It's a Small World

5/21/10
Locations: Delhi to Abu Dhabi, Abu Dhabi to Cairo

We finally made it to the Delhi International Airport at about 11:30 P.M. That’s the good news. The bad news is our plane to Abu Dhabi didn’t depart until nearly 5:00 A.M. To say the least, we were a little tired. We had started the day riding elephants, then did a series of tours, then sat on a bus for over four hours. Now, we had more waiting to do and it all had to be done in the airport because we didn’t have a hotel that night, since we had to be at airport by 3:00 A.M. for customs and security anyway. We couldn’t even go to our gate to wait because it didn’t open until a few hours before departure and we had to meet a representative from our tour company. So, we were stuck in the visitors lounge.

The Delhi visitors lounge is not very big. It’s about the size of my high school commons area. I graduated with 50 people from a town of 1,800, so pretty small. It does have a gift shop and a small café and ice cream stand. To make matters worse, it was packed and very cramped. I had to wheel my suitcase around people sleeping on the floor, stacks of suitcases on trolleys, and other miscellaneous objects like pieces of garbage and children’s toys. We stood around for a while, and then finally spotted some chairs that had opened up. We sat on the chairs with our suitcases and backpacks in front of us, and just waited. None of us had any energy to do much of anything; we were supposed to be sleeping then. We were all doing one of the following: 1. Closing our eyes and cuddling our backpack in our lap for a forward headrest. 2. Mindlessly flipping through an Indian newspaper or magazine 3. Zoning out or staring into space, only speaking to see what time it was or briefly marvel at our swollen ankles from sitting on buses and planes so often.

Finally, it was time to go to our gate. Good news: lots of chairs and that much closer to leaving the airport. Bad news: chairs arranged like chairs on an airplane and only a few places to get food, none of which looked very appetizing. We eventually boarded, then slept most of the way to Abu Dhabi, U.A.E. Abu Dhabi had a lot more seating and places to eat, so most of us went to Cinnamon City for delicious cinnamon rolls covered in sweet, sticky icing and juice or coffee. They had an outlet and free wireless, so I was able to check my Facebook and e-mail for the first time since I bought Internet in India and work on my journals.  Before long, it was time to board another plane. But this is where our horribly long day of travel gets interesting.

We were waiting in line to go through security to board our plane when the previous flight’s passengers were disembarking and walking alongside us in the opposite direction. I was sure I was hallucinating from fatigue when I saw a familiar face. Then I saw another one, and another one. Could it be? Yes, they were other world-travelling Cobbers! Jennifer Bath of Concordia’s biology department was leading a research study in Bangladesh with a group of Concordia students and they were on their way back home. Jarryd, a friend who I’ve known since I was a freshman at Cord, came up and gave me a big hug and we talked about how nice it was to see each other halfway across the world! A group of us were discussing how crazy it was that we ran into each other and we found out how sweet chance really is. The Bangladesh group had their flight delayed by an entire day and wasn’t even supposed to be on our plane. It was so great to see familiar people and it was so cool that we ran into them in Abu Dhabi.

Seeing Cobbers in the U.A.E. illustrated to me that while the world is gigantic sphere and home to five billion, it really is a small world after all. When you’re traveling, you never know who you’ll run into. I’ve encountered distant relatives and childhood friends when I’ve traveled in the US, and now I’ve ran into friends and classmates in another hemisphere. I always hear about Cobbers meeting other Cobbers via recognition of the famous ring when traveling, but I wasn’t so sure that it happened all that often. What are the chances of seeing another Cobber when you’re on vacation in Mexico or on a plane to Europe, really? Now I think that if it can happen in Abu Dhabi, I can run into Cobbers anywhere I am. Even though my family, friends, and fellow Cobbers only make up a fraction of the people on Earth, I am confident that I’ll always be seeing them around somewhere. Everyone’s supposedly connected by only six degrees of separation, and if the world is always in motion, who’s to say that we won’t collide?

After arriving in Cairo, we met our Egypt tour guide, Romani. Romani has been the leader for Concordia students in Egypt since 2005 and has shown over 10 seminars of students everything they want to know in Egypt. I heard about him from my friend Amber, who traveled to Egypt on an exploration seminar last year, before I left and she gave Romani high praise and raving reviews as a tour guide, so I was excited to meet him. Amber didn’t lie, or Romani didn’t disappoint—he is always cheerful and ready with a joke, plus he knows virtually everything about Cairo and anything Egyptian. The group had the afternoon free, so we showered then journaled or took naps. We had dinner with Romani at the hotel, then we discussed going out to a street market, but it was soon clear that wouldn’t happen. We were all so exhausted from being up for so many hours and traveling that we all just wanted to crash. Good thing we did, because the next day we had a busy day at the Cairo Museum and the Cairo bazaar!

The Abu Dhabi airport--pretty sweet, huh?

View of Cairo from our hotel balcony.

7-up in Arabic.

That's it for photos today, sorry! We didn't look too hot on the day of traveling.
But, don't worry I have SO many photos for the next two days in Egypt, including
the pyramids and our camel ride! I'll try to get those up soon.:)