God I miss bagels!
Blog #1 6/23
I can hear the screeching of monkeys in the trees above me. Those little maniacs woke me up this morning at 5am. I’m sitting in the hostel with the invisible children crew, and in about an hour we will go to visit the American embassy.
So far I feel like my trip has been a whirlwind of travel and early mornings. The flight from JFK to Dubai was long but never boring, I’m still impressed by everything they had on that plane. I watched two movies, The Other Bolyn Girl and 27 Dresses, and I watched a few episodes of friends. The food on the plane was pretty good, and they kept it coming about every 3 hours to keep us entertained I guess. There were stars on the cabin ceiling and the flight attendants came around every once and a while with these hot washcloths that smelled like mint and lavender. I can definitely say that Emirates air was the best airline that I have ever flown.
The heat in Dubai hits you like a ton of bricks. As soon as we stepped outside of the air conditioned, freezing airport, 100-degree weather greeted us like a wall of heat. Stepping outside onto the Dubai streets, the first thing I noticed was that almost every car was expensive. There were BMW’s and Lexus’ everywhere, and get this: their gas is only one dollar a gallon! It’s funny, because my experience in other countries has shown me that the materials that are produced there are not always distributed to the national first. It’s funny, but when I was 15 in Ireland I remember my tour guide showing me a Viagra factory, and told me that even though it was made in Ireland, the Irish men couldn’t get it in the stores for months after America did. I guess the citizens of Dubai are laughing all the way to the gas station. One dollar a gallon, unbelievable.
We took a shuttle bus from the airport to our hotel, we were getting on a flight to Adis Abbaba, Ethiopia the next morning. My wishes came true when everyone else in the group was up for an adventure, and after a half hour at the hotel, we were on our way to the Dubai mall, where they have the indoor ski slope. The taxi ride to the mall was amazing, we passed palm island (even though I couldn’t really see it), and we passed the largest building in Dubai. When the taxi drivers would go over the speed limit, their cars would tell them to slow down. A voice would come out of the stereo and would say, “over speed limit” or something like that. Our cab driver turned it off after about 5 minutes in the car, or at least muted it.
The mall was definitely amazing, and I got one of the best smoothies that I have ever had there. It was called strawberry delicious, and it definitely was. Some people from the group went on the indoor ski slope, and I walked around with some people to check out the stores. We only spent about an hour there, and after we went back to our hotel to eat dinner.
My roommate in Dubai was Breawna, a 26-year-old teacher from San Diego. We’re actually both going to be staying in the monastery together in Gulu, and it’s been really nice getting to know her. Everyone in the group has been great so far, and are from all over the country. My Jersey accent has already been noticed, and I think I have to work on the way I say “all” because apparently I saw “awl”.
Sleeping in Dubai was hard for me, partly because of the time difference and travel time, and also because I was so nervous for Uganda. I slept the whole plane ride the next day though, so I guess it worked out for the best.
Landing in Entebbe, Uganda was so moving. Everything is so green, and the trees are beautiful. We took a Matatu (kind of like a bus) to the hostel, and my eyes would have been bugging out of my head if I weren’t so tired. Everything is different, from the red dirt roads to the maniac Boda Boda drivers (motorcycles) to the different smells that I couldn’t identify.
The hostel is very cool, very colorful, and full of people from all over the world. All of us girls are staying in a dorm together, last night and tonight, and thankfully no one snores! This hostel is very nice, and was a great introduction to my first of many cold showers. There’s a pool table here and the internet, and the food is pretty good. I haven’t had any awful reactions yet which is great.
Today we’re going to visit the American Embassy in Kampala, and after lunch we are going to visit a secondary school as well. I’m super excited about visiting the schools; I can’t wait to see what the dynamic is like. We’re going shopping as well, and hopefully I can get an internet adaptor for this computer, because as of right now I have to put everything on a flash drive.
I’ll definitely write more when we get back tonight, and if I can figure out how to upload pictures I’ll do that too. As of right now I miss the states so much, but I’m looking forward to immersing myself once we get to Gulu and just throwing myself into it.
