The day before the flight

Almost three months has gone and it feels like it was yesterday.
The day before my flight, I called up my closest friends and we agreed to drive to KaSjon which is a beautiful lake near Gothenburg. It was a remarkable day and I enjoyed every minute of it. We had many laughs and at the end of this perfect day we all drove to a friend’s apartment and spent the rest of the evening over there. I remember reviewing the day in my head during the flight, and it just put a big smile on my face.

I love you guys! I really miss you.

The Trip

Well, I know I haven’t kept my promise. I promised to update this weblog and send a post for every step of the way. I guess you don’t have to be a rocket scientist to realize that this weblog is almost empty. Anyway, I will not insult you with my excuses and will tell you exactly what’s happened since I left Sweden.

The plane took off from Gothenburg Landvetter Airport at 10:50 AM. Since my ticket was issued by Lufthansa, I had a stop-change in Frankfurt. The plane landed in Frankfurt and two hours and three glasses of Heineken later, the boarding started. Back in Sweden I’d kindly asked the Lufthansa lady behind the desk to give me an aisle sit, (bad experiences from window sits on the flights between London and LosAngeles). Anyway, I entered the plane and located my sit and sat down, started looking at the Taxfree magazine, reading newspaper and playing with the headset and stuff (things you usually do when you’re completely bored waiting for other passengers to take their sits!).

The plane was almost full; mostly business men and most of them were preparing their laptops to turn on after the take off. Anyway, I was enjoying my sit especially when I realized that the three other sits on my right hand side weren’t occupied. But actually, I was thinking It would have been nice to have someone to talk to during the long flight, elder couples are usually very good at starting conversations (somehow, you always look like someone they know or have known ) and they usually have untold memories from WWII. But I guess Jini totally misunderstood my wish and by the time I was done reading the first page of GulfNews, one loud and rude arab family (Husband, wife and a very rude 5 or 6 year old boy) occupied the three empty sits beside me. From the minute they sat down, they started giving everyone, especially the cabin attendant headache. I won’t waste your time going through the details of what exactly happened but whenever I remember that trip, I think to myself , if only he was my boy !!!!

Anyway, five hours and one anger-management-movie later we landed on Dubai International Airport. I followed the instructions which had been sent to me through email and went to the visa collection, picked up my employment visa, did the eye scan, went through the passport control and almost an hour after the landing, I was out of the airport. The company had sent a driver to pick me up from the airport and drive me to the guesthouse.
The very first time I breathed outside, it felt like having my head over the heater in a sauna. It felt like my lungs were burning. Just images, the air you’re breathing is warmer than your body temperature. That was an unusual and unpleasant experience. Anyway, after almost an hour of cruising through the high buildings , we arrived at Dubai Marina, JBR (Jumeirah Beach Residence).
It was a spacious guesthouse on 30th floor with lake view. Just beautiful!.