on morocco time.

it's six thirty am here and i just had the strangest dream. must be a product of sleeping 12 hours and completely missing nighttime for a couple of days. I mean, it was night yesterday, but I didn't see it at all.

So, the trip. I left home at 5:30 am to get to the St. Louis Airport for my flight at 12:17. My first time flying, at that. Needless to say, I was pretty nervous and didn't eat much. We got to the airport and all checked in and it was fine. So Mom & I are wandering the airport looking for food, and apparently it's "the great american bagel company" or "burger king" the former is closer and so we do that. But I don't really like bagels, so I still don't eat much.

And then going through checking my carry-on. So, I try to follow what everyone around me is doing, but my computer is burried at the bottom of my bag (hey, my parents haven't flown in years -- YEARS! and they don't know this stuff. So it takes me forever, but I think I'm able to let all the fast people go by me. So, St. Louis to Chicago. Small plane, everything in English-only and a Window seat. It's beautiful.

Chicago to Paris, Charles De Gaulle. I was way early for the check in, since I think our flight was (gasp!) early! Terminal 3 (where I landed) was freaking HUGE. But I'm like "where the hell do I go for Air France?" Which I nicely asked to someone and safely took the shuttle train to terminal 5. At which point I thouht "This is so frikin cool! I wish someone were with me, so i could tell them, but then it wouldn't be as cool because I wouldn't be doing this ALONE!" Anyway, I got to terminal 5 and had to wait for the Air France people to get there to check in. Met a cute guy going to Paris in line. We talked for a while. Checked in, got some Euros because I knew once I got there I'd need to move from Charles De Gaulle to Orly and I'd need some money for that. Ate my last American meal -- McDonnald's Chicken nuggets were really good. Fries kinda sucked. After I went through the baggage checking thing, I wasted time by walking around the place -- a couple duty-free shops is about it.

Waiting around in the lounge for the flight, there were lots of French people. A Tunisian woman with four kids (her and the oldest girl in Hijab -- I got to talk to her!) A Russian woman, or at least she spoke russian sat across from me and I was oh-so-tempted to say "zdravstvwijt'e, vwi iz Moskvwi?" but alas, I did not. But as she was sitting there, a very-russian couple came and sat next to her and talked, but the left and I didn't see them again, so maybe they were on the St. Petersburg flight. then there was a woman behind me, who from hearing her talk to another lady, was from Serbia. And I wanted to ask her what she was knitting , but again, I did not. silly dana.

And... THE FLIGHT! Huge airplane, Aisle seat. Got pissed at the guy in the window seat because he almost immediatly closed the window! urr. what's the point in window if you don't look out the window? stupid boy. the flight was rather uneventful. they fed us dinner and breakfast and we landed at like 2 or 3 am Chicago time. 9 France time. then I waited and waited and flipped and flipped about getting to Orly on time. Waiting for luggage sucks. Waiting for luggage, when your flight is already late and you have no idea how long getting accross Paris will take, Sucks. I'm assuming I didn't do anything wrong with customs (but then again, I didn't do anything with them).

At this point, I'm IN PARIS. And Needing to go to Orly. And I'm really, really glad I overpaid for those Euros in the states. Apparently the Air France bus to Orly is right outside the doors. Or rather, the stop for it is. And so I sit there for like 45 minutes (yeah every 15 min or half hour, HA! But The bus did show up, and I rode through Paris, which is a Beautiful city, on the whole. As we were flying over, it was amazing. I've never seen that many buildings that close together.

And Orly. It's no wonder US flights don't fly into Orly. Because it's kinda lacking on the security. The flight from Paris to Morocco was from Orly to Fez. I was so exhasted on this flight. They fed us, but I ate like 3 bites and cried. oh yeah. nothing was in english on it. Everything was in Arabic first, then French.

Then I got to the airport and i'm like "where is the person picking me up?!?!" staring around disorientedly. Finally a girl was like "are you dana?" Oh sweet joy of relief. and then waiting aorund for another hour or an hour and a half. by this time, it's 2:30pm which (i think) is 9:30am in St. Loius. I'm so out of it, my arms are begining to hurt from carrying around luggage, and I'm so relieved to be done with my part of the traveling.

Traveling from Fez to Ifrane takes another hour, of which I sleep through most. Again, I feel Kinda bad, because I do want to see the country. I'll see it later. Arrived, got my room, upacked took a (very, very cold) shower and went to sleep by 6:30. and got up by then too. And I think I should go try to find some kind of food now.

~out!