Blog #1 6/23
I can hear the screeching of monkeys in the trees above me. Those little maniacs woke me up this morning at 5am. I’m sitting in the hostel with the invisible children crew, and in about an hour we will go to visit the American embassy.
So far I feel like my trip has been a whirlwind of travel and early mornings. The flight from JFK to Dubai was long but never boring, I’m still impressed by everything they had on that plane. I watched two movies, The Other Bolyn Girl and 27 Dresses, and I watched a few episodes of friends. The food on the plane was pretty good, and they kept it coming about every 3 hours to keep us entertained I guess. There were stars on the cabin ceiling and the flight attendants came around every once and a while with these hot washcloths that smelled like mint and lavender. I can definitely say that Emirates air was the best airline that I have ever flown.
The heat in Dubai hits you like a ton of bricks. As soon as we stepped outside of the air conditioned, freezing airport, 100-degree weather greeted us like a wall of heat. Stepping outside onto the Dubai streets, the first thing I noticed was that almost every car was expensive. There were BMW’s and Lexus’ everywhere, and get this: their gas is only one dollar a gallon! It’s funny, because my experience in other countries has shown me that the materials that are produced there are not always distributed to the national first. It’s funny, but when I was 15 in Ireland I remember my tour guide showing me a Viagra factory, and told me that even though it was made in Ireland, the Irish men couldn’t get it in the stores for months after America did. I guess the citizens of Dubai are laughing all the way to the gas station. One dollar a gallon, unbelievable.
We took a shuttle bus from the airport to our hotel, we were getting on a flight to Adis Abbaba, Ethiopia the next morning. My wishes came true when everyone else in the group was up for an adventure, and after a half hour at the hotel, we were on our way to the Dubai mall, where they have the indoor ski slope. The taxi ride to the mall was amazing, we passed palm island (even though I couldn’t really see it), and we passed the largest building in Dubai. When the taxi drivers would go over the speed limit, their cars would tell them to slow down. A voice would come out of the stereo and would say, “over speed limit” or something like that. Our cab driver turned it off after about 5 minutes in the car, or at least muted it.
The mall was definitely amazing, and I got one of the best smoothies that I have ever had there. It was called strawberry delicious, and it definitely was. Some people from the group went on the indoor ski slope, and I walked around with some people to check out the stores. We only spent about an hour there, and after we went back to our hotel to eat dinner.
My roommate in Dubai was Breawna, a 26-year-old teacher from San Diego. We’re actually both going to be staying in the monastery together in Gulu, and it’s been really nice getting to know her. Everyone in the group has been great so far, and are from all over the country. My Jersey accent has already been noticed, and I think I have to work on the way I say “all” because apparently I saw “awl”.
Sleeping in Dubai was hard for me, partly because of the time difference and travel time, and also because I was so nervous for Uganda. I slept the whole plane ride the next day though, so I guess it worked out for the best.
Landing in Entebbe, Uganda was so moving. Everything is so green, and the trees are beautiful. We took a Matatu (kind of like a bus) to the hostel, and my eyes would have been bugging out of my head if I weren’t so tired. Everything is different, from the red dirt roads to the maniac Boda Boda drivers (motorcycles) to the different smells that I couldn’t identify.
The hostel is very cool, very colorful, and full of people from all over the world. All of us girls are staying in a dorm together, last night and tonight, and thankfully no one snores! This hostel is very nice, and was a great introduction to my first of many cold showers. There’s a pool table here and the internet, and the food is pretty good. I haven’t had any awful reactions yet which is great.
Today we’re going to visit the American Embassy in Kampala, and after lunch we are going to visit a secondary school as well. I’m super excited about visiting the schools; I can’t wait to see what the dynamic is like. We’re going shopping as well, and hopefully I can get an internet adaptor for this computer, because as of right now I have to put everything on a flash drive.
I’ll definitely write more when we get back tonight, and if I can figure out how to upload pictures I’ll do that too. As of right now I miss the states so much, but I’m looking forward to immersing myself once we get to Gulu and just throwing myself into it.
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