Flight to Egypt: A Recap

Well, I’ve finally made it to a point where I can start posting!  It has been a very busy 12-day period since I arrived in Cairo, and I’ve had lots of experiences during that time.  I hope to tell about it in the next few days.

Journey Log

Since my last update, I packed my bags and readied all things I could think to take with me.  I still forgot one essential envelope for the school that I just received from a friend yesterday.  Through God’s handiwork my friend was visiting at my parents’ church, and my parents thought quickly enough to send the envelope with him when he flew to toward Cairo less than an hour after the service was finished.  Thank the Lord it’s here!

I arrived at the terminal at Bluegrass Airport and boarded an American Eagle regional flight to Chicago.  It was a smaller jet, containing a single aisle down the inside of the plane.  On one side of the aisle were two seats, the other just one seat in each row.  I had a window seat and was able to snap some pictures of Kentucky while the plane ascended to cruising altitude.

When we were to land in 30 minutes, the main flight attendant worked his way down the aisle to ask if anyone had a connecting flight to catch in Chicago.  If a person said yes, the attendant had a dot-matrix printout from which he let them know where they needed to go in the airport once they disembarked from our flight.  I overheard people had connections to New York, Los Angeles, and other parts of the country.  He came to me and asked his question:

“Hello, do you have a connection to catch out of Chicago?”

“Yes, my connection is to Amman.”

He immediately lit up!  “Oh, so you’re the Amman one!”  I think I might have been the only person travelling internationally on the flight, which might have made him so excited!  “So tell me, where are you going after Amman?”

At this point, I smiled.  “To Cairo, Egypt!”

“Really?!  What will you be doing there?”

“I will be teaching Music at the International School of Egypt.”

“Wow!  Is this your first time teaching outside the U.S.?  How did you manage to get the job?”  More questions kept coming, and it seemed my answers only intrigued him more.

It was delightful to see his excitement!  I got to know him as well.  His name was Venoni and he lived in Chicago.  I also let him know how I planned to stay in touch with folks at home and gave him the address to this blog.  He ended the conversation with one of the perks of being a flight attendant: “I like getting to know where people are going and why,” he said proudly,  “I love to live vicariously through my flight passengers; it’s what I do best!”

He then told me the plane would park in terminal 3, and that I had to ride a train from terminal 3 to terminal 5, which is where international flights would be coming and going.  Thanks, Venoni, for a great flight!

One item I forgot to pack was a travel wallet that could hold my passport.  I was able to buy one at the airport, and change my voicemail greeting to indicate I would be out of the country.  By the time I went through security, arrived at Terminal 5, and accomplished these two things, it was time to board my next flight.

The plane I was to board was a larger jet.  It had two aisles and I happened to be in the middle section, away from any windows; I wasn’t able to get any pictures of our flight.  I at least was able to follow on a world map where we were flying on a display screen in front of me.  We started flying north into Wisconsin, then turned northeast over Lake Michigan and Lake Huron.  Once we were past the Great Lakes, our path went over Canada, following the U.S. border in a parallel direction.  Eventually we came close to the Hudson Bay and the southern tip of Greenland.  Next we went over Ireland, and by this time the sun was rising for the next day, Tuesday, August 19.  We continued through Wales and over Oxford, London, Canterbury; through Brussels, Belgium; Frakfurt, Germany; Austria, Slovenia, and Croatia; Sarajevo, Bosnia; Montenegro, Serbia, and Macedonia.

We went over Thessaloniki and the western peninsula of Halkidiki.  (It’s too bad we didn’t fly over the eastern peninsula!  That peninsula is the place of Mount Athos, one of the most important spiritual centers to the Eastern Orthodox communion.  Visiting there is one of my hopes while I’m abroad.  That would be an immense experience!)

Next we went through the Aegean Sea and over Rhodes Island.  Once we were in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, we turned east, flying over Israel and the West Bank, then finally arrived in Amman after flying about 12 hours!