Departure: The Journey Begins

Anyway, our flights- we flew out of DFW at 8:15pm on June 4th. DFW is a place very familiar to me, but this was Amber's first time flying so she was a bit nervous. It didn't help that, as per usual, I got picked to have my carry on searched. However all was well and it turns out that Amber's a flying natural! 

We arrived in Philadelphia at around 12:35am on June 5th. It was really weird staying overnight in the airport. Everything was closed, and there was hardly anyone around.. It was so quiet. Amber and I explored a bit and found the gate that we'd be at in the morning before heading downstairs to the USO. They weren't going to let us in because Amber didn't have her military ID, but the lady at the desk took pity on us and let us crash there for the night. It was pretty legit, I'm not gonna lie. They had a TV room with big recliners (which we napped in), an array of toiletries, blankets/pillows, snacks for days, and even a chef that made us omelettes in the morning. Anyway, we stayed in there for the night and I did a lot of reading for class while Amber crocheted. 

In the morning, we headed to our gate to board our flight on Qatar Airways, nonstop service to Doha, Qatar. We checked in, had put bags weighed, had our passports checked, and received new boarding passes. Then we got some snackage and hung out for a short while until it was time to board. The plane was huge and I was sitting in the middle, but was thankful to have an aisle seat. I settled in and opened my airline provided blanket, pillow, sleep mask, ear plugs, and socks. We took off, and the 12.5 hour flight began. Surprisingly, it wasn't bad at all, at least to me. I took an ambiern and slept for a solid chunk of it and when I woke up I watched Big Hero 6 on my individual screen. They also served is food, which was admittedly strange and kinda gross, but overall edible followed by dulce de leche Haagen Daas ice cream. Yum! The rest of my flight was pretty uneventful. I dosed and listened to music or played solitaire, and before I knew it we were landing 30 minutes late in Qatar. 

Our next flight was scheduled to leave in 35ish minutes so we rushed through the HUGE Qatar airport, navigating both construction and a security checkpoint before finally reaching the gate. There, we boarded a bus that took us out onto the Tarmac where we boarded the plane. It was so hot there and all the rushing had made me feel, less than fresh, but when we got on the plain they gave us lemon refresher wipes. They were pretty much amazing. 

My flight from Doha to Dar Es Salaam was 5.5 hours and probably the worst part of my traveling experience. The plane was hit, the food was awful, and my screen didn't work. I finished reading the textbook for one of my classes which burnte out on reading so after playing games for a while on my phone/iPad, I was super board and getting impatient . I was just ready to be there already! Plus, the guy next to me was an angry old Asian man who didn't speak English but seemed perpetually displeased. This being said, when we did finally begin our descent into Dar Es Salaam, the view was absolutely stunning. The coast was glittering and the bird's eve view of the town was super cool. It was really interesting to see that they dont have much community organization. It's just houses on top of houses, no space between them, few roads, and nothing like the "blocks" we have in the U.S. 

We touched down in Dar and waited about and let most of the passengers off before waiting for about an hour for the plane to be cleaned and restocked. Then we took off for our final flight to Kilmanjaro Airport. It was a short flight, barely an hour long but it was absolutely wonderful. There were maybe 15 passengers on the plane so we all got a row to ourselves. We stretched out and I got to chat up Amber and Morgan (another girl from Ou). We joked around and the whole vibe on the flight was very relaxed. Then the captain told us to look out of the right side windows where we could see the top of Mt. Kilimanjaro poking through the clouds. It was so neat! Before I knew it, we were on the ground and deplaning straight onto the Tarmac in a tropical paradise. The airport was small and we had to fill out a form before they checked our passports and visas. We got our bags and headed out, because customs was pretty much nonexistent, which was really surprising. 

The three of us then hung out at the airport for the next 4 hours before the rest of our group arrived. We talked and explored around the airport. We sat at a little cafe or sorts for a while, but felt pretty awkward and as soon as the sun started to go down, we headed back to the airport where we coated ourselves in bug spray and waited some more.

When everyone arrived we loaded up on a bus and drove to the TCDC where we had a quick snack before going to our rooms for the night. It was so peaceful there and I slept so hard! 

I can't wait to see what this adventure brings!