#getmeoffthisplane

This is being uploaded as one mega post because honestly my internal clock is pretty wacky right now... There's a synopsis at the beginning but if you want the nitty gritty details (and pictures!), keep on scrolling.

TL;DR: On Day 1 (Saturday) Christian and I left from DFW to begin our trip. After connecting through LAX, we arrived in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, on Sunday evening (Day 2) around 20:00 local time after ~15 hours in the air. After a seven hour layover, we boarded another Emirates flight, this time to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, where we would meet up with the rest of the tour group. We got to the Pan Pacific Hotel at about 15:30 local time, settled into our rooms, ordered room service, and crashed.

Long version:

The first leg of our trip was DFW to LAX, only a three hour flight. Christian slept the entire time, although he claims it was only most of the time due to the fact that he had to move around to stay comfortable. Other than a few crying kids, a thoroughly routine flight.

As we were waiting in line at the Emirates counter of LAX, Christian was eyeing the sushi restaurant before security. "Surely there are even better restaurants after security!" we naively postulated. WRONG. There was one sandwich type shop, one chips and candy store, and one booth selling only See's Candy. I didn't even take a picture of my sandwich because I just wanted to forget about it as soon as possible.

We had to go back through security to get to the International Terminal, which stunk, but on the bright side I shaved almost an entire second of my unload/reload times! I also received proof that TSA agents are, in fact, humans. As I was unloading my 3-1-1 liquidsgelsandaerosols, the agent was proclaiming the usual spiel: "Please place all large electronics in a bin. Remove shoes and jackets. Check your pockets for any loose change... keys... cell phone... gerbils... marmosets..."

I snickered, and he graciously thanked me for actually paying attention. But one lingering question remained: what is a marmoset?!

(Before I get messages saying, "Oh, Marmosets (pronounced /ˈmɑrmɵsɛt/) are the 22 New World monkeyspecies of the genera Callithrix,Cebuella, Callibella, and Mico," l do have access to the all-powerful fountain of knowledge that is Google. Marmosets are freaking adorable, by the way.)

Bad sandwich etc, see several paragraphs up.

Finally we boarded the plane that would carry us for the next 15 hours to Dubai, home of the tallest building in the world. And it was magnificent. Spacious with an attractive color scheme for the interior decorations, it was the truly an airplane's airplane. We knew it would be a good flight when we sat down and realized everyone had their own personal entertainment screen with a ridiculously large selection of movies and TV shows, as well as games. There was also a cupholder that looked like it would be adaptable in turbulence but in practice it didn't work so well.

Christian and I immediately engaged in an intense session of Battleship - but some of the mystery was lost due to the fact that we were sitting right next to each other.

Once we were in the air, the flight attendants handed out hot towels and delicious juice (mango and pineapple were my preferred flavors). I watched Up for about the thousandth time and I don't remember what Christian watched but it couldn't possibly have been as great as Up.

For dinner I had salmon teriyaki while Christian had chicken tikka masala, both of which came with a roll, butter, and cheese, a cold orzo salad, and chocolate mousse for dessert.

Next I watched some more TV (including Season 2 Episode 2 of the British Sherlock) and worked on my application essay for Oxford. When the cabin lights were turned off, I realized that the aisle ceilings had tiny holes in them so that the light behind it shown through like the Milky Way. I took a picture but it just looks like blurry white dots - if you haven't seen it yourself, trust me, it was pretty awesome.

Another reason Emirates is awesome: they served pizza for FourthMeal.

Breakfast was an omelette, croissant, and some other stuff.

Finally we were in Dubai, where I got an egg sandwich on ciabatta from Starbucks and Christian got a smoothie.

We introduced ourselves to a couple other people going on the study tour, watched the final episode of Season 2 of Sherlock (AND IT WAS BEAUTIFUL), failed at finding an outlet, and napped.

This was the most diverse flight I have ever been on. There were women wearing full hijab, older men and women in traditional Indian attire, a quartet of tanned blonde surfer types, and of course college students like myself. As we were waiting to board I happened to overhear a girl with a British accent offering her friend some 'chips' from good ole Mickey D's. I turned to her and said, "I couldn't help overhearing, and I just wanted to tell you I think it's awesome that you call fries 'chips'."

Completely deadpan, she shot back, "Well I think it's weird that you call them 'fries'."

Oh culture! Oh traveling! What wonders you bestow upon us.

The final leg of our travel (at least for now) was to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, from whence our three week study tour will depart. The first meal was a fantastic chicken tikka/coleslaw sandwich and fairly average chocolate chip mini-muffin. Breakfast was nasi lemak, or rice cooked in coconut milk with fried chicken and poached egg in some spicy delicious sauce (plus the usual croissant/fruit combo and some creamy Rondele or something like that cheese yum). And I took advantage of the standing offer of a cup of noodles, which made me miss SMU and Dami's water kettle and Sylvi's chopsticks and Laura's stealing some of the noodles. 

Christian and I then synchronized our movie starts so that we could watch Crazy, Stupid Love together. Total chick flick that had, as Christian proved, standard levels of predictability - but the cast managed to turn some potentially awkward moments into comedy gold. Not to mention turning some potentially comedic gold moments into awkward ones... thanks, Steve Carrell.

Those flights turned Christian into an Emirates Airline fanboy, if you haven't already noticed from his Facebook posts.

After waiting for what felt like hours and was really about fifteen minutes in the Immigration line, we easily found our luggage (rendering Christian's fear moot) and decided to approach some fellow passengers that appeared to be college-aged. Thankfully they were also part of the study tour. We then spent an amount of time that in hindsight was frankly ridiculous looking for the program coordinator, Gary. Once we found him, the hotel was only a five minute air-conditioned walk away.

From what I could see of the scenery in the glass walkway, Malaysia is as beautiful as other travel bloggers have said. I can't wait to explore it more when we come back at the end of the trip.

Everyone got checked in and unpacked, we had a brief meeting about plans for tomorrow and basic guidelines, and then we went our separate ways for the rest of the evening.

I decided to order room service (a hot dog - original and daring, I know) and go to bed early. We have to leave the hotel at 6 am tomorrow to make our flight, since the Chinese New Year is coming up and the airport will be crazzzy. I'm looking forward to sleeping in a real bed instead of an airplane seat AND to the Saigon Zoo tomorrow afternoon!

Extra pictures:

Free swag (eye cover, travel toothbrush, and socks):

Clever stickers to put on your airplane seat:

A bathroom sign that reminded me of Very Potter Musical's Draco Malfoy:

Today: DFW, LA, Dubai, Kuala Lumpur.

Tomorrow: Saigon/Ho Chi Minh City.