Hello from Dubai!

I made it to Dubai. My trip started early on Wednesday morning out of central Pennsylvania. I was able to make the flight from our little airport to Detroit. From Detroit, I caught a plane to Atlanta. Getting to Atlanta was a little scary since I had to wait until a later flight to get on. While I get to fly for free, I'm on a standby basis so it can be unnerving sometimes. Luckily, there are a lot of flights to Atlanta from Detroit. My coworkers told me to get to Atlanta earlier in the day rather than later. I had about 4 hrs to kill in the Atlanta airport, but that was OK by me! I had some time to get a pedicure so my toes will be pretty.

The plane to Dubai was a Boeing 777. I'm not sure how many people it will hold, but it's a big one. Once they started boarding, they called my name along with two others. The gate agent told me that there were two people ahead of me on the list for business class. If I took my boarding card right now, I would be in economy. If I waited a few minutes and one of the two no showed, I would be in business class. I chose to wait. And all good things come to those who wait...

Yes! I was seated in business class, thank you very much! Not bad for my first time on a non-revenue international trip. Once I was seated, the flight attendant brought me a glass of champagne. Heaven. The seat was like a little cubby hole. The back reclined and I could sleep in the horizontal position. The food was delicious. Fingers crossed, I get to go business class when I go back. But, I don't want to think about that right now.

So, tomorrow the plan is to go to the beach and then tomorrow night we will go see Eric Clapton.

Oh, but I digress. This is such a different place from the U.S. Men dressed in the traditional garb (long, white robes and red/white checked things on their heads). Some women are dressed western and some are dressed fully covered in the burka. While I was waiting in the passport line, a prayer came over the loud speaker in the airport. I can't wait to soak it all up.

So for now, I will go to sleep and I hope I sleep through the night!!!