O-Man: Day 1/2

So the fist day was pretty much exhausting, yet exhilirating! We arrived at LAX at about 8:15 am Thursday morning (Pacific Time), and our flight was scheduled to leave at 10:55, but by the time we got our tickets printed, the flight had been delayed until 12:05, but hey, it's United... So the team walked around LAX a bit, goofed off, had Mickey D's, and started boarding at 11:30. At about noon they announced that we were being delayed yet again for some reason that didn't make much sense, but hey, it's United. So we were stuck on the runway until about 1:30ish, and then were on our way to DC. The flight wasn't all that bad, about 4 1/2 hours and we were in the Washington DC/Dulles airport by 9:30 eastern time (6:30 for you west coast folk!). Because of the delays we had, we ended up not having much of a layover at all, we just got off the plane, and basically headed to the other terminal to check in for our flight to Doha.

So as we were checking in for our flight to Doha, the ticket counter guys were asking the standard airline questions to us, that is until they came to me. They asked me if I'd packed any knives, guns, weapons, or any type of ammunition, which I think was probably due to the camo backpack (on a side note: the TSA employee at LAX thanked me for all I do and informed me that he was retired navy; I told him thanks and I appreciated it, but usually working with teenagers usually goes unrecognized! He seemed confused). So after that it was on to Doha, Qatar! The plane was a lot bigger and more comfortable, and we had personal screens with movies, music, and games. So, after watching a few movies, reading, and losing at Battleship, (to the computer, twice!) I thought a nap was in order. When I woke up we were already over Syria, and apparently I had missed breakfast (although I was still full from the chicken dinner, go Qatar airways!). We got into Qatar at 6:30 PM local time (8:30 AM back home in LA) and had a brief layover in Qatar; which was basically just changing our clothes and brushing our teeth. At about 9 PM local time we took off for Muscat, Oman! It was a brief 1 hr 10 min flight and at about 10:15ish PM on Friday night we finally reached Oman! We got our passport stamped, money exchanged, and headed for our rental (a 15 passenger van).

It is there that we hit snag #1, the rental place did not have our van until tomorrow, but they had a 7 passenger Kia van. So, we packed all 100 of us in there and were on our way. By the time we got everything sorted out with our passports and the rental car, and arrived at our hotel, it was now midnight in Oman. We checked into our hotel, dropped our bags off, and went to get some juice and simosa's (not to be confused with mimosa's); I mean, it is a Friday night right? One of my professors friends owns a little juice shop and I had the most amazing fresh banana juice that came out to be like 60 cents US currency. We then walked around town a bit, and I must say that I really felt I was in a foreign country because of the way some people stared. Not in a mean way, just in a "you aren't from around here" stare. Then we walked back and journaled. By the time all that was finished it was about 3 AM here (4 PM on Friday back home!), and I started to feel a bit tired. The good news, it wasn't that hot last night, maybe in the 80's, but I know that the daytime will probably be a different story! I should have internet access often, so hopefully I will be updating soon!

It's 10:25 AM local time here (on Saturday), and it is 35 degrees celsius, your homework for the day is to guess (for those of you not on the metric system) how many degrees fahrenheit that is!