Trip Continued – Dallas Pre-flight

After a quick bite to eat and a walk around the terminal, I am here and ready for the next leg. My flight is showing as delayed, so who knows about my connection yet. We’ll have to wait until we’re airborn for me to know if I make it or not. Lovely.

But…I went and checked in at the gate (per usual for international flights) and, much to my delight, was encouraged to make use of the British Airways Lounge! How very fun for me…my first time being able to officially be in an airline lounge due to my ticket.



This is bound to spoil me forever.

Trip Continued – onboard AA 1744 somewhere over New Mexico, I think

I neglected in my last post to mention that I was able to check both of my bags through to Doha when I checked in at the American Airlines counter this morning. At first the guy helping me wanted to charge me $50 for each bag, but after a quick check of my ticket (booked on British Airways Club World which gives me a 3 bag for free allowance, among other things) my bags were put on without paying. How fortunate for me, and another notch for British Airways and the OneWorld Alliance.

My flight to Dallas is very good – I was supposed to have a window seat, but upon getting to my row discovered two women traveling together, one of whom was more than happy to switch with me so that I could get an aisle and she could have the window. We had a nice conversation about where our travels are taking us, and it was very nice to have good seatmates. Diane and Kristen hope that I have as nice a pair of seatmates for the rest of my trip as they were for me during this first leg. Made me smile. They were also kind enough to share their newspaper with me…read all about Colt McCoy getting hurt last night in the National Championship game. Too bad for Texas (sorry James). I can’t imagine how Colt felt, having to come out of a game so early with a shoulder injury and then watch from the sidelines while a freshman quarterback tries to win the Game. Now if only Brett Favre could take an example like that and have to go out of the next game he has to play in...bet the state of Wisconsin would rejoice. Good luck this weekend Packers…you’re 20-1 odds to win the Super Bowl (Chargers are 3-1!), and you need another good game like last week to move on.

Maybe I’ll be able to find the game online again to listen to if I’m lucky.

Chatting more with Diane and Kristen (hope I’m spelling your names correctly) they are on their way to Miami for a family event. A relative on the base in Guantanamo was going to have a baby, and ended up getting medi-vac’d back to Miami for the birth. Apparently she’s in labor right now, so they are flying to see her. They still have their original tickets to visit the base in Cuba – one place I wouldn’t mind trying to visit someday just to see the culture. Just don’t try to type it into Orbitz and expect to find a flight. And while we were talking we discovered a WI connection as well! Just another reason why I love to travel as much as I do – I get to meet so many new and wonderful people along the way. I will definitely remember my new seatmate friends from this leg of my trip!

Landing in a half hour – no announcement from the Captain yet to turn off my electronic device and clear my lap. Maybe the rules are getting relaxed again.

Departure: San Diego

I will post this to the blog asap, but I’ve made it to San Diego and am awaiting departure. (and I just remembered free Internet in SAN, so I will post when complete if I have time).

Dear President Obama: Thank you for enhanced security screening. I just got through a rather fun experience putting my one backpack through the line. What used to be a relatively normal process for doing this type of thing (like putting your stuff in a bin, and taking out your laptop, and your small quart bag of liquids) has now become a “maybe I should take off my earrings, and maybe my watch, and maybe my belt, and maybe…” I even had this nice little old lady cut ahead of me for a minute just to get a grey bin to put her things in, because she was afraid they were going to run out of them for everyone. We really really REALLY need to streamline all of this. Please.

Anyway, I put my bag up and it goes in, I come out the other side and I’m asked for a visual check. Sure, why not? I’m in no hurry. She proceeds to undo my entire backpack, piece by piece.

“Do you have any syringes I should know about?”
“No, ma’am.”
“Where are you going today?”
“Doha, Qatar for a study trip."
“Really, is that by Mexico?”
“No, ma’am, it’s by Dubai.”
“Ah.”

She gets to my book on Qatar and decides to flip completely through it. How interesting! Thank you, kind lady, for inspecting my book. I promise it is not flammable unless you light it. Then, she proceeds to dump the entire rest of my bag out on the table. That’s right, everything. “We just need to rescreen this, is that ok?” (Like I’m going to tell her, no, it’s not ok, don’t rescreen my things since you’ve dumped them out all over everywhere.) So she goes back, runs it all through again, and then asks me if I need a place to put it all back together again. (laugh) Hello…you just emptied my bag! Of course I do!

Ah, the start of my day. Can’t wait for the smoothies on my British Airways 777 in Dallas. Maybe I’ll have a coke, too.

Update: my BA flight might be a tad bit delayed due to snow in London. Snow!

Qatar Pre-trip post #1

Only a few days until I leave, so I thought I would get started in writing a bit here. I will be doing my very best to blog my experiences while I'm on the trail, and I hope I manage to be consistent. I'm not exactly sure what my schedule will be until I arrive, but I'm counting on regular internet access at least for the first week while we're in a hotel stay and on campus.

As part of the pre-trip sequence of activities, all of us were asked to read through a collection of literature to get us acquainted with the environment and culture we will be a part of for the next several weeks. I chose the book by John Esposito entitled "What Everyone Needs to Know about Islam". I would highly recommend this book to anyone interested in familiarizing yourself with the many questions surrounding the Islamic faith. It does a masterful job of writing up 'anticipating' answers on a variety of religious and cultural questions.

Several answers I found to be of note:

1. How Mary and Jesus are perceived
2. What are the main differences between Sunni and Shii Muslims
3. Tolerance of other religions
4. Similarities of Islam and Christianity and Judaism
5. Cultural customs (the separation of men and women)

Please check it out if you can!

More to come...

Into the New Year...

...Happy New Year!

I'm confident 2010 will be a great year. In many ways.