Sonesta Tower and Casino Cairo: I’m finally here after what seemed like a two-and-a-half day all-nighter (ten-hour flight from LAX to London Heathrow, then five-hour flight from Heathrow to Cairo International Airport).
It started with—to my relief—a smooth walk through security at LAX. As soon as I saw those new body-peeping sensors I was glad to be wearing sweats. I said "Farewell" to the pops (who watched me walk until I was completely out of sight—this was a big step for him as well), and began the usual security routine of removing all items from pockets, etc. When I was ready to be peeped at, the first security guard said, “You may step through here; by the way, nice shirt.” She was on the other side of one of the "old school" body sensors. I was pretty relieved. When I got to the other side, the next security guard (much older) said, “You’re too young to be wearing a shirt like that.” It had a picture of The Beatles on it.
The first flight was painfully long, boring, and uncomfortable; so long, boring, and uncomfortable I wouldn’t ever wish it upon anyone (well…). NEXT.
London (45 degrees Fahrenheit at the time). The multiple British accents in the airport lobby made me giggle on the inside, but I didn’t remember the Brits ever being that chatty. “Joshua, are you pretending to be a squirrel or a chipmunk?” “How do you use this bloody phone?!” “One at a time…ONE AT A TIME!” “Have our rows been called? Shall we get in queue?” “Did you have any crumpets earlier?”
EgyptAir from London. The plane was clean, spacey, had high tech screens that didn’t freeze, and each seat had a foot rest (OMG). It was great, and it was going to be only a five-hour flight.
Some observations I made were the following (though I shouldn’t have been too surprised): a Muslim woman completely covered from head to toe except for her eyes; in every row, the men were addressed first for food/drink requests; all flight attendants were male; all announcements were in Arabic; a large screen in the front would periodically show a “compass” pointing towards Mecca; and with meals people could purchase cigarette packs.
Other observations: for entertainment, Tetris is called “Manika”; under “Comedy Films” was The Sorcerer’s Apprentice (I dunno; didn’t see it because it didn’t look funny.), and under “Thriller Films” was Killers (with Ashton Kutcher and Katherine Heigl, which last time I checked is a chick flick).
I sat next to an Iranian man the whole way there. He was a nervous flyer and felt the need to talk to me the whole time. (I’m reminded of this term we learned about in Communication Theory called “Stranger on a plane”—the person who tells you his entire life story.) Yeah. Anyway, after he told me his entire life story he wanted to know mine. He was also interested in my height (in centimeters of course), my religion, my interests, etc. When I told him I was interested in global climate change he responded with, "Oh, global warming? That's BULLSHIT! It's cold outside! (laughs)"
I landed around 10:30 PM, took an official cabbie out of the airport, drove by the President’s headquarters, and finally ended my two-and-a-half day’s journey at the hotel where my aunt was awaiting outside.
Tomorrow…you’ll find out tomorrow :-). (Technically later today, 11 December.)
