I still have to wait for about an hour and I'm praying fatigue doesn't get the best of me. I will inform you all on my first impressions of Doha soon. Until then, take care and be blessed!

P.S. If anyone knows how to insert pictures and videos in this kind of blog, please let me know! Thanks in advance.