Departure:
We left house around 1 am to head to SeaTac.
We hung out there for 2 hours to wait for the counter to open, and then checked in.
We flew First Class (using upgrades to “Envoy” class which is USAir’s business class. However, they don’t have First Class in the states, so we got to ride in First)
We switched planes in Philly, this time in Envoy class which was nicer than the First class seat on the first leg! Big seats. So much leg room that if you wanted to put something in the seat pocket in front of you, you had to undo your seat belt and get out of your seat to do it!
Uneventful. Landed in Frankfurt.
Had 8 hours there to kill. Talked our way into Lufthansa’s Business class lounge.
Had coffee, food and a shower! Man did that shower feel good.
Then on to Cairo. Getting on the plane in Frankfurt we realized that we were not in Kansas anymore.
People getting on the plane were dressed very differently, and were mostly speaking Arabic. It was the beginning of the “holy crap, what the hell are we doing….” 🙂
Again, an uneventful flight.
We were met by Abdul at the airport holding a big AUC
sign.
(For a few photos, click here)
This was a huge relief. we had changed our travel plans
and our big fear was that we would show up and there would be
no one to meet us..
Anyway, Abdul met us and one other faculty member and
~16 students that all were on the same flight.
He collected our passports and said “wait here”.
He disappeared for a few minutes and when he
returned he said
“Follow me and stay together”
and we went _around_ the passport control area
into the baggage claim area.
He then instructed us to collect our luggage and then
congregate at point X and he disappeared again
(with our passports)
Kaddee and I got our luggage pretty quickly
and a quick examination indicated that nothing had been
opened by the helpful folks at TSA.
The students took quite a while to get their lugggage.
Meanwhile Abdul returned with passports stamped with visa’s
and handed them out.
One of the students lost a bag somewhere in the travels,
so we waited a bit for him to file a report and
then we were ready to exit.
Abdul said “follow me”.
Kaddee and I each had a luggage cart. We had 5 checked
bags, 2 rolling carry-on bags, a laptop briefcase and a large
purse.
We followed, we were waived through a check point by a gentleman
in plain clothes (though nicely dressed) through a gate.
He was not at a table or desk or booth. He was just standing
there at a gate.
After the checkpoint we walked out into the arrival area.
I looked around and realized “the gentleman” that just waived
us through WAS customs!
Now I realize we kind of get some special handling because
Abdul was there and AUC has an “arrangement” with the government,
but I saw no one else having their baggage searched and there did not
appear to be anywhere to do that thta I could see. Maybe if one was
unlucky enough to get the treatment, they took you to a room?
Anyway, we then went outside. The heat hit us fairly hard. I would
guess it was in the low 90’s. It wasn’t intolerable by any means,
but we had been in over-refridgerated planes for 2 days.
We met our driver who had to go fetch his car.
While he was gone, I wondered off to duty free.
I was very disappointed because they had nothing that I was
interested in.
We waited some more. I went for a walk to find some bottled waters.
While looking for that (unsuccessfully) I found (what I have since
deduced) is a competing duty free shop.
*This* one was verra nice. I grabbed 2 bottles of scotch (glenmorangie
sherry wood finish, one of kaddee’s favorites, and glenfiddich 15yo
Solara reserve), a bottle of vodka and a bottle
of tequila, thus filling my 4 bottle limit.
(We have 48 hours upon arrival to buy our booze. We will be
toodling off to the local branch of the duty free to get Kaddee’s
alotment)
When I returned to our waiting area, Kaddee was gone. !Gulp!
The driver had arrived and loaded up all our luggage.
Kaddee had a minor panic attack cause I was still missing
and went in search of me.
Abdul found me and hussled me into the car and he then went
looking for Kaddee. She showed up and was only slightly pissed
off that I had disappeared. I promised that when we got to the
apartment, what I had in the bag would make up for it.
We were then off to our new home.
What to say about the traffic. It was densely packed and there
_were_ lanes painted on the roadway. Not sure why they are there
because no one was using them.
We were on a four lane road, and there were never any less than
5 lanes of traffic.
6 lanes of cars was not uncommon.
At one point there were 7. I closed my eyes and braced for impact.
But we arrived with no drama.
We got hussled upstairs. We hooked up the computer, called Kaddee’s
mom using skype to say we were otay!
We were settling down with a dram
and our “welcome buddy” showed up.
Nice guy named Matt who is the Arabic Studies department.
We chatted for a bit and headed out for a quick recon around
the neighborhood and a snack.
There is a good size grocery store about 2 blocks from the house,
open 24 hours. I think one could do very well buying
almost everything you need there except meat.
Then back to the aparment and collapse.
more later