This was my first time flying overseas by myself. It was a scary feeling saying goodbye to my parents and my brother at the airport. We had always travelled together internationally. Over 5 years ago, we travelled to Egypt together and Jordan a year after that. This time, it was all up to me! The 1st problem I encountered was with my luggage. One suitcase weighed 56 pounds, 6 pounds over. They wanted me to pay $50 to cover the 6 pounds. No way would I do that! Luckily, the other suitcase was about 42 pounds. So my brother and I quickly moved a few items from one to the other.
After checking in and sending off my bags, I had to say goodbye to my family before entering customs. This was very difficult for me. Eventually when I boarded the 1st out of 3 planes, I did not get my window seat as I was supposed to. The "window seat" was actually an engine seat, so I could not see anything but the plane outisde the window. This was disappointing, but my 1st flight was only 1 hour to Detroit. The 2nd problem occurred when I had to switch planes. I was afraid I would not find the next gate in time because we landed at 8:30, and the next plane was boarding at 8:35. Fortunately, the next gate was very close.
The 2nd flight was the longest, and I did get my window seat. : D This made me happy because I was able to see the land and the ocean outside the window. I was also able to see the Eiffel Tower from the plane! I didn't think I would see it but I spotted it! I wish I was able to take a picture, but we were just about to land in Paris. The only problem with this 8 hour flight was that my brother had told me to try to stay awake the whole trip. This did not work very well because during this flight, they required us to shut the windows and preferred if I did not have my light on. Therefore, I was unable to read my books, and instead, I watched a few movies on the new touchscreen tvs Air France has. I watched Bride Wars and a couple of others, but I kept falling asleep in the dark.
I really enjoyed the France airport because I love listening to other languages and trying to pronounce new words like: au revoir! I like to pretend that I cannot speak English. : ) It's much more fun that way! Anyways, I wanted to make some purchases with some Euro I have had from previous trips, so I bought some French dark chocolate and internet access for 15 minutes. Afterwards, I boarded my last plane of 4 1/2 hours to Cairo.
Since I've been to the Cairo airport, I already knew what to expect. However, I did not expect (since I was alone) that I would be stopped. A security guard stopped me and asked me what I was doing. I said I was walking through customs, and he asked where my family was. I said I was alone, and he looked at me strangely and allowed me t0 preceed.
I was looking for my family to pick me up at the airport and could not see them anywhere. I knew they were around somewhere so I started walking around. I did not move 10 feet without five men asking me if I needed a taxi. "hey you, taxi?" "if you cannot find your ride, I can give you a ride." Um, no. After 5 minutes of being bothered by the several men, I saw my cousin, Khalid, and I started crying! No, it wasn't because I was scared, but I was just so happy to see him and then my cousin, May, and my aunt, Maysa. Tears of happiness!
I was extremely tired since I had tried as much as possible to stay awake for the trip of about 17 hours, on the plane and in the airports. However, I was sooo excited to see my family, and we stayed up until 2:30am (from 7pm) talking. I was sooo tired that I slept until 5pm the next day! That was a horrible mistake because I could not fall asleep until 8am the next morning. Anyways, that's all the updates for now. I will post pictures soon, since we will be driving to Alexandria this weekend to swim in my favorite body of water, the Mediterranean Sea!
I hope everyone's having a great summer, and I miss you all!
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