"Well, It Ain’t No Motel 6!"

As far as moments go, the moment of take off has always felt especially personal to me. Whenever I fly I like to take that little moment and spend it in just exactly the same way. I lean my head back, fold my hands, and close my eyes waiting for the precise second when the wheels of the plane part from the ground, accompanied by the thought, “Here we go!” It’s a moment I especially enjoy although it may not appear that way. One particular flight when I was 16, the woman next to me interpreted my posture to mean that I was nervous or frightened. She very kindly took my hand and whispered reassuring thoughts to soothe me. I thought her gesture was so sweet I couldn’t bring myself to explain, “No, I actually really enjoy flying!”

Because my eyes are closed, I rarely see how others spend this moment. However, on my flight from New York to Abu Dhabi I was able to hear the man next to me. He very quietly whispered a prayer from the Qu’ran.

Here’s a quick recap of my journey:

Left for the Portland airport at 4:45am PST after spending the previous night packing and repacking my luggage to meet the baggage weight requirements.

Checked in with Delta where my luggage was not weighed.

Bound for New York at 6:35am lamenting sitting behind the only person who did not put their seat in the upright position for takeoff. (Major pet peeve and always seems to happen!)

Twenty minutes later leaned too far forward in my seat ripping one of the straps on my dress.

Land at JFK 3:00pm EST very thankful that my luggage was checked all the way through to Abu Dhabi.

Spent the almost 8 hour layover eating, reading, and wandering the airport searching for a sewing kit to mend my dress (no luck).

Bound for Abu Dhabi at 10:50pm EST smitten with the cute flight attendants’ uniforms.

Spent the nearly 13 hours watching a few favorite tv shows (Arrested Development, The IT Crowd, and The Office) and movies (High Fidelty, He’s Just Not That Into You, and Night at the Museum) , eating the abundance of food offered, and marveling at the flight attendants’ costume change (Seriously! They changed outfits 30 minutes into the flight).

Landed in Abu Dhabi around 7:30pm local time where we luckily were able to bypass the medical checkpoint (which looked really intimidating with masked attendants and big machines) to have our passports stamped and our retinas scanned.

A bus dropped us off at a very luxurious 5 star hotel that will be my temporary residence. Exploring the hotel a bit before bed with some gentlemen I met, we discovered that our rooms cost approximately $1,089 per night! Not bad.

xo, jill