so i arrived home yesterday around 10 am, after a little than than 2 days of traveling. we got out of sanaa no problem this time, as i had my required exit/re-entry visas. actually, when we were checking in some guys were taking photographs (i believe for yemenia's magazine), and asked if they could take mine. i agreed, and made sure that both myself and my student hesham got a complimentary pass to the "bilquis lounge"...perhaps not the nicest place i've ever been, but for yemen, it was quite pleasant and the seats were vert comfy. after boarding and beginning our flight, the same guys came back and got me, 2 other foreign girls (of course), and a random guy and told us that they wanted to photograph us eating the first-class meal. i had no objections, although i argued that my student should come with me (they at first refused, but after i realized that this was a 3-course meal, i eventually got my way and my student got to take a nice 2-hour nap in first-class). the food was quite good, except for the shrimp appetizer (which one of the other girls kindly ate for me). one of the great things about yemen is that you will meet the most amazing smattering of foreigners, and of course you might not always get along, but everyone who up and decided to come/move to yemen is bound to be at least interesting and most often a little crazy. one of the girls in first-class with me was an amideast aden english teacher, taryn, who i had heard a bit about but never met, and she was absolutely hilarious (a bit of rice-spitting, a bit of pillow-throwing...i'm surprised they didn't kick us out). the other girl, anna, was a beautiful italian who was visiting her spanish boyfriend who worked at the embassy in sanaa...she was also extremely funny and witty, and the three of us were probably much more raucous than the stewardesses would have preferred. i was actually quite upset that the two of them were leaving yemen and that i hadn't met them before :(
anyway, the rest of the trip to rome (where we stopped, and where anna got off) and frankfurt was fairly uneventful. they eventually forced us back to economy, much to our dismay, although they didn't notice that hesham was still up there until about half-an-hour later. we had a 4-5 hour layover in frankfurt, where i bought a burger and a coke for hesham for $10...ridiculous. taryn was also flying to dulles, but unfortunately not on the same flight, so we said goodbye to her. the 8-hour united flight to dulles was alright, passed relatively quickly i suppose. upon arrival, united lost about 20% of the bags from our flight (accidentally sent them to the transfer terminal i believe), so that took an agonizing and extremely frustrating hour of waiting. then we went through customs...i got through immediately, while hesham was of course taken aside (as profiling has now become totally acceptable to everyone). i had to wait for hesham for an hour and a half, but fortunately when he got out he said that he was only questioned for 10 minutes and mostly he was just waiting as well. my boss told me that yemenis and pakistanis are automatically the last to be questioned, regardless of when they arrived, so that probably explains it. we spent that night at the holiday inn express near dulles, where i VERY much enjoyed the luxuriously soft beds, the speedy internet, and the wonderful water pressure. i was supposed to meet dan that evening for dinner, but unfortunately learned at the last minute that i would be staying near dulles instead of in DC (to escort hesham to the airport in the morning), and as you all know getting from dulles into DC is a bitch. we were of course utterly exhausted as well, and it was already 630 pm by the time we arrived at the hotel, due to all of our delays. the next morning, popped over to dulles to drop hesham off around 5 am (he flew to san francisco, and then on to some unknown airport on his way to coos bay, OR where he will be living!), then supershuttled it over to BWI for my 40 minute flight to PITTSBURGH! met my dad when i arrived at 10 am, and was very happy to be come with all the amazing BRIDGES! i was of course freezing as well...
at some point during my travels, probably when we arrived in frankfurt and i saw how ridiculously organized/clean/meticulous/EXPENSIVE everything and everyone was, i did start to miss sanaa and the craziness and unexpectedness of life there (in a good way). i was relieved to feel this, as during the month before my trip i had been getting increasingly fed up with all the little things, and it was good to be reminded of my love for yemen. also, i realized when i got home that i have never shared photos on my blog (as i am largely writing for people who i know and can see them on facebook), but i suppose these days there might be more people reading. i'm not going to include any nature/landscape photos (you can probably find these online anyway), just wanted to show you some of the amazing people who i work/live with and how kind and hilarious and NOT terrorist they are :)
my BFFs abdulwasia and mohammed at their friend fatHi's wedding
i usually think the cute kid pics are pretty cliche but...these kids are REALLY cute...
a wonderful note that my (really cute) launderer left me one day :)
me and my darling intern ghofran at a gathering at AMIDEAST
well, that was all it would let me upload in one go, so i think i'll save the rest for later and give them to you in doses of WONDERFULNESS!
<3
