The Most Hellish Trip of Them All.

I thought I had pretty good luck at airports, on planes, etc. I've never lost my luggage, had a really bad delay, or had any other serious situation occur. Until now. 

It began about thirty-six hours ago. We boarded our plane to Frankfurt in a timely fashion, but as soon as everyone was on, we were told to get off due to electrical malfunctions. Almost three hours later, after hearing a lot of griping and groaning from fellow passengers, blaming the airplane staff for this delay, convinced this was just a conspiracy by United Airlines to ruin everyone's trips, we finally took off. When we arrived in Frankfurt, we missed our original connection to Muscat, so we hastily booked another flight direct to Muscat on Oman Air. 

The food was great, the flight attendants were champs; it was a good flight. Until we landed. My friend Julie apparently passed out right before we touched down, and thus began an hour-long ordeal in the plane, trying to help Julie recuperate from exhaustion and low blood-sugar. After she was able to get out of the plane, we waited in the airport for another two hours until she was capable of being pushed around in a wheel chair through the Visa checkpoint. After getting our visas, we found out that our baggage was lost! So we chilled with the super cool baggage people at Baggage Claim for another hour or two until we finally filled out all the paperwork for our lost luggage. We went through customs and then out the door, into another area of the airport lined with people waiting to pick up their friends and family. I felt like a celebrity as I walked down the wide pathway lined with curious people staring so intently at the white girl that just walked through the door. We found the NSLI-Y team waiting for us at the end of the pathway. We were then shuffled into a bus outside in the one hundred degree heat (let me remind you it's three in the morning) and made it to the hotel in about 15 minutes. 

It smells different here. But I like it. I can tell this is going to a hell of an interesting experience. 

Poor Julie.