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Sunday, September 27, 2009

Our Trip To Ethiopia Day 2 - Sunday


Hotel in Dubai

One day just turns into the next while on the flight over to Dubai, or no matter what route you take. As soon as we landed in Dubai it was time for bed, and we had no bed to sleep in because our travel agent made a mistake. And we used a travel agency to avoid any mistakes. Go figure. We called our agent immediately when we landed and he told us to approach the Emirates desk and book a room and he would reimburse us. Easy enough. (By the way, we rented an international cell phone thru verizon and it worked great the whole trip!). We went to the Emirates desk, got our room paid for. Note to self......always take extra money with you! This was $150 we did not plan on spending! By the way, we did not need a transit visa, which some folks said they needed. The Dubai airport is beautiful and very very clean. We got a hotel shuttle van to pick us up....when we walked outside....it was stifling....hard to breath through the thick hot humid heat. All our American soldiers based there earned even more respect from me. I thought back to the Gulf War & how hot it had to be by the burning oil wells....in army fatigues.....unbearable! They dont know how they did it. Well, the shuttle ride to the hotel was quick, but it might be the drivers lead foot that got us there like that....and then uses the breaks at the last minute. Sometimes I wondered if they drove like that on purpose just to make you feel even more glad that you finally arrived at their destination. Another note to self.....Dramamine tomorrow! We got to the Almanar Hotel....very very nice 3 * hotel. It had a kitchen in it complete with stove, full size fridge, microwave and washing machine. It had chandalier lights above the beds. Funny thing.... we felt soooo stupid.....when we got to the room we did not know how to turn on the lights. None of the switches turned on the lights. We felt too stupid to go down to the desk to ask how in the world do you turn the lights on....so we searched and searched in the dark. I picked up the phone in the bathroom to call the front desk but couldnt see to dial thank God because I really hated to ask them how in the world do we turn these lights on....Then, in what I thought was a night light on the wall was actually a thing plugged into the wall that had a slot for your room key to go in. We slid the room key in, and what do you know? Lights on.....for about 5 seconds.....then off again. Note to self......dont just swipe the room key through it.....leave the room key in it....lights will stay on......then you can turn the lamp off with the switch by the bed. Its actually a very good idea. That way, when people check out, they have to have all the lights turned off. Anyway, I am taking the time to write so much about even these silly little details because had someone else written about it, we wouldnt have fumbled around in the dark for 20 minutes completely exhausted. (This is how I am going to tell our whole story. I am going to mention anything that might be helpful for the next families. And I am going to be brutally honest in some of it. Some of the journey is quite confusing and strange. Stay tuned for that.)Now,....the lights are on.......we were both exhausted and thought it felt great to shower and go to sleep. We both slept sound about for about 3 hours and then woke up feeling like we were ready to go get our baby. We had no clock in the room and did not know the time. I looked out the window....still pitch black out.....we were awake and hungry. We did call home with our cell phone. We got to hear our little Bradleys voice. That was sweet. By the way, he was no longer missing us. He was at his cousins house doing fine. They had to get him out of the pool to talk on the phone. And he was quick to say HI! Bye! I love you! Gotta go swim! That made us feel better. We also found out it was only 1:30AM. We could not go back to sleep. We talked about Annsleigh....wondered if she was crawling yet....had teeth yet....would she like us?...thought about her sleeping soundly ....only 1 more night without her.....we turned the lights out and couldnt sleep...my growling stomach kept me up. So we went around the hotel to find a vending machine.....never found one....so went to front lobby of hotel and asked where the vending machines were....they didnt have any....looked at us like we were odd. Another note to self.....vending machines must be an American thing......so we went back to the room. We found snacks and drinks in the fridge in the room.....with prices like $15/Red Bull, $10/small bag of pretzels!?!?!? Wasnt THAT hungry! So..........Brad went to bed....fell asleep and I started to write this journal. This is the end of day 2.....running into day 3

3 comments:

elisa said...

I'm so thankful for all your details! Can't wait to read day 3!
elisa

Missy said...

These details are SO helpful!! I may still need to call you before we travel though!! LOL!

Leah said...

It's so fun to hear your stories. My husband and I are in the process of Ethiopian adoption and it's so nice to kind of know what to expect. I'm so glad I found your blog. :-D